Granite (neutered male, age 11-1/2) was diagnosed with diabetes in mid-November, 2022. I was travelling in an RV and couldn't get insulin or testing supplies at the beginning so switched him to DM cat food until I could get him back to Arizona. After getting home, I immediately bought a grinder and he, and by default my other cat Maggie (age 13-1/2) have been on Dr Lisa Pierson's raw food diet since Dec 2022. I am currently mixing the raw food half-and-half with zero-carb commercial canned cat food. They no longer get dry food except for Granite who gets two pieces of dry kibble (his treat) each time I check his BG and each time I give him an insulin shot. When he hears the alarm on my phone go off for BG test or insulin time, he comes running for those two pieces of kibble. So, he's not 100% on raw. My vet started us on Vetsulin. However, about one month ago, she switched us to ProZinc. He seems to be responding much better to the Prozinc. I take his BG before every single shot and sometimes in between. My vet actually refused to help me treat him unless I promised to learn to do that. I was clueless as to why at the time but I am so thankful she took the time to explain it to me. We've been slowly increasing his dose and have been at 3 units PZI now for two weeks. She is switching me tomorrow to 3.5 units for the morning shot and keeping me at 3.0 units for the evening shot. He is still in the high 300s or low 400's usually in the evening before his evening shot but he's generally in the high 300s by morning. When we started he was in the 400 to 500 range and twice went over 600 so we're making progress. I found this forum in the beginning but I was new to this. The BG testing was stressful and then I got the respiratory virus and was so sick myself for 5 weeks, I didn't have the energy to participate in this forum. Granite and I were just in survival mode until a few weeks ago. Granite is also in early stage renal failure. He is my second renal failure cat whom I've administered sub-Q fluids to. Currently, he gets sub-Q fluids every 3rd day. I hope to learn from all of you and look forward to becoming a part of this community.
Hi there. I’m just about to go to sleep (Eastern time) but I saw your post and wanted to welcome you! I hope we can help and support you. It sounds like you have been educating yourself and making good choices for the cats. And your vet insisting on home testing is a very positive sign. I hope you can get a spreadsheet up and running to help us to help you. Are you using a human meter or a pet meter for testing? Anyway…. More tomorrow! You are very welcome here!
Thank you! Honestly, I don't even know if I'm using this forum properly. I'm a senior ludite who has never been on social media but I dearly love my cats so this is my plunge into anything remotely social. My vet, like me, is retired. I live in a very rural area in NE Arizona where she now volunteers once a week for the humane society and runs a once a month Spay and Neuter Clinic for cost from a tiny home office. She also has an "open" clinic once a week at her tiny home clinic to help the folks in this area. My county is the second poorest county in Arizona. Having said that, she had a diabetic cat over 30 years ago. She's told me, it's good for me that it's 30 years later for Granite, as 30 years ago, there were no pet calibrated BG testers and very little information even for veterinarians. She actually recognized that the pet food was to blame and she, like Lisa Pierson, started making her own raw cat food and would send it off to labs to be analyzed. But, she said, she couldn't save the cat and eventually gave up sending raw food in as that process was getting expensive. So, she was elated that I had found the web site of Lisa Pierson and even asked me to send her the link. She is in full agreement and got on quite the soap box about her frustration with the pet food industry and in particular, the prescription food part of it. So, although she (my vet) is more or less retired, she has been a tremendous amount of help and dies not take offense when I tell her "I found this info online- what do you think?".
So, currently, I am using a Pet Control HQ meter. But, i learned the hard way (with many tears and lots of frustration) that it requires twice the amount of blood for a sample than the AlphaTrax2 so my SO bought the cats and I an AlphaTrax2 for Christmas. As soon as I use up the strips for the Pet Control HQ, I will switch to the AlphaTrax2. I have been keeping track of every BG test and Insulin type and dosage amount since day one...all handwritten on paper, lol. Last night when I made my first post, I forwarded myself the link for the spreadsheets so hopefully, within a week or two, I can figure out how to enter that information in. Do you think it will be helpful to enter my handwritten data? I did read something last night about people switching meters so, starting from square one, do you have any advice for someone who knows nothing about spreadsheets as to how to set it up knowing within a few weeks, I will be switching to the AlphaTrax2? I basically have two months worth of data using the Pet Control HQ. Even with that though, I've used two insulins now. Started the first month with the Vetsulin because that's what my vet had on hand and she had "vender issues" getting the ProZinc. So, I'm now a month into the ProZinc.
Hello again. I would just make a list of your handwritten data with the preshot BG number number of units given, and any mid cycle tests that you have, followed by the next preshot BG test. I remember looking at the spreadsheet and thinking that it looks pretty daunting. We can also get one set up for you. We do not feed our cats for two hours prior to the preshot BG test so that it will not be influenced by food (inflated). This way we know the fasting BG number and we know if it is safe to shoot and/or if any dose adjustments need to be made.
Anyway, if you even want to just make a list of the BG numbers that would be enough for is to look at. Perhaps just the last two weeks. It helps to see trends Have you read through the information on dosing on this forum (the sticky notes?). I would highly recommend it as you can see things about how increases and decreases are done and testing requirements etc.
So more on testing…. We like to get some mid-cycle tests. It is really helpful to know things like when his typical nadir is. The nadir is the lowest point in each cycle. It is also helpful to know when the insulin onsets or starts to lower BG. It may be around +2 (two hours after the shot) for some cats on ProZinc or later. Knowing the nadir will help us to know how low a dose it taking your cat and then we can know if the dose needs to be increased, decreased, or kept the same.
A lot of cats do tend to drop lower at night. It’s very common. I would not usually recommend doing a dose which is different in the morning than the evening if he’s in high numbers. We always like to see a “before bed test” to make sure that it doesn’t look like kitty is going to drop a lot a night. Usually you can tell by getting a +2 or +3 and if it’s a lot lower than the preshot number then it may be that your cat is on the way down and you would need to stay up or set alarms to monitor BG.
As for the spreadsheet, I would not worry about the change of meters. Just start one or let is get one set up for you. When you switch meters just make a horizontal line across the sheet at whatever date you switch to notate the change. It’s not a big deal as both meters you have mentioned are pet meters. Most of us here use human meters. And the dosing protocols are using human meter numbers. The strips are much less expensive, but if cost is not an issue, it’s fine to use a pet meter like the Alpha Trak. The main difference is that the Alpha Trak and other pet meters read a little higher than human meters so we need to make adjustments in the reduction points for doses. For example, a “take action” number for an Alpha Trak meter would be 68. That means you need to feed some high carb food and test frequently. If necessary, you may need to use Karo syrup. On a human meter the take action number would be 50. This puts me in mind that you need to make sure that have a “Hypo Kit” ready just in case. It should have some high carb foods in it and Karo Syrup or honey.
