questions about home testing and urine testing

hi, soooo...my glucose meter arrived today.
It only has 10 testing strips and 10 lancets. Angel has an appt for a fructosamine test next Friday (13th), do you think it would be ok to wait until then assuming my vet will walk me through the home testing, as long as I do not dramatically reduce Angel's food? That would also give me time to order more lancets and test strips. He's on caninsulin so I guess I'll be testing several times a day!
Since Angel was diagnosed he's been on a mixture of Hills senior dry (ugh, yes I know but didn't want to make drastic changes without testing) and cans which are 6.6 carbs. Today his Hills diabetic arrived and once I've got the home testing sorted I'm planning to feed him 50% Hills until it runs out and 50% tinned with between 0 and 2% carbs.
He seems fine at the moment, not over drinking like he was, weeing like a racehorse but he IS a big boned cat. I've got a small bag of aquarium gravel and tomorrow going to buy some sticks to try and test his wee, can you rinse and re use the gravel or do you need fresh every time? When I see the vet I'll find out the price of Katkor.
Oh...and if anyone near West London UK is willing to walk me through the hone testing I'd pay your travel expenses and treat you to lunch!!!!
Cassandra and Angel x

Yes, you can re-use the gravel. It must be clean and the urine fresh per the box instructions. If it sits or is contaminated, the results won't be accurate.

See my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for additional assessments you can make to evaluate your cat's health.

Hi Cassandra,

I'm not sure if there are any folks in West London. I can think of a couple in Essex and one in, I think, South London...
Julie ('Julie and Alice') is in Essex. Rob (Rufus McDufus) is in South London, I think.
And if it's not possible for someone to get to you then might it be an alternative for you to go to them and see how they test their cats...?
(And if you could make it down to Surrey then Bertie would be happy to demonstrate! ;-) :lol: )

I'll post asking for West London help and link it to this thread.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of links that you may wish to look at. One is about urine testing and the other is about hometesting. (I learned to test from that page):
http://www.sugarpet.net/urine.html
http://www.sugarpet.net/bloodtst.html

Eliz

Cassandra, wish I could help but I'm a bit too far away to make it practical I'm afraid. Do take up Elizabeth's suggestion of a visit to her though if you can - you won't find a more experienced or kinder FDMBer in the UK. Failing that, keep reading and watching online videos about testing. It's not as difficult as you think - more of a knack than a real skill that takes yonks to learn. And keep asking questions here, nothing is too basic. We have all been where you are, I promise you.

Good luck
Diana

Thank you so much for the advice, afraid I have more questions.

When I home test my extra sweet Angel (have to be confident and say 'when' not 'if') do I do it over a 24 hour period, and do I do a complete curve every day? He's on caninsulin.

I'm seeing my nurse friend tonight and will ask her to demonstrate, also will see if my vet will walk me through it. Elizabeth, I would LOVE to meet you and Bertie, whether I've learnt to home test or not, will PM youx

xx

Hi Cassandra,

Regarding how often to test, well, that does vary given on people's circumstances (how much they're home and able to test; how easy the kitty is to test, etc).

The more you can test the more data you'll have about how Angel responds to insulin. Some people do a minimal amount of testing. Some people do a lot.

At a minimun we'd suggest that you try to test before each insulin shot. And we also suggest that - for those new to treating diabetes - no insulin is given if the blood glucose is below 11(200).

A glucose 'curve' (a series of tests done through the course of an insulin cycle) can be useful because it gives valuable information about things like; when the insulin starts to work ('onset'), when the blood glucose is at it's lowest (insulin 'peak', or blood glucose 'nadir'), and how long the insulin shot lasts ('duration').

After that, 'spot checks' done during the day are very helpful indeed. It is particularly important to know how low the cat's blood glucose is dropping at the peak of the insulin cycle.
With Caninsulin you may well find that Angel's blood glucose is at it's lowest at around 4.5 - 5 hours after his insulin shot.

Caninsulin has a quite short duration in most cats, and you may find that the blood glucose scoots up pretty quickly 8 - 10 hours after the shot.

If you reward Angel with a nice low carb treat or a wee cuddle for each test (or attempted test) then he will probably quickly get used to the process, and may well even come to like it! Really! cat_pet_icon

Eliz

As Caninsulin is a mixture of 2 insulins with different durations, you may find there are 2 different nadirs or low glucose levels when you do a curve. As noted, the 1st nadir may be earlyish, the 2nd may fall about 2-3 hours later, or you may see something of a plateau for an hour or 2 after the first nadir. It varies with the cat.

The fact that it is a mixture is why you must roll it before use - you want it well mixed to get the right proportios of each insulin in the mix.



Ps edited for typos!

A curve is usually done over a 12 hour span of time, not an entire 24 hours. Some times a curve is testing every 2 hours. Other times, a mini-curve is testing every 3 hours.

Some random testing to find out the duration of the caninsulin in your cat can be useful too. Since ECID (Every Cat is Different), each caregiver needs to test to find out the lows (nadirs) and the duration or how long the insulin is lasting in their cat.

Yeeks! Gosh no, no need to do a curve every day. I don't know of any kitty that requires that much testing.

Please, never be afraid to ask more questions, or even repeat the same questions and ask for clarification of anything that has been said and the reasoning behind it.

thanks, I got confused between home testing and curves.
So how often is it best to test Angel in a 24 hour period? And how often do I do a curve and how is that different to the normal testing?
I will talk to the vet on the phone tomorrow to make sure he's ok to go through the home testing with me. I've promised myself that if the spare test strips and lancets arrive before Friday I will practise on myself and try it on Angel. The lancet device has 5 different settings according to skin thickness, 1 is thin, 4 and 5 are thick or calloused, which is best for Angel's ears?
Sorry about all these questions.xx

1) always test before you shoot

2) if you can, get a mid-cycle test, around the expected nadir/lowest glucose. Try to get some of these each week.if you get tests in the likely nadir period, an official curve may not be needed.

3) just to re-assure yourself, a before bed test may let you know if you need to intervene to prevent going too low, or if you can sleep knowing your cat is like going to be OK.

Please, never feel you need to apologize for asking questions. We don't mind, really. The only "Bad" question is the one you don't ask.

As far as using the lancet goes, you'll need to try different settings to find out what works best for now. Usually at the beginning of testing, a higher setting works better. As the ears form more capillaries in the poke spot, it gets easier to get blood and you can usually back off on the setting to a lower number in a few weeks.

4 times a day is a good amount to test. Once before each shot and then somewhere in the middle of the cycle if you can.

A curve is more tests, to try to see when the nadir is and when the BG's start to rise again and showing you when the insulin is pooping out and shows the duration of the insulin. One curve a week is probably plenty.

In the beginning of this sugardance, a few more tests then the 4 times a day may be necessary to help you pin down that nadir or low point. Random testing can help you to do this. For example. So maybe a test at +5 and +6 one day, then test at +6 and +7 another day. Those times would help to pin down the nadir. Then, you might try for a +5 and +8 or a +9 or +10 another day. Those later times, the +8 to +11 time tests help to determine the duration of the Caninsulin for your cat. How much testing and when you can do it all depends on your schedule and other life responsibilities too. We realize that, so that is why some random testing over a couple of days may fit your schedule better than a curve.

You do not have to do this testing all at once. Ease into it and get your cat used to the testing. You'll get better at the testing too as time goes on and you get more skilled at the testing process.

Many people are only able to get those mid-cycle tests on the weekends when they are not working. A regular test before you go to bed is nice to get. That may be only a few hours after the pre-shot test but helps to fill in the blanks on your SS (spreadsheet) and helps us to see the pattern in BG levels.

Once you have a better idea of the duration of the Caninsulin in your cat, you can cut back or even eliminate the testing in that +8 to +11 time frame.

Thank you both so much, again I am so pleased I found this board, I don't feel so alone.
xx