New Guy learning - Bankalar

Darwin H.

Darwin H.

Member Since 2018
Just gave my cat this AM his first 2 unit shot. Just purchased today a Reli-on Prime meter and got a 304 reading.
Don't know if that is good or bad? He ate Bf this AM 5 hours ago then gave him his injection, and I just brought home the meter for his first BG test. Trying to find if there is a reading guide to go by? I also tested my OK cat and his reading was 70 and showing no symptoms of Diabetes.. Any help is much appreciated.
 
Hello and welcome. Start by reading the Sticky Notes on the top of this forum. There is a lot of reading, so pace yourself. :) Ask questions, we all remember how hard it was at the beginning and like to help.

Good for you on getting a meter. I'd try to get another test in 3-4 hours to see how your cat (name?) is doing on that dose. You'll notice that most of us use a spreadsheet to record our blood sugar values. You'll need to start one of those if you want people to help you with dosing.
 
Oops, more questions. What food are you feeding? Are you using the syringes for injecting? And maybe you could give us a little description of how you found out your kitty was diabetic. What symptoms you saw.
 
Thanks for the quick response. I have been consumed with learning as much as possible for his quality of life. His name is Simba and I first noticed while completely in the box he was peeing outside of it. Took me a while to catch on and put things together. He was also losing weight and suffering from hind leg neuropathy noticed by pulling himself up rather than jumping on the bed. A vet urinalysis with a reading of 500+ was all the needed to make a diagnosis of Diabetes since I did not elect for the $400 blood test. 2 units of Basaglar pen that is drawn into 31gauge u100 syringe needle for x 2 daily injections. Just gave first shot this am. He has been on Costco Kiirkland signature kibble and occasional can food added. Been OK for 12 years without incident until now. Using 30 gauge lancet to draw blood for meter reading.
Just purchased the highest protein 9 lives can food I could find for feeding prior to injection. initial reading out of the box on meter was 304? Trying to correlate that to feline reading is now the object and establishing a curved norm of sorts. Yes I have established a spread sheet.
 
I'm sure you'll read in the stickies to toss the Kirkland kibble. Dry food doesn't help diabetic cats.

Welcome to the best group on the web - lots of great help here! Lots of reading/information. Try not to be overwhelmed. It'll get better over time!
 
I second Sue and Luci by saying dry food (kibbles) is not good for diabetic cats.
Why? Because dry food is all very very high in carbs at minimum. Now, freeze-dried raw is not the same as dry kibble food.
What have you or are you feeding wet/can?
Check this out :bookworm:... http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...r-more-than-just-carbohydrate-content.175004/
You will be Sooo much more knowledgeable, grow to value the abundance of selfless guidance, support and care amongst many members on this board within a few (several o_O) weeks... don’t get frustrated, you’ll make mistakes... there might even be a member or two who will bark at you for not remembering something you’ve been told about before.
Try not to get frustrated, stay patient, consider opinions you’ll receive-
Welcome to the ride :)
 
Low carb wet food or raw is best for diabetic cats. However, changing food to lower carb can greatly reduce the amount of insulin needed. Make any food changes slowly, and make sure you are comfortable testing. This food chart lists a lot of the commercially available canned cat foods. Look for something under 10% carbs. Protein percentage is not as important.

Don't worry about equating what you saw on the human meter to the 500+ on the pet meter. They are both "too high". The numbers on the human and pet meters get closer together as you get close to normal blood glucose values.
 
Thanks all. Have put aside everything it seems past few days do do deep dive and get a handle on this pressing issue. They have been on the Costco maintenace 30% protein, no info on carbs Kibble since day 1 so unsure if I should take up what they have been use to for years as it has been out all day for them previously but I do know I have to feed prior to injection and that is with 9 lives can food at the moment. Has the most protein per can that I can find in my local market at 11%
 
With Lantus, it's good to get a bit of food in them early in the cycle, but he doesn't have to eat all of it at once. It's OK if he grazes. If you add water to the wet food, it'll last longer without getting crusty. And extra water is always good for a diabetic.

And as I said, don't worry about the protein. It's carbs that is important. The numbers on the can are also "guaranteed analysis" which just means minimums, not actuals.
 
Hullo and welcome to you and Simba! There's a lot of stuff here and it's easy to get overwhelmed. Sherlock and I have been on insulin for almost 2 months now and I'm still learning! Getting the food stuff settled to start is super helpful. My boys always ate a dry food until Sherlock's diagnosis, and transitioning them from free-feeding kibble all day to eating wet food at a lot of little scheduled mealtimes took work. They vomited a lot to start, which was crazy frustrating, but they're good now. The food stuff is a good place to start, since any food changes will impact his blood sugar and insulin.

Good luck to you, and ask lots of questions as you need. I still do and everyone here has always been so nice and patient and helpful.
 
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