Belly-confirmed she has diabetes

Hi all,

I posted in this forum a few weeks ago about my cat Belly, and the suspicion that she was diabetic. Today i finally received confirmation she is.
Her fructosamine reading was 573.
Tomorrow i will go pick up the prescription for Lantus. I hope to buy one pen from CVS to start treatment ASAP and then order more from Marks.
I've already ordered the reli-on glucose meter and should have all that arrive by tonight.
What else do i need to buy to have my kit ready ASAP?
If i manage to get everything ready by tomorrow, what is the first thing i need to do, do i start insulin shots right away? Should i be monitoring with the meter for some time before attempting my first shot? Sorry for all the questions, its been hard to get the best guidance from my vet these past few weeks as the holiday closures and covid guidelines have severly limited my interactions with my vet. Any additional tips would be greatly appreciated.

Also, since i live in Los Angeles and our covid cases are so incredibly high at the moment, can i successfully treat my cat at home and avoid the vet at least for the next few weeks?

thank you all!
Lily

 

With our help, you should be able to start treatment virtually. You've got a good insulin, a good meter. Hopefully at least 100 test strips so you don't have to go out and get any more of those anytime soon. Do you have U-100 syringe with 1/2 unit markings? You'll need lancets to help with testing, 26-28 gauge to start. Some Neoporin with pain relief will help heal the poke site. Gauze pads can help you in testing too, to put under the ear tips and for compressing the poke site afterwards. I too had to deal with black ears (blood likes to hide in the fur) so I put a tiny bit of Vaseline on Neko's ears first to help keep the blood in place. I also started by putting a small flashlight under the ears so I could see where I was poking.

Next on the list is food, a mix of good low carb foods for every day, and some higher carb foods should Belly get lower numbers. What are you feeding her now?

As for strategy, start with a test or two to make sure you have the hang of it, then you can start giving shots. You will want to pick a time you can monitor fairly close for the first day (and night).

 

yes, i've bought the meter and test strips already, should receive the lancets any day now.

ok, perfect thank you for letting me know i need syringes, i was confused about the syringes. Is there any specific brand i should buy? when i google U-100 syringe i get a lot of results.

also, when i go to marks i see Lantus cartridges and pens? what is the difference?

i've recently switched her to wet food friskies pate, i started mixing it with her dry food, but from now i will only give her the wet food.

i just want to say how glad i am to have found this forum! i've been suspecting my cat would be diabetic for a few weeks and now that i got the result i feel much more confident in my ability to treat her thanks to everything i've read on this forum!

 

In the US, you can only buy pens. Cartridges are like a pen refill, but only available in Canada.

Since I am in Canada, I am not so well versed in what syringes you can buy. At the top of the Lantus, Basaglar, and Levemir forum here there is a yellow starred Sticky Note in Insulin care and Syringe info. It lists many of the syringes available with half unit markings. You also want the ones that hold 30 units, and preferably a smaller gauge needle like 30 or 31 gauge.

 

Hi Lily.
I'm new to all this as well but the help you will receive on this forum is unbelievable.
Just to add to your list, i would also get some test strips to test for Keytones in her urine. Quite a few on here including myself use Ketostix.
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...and-diabetic-cats-a-primer-on-ketones.239971/

 

Try using SingleCare coupon
https://www.singlecare.com/prescription/lantus-solostar?q=Lantus Solostar