New Member, Trouble Regulating

[FrostD]

Hi all,

New member here, new-ish diagnosis. I realize I need to create a signature with key info, but trying to get this done before the baby wakes up! Buckle up, this will be long....

Cat is Mr Kitty (don't ask haha), male, neutered, 9yo. Diagnosed end of February (2020). Started at 1.5U Vetsulin, after 2 weeks fructosamine still too high (550), upped to 2U. After about 3 weeks have litterbox problems again and lost over 3 lbs since diagnosis so took him in. Frustosamine high (500), upped to 2.5U. Has been at that dosage for a month, litterbox problems for 2 weeks. Urinalysis was normal range, vet still wants to wait another month to re-run fructosamine. They've checked time and again for UTI. Gut is telling me something not quite right.

Currently free fed on a cheap dry food, plus maybe 1/4 can FF 2x per day. I had asked the vet about diet change and got a "you can if you want"...so being ill-informed I added the wet. Haven't wanted to mess with diet since he's still unregulated as far as I'm concerned.

Asked the vet yesterday if I should start home testing, another "you can if you want, here's how you do it".

So. I'm going to buy all the home monitoring supplies, get started on the ss. I know that'll be the most helpful.

I'm doing my best to digest all the information here, but it can be quite overwhelming at first. Any suggestions while I wait for the testing supplies?

After reading a lot of stuff on here, really thinking about getting a new vet. Any tips to help find a vet experienced with diabetes?

Thank you!

 

[EmmettsMom]

Hi there! I'm pretty new here too, so I'll leave that advice on dosing and BG levels to the experts. My cat, Emmett, is on Novolin N and I'm working on getting him regulated as well. Feel free to peep at my spreadsheet to see how he's been doing. I can see a huge difference in his numbers after switching to only Fancy Feast wet food so I definitely recommend trying that once you get your testing supplies. Of course, before I found this board the vet told me to buy a $60 bag of dry DM food that I'm now not using.

My biggest piece of advice is to trust your gut. My cat's regular vet hasn't been in the office due to COVID so I took him to a different vet because he started showing signs of neuropathy. He told me to up his dose to 5U!! That didn't sit right with me, so I bought testing strips and on the advice of people here, lowered his dose to 2U (he had been on 4U). While we are not regulated yet, I'm happy to see his number doing less yo-yoing and hopefully soon I'll see less reds and pinks and more blues and yellows on the spreadsheet.

Everyone here says it's a marathon, so take one step at a time and read, read, read! Everyone on here is great and super knowledgeable so try to get your spreadsheet set up so they can have all the details they need to help you. I'm rooting for you and Mr. Kitty!

 

[JanetNJ]

So glad you are going to be home testing. Gotta ditch that dry, but you may want to wait for the testing kit or lower the dose to 1 unit if you do. Most kibble is 35-40 percent carb. Basically like a diabetic person eating cookies all day. You want foods under 10 percent carb. Many of us feed fancy feast classic or Friskies pate foods. I have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC at home.

 

[Panic]

Wow...your vet didn't even recommend a diet change?? I'd be finding a new one too. Perhaps you could call around and see if you find a vet that supports Prozinc or Lantus as an insulin, that could partially weed out vets who haven't been reading the AAHA Guide for Diabetes.

Don't bother with the fructosamine tests anymore since you're going to start home testing. We can help you with dosing once we see spreadsheet data. Great job so far!

 

[FrostD]

Thanks all!

I too have some wasted DM food, what a shame.

Will start looking for a new vet shortly; he basically gave me 4 options at diagnosis and let me pick. He had mentioned seeing remissions on Vetsulin and Lantus, I went with Vetsulin because lower "cost of entry". Not regretting that choice yet, just wishing I had been better informed.

Did first home test tonight (326), rougher on me than him I think. Had to poke the poor baby 4 times and go through 3 strips before I got it Going to attempt a curve tomorrow and hopefully start a post to get some eyes on it.

So glad I found this board!

 

[Oliver the Roman]

@FrostD glad you started on home testing. I know it's extremely challenging in the beginning, and can get easily alarming when you just can't get the right amount of blood to come out. And you will find out you are not alone and there are lots of practical suggestions on this forum. So please read through, trials and errors are inevitable, but soon you will get the hang of it, if I could do it, anyone can!
I am personally not experienced enough to give you correct advices, but members here are so very helpful, I actually trust the advices I get here rather than my vet, who I keep pretty much to obtain the prescription for the insulin!