New to group!

Learning everything I. Can to help my kitty 66. He was recently diagnosed

 

Welcome! What a handsome kitty, indeed. When M'row was first diagnosed, a year ago, I felt engulfed by an information tsunami. It's all gonna be fine, and everybody is here to help. Don't forget to breathe

 

What a beauty! Is his name really 66? How did you come up with that?

We'll need some more information to help you much though. What are you currently feeding? A diabetic cat needs to be eating a low carb canned or raw diet. You don't need any "prescription" foods! Most of us feed our own Fancy Feast Classics, Friskies pates or 9-Lives ground because they're under 10% carbs, easy to find and affordable.

Have you started insulin? If so, which kind? Lantus, Basaglar, Levemir and ProZinc are the gentlest and most successful at getting them regulated and even possibly into remission!

Did your vet discuss home testing with you? Most don't but if you had a diabetic child, you'd be told to test before every shot and it should be the same for our furkids!

Most of us use human meters like the Relion Prime from WalMart. It's a lot more affordable than the "pet" meters. The pet meter strips can cost about $1 each. The Prime strips are $17.88/100. All our dosing methods were developed with human meters so we're very comfortable using them.

Hang in there. There's a lot of things to learn at first, but you can do it!

 

When he wasn’t my cat I called him 6 cause I thought he had 6 toes. After a few years and learning the bad home he was In he adopted me and I learned he had 7 toes and he got larger so he gained a diget 66. He is eating a little nine lives hard food and mostly friskies patte. He gets excersize every night by running up and down stairs. He is on prozinc. 4 units for now but go out weekly until better. First two weeks his glucose was 500+. Last week 77 this week 28. I know that is way to low! So got meter and want to start home testing so I don’t give meds if he doesn’t need it. He is a 21 pound cat. Not just fat but very large in general

 

Oboy, 28, that was dangerously hypo low. Did you directly reduce his insulin dose after the 28?
I hope you consider that it validates a dose reduction.

Until you have more home test bg numbers a day, you can post what you have here so far, and do the home test after a schedule like this so we see the overall picture:

A.M at a.m insulin time

+ 2-3 hours

+5-6 hours

+8-9 hours

P.M at p.m insulin time


Once you have become more used you can set up a Spreadsheet.
Here is instructions for that http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

 

Feeling engulfed by an information tsunami - That's a very good way to describe it! Hits the nail.

 

4U is a HUGE dose for a recently diagnosed cat. We generally start between .5 and 1U (even for extra large economy sized cats) and slowly work our way up in .25 unit increments.

I'm so glad you're going to start home testing. 28 is way too low and can even cause brain damage. The brain needs glucose to function. Without it, cells start to die so even if there's nothing you can tell that's different, damage has been done. You don't want to repeat that too often!

I'm glad to see you over here from the Facebook group too! This is the best place you never wanted to be and you'll find lots of help to make sure you and 66 have many more years to love each other!

 

Here you have a lot of information about how to home test using the ears
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

Most test by the ears.
But not all, we are a few back paw testers which is not featured there.


Keep asking questions though.

 

I too am new at this. And sooooo confused. He was diagnosed at the Vet on Friday 12/13/19. His lab glucose was 476. Vet started him on Vetsulin 4 units 2x/day. Told me not to worry about changing his diet as of yet. I have always let my cats free feed dry food. I too am engulfed with the information tsunami. He dropped to 23 on Saturday, scared me to death. I gave him karo syrup and kitty treats right away and called the vet. The vet dropped the dose to 3 units. I am now checking his sugar before I feed him and give him insulin. After the 23 he is ranging from 240 to 478. I am no longer free feeding and of course my other 2 cats are upset. LOL. I am so confused. Some people say change the diet right away to low carb other say don't change the diet. Others say continue free feeding, others say scheduled feeding at insulin time. UGH! I wish there was a "Feline Diabetes for Dummies" book. I am so lost.