New Member: Esse, with questions [Answered]

[Lauren & Esse]

Hi all!

TL;DR We were diagnosed last month and will be starting our cat on Lantus tomorrow morning. We plan on home-testing his BG. A couple questions below, and stick around for his backstory if you're interested!

1. There's no data in it yet, but is my spreadsheet link working?
2. How frequently should we be checking for ketones at home? Or only if he has symptoms that suggest DKA? Aside from equipment cost, is there any difference in checking blood vs. urine? I.e is one more accurate than the other?
3. The vet suggested having him come in for a glucose curve a few weeks after he starts insulin, is this necessary if we are testing at home--can we DIY it and send them the results rather than bringing him back to the vet?

Background:
Esse (pronounced 'essay') is an approximately 10y.o. guy who spent the majority of his life being fed and cared for as a neighborhood cat. My partner and I began letting him in and out of our house in 2020 but never sought vet care for him because he wasn't officially ours. After an injury from a fight in January of 2024, we thought it was time for him to retire from the streets and live a cushier indoor-only life.
Between January and April 2024 he went to the vet a bunch of times--3 times for the fight injury, then a primary care/vaccine appointment, then a dental cleaning/extraction that led to an infection. During these visits, we were told his blood sugar was high but not fully diabetic--could have been stress, etc. We switched him to Fancy Feast pates and cut out dry food and when we came back for a fructosamine (I'm unsure what those results were, sorry!), the results were much better. So we stuck with the low carb wet food and didn't think much else of it.
A couple months ago, I noticed that he had been drinking water and peeing a couple extra times each day... he really never drank much water at all before so it was noticeable even though it wasn't extreme. At his primary care visit in mid-March I asked for them to run another fructosamine and it came back as 523!! So now he is officially diabetic. Due to a busy month of travel, we were delayed in starting him on insulin, but tomorrow we will be doing our first shot with a tech at the vet's office. We have all the supplies recommended here and are hopeful that we're prepared to do everything else at home. We both work from home full time so we will be able to monitor him closely for the first couple months before traveling again.

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for the support!

 

[Kobe (Dean and Lesley) MO]

but is my spreadsheet link working?

Link is working!!!

 

[CORKY]

Welcome to FDF, yes your spreadsheet is working, your cat is beautiful, you are at a great start by creating your signature and SS, we are very number oriented, so it is good to test at least 3-4 times during the day and especially before each shot, you have a good insulin Lantus is a 12 hour insulin great for cats, you can do a curve yourself you do not need a vet for that, if the lab results did not show Ketones, I do not think there's much to worry about, either way I am not an expert on that subject, I will tag another member that will answer that question and help you with Lantus, great you changed his diet, diabetic cats need to have a diet of wet can food between 0-10% carbs, below is a Drs food list you will find all the FF flavors and carbs on the third column also a carb calculator in case of need, you can go to CHEWY.COM and find the food you have or want click on the can go to nutrition and type the numbers on the calculator, the fry matter is the % of carbs, ( no gravies please they are high in carbs)
you should create a HYPO KIT, that will include some Medium carb foods between 11-15% and some High carbs between 16-24% KARO syrup or Honey, in case you may need them on a very low BG, My Corky uses ProZinc so the protocol is different from Lantus, you are at a GREAT start, any concern is never small so always post post post and I am sure a member will step in to assist you, again Welcome
NEW FOOD CHART CHECK CARBS/FF
Cat Food Nutrition Calculator | Elizabeth C Scheyder
@Sienne and Gabby (GA)
@Diane Tyler's Mom GA

 

[squeem3]

1. There's no data in it yet, but is my spreadsheet link working?

Yes it does

1. How frequently should we be checking for ketones at home? Or only if he has symptoms that suggest DKA? Aside from equipment cost, is there any difference in checking blood vs. urine? I.e is one more accurate than the other?

It's not a bad idea to check urine occasionally for ketones. The ketone test strips for a meter are expensive and there's only a few meters that test for both blood and ketones. If you can, use the cheaper urine test strips. There are various way to catch a sample: hold the test strip right under the cat let urine soak the little squares on the strip, hold a cup or long handled soup ladle under the cat to collect the urine in and then pour the urine over the test strip, temporarily replace the litter box with a brand new box and fill it with some non-absorbent cat litter or thoroughly rinsed fish tank pebbles (not the teeny gravel but the larger pebbles).

1. The vet suggested having him come in for a glucose curve a few weeks after he starts insulin, is this necessary if we are testing at home--can we DIY it and send them the results rather than bringing him back to the vet?

If you're testing at home, you can do a curve yourself. It's just testing approximately every 2 hours from the morning insulin time to the evening insulin time. If the cat doesn't cooperate, it's ok. Just get as many tests done as you can, focusing between 4 and 8 hours post-insulin since that is when most cats tend to have their lowest blood glucose levels on Lantus. Fill in the spreadsheet with the numbers and send the vet the link to the spreadsheet. Testing at home is way less stressful than an all day trip to the vet and won't cost $$$.

 

[Lauren & Esse]

Thanks all!

 

[CORKY]

Thanks all!

That's what and why we are here to help each other out in this journey!