New on this forum, from Sebastian and mommy

Hi all! I have been encouraged to join by one of your past members Pam and her baby Hoot.
I have a 16 year old Ragdoll. Sebastian was in remission until recently and here we go again. He is on the Lantis pen and is currently receiving 2 in the am and 2 cc at night.
I was going to let the vet do the testing but he goes into such stress with the car and going there I am not going to do that. Pam has encouraged me to do my own curves here at home. Se sent me an extra kit which I got today. I tested him this afternoon after much duress and the meter just said hi, which Pam said ment was over 600! I gave him some food and waited until it was time for his shot. He tested 538, I gave him his shot and fed him.
Tomorrow I plan to start running a curve and testing every 2 hrs.
I guess my main question is what is good number supposed to be? He weighs 15.8 lbs
He is not drinking a lot of water as before and not peeing huge amounts.
What should a healthy curve look like?
I am sorry this is so confusing, but I am confused.

 

Welcome to FDMB.

See my signature link Glucometer Notes.
Normal is between 50-130 while ON insulin; it is between 40-120 OFF insulin.

 

Welcome! I'm glad you're going to do your home testing at home, it's really the best way to be accurate and safe. As far as a "healthy curve" goes, hats going to depend on the type of insulin you're using. Some insulin works hard and fast but doesn't last as long, some comes on slower but lasts up to 12 hours (or more in some cases). Doing a curve will tell you how the insulin is working in your kitty.

 

Thank you all for the welcome...this morning I discovered, duh, that the battery in my meter is low, therefore the high readings of yesterday were from my stupidity!
I will scurry off to the Walgreens and get a new one this afternoon and we will keep trying!!!!
I am still learning and bless Sebastian's heart he just keeps trusting me....
Thanks all,
More to come,
Barbie and Sebastian

 

Well I am back. I just tested and result was 352! Of course he is at the lowest, he is on Lantis. I fed him and guess I will try again tomorrow.
If any one has any suggestions let me know.

 

Oh noooooo, was just looking at the meter and the battery I bought today is also bad, grrrrrr.
Back to the store tomorrow and we will try again tomorrow night.
Thanks,
B

 

My husband just looked at the meter, battery is good but the meter is toast, can you believe this?! Well, at least I have gotten over the fear of pricking his ear and getting blood, , I'm feeling proud and accomplished, so back to the store in am. Have a good Memorial Day Everyone! I will keep struggling here and we will get it!

 

Welcome aboard. Can feel your frustration, but everyone is here for you. Believe me, it does take time to learn how to do testing on your kitty. My Tiggy was diagnosed back in April and it certainly took me (and him), some time getting used to doing the home blood glucose testing. Tiggy is a bit of a tazmanian devil and gets stressed very easily. He also gets very very upset going to the vet. I also didn't want to further stress him out by continuing to schlep him back and forth to and from the vets when I could just do the blood glucose testing myself at home. Initially my vet wanted to do Tiggy's blood glucose testing only at the vet clinic, however, I insisted that I would learn how to do this myself in order to reduce the stress on my sugar baby.

I'm certainly not an expert as I look to BJM et al., as a resource myself, and although (as they say on this site), every cat is different, but what has worked for me and Tigz regarding blood glucose testing is 1) using the Walmart Relion Comfort blood glucose meter and 2) using low-carb "treats" as a reward after the blood glucose test is completed. Tiggy is much more compliant if he gets a "treat" afterwards.
Regarding the Walmart Relion Comfort Blood Glucose meter - I found this to be the easiest to use. This was also highly recommended by many folks on this site. There are a number of others that are great as well, but I found this worked best for me...I initially tried a meter by CVS, but found that their meter didn't work well at all. The Relion Comfort blood glucose meter works great and uses very little blood on their strips. It is also relatively inexpensive too. But, find what works best for you.

It also took a little time for me to get the hang of doing the blood glucose testing on Tiggy. I also had a cast on my right hand when I first started my blood glucose testing, which made the blood glucose testing and insulin injections quite tricky!! But once I got Tiggy to realize he would get a low-carb "treat" for sitting still for me for his testing, it became very easy. Others have their special place where they do their blood glucose testing with their kitties, but I use a special wicker stool that Tigz sits on. He knows when I pull out the special wicker stool, that it is time for his glucose test. He now happily jumps on his special wicker stool (and chatters away, as he is a big "talker"). I gather he is "telling" me to hurry up already as he wants his "treat'!. He talks louder at me as I get out his glucose meter and supplies. He then knows to crouch and sits very still as I "poke" his ear for his blood draw. Some people will sing to their kitties while they do their blood glucose, but I just keep telling Tigz he is such a good boy. Now that my cast is off, I've gotten the technique down pat so his ear stick is very easy and extremely quick. And, once he hears the "beep" of the meter, he gets his low-carb "treat". I then feed him after his blood glucose testing. I'm sure you'll do very well.
Best Wishes!
TigzMom

 

Bless you bless you for replying and giving me hope and encouragement. I am going to go get a new meter right now and attempt to find low carb treats. Not sure I need those though as he does not like treats?!?! Seriously though going to get this meter thing handled and then start testing in earnest this evening.
Do you keep a spread sheet of test results, etc? Lord this is all so overwhelming...my head is spinning but I will get it!
Baby steps, baby steps!
Thanks so much for the encouraging words, tears are streaming from my eyes in gratefulness for your helping hand...

 

It may depend on the treat - have you tried the freeze dried plain protein ones, such as Pure Bites? (the dog size is less expensive per ounce, if you find he likes them). Some folks have found that cooking up some plain protein and cutting it into small bites works well for treats, too.

 

And for the SS (blood glucose spreadsheet), go to the forum titled "Suggestions, Tech Support and Testing Area".. This forum has the info that will provide the directions to create your own spreadsheet from the template provided. Just remember to take a deep breath.. You can do it!

I was certainly a crying mess for the first week or so after Tiggy's diagnosis. I cried so much I had a migraine for 3 days. But there is so much info on this site and fantastic support from everyone here!

Once I was able to feel like I could take some control in managing his disease somewhat, I felt much better (and so did Tigz!). Changing his diet in addition to figuring out the blood glucose testing really helped! He (and his non-diabetic bro, Boo), used to free-feed on dry food, as well as ate cat meat (they loved the kitty meat in the gravy, which I found out had lots of carbs!) a no-no! Yikes!
So, I transitioned him and his bro, over a period of a few days to strictly canned cat food. BJM has a great cat food info link that lists a variety of canned cat food meat that you can review. I feed both my cats Tiki Cat (0 carbs) and Weruva (the 2-5 carb ones). If Tigz gets finicky, I give him a little Gerber baby food meat or FF classics pate. But find what works best for your sugar kitty.
Best Wishes!

 

Well just did a test with the new meter...it was 475. He was in the kitchen sneaking a little bite, soooo.
Anyway he is not due for his shot until 9:30!!!! I think that is bad right?
Seems like back several years ago when he had diabetes I would e mail the numbers to my vet and she would do some kind of conversion...am missing something?
He is on lantis 2 units in am and 2 in pm. No dry food, only Friskies pate.

 

We don't convert the numbers here. If your meter reports mg/dL, we have a spreadsheet for that. If it reports mmol/L, our World spreadsheet let's you enter that on one page and the other page does the math to display mg/dL (mmol/L = mg/dL / 18)
See my signature link Glucometer Notes for feline -specific reference values and possible interpretation.

 

I looked at your spread sheet and I do not understand the columns and what goes in them, totally foreign. Does the spread sheet do the conversation once I put my number in? He is giving off such high numbers it is scaring me.

 

Wait just a min. I scrolled over farther and read your notes...I understand better, what does the column "u" mean?

 

here's a full write up of the spreadsheet:
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.