Six months after diagnosis and new here

Natasha was diagnosed in March with diabetes. She's 9 yrs old and gets Lantus twice daily depending on her glucose levels. She is generally cooperative and moreso after getting her chin or ears scratched.

Julie

 

Welcome to FDMB, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 Carb found online.
- A long-lasting insulin, which you're already using. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.

 

Hi, Julie - Welcome to the clan of sugar-cats! Just wanted to say that this is the best place for you to have landed: Everyone here is so supportive of every new member --- & committed to helping you and your kitty whip the tail off that danged diabetes. (FDMB sure feels like a Godsend to me!) P.S. Natasha is adorable!

 

@Robin&BB that is toooooo funny. Maybe we should call ourselves "Clan of the Sugar Cats"

 

Yeah, it's a little sassier than FDMB, huh? (We need t-shirts!)

 

LOL!
Maybe in blue. I'm not a lime green kind of person!

 

I was just thinking about green numbers on the SS. But that is the hypo color, so maybe a darker green or lighter blue? LOL

 

That'll work!

 

The Clan of the Sugar Cats!! How much do the T-shirts cost? I love them. They have a secret society vibe going on. I guess I would need a white one (so when Natasha sheds on me during glucose checks it doesn't show).

Julie

 

Thanks for the welcome! My vet interestingly insisted that you have to have a pet glucometer not a human glucometer. So, I have a pretty lavender pet glucometer and I get my strips on Amazon to save $$ and trips to the vet. The vet charges $35 for a pack of 100 lancets "to fit the lancet holder". My goodness what a racket this business is. I just looked a the girl like you have got to be kidding.

They are $10 for 210 at the Rite Aid pharmacy in the diabetes section when they are NOT on sale. I don't use the stupid holder! I was floored. That means they charge some poor people $70 for what I can get for $10? I am not trying to be a cheapskate here but when you are in it for the long term lets not be stupid about things. Makes me so mad.

I am for now happy with her diet (all canned, low carb) and the Lantus. I am told the Lantus is good for 6 months...is that your experience?

Julie

 

They are 19.99 where I designed them on cafepress.com. You can go to that website and design your own, with your own color choices. I was just playing around with the idea.

 

See my link Glucometer Notes for some cat-specific glucose reference numbers and other notes.

 

Thanks that was helpful. It's good to know in case this glucometer ever breaks, that I can just use a human glucometer.

I was just thinking about the nadir measurements. At the 6-hr timepoint I am either at work or asleep. I'm wondering if checking the nadir on weekends suffices? The vet I am currently seeing with Natasha just has me do a glucose curve (checking q2h x 12h) and then adjusts the dose according to that, and I usually do those on Saturdays when I can be home all day.

Julie

 

Absolutey. You can do tests on the weekend for a nadir check. And if you're getting down to fairly low numbers/tight control, it can be wise to sometimes set an alarm to wake around the likely nadir (it can and does move around!) . Plus many cats go lower overnight.
Another option is to shift the shot time to earlier in the day so that a before bed test can alert you to the need to intervene.

 

OK. Looks like Saturdays are it. There's not enough time between work and sleep unfortunately. Thanks!

Julie

 

A third option is to get a soemone to learn how to test him - possibly a pet sitter, a vet tech looking to earn a little extra cash, a high school or college student studying veterinary science, etc.

 

I have a cat sitter that will administer insulin twice daily when I'm away, but I've not trained her to use the glucometer yet. For the first three months, I had a different vet that believed all testing should be done at the clinic, so she got the same dose day in day out until she had another vet visit and got fructosamine checked.

All her glucose values collected at the clinic however were confounded by stress. She gets very stressed out when other people test her glucose, even the most experienced techs. It's like she's a different cat. I'm not sure how long it would take to habituate her to someone else before I could believe the readings. Therefore when she had a hypoglycemic episode, I switched vets to someone who embraces home glucose testing.

I'm hoping to get her on a regular regimen where she doesn't get too low. That way she can just get the same dose day and night if I go on vacation at least. So for now at least I'm stuck with Saturdays.

Julie

 

<-- "I know how to get my way..."

 

Have the pet sitter always give her a small treat and invite her to play, or if she likes it, to be brushed, to help her get used to this other person. Then, once you get glucose testing going, train the sitter (an added skill for that person's resume!).

 

Treats are kind of out due to her history of crystals, but fortunately she is a very social, attention-seeking cat and brushing and chin scratches post-BG sampling are more than enough to train her (in my opinion).

I can try this with the cat sitter, who, despite being a very successful professional dog walker, owns several cats herself and absolutely loves Natasha and spends extra time with her above and beyond my expectations. I think it's worth a try, because ideally during (infrequent) vacations I would like a few checks done. However, if Saturdays suffice for collecting nadir timepoints I think that I will go that route. Which would be...today!