MinaandBelle
Member
Hi everyone!
My cat Belle (aged 13) has just been diagnosed with Diabetes and like many other newbies here I’m feeling so overwhelmed! Really grateful to have found this forum and I’m already learning lots from all the material here, so thank you.
Belle had a nasty case of pancreatitis and some sort of stomach bug and it was touch and go for a while if she would actually make it, but thankfully she now seems to be recovering and we can actually focus on what her long term diabetic care will look like. I have ordered Royal Canine diabetic (wet + dry) food as recommended by my vet but have since read on these forums that I should probably ditch the dry altogether and some non-diabetic specific store bought wet foods may also be fine, but I only got a month’s worth so I can start with RC and then maybe transition when I’ve done some more research.
I feel I’m getting the hang of the insulin shots.. and Belle has already stopped excessively drinking water. My main worry is what I’ll do if I need to spend a night away.. my vet tells me I can’t miss a single dose but I wonder if once I get into a routine with testing etc I may be able to be more relaxed. Does anyone have any experience of this? I obviously don’t want to send her into this really unwell state ever again, by I need to be realistic about what I can do with my current commitments and no support nearby.
And my other main question is around home testing: my vet said I should aim to do a glucose curve in about 2-3 weeks to see how Belle is responding to the insulin and if we need to change the dose, but many of you on here mention daily testing. Is that something everyone does? Just keen to understand what the recommended routine is so I don’t miss anything. I saw the Freestyle Libre kits are only for 14 days so that tends to suggest it would be a good option to track a curve every now and then but maybe for a daily monitoring the blood prick test is better? My main priority is to minimise stress for Belle (so would like to do everything at home if at all possible) and to balance this with gaining as much data as possible so that I can manage this in a sustainable way.
Thanks in advance and apologies for the stream of consciousness!
Jo
(Overwhelmed mum of Belle)
My cat Belle (aged 13) has just been diagnosed with Diabetes and like many other newbies here I’m feeling so overwhelmed! Really grateful to have found this forum and I’m already learning lots from all the material here, so thank you.
Belle had a nasty case of pancreatitis and some sort of stomach bug and it was touch and go for a while if she would actually make it, but thankfully she now seems to be recovering and we can actually focus on what her long term diabetic care will look like. I have ordered Royal Canine diabetic (wet + dry) food as recommended by my vet but have since read on these forums that I should probably ditch the dry altogether and some non-diabetic specific store bought wet foods may also be fine, but I only got a month’s worth so I can start with RC and then maybe transition when I’ve done some more research.
I feel I’m getting the hang of the insulin shots.. and Belle has already stopped excessively drinking water. My main worry is what I’ll do if I need to spend a night away.. my vet tells me I can’t miss a single dose but I wonder if once I get into a routine with testing etc I may be able to be more relaxed. Does anyone have any experience of this? I obviously don’t want to send her into this really unwell state ever again, by I need to be realistic about what I can do with my current commitments and no support nearby.
And my other main question is around home testing: my vet said I should aim to do a glucose curve in about 2-3 weeks to see how Belle is responding to the insulin and if we need to change the dose, but many of you on here mention daily testing. Is that something everyone does? Just keen to understand what the recommended routine is so I don’t miss anything. I saw the Freestyle Libre kits are only for 14 days so that tends to suggest it would be a good option to track a curve every now and then but maybe for a daily monitoring the blood prick test is better? My main priority is to minimise stress for Belle (so would like to do everything at home if at all possible) and to balance this with gaining as much data as possible so that I can manage this in a sustainable way.
Thanks in advance and apologies for the stream of consciousness!
Jo
(Overwhelmed mum of Belle)