Hi from Calgary

Roo is our best friend so when he was diagnosed we were obviously upset. We just started insulin on June 25th, 2 units twice a day. What I'm finding challenging is the blood monitoring however, this morning I had a real success with it

What I'm looking for is the insulin log but every link I can find on the site appears to be broken. Can someone please give me some direction to find it?

Also I wanted to share with you, one of the first things our vet told us was to immediately start reading this website as it was super helpful and of course he was right, so thank you for the effort and passion it takes to keep this up and running, Roo and his humans really appreciate it.

 

did you try the stickies and the Tech, testing Forum?

 

Thank Suzanne, I didn't realize that the spreadsheets were posted on that forum, I had just been looking at the quick links on the main site and throughout some articles and was having no success. I'll have to try the spreadsheets when I get home as work has blocked them. Appreciate the tip.

 

I hope it works for you!!!!

 

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
If you need help setting it up, just ask.

 

A warm welcome to you & Roo.

 

thanks @Sharon14 and @DebG for the tips and the warm welcome. When you are just at the beginning of this process it sure is nice to know that there is some great help

 

Any questions or help you need, you;ll find here. There are so many caring knowledgeable people on this site. I am fairly new myself and this has been a lifesaver!!!!
Looking forward to seeing the progress and journey of Roo!

 

Welcome Roo and parent!

 

Hey hey to you and Roo from just a little north!
Alberta strong?

 

@Billy the kids Mom Hi! Its been a hell of a ride in Alberta this year! And yet so much to be thankful for, especially when it comes to the crazy wildfire and the amazing team of people who handled it. I'm getting a bit sick of all the tornado warnings recently though.

I have a question for you, what glucose meter are you using and where do you get strips from? I have the alphatrak2 and the strips are crazy expensive from the vet and I can't seem to find a website that will ship to Canada or a Canadian site that I can order from. Do you have any tips from this side of the boarder for supplies?

 

Right now I'm at the mercy of putting my Vets kids through post secondary education one glucose test at a time as I have no G.M. However, I'm getting one from a family member with diabetes in the next day or two.

Cannot come quick enough. Vets are so expensive in this province !!!

I will pop in once I have it and some of the prices.

It's never the price of the meter, for humans they are free here if you have diabetes. It's the darn strips!

And every few years your G.M. become obsolete.

Luckily my family member just was given a brand new one exactly like the one he picked up days after Billy was diagnosed. So yay for extras!

 

Welcome to FDMB.

Take a look at my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for some additional assessments you may find helpful in evaluating your cat.

 

Hi Shirls, Welcome to FDMB from another fellow Canadian. I too use the AT meter and I get my strips from this pet pharmacy that ships across Canada. Their cost is $69.19 for 50 strips plus tax. Shipping would be $10-$15 so not sure if that would negate any potential savings or not.

 

Hi & welcome! I'm from Canada too ( Ontario), don't know if you have a Costco close by but we bought the Accu-chek monitor ( monitor was free with the strips & comes in a really handy kit/bag with a spot for everything) a box with 2 bottles of strips 50 x 2= 100 strips was $75.59. Hope that helps. Best wishes

 

Ooops forgot to mention in case you were wondering the Accu-chek softclix lancets that work with that monitor were $15.69 for a box of 200. You can also set the depth of the lancing needle ( ours is set to a 3 & we have a very tiny kitty and she doesn't even flinch). Good luck to you & Roo!

 

We are using the Walmart ReliOn Confirm.

 

Unfortunately, the ReliOn meters are not available to us here in Canada.

 

Hello and welcome from someone to the west of you (BC). There are a couple of cheaper sources for meters. The Bravo meter and test strips is available on line and we've had a previous Alberta member use them. Course with the postal strike that may be a challenge ordering online. If you buy something like the Accucheck (common option here), check out Ebay. A lot of people get good prices on strips there.

Fortunately I live near the border and have a post box across the line. There are places in the US that are remailers and they will have things shipped to hem and reship them to you for a fee that still makes things cheaper than what we buy here. However, you do have to plan ahead and order in advance. Nothing like being able to quickly get some test strips if you need them. It doesn't hurt to have a second type of meter as a backup. I have a Bayer Contour as a backup meter, just in case I run out and need some.

 

The meter we ended up with was a Bayer Contour next. $85 after tax for strips, 100 in a package (two little bottles of strips in a box approximates .85 cents a test.)

But boy howdy Billy does not like this poke any more then insulin. It's hard to judge how and where to strike with the lancet. Billy has such fuzzy ears! Do you have any blood drawing advice?

 

Practice, really. The first few times, Kelly and I either couldn't get blood at all, or hit his vein. We even tried sticking his paw pads a few times. But after just a few good hits, not only is he not fighting is as much (or at all sometimes), he bleeds a little more that we need each time. (Enough for two samples or so). But, with really furry ears, maybe shave a small patch so that you can see the skin and vein better until you are more used to it. Also, if you are using the pen, then sometimes just play with the pen, and the sound of it clicking, to get Billy used to it.

 

@Billy the kids Mom HERE is a link to some testing info and tips. One other very important component of successful testing is your demeanour. Our kitty's are like little sponges when it comes to picking up on any fear or hesitation from us so you need to approach Billy with a "can do" attitude". If you are confident, Billy will have confidence in you. If you are uptight, kitty will be uptight.

If you have further questions about testing or anything else, you can post them over on the Health board which gets more traffic and you'll get all the assistance you want and/or need.