Time to start over?

I came across this forum searching for answers. After reading a bit I had to join to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge you all have.

My diabetic kitty is a 17 year old female Siamese I've had since she was 2 months old. She was diagnosed late summer 2013. She is currently getting 5 1/2 units of Vetsulin 2x's a day. She gets a bit of canned tuna or canned chicken breast with her injections. She also gets Iams dry food. We do have another cat who is 2 1/2 years old.

Since she was diagnosed her dosage has been continually raised. She seems to be doing OK but I don't know if she could be doing better. She wasn't necessarily the most energetic cat before diagnosis but she was definitely healthier looking.

She was 25lbs before becoming ill. When she became ill she dropped down to 8lbs, developed cataracts, and her coat is terrible. Since beginning treatment she gained a couple pounds back but not much else has changed. She spends 99% of her time sleeping or laying around. The rest of the time is drinking, bathroom or eating. She stopped using the litter box as well. She instead goes on the floor in the same room as the box or sometimes will choose a different room altogether.

While my vet seems knowledgeable and tries to be helpful I've quit going. It just seems like it's an endless thing. Every couple weeks going in to check levels and adjust the dosage for months, really never ending. I just can't afford it.

She receives her injections twice a day at close to the same time. I am the only one that gives them so no chance of over dosing. Twice now she has become hypoglycemic. Today while I'm at work. My husband gave her some corn syrup which helped. I don't understand why it's happening though. This is what lead me to finding this forum.

After doing a little reading it seems as though my best option is to essentially start over. I'm thinking I'm going to have to invest in home testing supplies, change her diet and start monitoring her levels.

I'm hoping you all can help me do this. I would love to get a list of supplies I need, food I should get, when to test, what to look for, levels, etc. Any info you can give me is much appreciated!

 

Welcome to FDMB.

Since she's already on insulin, testing should be your first focus, to help keep her safe.
All you need is an inexpensive human glucometer, such as the WalMart ReliOn Confirm or Confirm Micro, or the Target Up and Up, matching test strips for the meter, and lancets labeled for alternate site testing (ie 26-28 gauge lancets - they're bigger so you're more likely to be successful).
You may want to pick up some Neosporin ointment (not cream) with pain relief to reduce the annoyance of testing, aid the blood in forming a drop to test, and help the pricks heal up.
Some low carb treats, such as Pure Bites freeze dried chicken (less expensive to get the dog sized and break them smaller) pr bonito flakes from an Asian grocery/online to give as a treat after testing or 3 unsuccessful tries.

See my signature link Glucometer Notes for info about meters and feline specific reference ranges for various meters.

There are a number of You Tube videos on line demonstrating home testing.

 

Thank u for your reply. I'm home now and she's still disorientated. An emergency vet visit would be a 2 hour drive so that's not possible.

I gave her more syrup about an hour ago but no change. I can go get a meter and test her but then what? I don't know if there is anything I can do to help her at this point?

 

If you think she is too low, give several drops of syrup every 20 to 30 minutes
It wears of fast!

 

When did she get the shot this morning - how many hours ago?

 

Have you a friend who can pop out to a pharmacy to get a meter, matching test strips, and lancets for alternate site testing? WalMart ReliOn Confirm and Target Up and Up are inexpensive and we have feline reference numbers for its use.

 

Sadie is back to normal this morning. I gave a lot of syrup every 15 mins and got her to eat some. She would only eat sliced turkey meat if I hand fed it to her but she ate a lot of it. I think the problem was she didn't eat enough through the day. I skipped her shot last night. This morning I gave her a reduced dosage of 3. We'll see how that goes. I will get the testing supplies & start monitoring myself at home.

Thank you for the help! I will be back for more info!

 

There are 2 extremes in the diabetic state which can be life threatening to your cat.

1) hypoglycemia - glucose level too low - can be very quickly fatal
- How to treat a hypo

2) hyperglycemia - glucose level too high - can be fatal if it turns into diabetic ketoacidosis.
- diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is complicated to treat as many derangements in the physiology happen
- your first indicator may be urine ketones

The only way to see which is happening is home testing, so please pick up the blood testing supplies today. Also pick up KetoDiaStix to test for urine ketones and glucose.

 

Hi Teresa and welcome to FDMB

Well done for wanting to hometest. Hometesting is the best way to keep your kitty safe while on insulin.
Here is a link to a page of pics and basic info about hometesting:
http://www.sugarpet.net/bloodtst.html

Please know that this should not hurt your kitty at all, but it can sometimes take a few goes to get the hang of it. And if the kitty is rewarded for each test (and each attempted test) she can soon come to look forward to test times.
If you have any general questions about testing you may wish to post them on the main health forum, as a lot more folks read the posts there. But do ask any questions you want to. We're here to help.

Best wishes,

Eliz

 

Thanks again for the replies!

Sadie is still doing good since her episode. I did get the home testing supplies. I started reading what to do on SugarPets but started to get a little over whelmed. I'm going to go back and read some more shortly to try to make more sense of it. It recommends doing the curve testing first and that's going to be tough with my work & constant running with my kids. I'm not sure when I'll be able to do that. I was hoping I could just test her and then know what to adjust from her levels.

 

Hi Teresa,
It's not necessary to start out with a curve (and in fact, some folks never actually do curves...) And I've just seen that the site I linked to suggests trying a 24 hour curve: I've never known anyone who's done that!

Many folks start out with just testing before each insulin shot. That's so we know that the cat's blood glucose is high enough to warrant the shot.
For folks new to dealing with diabetes we suggest that no insulin is given if the blood glucose is below 200 (11 if you're outside of the US).

Then, in addition to the 'pre-shot tests' it is important to know how low the dose of insulin is dropping the cat's blood glucose, so most folks try to get some mid-cycle tests as well. Vetsulin will probably have started working by about an hour to an hour and a half after the shot, and you may see the lowest number of the cycle at around 4.5 - 5 hours after the shot. But, as we say often here, 'every cat is different'.

Eliz

 

Well that's a bit of a relief! Good to know! Thank u!

 

Hi Teresa,
You may also wish to have a read through the FDMB Vetsulin/Caninsulin primer here:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/vetsulin-caninsulin-user-guide.302/

Keeping fingers crossed that all goes well with your hometesting. But please do ask if you have any questions or concerns.

Eliz