1/16 Felix 481 (Another new condo)

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April and Felix

April and Felix

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Hello!

My name is April and my Felix was diagnosed with diabetes on January 4! My vet started him on one unit of Lantus, twice a day and said that he needed to come back in two weeks to monitor his blood.

Last Saturday, I did a whole bunch of research and found this site! I can't believe how much information there is...I'm just overwhelmed with reading. At least I learned how to test his poor little ears on Saturday.

I've been eavesdropping for a couple of days and now, I'm finally brave enough to post. I hope I did everything right. I read all of the "Lantus & Levemir" pages, although I don't understand everything. I also tried to do everything in the "New to the Group" page.
1. Read the Info, Proper Handling page
2. Created account for Yuku...(what exactly is it?)
3. Copied the dictionary to my computer (like a foreign language!)
4. Created the spreadsheet (Very easy!)

Now, my head hurts! lol!

I'm not sure how this all works, but I hope this helps. I love my little Felix!
 
April and Felix said:
Hello!
My name is April and my Felix was diagnosed with diabetes on January 4! My vet started him on one unit of Lantus, twice a day and said that he needed to come back in two weeks to monitor his blood.
Last Saturday, I did a whole bunch of research and found this site! I can't believe how much information there is...I'm just overwhelmed with reading. At least I learned how to test his poor little ears on Saturday.
I've been eavesdropping for a couple of days and now, I'm finally brave enough to post. I hope I did everything right. I read all of the "Lantus & Levemir" pages, although I don't understand everything. I also tried to do everything in the "New to the Group" page.
1. Read the Info, Proper Handling page
2. Created account for Yuku...(what exactly is it?)
3. Copied the dictionary to my computer (like a foreign language!)
4. Created the spreadsheet (Very easy!)

Now, my head hurts! lol!

I'm not sure how this all works, but I hope this helps. I love my little Felix!
Click to expand...




:RAHCAT Welcome to Lantus Land April and Felix!
Good for u for learning to home test!
It will take a little while to get the hang of things, it helps to go back and re-read the stickies every once in a while, but there's so many of us here, that you'll get really good support and guidance. So take your time taking everything in!

Yuku is Lantus users back up board in case of this board crashing. You basically register and wait for an email in ur email inbox for further instructions.
You've got a SS (spreadsheet) going and that's great!
By any chance, where are you located? City/state is fine.

Eventually you will want an AVATAR (picture) of Felix, cuz we wanna meet Felix too! The Tech forum can help u with that and u can test it in the EVERYTHING forum.

Could u tell us what you are feeding Felix? His weight and any other health issues, hopefully nothing else!

Glad u posted and that you found this amazing board!
:)
 
Welcome April & Felix :mrgreen:
You did well by posting your first 'condo" and also congratulations on the SS and linking it to your signature!! :thumbup
Every new day, we post our AMPS and post any updates or questions in our daily thread....one condo for each per day.
We link yesterday's condo to the first post of each day too so it's easy for people to find what went on the day before.

We are a family here and we all are in this dance together with our FD kitties! Hopefully we can all help each other with
our sharing and visits to each other's places during the day. :-D So happy that you and Felix are here....
warm welcome to you both!
 
Hi April & Felix
Welcome to LL (Lantus Land as we love to call it here)
Great job in setting up your SS and hometesting.
Next task will be to work on your profile so we can meet you guys and have
lots of info to follow.
I was also overwhelmed and nervous about posting here too my first time
in November. It took me a few days as well.
We are all very friednly here and you are in a great place to help Felix with his
Diabetes.
Looking forward to meeting Felix.
 
Ronnie:
I found the Janet & Binky charts last weekend as well. My vet wanted me to feed prescription food (I even bought a bag), but now Felix is happily eating wet food. He is a big boy, about 14 lbs of muscle. Felix has never had any other health issues.

I'm in the US. I'm sorry I can't say more, but I've had some very serious privacy issues in the past so I've become a paranoid-freak.

Everybody else - thank you for the welcome.

PS - In fact, my paranoid-issues is making it very difficult to post!
 
That's ok! Privacy is fine! I was asking cuz I'm looking for someone in my area that might find the board (one of my vet's clients) so no worries ok?
You don't have to fill out/or answer anything that makes u uncomfortable.

Glad to hear ur on wet food thru Janet's charts! Thats great!
:)
 
April,
There are plenty of ways to keep your privacy here (even your name doesn't have
to be the real one)
This is really a great place to be for Felix so try and work around
what you need to do for yourself so you can help Felix.
Please do not let the board stress you out. You will have enough in dealing
with Felix's Diabetes.
You need to be comfortable, chin up, you will be fine.
 
Hi April,
I'm a little late on the Welcome, But WELCOME!!!.

I to have only been on a few months, and believe me, your in the right place!!!!!!! :mrgreen:

Everyone here is truly concerned and very nice, helpful. I could go on and on.

My Buddy was just dx'd with IAA (Insulin resistance) and I don't know what I would do without this board!!!!!

So try and settle in and listen to the experienced people.

Jan and Buddy
 
Ronnie & Luna said:
Hi April

how's Felix doing today? Were u able to grab any spot checks today?
Click to expand...

Sorry I have to ROFLMAO at this statement by our resident testaholic!
ok... now, I'm done laughing.....

Welcome to lantus land,

You've already done a lot of work! I'm very impressed. Well done.
The only thing I could think of that you didn't mention was the hypo kit. A couple of cans of high carb (HC) wet food is what you need (and strips, but you already have those). Fancy feast of the grilled variety are always good choices and they are 18%. I mark my cans with a sharpie pen as to not confuse them with regular food.

You are in good hands, post daily and ask a lot of questions. We all do the sugar dance together.
 
Welcome April and Felix: You are in a great place. Ask lots of questions and read other condos and look at spreadsheets. You can learn alot from those two things. Yes, at first it is overwhelming but in time it will be "old hat". This is the best place to do the "sugar dance" Look forward to tracking your progress.
 
lol, ur funny Helene :lol:

April, I hope we didn't scare u off, we really are not scary, and we have all been in your shoes in those early days.
Let us know what we can do to help ok?

:)
 
Re: 1/16 Felix PMPS 523

I didn't do any spot checks. How many tests should you do every day? What times should I test?

Hypo kit - Thank you for the information. I will go buy some Fancy Feast tomorrow. That's a great idea to write on the can.

Felix is Felix. I love him, but he's been a mean, grumpy cat for the past 6 months (including today). I hope that he'll be nicer if he feels better.
 
Do I dare answer how many spotchecks you should do a day?
:lol:

I'll let someone else answer that, cuz I'm in recovery right now. :mrgreen:
 
Re: 1/16 Felix PMPS 523

ok ok, I'll take a stab at it, lol, this here is found up top in the stickie "NEW TO THE GROUP"

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=157

Learn how YOUR kitty is responding to insulin:
Onset - the length of time before insulin reaches the bloodstream & begins lowering blood glucose
Peak/Nadir - the lowest point in the cycle
Duration - when the insulin is strongest or works the hardest
How to do a Curve

Example of a typical curve:
+0 - PreShot number.
+1 - Usually higher than PreShot number because of the last shot wearing off. May see a food spike in this number.
+2 - Often similar to the PreShot number.
+3 - Lower than the PreShot number, onset has started. <---- good spotcheck
+4 - Lower.
+5 - Lower.
+6 - Nadir/Peak (the lowest number of cycle). <---- good spotcheck
+7 - Surf (hang around the nadir number).
+8 - Slight rise.
+9 - Slight rise. <---- my personal favourite
+10 - Rising.
+11 - Rising (may dip around +10 or +11). <----- good spotcheck
+12 - PreShot number.


How's that? This does not mean you have to test every hour.
This is also one cycle, so +0 is ur AMPS and +12 is your PMPS and it starts over again.

There are also those out the door checks, like +1 or +2 if ur heading out...and the before bedtime check, like +4 or +5, depending how late u stay up.

If u click on the link, u'll see the whole thing and can highlight it to print.
 
Welcome April!!

It is all a little overwhelming at first. You've done several of the most daunting of tasks -- you've learned to home test (and set up and linked a spreadsheet), ditched the prescription food the most of our cats don't like anyway and found Janet & Binky's food charts, and you're giving insulin twice a day. Other than probably suffering from information overload, you're doing great!

With respect to spot checks, I'm another one of those testaholics. I'm basically a data hound (there's a less polite word I'd use but hound will suffice). The reality is that the more data you have about Felix's numbers, the more confident you will be about making decisions about both dosing and shooting. It will also make it easier for the experienced members of the Board to help you make those decisions. The more data there is, the more evident Felix's unique pattern of insulin needs and use will be.

So, what does that mean and why is it important? Right now, Felix's numbers are high. That could be for a couple of reasons. One reason is that he may not be getting enough insulin and his dose needs to be raised. That's the obvious explanation. The completely counter intuitive explanation is that he could be getting too much insulin. When this happens, numbers drop low at mid-cycle and then bounce up to high levels at pre-shot times. If you don't have spot checks, all you see are the AMPS and PMPS numbers and you then raise the dose and the cycle repeats. The only way you can know about whether a dose is effective and how it is working is to get spot checks.

The minimum number of tests you should try to get is your AMPS and PMPS and at least one test during the morning and evening cycle. A test before you are out the door in the morning and/or when you come home is great as is a test at night before you go to bed. I try to get a test at +2 during each cycle since this gives me some information about how Gabby's cycle is going to go. (She can be a very dramatic kitty.) Every so often, it's also helpful to try to vary the times you get checks so you have as much of the cycle covered as possible on different days.

You're doing great! Start getting those spot check and please post regularly. And, keep asking questions!
 
Welcome to LL!

Glad to see that you are reading the stickies, asking questions, and testing Felix..
I know it seems so overwhelming at first.. but, it does get easier ;-)

Testing for ketones in the beginning is important too.. especially, when kittie is not regulated..
My vet had me test for ketones on a daily basis until Pepper was out of the higher numbers..

Here is a great link http://felinediabetes.com/ketones.htm

You can purchase Ketostix (Reagent strips for urinalysis) - at any pharmacy. To test.. you can use an old soup ladle and while kitty is eliminating urine in litter box.. you just place it underneath him. At first, I thought that Pepper would flee mid stream.. but unbelievably they complete their task.. Then, dip the strip in the urine and compare to the color chart on the box..

Look forward to seeing you and all the progress you'll be making! :mrgreen:
 
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