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Hello!

I've recently adopted an approximately 10 year old male cat named Turk. I don't have much information on him other than a couple vet records from after he was surrendered. The poor guy lost his owner when they had to go into a nursing home. From what I know, he stayed with fosters from mid November until I took him home the day after Christmas. I drove from MI to MD to get him and he rode back like a champ! Takes road trips better than my 9 year old LOL.

His initial vet visit with the foster home on Nov 13th showed his glucose was 498. No Ketones. Other labs were normal. Initially they had him on 3 units of ProZinc BID. They did at curve on December 4th and reduced his insulin to 1 unit BID. I do have the notes from that curve. I don't know his before shot reading but at +1 he was 110, +3 he was 58, +4 he was 60, +5 he was 54, +6 he was 68, +7 he was 82, and at +8 he was 83. The notes for the +3 and +5 readings indicate they gave him honey and D/M food. He is due for another curve shortly but I'd rather take readings at home where he'll be less stressed and take those to my vet.

The fosters did not test for glucose before shooting. I've had him almost a week and though I've tried I've not been able to successfully get his glucose tested until today. My sister has a lot of experience with feline diabetes and came over to help me. This is partly why I wanted Turk. I knew he needed more testing than he was getting and I would have the support already in place to help me help him. I was worried and losing sleep over him possibly going hypo. His last foster loved him but was taking what her vet said as what needed to be done and that vet didn't encourage glucose monitoring.

The other reason why I wanted him is because he is a huge sweetheart. So social and loving. He's already made it a home here and we're working on having him and and his new sister get along. (Annie is not diabetic and is also 10 years old) Currently they can do chaperoned visits but Annie isn't completely sold on sharing her home fully, just yet. I feel like Turk is wanting to be Annie's buddy more at this point than vice versa.

Today his reading at +6 was 67. He's on Purina DM dry food I plan on changing that to an appropriate wet food but wanted to make sure I was getting his glucose testing done regularly before I made any changes to his diet.

Anyway, thanks for reading my novel of an intro post! I've learned so much from this forum already.

 

Welcome Dawn and Turk! We are so glad you found us.

What a lucky boy that he landed with you. It’s clear you already love him and will take great care of him.

To get you started, you might want to read this post (click on dark blue to left) to tell you how to your signature block and spreadsheet set up so we can best help you. Although it looks like you set up the SS, when I click on the link, it just takes me to my Instruction post. If you need any help with setting up the SS, just send me a private message by clicking on “Marje and Gracie” to the left and then “start a conversation”.

This post has many, many helpful links to resources to help you on your FD journey with Turk including a lot of resources to help you with hometesting.

One important note is that if you are going to switch his dry food to wet (which we urge members to do) is that you ae 100% right you need to be testing first. And then, we do the conversion from dry to wet slowly so we can adjust the insulin as you go.

We don’t want to overwhelm you so look through the first post I linked and let us know your questions. Again, Welcome!

 

Lucky boy !

 

Whoa!

What kind of meter are you using at home, pet (e.g. Alphatrak2) or human? I'm guessing that they were using a pet meter at the vet, and if so those are some low numbers! 67 at +6 would be also be too low on a pet meter (take-action with carbs/honey number 68), but a very nice number on a human meter (take-action number 50).

Either way, I'm so glad that they reduced his dose from 3U to 1U and that you are testing this lucky boy at home now! Hopefully some of the ProZinc folks can weigh in with some thoughts about these numbers and this dose.

 

Whoops! I fixed the spreadsheet link. I had the link to the instructions copied because I started doing stuff in firefox and moved over to chrome to use my google stuff. Thought I'd hit ctrl c to get my publish link but guess not lol.

Thanks for all the links. I'll check them out. I've been doing a lot of reading on here already and the information has been great.

I was able to get a +14 PMPS and it was 93 so I didn't give him his night shot because I was afraid he'd go too low since he was already well within the normal range. I'll get his first reading of the day today soon. He free feeds so I have to make sure he hasn't had anything for a while before testing.

 

I'm using a ReliOn prime, so a human one. And yeah, those low numbers freaked me out when I saw them. Just knowing at home he was getting that dose with no monitoring. Things could have gotten really bad really quick.

I don't know what monitor they were using at the vet. The handwritten notes say they didn't even know for sure he ate initially after his shot but just assumed he did. Shot up a red flag with them for me.

I'm so glad I have this sweet boy here now and can keep a good eye on him.

 

It was smart you didn’t shoot tonight as long as he’s never had DKA. If you could please do your signature block so we can see his “stats”, it will help us. Below is the info we request you include and that helps us immensely. Thank you.

• Kitty's name & caregiver’s name (optional)
• DX: date
• Name of insulin
• Name of your meter
• Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
• Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
• DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
• Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
• Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
• Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.

I know his BGs that you’ve been getting at home might seem low but they are really perfect! Let’s hope being in stable and less stressful environment as well as being off the dry food has put him into remission!

 

Thanks. I've updated my signature. Hopefully that helps.

I'm pleased with the home BGs I've been able to get but today has been a total struggle and I've not be able to get any and with how normal he was before, I'm afraid to give him any insulin. He resists getting his testing more and more and today it's become pretty stressful for all involved. Which is unfortunate since I've figured out a way to get blood more reliably. I was able to get a sample earlier but it was just as my meter shut off so I have no idea what the reading was. I've even tried to bribe him with some of Annie's wet food (diabetic safe) as a treat for after. I'm going to try one more time tonight. *fingers crossed*

 

Thanks for doing your signature block for us.

Have you had a chance to read through the hometesting links to see if there is anything in there that might help? It’s pretty normal for cats to resist it at first but they do get used to it.

 

Yeah, I've read and watched some videos. I'm just worried about getting bitten. He probably senses that. It used to take him longer to start growling when I'd test and now it's almost right away. He's a pretty big boy and put a pretty good bite into my husband's hand over testing earlier today.

He's such a loving and sweet cat but he gets so upset over testing now. In the beginning he put up with it but now, not so much.

 

Be sure you watch the following one. Of all the tome I’ve been here, Junior was the most fractious and would bite Bonnie. He eventually was a piece of cake!

 

That's one I watched. I tried to burrito him for my last attempt at testing and that freaked him out more. I was able to get one good poke after, without wrapping but no blood. I'll try again tomorrow morning.

I just hope he's OK without insulin.

 

Keep testing his ketones.

 

I don't have a way to test for ketones, just glucose. I got a good poke in this morning but not enough blood to fill the strip.

It's now been 2 days since he's had insulin. He's not gotten established at a vet here yet cause of the holiday but I think I'll call to see if I can get him in today.

 

You can buy urine ketostix at Walmart. If you can put a spoon under him as he pees to collect urine, then dip the stick in it, compare to the reference colors on the bottle exactly after 15 seconds.

 

Oh, that is good to know!

I actually got into the vet this afternoon. They didn't seem pleased that I wasn't just giving him his insulin regardless of knowing his BG. I said it was because he shows symptoms of being hypo and I was worried it would lead to a crash. Turk had ate some of his dry food, was a little stressed because of the vet trip - not to mention being off of insulin for 2 days at this point. When the vet tested his blood his glucose was 107 and my meter tested it at 115.

The vet's mood changed and he and said that Turk was probably artificially high with all the stress he was under before with losing his home, being in foster and a possible illness at the beginning, but now there's no way he could be a diabetic.

I'm going to keep testing him on occasion and switching his food to something diabetic safe regardless because it's healthier. I'm really hoping that Turk can be OTJ permanently.

 

First, your vet is incorrect.......if Turk was ever diabetic, he will always be diabetic. It might just be he is a diet controlled diabetic. Vet stress does not usually cause the BG to go as high as his was. What we have found is that some times the dose is so high that it drops the BG enough that it shocks the kitty’s pancreas into working. It’s not the best way to get a cst into remission but it can happen.

I would certainly keep an eye on his BG and be sure you feed him only low carb canned food. Bret of luck and we are always here if you need us!

 

I agree and I'm definitely going to keep an eye on Turk's BG. My sister came the other day and showed me how she tested her cat and had a reading in seconds. I'm not a pro like she is but I was going to have her stop by and do spot checks to be sure Turk is good.

I'm already slowly switching his food and he's loving the wet canned food. I bet he was a canned food cat before he was given up. I just don't want to switch him too fast and make his tummy upset.

He's like a new cat since he's been off insulin, though. He used to sleep a lot and drool at times. Now he's awake more and wanting to do things and is spunky lol.

Thanks so much for all your help and advice.

 

You’re very welcome!

 

How are Turk and Annie getting along now?

Here are some tips to stay OTJ (off-the-juice, insulin being the juice)

1. Never feed dry - not even treats. If you change wet food types, be 100% sure the new food is also low carb and same low carb % as your current food. Some cats are very carb sensitive and an increase from 3-6% to 8-10% can spike the BG’s. Don’t feed if you aren’t sure!
2. Weigh every 2 weeks to 1 month to watch for weight changes. Too much of a weight gain can cause loss of remission.
3. Measure blood once a week, indefinitely. You want to catch a relapse quickly. Some people only do checks every 2 weeks to a month.
4. No steroids or oral meds with sugar - remind your vet whenever giving you any medication. Always double check.
5. Monitor food intake, peeing and drinking. If increasing, a sign of losing remission.
6. Regular vet checks for infection such as dental , ear or UTI. And get them treated quick!

If your cat does fall out of remission you need to be more aggressive and resolve issues/ back on insulin as soon as possible as the window for a second remission is tight if any. Pancreatitis, hyperthyroid, dental issues are the most common reasons cats fall out of remission.