? Measuring my cat's glucose levels?

My black siamese 14 yr old cat Spidey has diabetes, diagnosed in spring and being treated with insulin twice a day, but sadly she is not getting better. Every time we take her to the vet we are told to increase her insulin and she's now taking 6pts. a day! She is on a special diet $$$, sleeps most of the time and her thirst is endless. She has suffered with terrible diarrhea at times and is soooo skinny, and she was tiny to begin with. Here is my question: Every time we take her to the vet we end up spending over $200 to her her glucose checked, so we have decided to try to test it ourselves using a kit. What is a healthy glucose reading and what should her glucose levels be? Can anyone tell help me? Thank you.

 

Welcome, you’ve come to the right place. It’s great that you are learning to test Spideys glucose yourself. If you are using a human meter, normal levels are 50-120, on a pet meter they are 68-150. You should always get a Preshot test and some tests midcycle when you are able. Another thing you can do to help get your kitty regulated is record your readings on our spreadsheet. Here are the instructions to set it up, but if you need help, just ask and we’ll do it for you
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
Here’s a link on hometesting http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/
Please come over to the Main health Forum and ask any questions you have.

 

Hi to you and Spidey and welcome to fdmb
This is just the welcome page and it looks like you need quite a bit of help so if you could tell us a bit about Spidey and then post that info over on the Main Forum....link below......we will be able to help you get on the right track.
If you are using a human meter like the ReliOn one from Walmart...the normal reading for a cat is 50- 120. If you are using an Alphatrak meter it will be about 68 - 150. We recommmend using a human meter.
But you will find that Spidey's readings will be probably quite a bit higher than these normal reading because these are the reading of a cat without diabetes. The insulin will help bring the blood sugar readings down but this happens over time. If you are testing every day you will get a much better idea of what he needs. It is much cheaper and safer to do the testing your self. We can help you with that and also sort out the dose. It is possible she is getting too much insulin but the only way to find out is to test. Getting a test done at the vet every so often does not give the full picture.
Could you tell us
* what type of insulin Spidey is on?
*what dose did she started on?
*how did you increase the dose......in 1 unit lots or less?
* when you say 6 pts of insulin.....do you mean 6 units?
*what food are you feeding? Wet or dry?
*what is her normal weight, and what weight is she now?
*has she only had the diarrhoea since being on the special diet?
*has she ever had ketoacidosis?
* do you test her urine for ketones......buy a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or pharmacy and test the urine as per the instructions on the bottle.

Here is the link to the main forum....hope to see you over there....lots of experienced people who are only too willing to help and support you
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/

 

Thank you for this information, it's been very helpful!

 

Thank you so much for all your help here. So far I haven't been successful in testing Spidey's blood as I guess I'm supposed to do it BEFORE she eats or at least 2 hours after she eats. I will try again later today. Wish me luck!

 

Good morning and welcome to the board. Marade we would like to be of more help to you and kitty, and in order to do that we need more information. In a previous response, Bron asked for that information so that we can start getting you some answers.
Please make a signature that will display a good deal of that important and pertinent information with each of your posts, see the gray text below my response? That's a signature. Here is a link on how to do that: SIGNATURE
It's very possible that the "special diet" is too high in carbs which keeps the BG high, this is not helpful to kitty at all. Drastically increasing the insulin is also not helpful, especially since you don't know, real time, what the BG is at home. Going to the vet is stressful and raises BG, sometimes a lot! And, it's way too expensive. It takes patience and practice to be able to successfully home test, I know that only too well. But, like any learned process, you keep at it and pretty soon the knowledge and skill is yours. The members here can help with the dosage of insulin, a good diet, how to home test, how to keep costs down and most importantly, help your poor kitty get better.

 

Thanks for your help.