New: what type of monitor?

Hello I am new to this group, we pick up Max the cat from the vet tonight after a very unexpected diagnosis on Tuesday. The vet has been unimpressed with my questions about my research on the benefits of homemade low carb, high protein diet on diabetes and they seem to be advocating for Hills . What is the best glucose monitor? Where do I purchase? I’m in Canada

 

hi, there are many monitors in the market, I myself use the ReliOn Premier monitor and strips, inexpensive you can purchase it thru Walmart at best price, for food, the Vet usually recommends what they promote or have in their office due to the fact that there's a commission to be made, in the Forum Page you will information you might want to read to get acquainted, there's also a Drs Food Chart, where you can choose the right food with very low calories for a diabetic cat, I purchase the Fancy Feast Pates which have the lows Carb % appropriate for Diabetes between 0-8 % Carbs, you may want to connect with the most long time experienced members that can guide you from the start and help you in all your questions I will tag a couple so they can read your concerns
@Suzanne & Darcy @Red& Rover
:bighug::cat::cat:;)

 

Hello and welcome. What is the reason that Max is in the vet? What exactly was he diagnosed with? Unless cats get diagnosed with another condition like diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), there is no need to stay at the vet hospital. If he does have DKA, we would treat him somewhat differently to make sure DKA stays away.

As far as monitor goes, you want one with a small drop of blood and reasonable priced test strips. Any human meter with small blood drop requirements and inexpensive test strips will work. The Freestyle Lite has one of the smallest blood drop requirement. You'll have to look around for prices. When I bought one ages ago, London Drugs had a buy 100 test strips get the monitor for free deal. Check around on line to see if you can find deals like that, sometimes manufacturers have special offers. You will go through more test strips, so try to find ones that are the cheapest. I've seen the odd deals on the Freestyle test strips. Do look around, I surprisingly found the Safeway pharmacy was the cheapest price for insulin, syringes and lancets in my area (west coast). Another option in Canada is eBay for test strips.

There are on line only deals with cheaper test strips, but then you depend on delivery or order lots in advance so you don't run out. The Relion test strips are not available in Canada, only in the US.

Your research is right. Reject the high carb Hills food - there is nothing special about it and it's not suitable for a diabetic cat. You want low carb wet or raw food. It doesn't have to be high protein. I used the TC Feline premix for a while to make Neko's food.

What insulin is the vet thinking of putting your kitty on?

More information for you in this post: New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

 

He is in for diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) he is only 4. My son was camping for the weekend he returned and noticed Max wasn’t eating and seemed lethargic. It was a shocking diagnosis. Lantus is the insulin the vet prescribed. The vet said I am not to adjust the dose but I’m worried that the low carb diet will effect levels

 

Lantus is a good insulin for cats, so that's a good choice. We have a couple really time tested dosing methods for Lantus that people here follow. Low carb food can definitely make a difference in insulin requirements. What food what the cat eating before diagnosis?

Tagging @Bron and Sheba (GA) who is really good at helping kitties with recent DKA.

Did the vet say there was an infection or inflammation or other condition that contributed to the DKA? Age 4 is young for diabetes. Just so you know more, here are a couple posts with good info:
Ketones, Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA), and Blood Ketone Meters and
What is Feline Diabetes?

 

Hi Nicole and Max and welcome to the forum. I am sorry your vet is unimpressed with you trying to do the best for Max. As Wendy said Hills is not the best option for food. Have a look at this FOOD CHART. Look for foods 10% or under carbs. Max could be a bit picky after DKA so have options there for him to try and remember he needs to eat quite a lot of food at the moment so even non diabetic food is better than nothing…we can always sort out the low carb later when he’s better if needed. But try the low carb first of course.
Very glad you are going to be hometesting the blood glucose. (BG). We can help you so much more when we can see what’s going on with the BGs. You will find information about how to set up the spreadsheet and signature in the link Wendy sent you called Help Us Help You in post 3.

With DKA in the picture. You will need the following:

• you need to give one and a half times as many calories as Max normally eats. Offer snacks of food every couple of hours during the day and evening as well as the 2 main meals. Food is like a medicine and helps keep ketones away. If Max won’t eat the low carb food, feed him whatever he will eat as eating any food is better than not eating. It’s very important he keeps eating.
• Don’t skip any doses of insulin as insulin helps keep ketones away. If the BG is not high enough to give the dose…stall, dont feed and test again in 20 minutes and post and ask for help.
• Test daily for ketones. Put the results of the tests into the remarks column of the SS so we can see. Please report any trace ketones at all. You will need a bottle of Ketostix or Dia-Ketostix to do the urine test and you will need to collect a urine sample from Max and read the result exactly 15 seconds after dipping the strip into the urine. It’s not hard…hardest part is getting the urine sample!
• Give antinausea medication if needed such as cerenia or ondansetron. Ask the vet for some cerenia or a script for ondansetron which you get from a pharmacy…ask more about these if you are unsure. DKA kitties are often nauseated following DKAa and need antinausea meds for a few weeks. Don’t let the vet fob you off with these as nauseated kitties won’t want to eat.
• Give appetite stimulant if needed after the antinausea medication
• Give extra fluids. If Max will tolerate warm water in the food, put a teaspoon into each snack..
• Ask the vet about subQ fluids
• Set up a spreadsheet and test the BG frequently. Link in post 3 for these.
• Make sure you have a hypo kit set up with some honey or Karo and high carb food in it…details in the link in post 3 above.
• Post daily with updates and ask for help as often as needed. Someone is here all the time.

 

Thanks so much for the information, this is what I needed to know. The vet said Max had a fever but they couldn’t find the cause. Max wouldn’t eat this morning, he is stressed being at my house ( max is my son Wyatt’s cat but Wyatt works crazy hours so I’m looking after him for a while) the vet said to skip a dose of insulin..as he was at 15.7 this morning, the next dose is at 9:00 PM. Am I supposed to withhold food all day or give him food ?
I will do anything to get him healthy I just don’t know exactly what to do…
The vet put a Libre 2 monitor on him that I use with my phone.

 

With recent DKA, feed him. He needs 1.5 times the calories he normally gets. And you should not be skipping insulin, worse case give a half dose so he has something in him. The formula for DKA is not enough food (calories) + not enough insulin + infection. First treat the nausea. Ask your vet if you can get a prescription for ondansetron. It's highly likely he is nauseous - it's common with recent DKA. He needs to get that treated so he will eat.

Some other tips for getting food in him:

• Suggestions on How to Stimulate Kitty's Appetite
• Syringe/Assisted Feeding (Video and Tips)

 

Absolutely I agree with everything Wendy has said. Please don’t skip insulin and insist on the vet giving you some antinausea medication today. Don’t wait until tomorrow.
There is no need to wait until 9 pm to give him insulin if you have not given the morning dose. The only thing is the schedule will be out of kilter but that can be rectified a bit later so don’t worry. It’s more important he eats and gets insulin. what type of insulin and dose has he been prescribed?
Keep trying to offer food every couple of hours. Whatever he will eat is ok at the moment.

 

How is Max doing today?

 

Thanks so much for the practical and logical advice! The vet gave opposite instructions.. which felt wrong.
We fed Max and gave insulin although It was my first time administering and i forgot to pull back on the plunger as to make sure no vain was pierced… I was horrified when I realized …
we left canned food out all night for Max and it was gone by morning. He took his antibiotic this morning and had a good meal of half canned /half homemade food (chicken thigh + whole rabbit ground + vitamins, taurine,…) insulin was administered and levels look good.. sigh.
Another question I have is regarding timing of his insulin. The vet made a very big deal about the fact that Wyatt’s work schedule did not accommodate 9:00AM insulin and 9:00PM insulin. Wyatt’s work schedule isn’t about to change, what are your thoughts about timing?

 

Thanks so much for the practical and logical advice! The vet gave opposite instructions.. which felt wrong.
We fed Max and gave insulin although It was my first time administering and i forgot to pull back on the plunger as to make sure no vain was pierced… I was horrified when I realized …
we left canned food out all night for Max and it was gone by morning. He took his antibiotic this morning and had a good meal of half canned /half homemade food (chicken thigh + whole rabbit ground + vitamins, taurine,…) insulin was administered and levels look good.. sigh.
Another question I have is regarding timing of his insulin. The vet made a very big deal about the fact that Wyatt’s work schedule did not accommodate 9:00AM insulin and 9:00PMinsulin. Wyatt’s work schedule isn’t about tochange, what are your thoughts about timing?

 

Don't worry about pulling back on the plunger, not sure many of us do that.

The timing of shot times is whatever works for your schedule, 12 hours apart. We have people shoot at 6AM or earlier, and some as late as noon/midnight. You do have a little wiggle room, you can be 15 minutes apart per shot or 1/2 hour once per day if you should get home a little late or have to leave a little early. What is Wyatt's work schedule?

 

My shot time was 5:00. When I shot was based on my cat. Gabby had an early onset and early nadir. Shooting early meant that I could get a couple of tests before I left for work so I had a reasonably good idea if her numbers were dropping and could leave out high carb food if that was the case.

 

Hello all, we have an issue today. Last night Max was at 10.3 mmol/L so I gave him a half dose of insulin. Overnight Max damaged his sensor so i couldn’t get a reading,I was in meetings until now (2:47pm) I applied another sensor (plus bought manual blood test kit invade this happens again) Max glucose is at 21mmol/L and once again the vet told me not to give insulin until 9:00 tonight and that seems wrong . Please advise

 

Did you give a shot this morning? If not, you can shoot any time, you just want shots to be about 12 hours apart. If you skipped, it's been longer than that. However, the next shot will be 12 hours after whenever you next shoot.

It's really help us help you more if you could set up a spreadsheet with his blood glucose values. The link I gave you in post #3 tells you how. If you find that challenging, let us know, we have people who could set it up quickly for you.

 

Yes I gave him his shot, his glucose dropped to 3,.. we fed high carb food and it went up to 6 and stayed around 5.8-7.
Yes I will complete the spreadsheet I have been meaning to do it, I have a very high stress high volume career , actually I’m going to get Wyatt to do it!!