New to Diabetes

Hi,
I am struggling with where to start. Our cat Giles was diagnosed with diabetes about 6 months ago. I didn't realize what was involved and was blindly following the vet.... Giles has been on 3 units of lantus (i think that's what it is) for months. My husband does not want to pay for anymore glucose curves and the vet said she refuses to refill the prescription without another one.
We weren't happy with the last curve they attempted because they said the cat was too stressed and it wasn't an accurate one, and yet they upped her insulin a full unit... they wanted us to bring her back two weeks later and my husband nixed it. That was over a month ago.
I'm at my wits end. My husband is vetoing the costs of all of this, but the cat is only 10 years old and my 6 year old loves her.
I've read a lot of your pages about doing my own glucose monitoring and I'm willing to give this a try, and find out if the vet is willing to refill prescriptions if I provide the data points....
However, the cat is also peeing like crazy and making the litter boxes a nightmare... I am afraid the time/cost/mess is going to push my husband to decide to euthanize the cat (it is technically his from before our marriage.)
Can anyone tell me which pages I should read next?
I've read these two: http://www.felinediabetes.com/bg-meter.htm and http://www.felinediabetes.com/bg-curves.htm...
I've made myself a shopping list:

Glucometer
test strips
lancet pen
lancet tips

And read that I need to test before her first shot, then every 2 hours until after her second shot...
I've also read that i need to change her diet to low carb wet food (she currently eats fancy feast classic seafood pate and has a dry food sitting out, although i'm not sure if she eats it or if her sister is eating it)... She drinks water like crazy and is destroying the litter box. Also her sister is becoming overweight from all the food we put out for Giles... so I don't know how much Giles is getting

What i'm unclear on is which glucometer to get- i read several people say that some require more blood than others, and that the precision meter from medisense was good...but there were several other recommendations.

I'm unclear on whether to back down her insulin shot to a lower level and start monitoring... or leave it at 3 units...
I'm also hoping someone has advice on something to do for the urine problem....
Add to all this that i have a 4 and 6 year old, a full time job, and am very overwhelmed...
Any help would be so appreciated.... even if just to send me to links to research myself.
-Sara

 

Welcome! Diabetes can certainly be overwhelming at first, but hopefully the materials here will help ease that.

Home testing is definitely the first step to managing Gile’s diabetes. Curves at the vet are expensive and unreliable because of stress, as you already know. Are you in the US? If so, the ReliOn Prime meter from Walmart is the cheapest option and requires a relatively small blood sample (0.5 micro liters). And the best part - it’s only around $0.20 for each test! There are many other options for glucometers, but if cost is a factor that one is my recommendation.

A curve is where you test blood glucose (BG) every 2 hours for 12 hours, but you should also be testing daily - at the very least before each shot, and one other time throughout the day. That will let you know that one, it’s safe for you to give insulin and two, how Giles is responding to it.

Do you have a paper prescription for lantus from your vet? If not, do you think you’d be able to get one? If you can, you can use a pharmacy in Canada that many people here use to get lantus. It much cheaper than buying in the US and once they have your prescription you don’t need to resend it, or go back to your vet for one.

Once you get his blood sugar under control, the peeing and ravenous appetite should become better. I definitely recommend checking out the lantus forum and reading the sticky posts at the top - they will help you understand how lantus works. You can post there, or post general questions on the main forum, and that will make sure you get more responses. Please ask as many questions as you need!

 

Welcome to the best place you never thought you would be.

Please post your concerns in the Health Forum where more eyes will see them. We can help.

 

Here is some information regarding meters.
http://main.diabetes.org/dforg/pdfs/2018/2018-cg-blood-glucose-meters.pdf

What you are looking for is the smallest drop, the availability of strips locally, and the cost of the strips. Like a printer and ink, the meter can be free or cheap, but it is with the strips that they get you. You will be going through more strips than you can imagine. Quite a few people use the Relion meters.

 

Hi Sara and Giles, I just want to add my welcome to FDMB. I'm sorry you feel so overwhelmed, but very glad you have found FDMB. We can help answer your questions, learn to test and hopefully begin to get the situation with Giles under much better control.

I did read your profile information and would like to suggest you put some of that information in your signature. That's the gray text under your posts that gives us a bird's eye view about Giles.

You can look at other members' signatures to see how each person has provided that info. We suggest this information:
kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using and dosage amount /glucose meter you're using/what he eats/any other meds or health issues he has. You can add your name, and a geographic location (sometimes the country/time zone matters) Be sure to SAVE when you are finished.

Then, if you wish while you are still in the signature creation area, you can create a text link for Giles' spreadsheet in the signature, just type Giles' SS and highlight it. Cut the spreadsheet link and click the link icon (7th from the left on the formatting bar) paste the long spreadsheet link in the window and click insert.

When you post in the Main Health forum we can provide information and links to the areas you will need to read next. Take a deep breath, and know that even though it seems like a great deal right now, it's doable. And we will help you each step of the way.

 

Thank you all, I have updated my signature and will post in the health forum. I'm eager to get this under control.

 

I'm sure you are very eager to work through the ins & outs, ups & downs. I hope you will be able to convey to your hubby that most of us have been in similar, if not same, circumstances, and he can be a part of the treatment too, or at least let you tell him what you learn here and that will help.

I well remember my husband looking at me with such a face after we got back home from the vet and buying the very expensive vial of Lantus, "do you know how much that just cost us?????".
We hadn't even purchased the meter/strips/lancets yet either. It was appalling, true, and I wish I had known then what I know now, what I learned here.

It's a new day, and you get a "do over" a chance to learn the basics and in the process take much better care of Giles, and yourself and family too.