Newly diagnosed 13 yo tabby

Hi there - my cat, Tiger, was diagnosed about 2 weeks ago. Funny thing is, he had blood work done in January and blood glucose was just fine. I took him to get a checkup two weeks ago because he’d been losing weight rather quickly and I wanted to make sure something wasn’t wrong. He had been acting normal, eating like normal, doing normal cat things but I still wanted to make sure he was okay. Anyway, blood glucose was over 400 and now he’s on 1 unit of vetsulin every 12 hours and after much research and tons of reading, I have changed him (and my other three cats) over to being fed twice daily (instead of free-feeding), all canned, low to no-carb food and we go in for a re-check of his glucose on Friday. I bought a glucometer and strips to try to monitor him at home but that hasn’t gone as well as I’d have liked. He tolerates his shots just fine most days but when I tried to poke his ear, I haven’t been able to get it to bleed and he figures something’s up and gets antsy after a few minutes. I’ll keep trying, though. It’s just a bit frustrating.

I am so glad I found this forum - I have gotten so much more info from here than from my vet and I’m very appreciative of all the support and knowledge from everyone that’s on this forum.

 

Rats - i need to edit my signature. . .

 

Hi Priscilla welcome to you and Tiger. Home testing was hard for me at first too, but with a little persistence, it will all come together. Here's a link that may help you
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/
The main thing is to be relaxed when you start, warm the ear well, and use a low carb treat even if you don't get a sample. Also try size 25-28 gauge lancets, they make a bigger poke hole to start.

 

Thank you for the link - I'll check it out this evening after work. He LOVES treat time - I've been using weruva chicken treats and holy moley you'd think he's never had treats before! I don't know off the top of my head what gauge lancet I have, but they're pretty tiny. I'll take a look when I get home - that might be the problem.

 

If you have more problems with testing, or anything else, post on the Health Forum. There are more people there to help.

 

My 13 yr old is also on Vesulin. I give him 5units twice/day and a strict low carb canned food diet. His glucose went from 500 to 140. Waiting for results on his fructosamine test, but he seems to be doing fine now. I have not tried testing at home. I've asked my vet about it, be he seems to think that the stress of it would cause the numbers to be skewed. He's told me what to look for with hypoglycemia and gave me a couple of syringes to use with corn syrup if this happens. thankfully, we haven't had any episodes of hypo.

 

Many cats hypo with no symptoms until they have a seizure. It really is dangerous to administer insulin without knowing what the levels are; people don't do it if they are diabetic. People have cats that are too feral or dangerous to test, but if your cat lets you test, we highly suggest you home test.

Our experiences suggest cats are much more stressed getting tested at the vet than at home - lots of strange noises, people, animals. Many cats here purr through the test because they know their favorite treat is coming.