Hello, I'm Alexander's Mom

My 8 year old, Alexander, just got diagnosed with feline diabetes last week. He is a medium-length fur, buff colored, fixed cat (large framed, 15lb) who I adopted when he was 1.5 years old (I was told he was a "foreclosure kitty" and he'd been in the shelter for a month). He is a love with a gentile soul (though not a fan of being held in place) and has served as a big brother to over 20 foster kittens while I've been volunteering for a local rescue shelter. His little brother, 4 year old Jack, was a "foster failure" because he stole my heart. Jack is a typical younger sibling in the best and worst ways, a 16lb athletic frame with extra toes and a love of leaping. Alexander is mostly tolerant of Jack's antics, but definitely gives him a smack (without claws) if he gets out of line.
With Alexander's diagnosis, I'm still in nervous, obsessive-compulsive researching Mom mode. My vet told me to put Alexander on Purina DM and start him on insulin shots (Lantus, 2 units, 2x/day) at the same time (we have a 1 week follow up scheduled for Fri). I've been reading up on diet changes, home glucose level testing, and the potential hazards of changing both diet and insulin at the same time (freaking me out a bit). Alexander is not a fan of the DM, though Jack will eat anything Right now, I'm doing feedings twice a day with mostly Fancy Feast (and some of their original dry food available) since the responses to DM have not been good. I'm going to pick up a glucose meter today and hope my boy cooperates.
I definitely have questions, which I will post to the health forum. For now, I wanted to say hello, thank you for having this forum (which I've been reading through the past few days), and thank you in advance for any and all advise you may provide to me as I get through these first weeks/months.
Sincerely,
KS

 

Welcome. It is good that you want to home test Alexander's BG. Most of us here do and record our BG, dose and other information in a spreadsheet that can be viewed by all here. For how to do that see:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...te-a-ss-and-link-it-in-your-signature.130337/
I would feed all FF canned and ditch the dry and DM.

 

Dear Larry (and Kitties),
Thank you for the suggestion! I had already started my own log including times and food transition issues to both show my vet and track it for myself. Attaching a log here is a good idea, especially if I have specific questions related to Alexander's progress.
I hear that doing home BG testing can have a bit of a learning curve, but I'm willing to take the time to do it right.
Take care,
KS

 

Understanding the spreadsheet/grid:

The colored headings at the top are the ranges of glucose values. They are color-coded to clue you in as to meaning.

Each day is 1 row. Each column stores different data for the day.

From left to right, you enter
the Date in the first column
the AMPS (morning pre-shot test) in the 2nd column
the Units given (turquoise column)

Then, there are 11 columns labeled +1 through +11
If you test at +5 (5 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +5 column
If you test at +7 (7 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +7 column
and so on.

Halfway across the page is the column for PMPS (evening pre-shot)
To the right is another turquoise column for Units given at the evening shot.

There is second set of columns labeled +1 through +11
If you snag a before bed test at +3, you enter the test number in the +3 column.

We separate day and night numbers like that because many cats go lower at night.

It is merely a grid for storing the info; no math required.

 

BJM,
Thank you for the information…. I'm making my first attempt at taking the BG level this evening…. wish me luck!
KS

 

Good luck! So anything to report yet? How did it go?

 

Stacym20, Thanks, yes, I was successful with 2 BG tests at home. Using the OneTouchUltra, Alexandra was 155 about 4o min after eating a little bit. Alexander ate more shortly after, so I did another test and got 165. The vet wanted me to give him his insulin (2 units). Tomorrow, I'm supposed to do post-meal/pre-insulin test and then another test 6 hours after the insulin shot. So far, the testing is easier than I thought!

 

Hi KS,

Has Alexander actually started on insulin yet?
The test results you've got are not that much higher than the normal range for a kitty. (The normal range is approximately 50 - 130, or a smidge higher/lower in some cats).
If it's the case that Alexander isn't on insulin yet then you may want to see what the effect of a lower carb diet is first. His blood glucose should drop a bit if you remove the dry food.

Well done for hometesting! And it's so nice to hear someone say that it was 'easier than they thought'.

Eliz

Edited to add:
Have just copied my post in a message to you, just in case you don't pop back to the forum in the morning.