Introducing Livvy the mystery cat

[Livvy's Lady]

Hi! Thank you to the organizers of this wonderful site and to the many posters who have already helped us so much in our quest to help our cat 13 year old cat, Olivia, a.k.a. "Livvy" get back to feeling good and living well. Livvy was diagnosed with diabetes about a year and a half ago. She enjoyed about 17 months of remission after a brief hospitalization and stint in insulin (I think that it was glargine, but am not 100% sure). Now Livvy is back on insulin - 3 units of insulin glargine 2x/day. We just started this about 4 weeks ago after she became lethargic. She is marginally better now, but still not doing as well as we had hoped. I will post some questions, but first wanted to introduce Livvy and to say thank you and hello. Cheers!

 

[Yong & Maury GA]

Welcome Livvy and her Mum!
Sorry she is back on the juice after such a nice remission! The Lantus community is big with many active members that could help you get Livvy on track. 3.0U is a very high starting dose, even if she started on 1.0U and within 4 weeks she's up to 3.0U. Are you home testing? It's the best tool in our FD kitty tool belt and most of us are very data driven. We use Google Sheets to share our spreadsheets with each other if you are looking for advice to better manage Livvy. Here are the instructions, if you need help setting it up, just ask : http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

Setting up your Signature will help those of us with bad memories and other experienced members know the basic information about Livvy's situation: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/

Lastly, even though you are not totally new to FD, you are new to the forum so I will give you this still, better to be prepared: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

Feel free to ask any questions on the Main Health forum and dosing specific questions on Lantus/Levemir thread

 

[Livvy's Lady]

Thank you for your reply, Yong! I appreciate it. I have updated my signature according to your instructions, and (more importantly) I will print out the "how to treat hypos" thread. I am quite nervous about hypos. We just received the AlphaTrak II yesterday and will go to the vets to calibrate it in the next few days.

It seems to me that 3.0U is a high dose after reading a bit about the TR protocol and the recommended starting dose. I think that monitoring with the AlphaTrak II may end up in our working with the vet to change the dose. At single point checks at the vets - we've been three times (I think) since we brought her home from the hospital - her bg at administration + 10 hours was high/normal for a diabetic cat on insulin accordingly to the vet (277 most recently). So, maybe her dose is ok, but at this point we don't yet have a curve at home.

 

[Yong & Maury GA]

Chances are her numbers are stress influenced at the Vet, resulting in some kitties numbers being effected over 100 points . Once you start home testing, you'll have a better idea of what her numbers really are. She'll be more comfy and less stressed. Even if she gets a little stressed when you start testing, shouldn't impact her like a Vet visit .

 

[Tracey&Jones (GA)]

Olivia, a.k.a. "Livvy"

Welcome aboard and will see you over in the Lantus forum. I agree 3 units is a lot and the real question is how low is that taking her? If your home testing you will find out soon.


I have a civvie that is Olivia - we call her Libby!

 

[Livvy's Lady]

Chances are her numbers are stress influenced at the Vet, resulting in some kitties numbers being effected over 100 points . Once you start home testing, you'll have a better idea of what her numbers really are. She'll be more comfy and less stressed. Even if she gets a little stressed when you start testing, shouldn't impact her like a Vet visit .

That is a good point about the stress. We just received the AlphaTrak II yesterday but haven't cracked it open yet. When we talked to the vet, he suggested that we bring her in to have her tested with their process and with the AlphaTrak so that we can figure out the difference and calibrate to each other. Is that really necessary? I hate to stress her again. She's had WAY too many car trips lately!

 

[Livvy's Lady]

Welcome aboard and will see you over in the Lantus forum. I agree 3 units is a lot and the real question is how low is that taking her? If your home testing you will find out soon.


I have a civvie that is Olivia - we call her Libby!

Thanks, Tracey. Yes, see you over in the Lantus forum. So may questions have I!

 

[Yong & Maury GA]

That is a good point about the stress. We just received the AlphaTrak II yesterday but haven't cracked it open yet. When we talked to the vet, he suggested that we bring her in to have her tested with their process and with the AlphaTrak so that we can figure out the difference and calibrate to each other. Is that really necessary? I hate to stress her again. She's had WAY too many car trips lately!

Don't know what he means by calibrating the meter to the one they use. I believe the AlphaTrak 1 needed to be calibrated but when I got my AT2, I just had it shipped to my house and started using it right away. Just make sure to enter the Cat Code from the test strip label. When you open new strips, use new cat code for that batch. So I don't think it's necessary, here are two members that made videos testing their kitty's BG.
Sieden & Peanut

Janet & CC

 

[JanetNJ]

That is a good point about the stress. We just received the AlphaTrak II yesterday but haven't cracked it open yet. When we talked to the vet, he suggested that we bring her in to have her tested with their process and with the AlphaTrak so that we can figure out the difference and calibrate to each other. Is that really necessary? I hate to stress her again. She's had WAY too many car trips lately!

Alphatrak aren't calibrated to each other... You just put in the code on the vial of strips. Meters don't read the exact same number as each other. If you do a reading with the same meter on the same drop you would even get a different number.

 

[Livvy's Lady]

Don't know what he means by calibrating the meter to the one they use. I believe the AlphaTrak 1 needed to be calibrated but when I got my AT2, I just had it shipped to my house and started using it right away. Just make sure to enter the Cat Code from the test strip label. When you open new strips, use new cat code for that batch. So I don't think it's necessary, here are two members that made videos testing their kitty's BG.
Sieden & Peanut

Janet & CC

Thanks, Yong. I think that what he means is that it would be useful to compare readings to know if our meter runs high or low. But I understand that there's variability in results even when multiple readings are taken in close proximity in the same meter. Maybe we should just start testing...

 

[Livvy's Lady]

Alphatrak aren't calibrated to each other... You just put in the code on the vial of strips. Meters don't read the exact same number as each other. If you too a reading with the same meter on the same drop you would even get a different number.

Ok, thanks for the perspective. Makes sense. This is all quite overwhelming to me!