New Member - Jaime (human) + Luka (kitty) 26.03.2022

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Jaime & Luka

Jaime & Luka

New Member
Hi all, so grateful to have found this channel. Luka was diagnosed on Wednesday 16 March. We started off on 2 units of Lantus twice a day, then went in for another BG curve test, was switched to 1 unit, and after another curve test now we are on 1.5units a day. He was on prednisone for three months for chin acne which we think caused this. I have started to home test, the first one was tonight and we both survived, albeit barely!

I have two questions that I'd appreciate insights on;

- Luka has been on Hills prescription Urinary Stress (dry and wet) for the past two years as we had to surgically remove a large number of bladder crystals in 2020. I've spoken to the vet about low carb food, but she would like to keep him on his current food as she suspects the diabetes is steroid-induced, and also doesn't want him to lose more weight (he's lost about 800g - 5.5kg to 4.7kg) by switching him to low carb. I have tried a low carb/ urinary stress wet food to give more than the current food, but he has just refused to eat it. Thoughts?
- I'm using a Contour Plus One human BG meter. My vet (who uses an alpatak (?) meter said she'd like it to be below 15mmol/L (270 mg/dL), but I'm not sure what that looks like on a human meter? Ideally, I'm looking for some parameters to look at and be aware of on a human beter. I have 100% knowledge of diabetes so this really isn't in my comfort zone (and numbers are not my thing!)

Any insights will be much appreciated!

PS. Also, what do the different dosing methods mean?
 
So there is no direct conversion between meters. Realistically, you actually want him below 150 on either meter. Renal threshold (the point are high glucose spills over into urine) is somewhere above 200 for most cats. When they are above renal threshold it does wear on kidneys, but also more prone to things like UTIs because the bacteria thrives on the sugar. Also, the lower the numbers the less risk of ketones and DKA.

Have you calculated total calories he needs vs what he's eating? Are you restricting food at all? What's meal schedule?
 
Welcome to FDMB.

I'm so glad to hear that you've started to home test. It's the only way to ensure that your kitty is in safe numbers.

There is no way to convert numbers between a pet meter like the AlphaTrak and a human meter. The closest we can get is based on the research for the Tight Regulation Protocol where a 50 was the dose reduction point on a human meter vs a 68 on an AlphaTrak. As the numbers get larger, the difference between the human and pet meter get bigger. The dosing methods that we use are all based on a human meter since the pet meters haven't been popular until recently and because the cost for the strips for an AlphaTrack are ridiculously expensive. Many people here use a Walmart Relion meter. I used a Contour meter for years. I found good prices on ADW and on Amazon.

You may want to look at all of the sticky notes at the top of the Lantus board, not just the sticky note on dosing that Kyle linked. There's a great deal of information in those posts that you'll likely find helpful.

If your kitty is losing weight on a low carb food, give him more food! The issue is calories not just carbs. Cats are obligate carnivores and can't process anything except protein. There is a great post on urinary tract issues on the Feline Nutrition site.
 
Hi Jamie welcome
Are you from South Africa?
If so I found this posted by one of our members about low carb wet foods
I don't know if they would be ok to feed if your cat had a large number of bladder crystals removed in 2020
I will also tag a few members to see what they think
I think what you are feeding now are high in carbs

Posted by a member
I've found some low carb wet foods that look to be available in South Africa (waving from Canada) – Sheba, Weruva.
Go through these lists and see which low carb options are readily available.
Whiskas in Jelly are low in carbs and okay to feed, but Whiskas in Gravy are high carbs. Little Big paw is low carb.
 
I see you just started home testing , can you now start to get more tests in other than just the morning test AMPS and the night test PMPS
Such as a test at +3, +6, +9 both cycles then another day at +2, +4, +7
Scatter the test at different times so we can see how the insulin is working for Luca
The more tests the better
Withold food 2 hours before the first test for n the AM and PM so his BG is not food influenced. You can feed small snacks after that as usual
 
Hi everyone,
Thank you so much for all the feedback.

I'm based in Cape Town, South Africa so our food options look somewhat different, but Whiskas in jelly has come up a few times. He is happy to eat pouch food (it used to be his morning treat), but hates any pate and that seems to be the Weruva that we can find. I'm going to try and get as much of the wet food in his tummy in the morning and evening as he usually has no problem eating that, and then I'll leave the Hills dry prescription for him to free feed on during the day. We've not had any issues around eating at Insulin time, so I'm hoping that continues.

The home testing has been incredibly hard, I'm struggling with the blood and his little bunny ears aren't loving it. But warming up the ears seems to help.
I'm home tomorrow during the day so am going to try and test him every hour. I have not been withholding food as I'd like him to eat when he wants to, but will try and do that at least once tomorrow. Is the reading that you get on an "empty" tummy more accurate?

Also, can anyone explain to me what the colour coding for the BG means on the spreadsheet? I'm assuming blue is optimal, with everything else being either too high or too low?
 
Jaime & Luka said:
The home testing has been incredibly hard, I'm struggling with the blood and his little bunny ears aren't loving it. But warming up the ears seems to help.
I'm home tomorrow during the day so am going to try and test him every hour. I have not been withholding food as I'd like him to eat when he wants to, but will try and do that at least once tomorrow. Is the reading that you get on an "empty" tummy more accurate?
Click to expand...
Hi Jamie
Can you please add that you are using a human meter to your signature please
You can test him tomorrow every 2 hours for 12 hours doesn't have to be every hour
unless you see a very low BG and have to feed him to bring his BG up

You only have to withhold food for 2 hours before the AMPS test and his PMPS test
because you don't want it to be food influenced ,that will make the test higher than it is.
You can feed him through the rest of the cycle without holding food
Normal BG for a human meter is 50-120
Low blues are good and dark greens between 70 and upper 90 is good
Since you are still going to continue to feed the Hills prescription Dry you will have to follow the SLGS method for lantus
What happened to yesterday's testing I don't see it on your spreadsheet
I'm going to tag a few members for you about the PMPS you got for tonight 166
Usually with new members we tell them not to give insulin if the BG is under 200

Just saw it's 1:50 AM in South Africa so I have no idea if she shot tonight
Can one of you maybe explain better than I did about her question about the color coding
If you read her intro post above he WAS on prednisone before
@FrostD

@tiffmaxee

@Sienne and Gabby (GA)

@Wendy&Neko

@Suzanne & Darcy

@Chris & China (GA)
 
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Jaime & Luka said:
We started off on 2 units of Lantus twice a day, then went in for another BG curve test, was switched to 1 unit, and after another curve test now we are on 1.5units a day.
Click to expand...
When increasing or decreasing units we adjust by 0.25 units at a time not whole unit's because you could be missing a good dose for Luca
 
Jaime & Luka said:
The home testing has been incredibly hard, I'm struggling with the blood and his little bunny ears aren't loving it. But warming up the ears seems to help.
Click to expand...
Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up
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6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
You can also put a thin layer of vaseline on the ear ,to help the blood bead up

Here is a video one of our members did
VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar
 
Hello and welcome.
Jaime & Luka said:
I'm home tomorrow during the day so am going to try and test him every hour. I have not been withholding food as I'd like him to eat when he wants to, but will try and do that at least once tomorrow. Is the reading that you get on an "empty" tummy more accurate?
Click to expand...
No need to test that often. A curve here is defined as once every two hours for 12 hours, or every 3 hours for 18 hours. Of course, if he gets into numbers below 100, you might move to testing every hour. In the beginning, you only really need to withhold food for a couple hours before shot time. That's so that you don't give insulin for a number that's higher than it would be without food in him. Over time, as you get an idea how food affects his number, we relax that guideline. I would do a curve based on regular feeding pattern as that is what you will do most days.

As for the spreadsheet, How to Use the Spreadsheet Eventually you will want him to spend time in the normal range for a cat (50-120). That range is healing for his pancreas and for those for whom remission is a goal, a necessary step.
 
Jaime & Luka said:
Hi everyone,
Thank you so much for all the feedback.

I'm based in Cape Town, South Africa so our food options look somewhat different, but Whiskas in jelly has come up a few times. He is happy to eat pouch food (it used to be his morning treat), but hates any pate and that seems to be the Weruva that we can find. I'm going to try and get as much of the wet food in his tummy in the morning and evening as he usually has no problem eating that, and then I'll leave the Hills dry prescription for him to free feed on during the day. We've not had any issues around eating at Insulin time, so I'm hoping that continues.

The home testing has been incredibly hard, I'm struggling with the blood and his little bunny ears aren't loving it. But warming up the ears seems to help.
I'm home tomorrow during the day so am going to try and test him every hour. I have not been withholding food as I'd like him to eat when he wants to, but will try and do that at least once tomorrow. Is the reading that you get on an "empty" tummy more accurate?

Also, can anyone explain to me what the colour coding for the BG means on the spreadsheet? I'm assuming blue is optimal, with everything else being either too high or too low?
Click to expand...

Welcome! If you can find wet foods he will eat it will help with crystals as well.
You will want to keep his numbers between 90-200 or so if possible. Normal bg on a human meter is 50-120. The color cod I’m makes it easy to see the bg at a glance. It’s programmed for you so all you need to do is add the numbers and the color will come up. You hope to see a lot of blue eventually. That’s 100-200.

If steroid induced diabetes hopefully he will become diet controlled. I don’t know the carb content of your dry food. Do you? Almost all dry food is high carb.
 
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