New Member - 8 Weeks in and 'repeating it's a journey' every 4 or 5 days

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Thanks, Jeanne. I'll be sure to look at the list Dr Lisa has put together. I just wanted to double check the difference, or lack of, from grain and carb :)
 
Morning,

Yeah the vet has mentioned the fortnightly reading's they are doing are a bit pointless as he is so stressed out at the vets. This is why he has mentioned sending off for a fructose test on Monday, though he may push it back depending on how we get on.

We managed a test last night 1 hour before injection, but without removing food prior, and got another HI reading. I came down this morning to remove the food bowls before doing the test but they were near enough empty so did a test to see if he was a little lower and craving food but still got a HI reading, this was 2 hours before his next injection is due. So I have removed the food bowls now and will see if he will tolerate another reading in an hour and a halves time.

After last nights reading I went ahead and ordered some wet food online to start switching all 3 of them on to. I have to admit I've woken up a little defeated this morning. This is where I have to repeat to my self IT'S A JOURNEY!!!
 
KyraCat said:
Morning,

Yeah the vet has mentioned the fortnightly reading's they are doing are a bit pointless as he is so stressed out at the vets. This is why he has mentioned sending off for a fructose test on Monday, though he may push it back depending on how we get on.

We managed a test last night 1 hour before injection, but without removing food prior, and got another HI reading. I came down this morning to remove the food bowls before doing the test but they were near enough empty so did a test to see if he was a little lower and craving food but still got a HI reading, this was 2 hours before his next injection is due. So I have removed the food bowls now and will see if he will tolerate another reading in an hour and a halves time.

After last nights reading I went ahead and ordered some wet food online to start switching all 3 of them on to. I have to admit I've woken up a little defeated this morning. This is where I have to repeat to my self IT'S A JOURNEY!!!
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OMG, I need to tattoo this on my forehead! No, wallpaper! I spent probably 45 minutes this morning, trying to get blood for a sample for BG. Poor, brave Oliver. I lost track of how many times I poked him. I was using a bigger lancet, and was afraid to hurt him. So I poked him a more than a dozen times, instead! AARRFFFHHHHHHH!!!! ^%$# (are swear words allowed?) As a result, never got a reading this morning. :arghh:
I finally surrendered, stopped poking him and gave some TLC and food. And freakin' worried ALL DAY.

I FEEL YOUR PAIN! :bighug: :cat: With all the poking and being held in my lap (I sit on the floor to ck BG), Oliver DIDN'T CARE, until I started getting cranky. Then, he was like a bored teenager....can I go now? Are you done? I wanna go play with my friends!!

You and I are NOT failures. We're guppies. Little and trying to find our way. Or was that Nemo? Dory? I can't remember.
Change is always a little bumpy, and has bumps and giggles. We're learning something new. Gotta breathe and be ok with the journey.
xo
 
Hahaha thanks Marie!

Yes we are guppies just trying to swim against what feels like a very strong current some days. But, like all the amazing people on here, we will become pros at this!!

This is why I love this forum! You have a bit of a down day & you post about it, not necessarily expecting to hear back from anyone, just venting your spleen, and straight away someone is there to put a smile on your face and tell you it will get better or that they are in the same boat too! :)

You are spot on with the teenager thing! I hadn't thought of it like that :smuggrin:

I did wonder the other day how many earrings Kyra would be able to wear based on the amount of times I have stabbed him with the lancet :p
 
Mid cycle test, got the perfect drop of blood on my 2nd attempt, BOOM! But a reading of 31.6!!!! ARGHHH

Hopefully the wet food will arrive soon and I can start to change them all on to it and *fingers crossed* start to see a huge improvement in those scores!

It is such a frustrating feeling to feel so proud of Kyra and myself for really cracking on with these tests but for them then to be so high. I feel like this is the missing line from Alanis Morrisset's 'Isn't it Ironic'
 
Trying is everything, you're right! The amount of times I nearly talked myself out of doing it because I didn't want to bother Kyra or I didn't feel like I'd get any blood so what was the point, but I did it every time regardless and my word has it paid off!! We are getting so much slicker with it now. I can't believe the improvement this week compared to last week!!

Annoyingly I have now run out of test strips so I'm waiting for the husband to get out of bed so I can use his prime account to get some delivered ASAP!!

@riebejamen I dunno about a pie-cat I think he is verging more in to Punk Rocker :D
 
Evening all!

Little update for anyone who cares to take a look...

Glucose tests are going very well, the last few I have been able to get enough blood from the first pick to get the reading. Each time he is either HI or in the 30's so not a great outcome in terms of the numbers but happy that home testing is going very well. I could not imagine I would be saying this just over a week ago. Perseverance really does pay off!

As of this morning I have started to add wet food to the mix. I added a pack of wet food to all 3 food bowls today with the normal amount of dry food and as of this evening I only topped up the dry food a little and added another pack of wet food across the 3 bowls. Will lower the dry tomorrow again and maybe put 2 packs of dry across the 3 bowls.

Kyra had seemed to be having a happy couple of days but last night and today seems a little bit down and ragged looking. He was a little hissy with his injection tonight after we had had a few days of really smooth sailing. But, to be fair to the guy, he still has a lot going on!

Will see how the readings look tomorrow with mor wet food on the menu....

I hope you're all having a great day/evening and weekend :)
 
We heard from the vet yesterday, a different one as the one we have been speaking to is ill atm.

The fructose tests came back and it confirmed that Kyra's BG had continued to run high over the past few weeks. I don't think this is a surprise to any of us.

The vet suggested that we up Kyra's dose from 3.5 to 4.5 - we have never been asked to up by a whole unit before! As we have recently moved kyra on wet food, with a little bit of dry, we have already started to see a difference in his readings. Still up there but not as bad as they were. I can only thank all of you for your suggestion of wet food. If it wasn't for you all we would still be on dry and seeing no changes in his numbers! I can't believe vets (or some of them at least) don't suggest a change in diet!

Because of the difference the wet food is making I have only upped his does to 4 units and will try to speak to our normal vet this week. They mentioned taking Kyra in in 3-4 days for a GT but I will ask if they're happy to accept home readings as he really hates going to the vet and I don't see the point if it if it is for something I can do at home.

I am now starting to show Matt mine and Kyra's little ear prick routine, I'm hoping we can get him trained up pretty soon!

Again I can't believe the difference from 2 weeks ago when I really thought I would never master the ear test - now look at us!! (you watch the mid cycle one be a nightmare now :joyful:). It's all thanks to the support from this group!
 
I've been using FirstVet (free through my insurance, Waggle) to get 10 minute video consults with internal medicine specialists to run dosing and meal recommendations I've learned on this forum through them.

You can also pay for this service. The two vets I've spoken to have been excellent so far:

1. Dr. Scarlet Aflalo - immediately recognised Monty's first pancreatitis flare up as pancreatitis after my regular vet was fairly useless.
2. Dr. Zahra Rutherford - basically gave the same advice as this forum for managing Monty's lower and lower blood sugar tests
 
KyraCat said:
Because of the difference the wet food is making I have only upped his does to 4 units and will try to speak to our normal vet this week. They mentioned taking Kyra in in 3-4 days for a GT but I will ask if they're happy to accept home readings as he really hates going to the vet and I don't see the point if it if it is for something I can do at home.
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Very good plan. It may take a few days for the carbs from the dry food to leave the system. Good getting the others off dry too. It will lessen their chances of also developing diabetes.

Once I started testing at home I didn't do curves at the vet anymore. Fructosamine tests are good for diagnosis, but serve no purpose of your testing at home since you know what the numbers are like.
 
Oh also if you're able to if would be helpful to see some + 2/3/4 numbers for Kyra. Caninsulin peaks out around 2-3 hours after injection.

Kyra is probably getting lower in those first few hours than the mid cycles you've collected so far.
 
Oh OK! Thanks Tom, I didn't realise that. The vet has always had us in for 6 hours after his first injection so I was just trying to stick to that.

Happy to see you've got contact with some good vets! Also just looked at your SS and it's inspiring to see you started at 4 units and are much much lower than that now!
 
Happy Friday all!!

Just a quick question. I upped Kyra's dose to 4 units (rather then the 4.5 as advised by the vets) and he has been on that dose for the last 3 days and has been on only wet food for these past 2 days. Looking at the numbers of his blood glucose do you think it is worth going up the other .5 on his insulin or should I give it a few more days to help take affect?

Thanks all! xx
 
KyraCat said:
Happy Friday all!!

Just a quick question. I upped Kyra's dose to 4 units (rather then the 4.5 as advised by the vets) and he has been on that dose for the last 3 days and has been on only wet food for these past 2 days. Looking at the numbers of his blood glucose do you think it is worth going up the other .5 on his insulin or should I give it a few more days to help take affect?

Thanks all! xx
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Wow your kitty just doesn't want to come down! Since you just switched to wet I might wait another day or two and see if the numbers budge. If no, bump the dose up.

Any history of ketones?
 
I know!! The little he has come down though has made such a big difference already, he's almost seeming like his old self again. Also urination has almost returned to normal and the water intake has dropped hugely (from approx 1.10L a day to 200/300ml a day).

No issue with Ketones as far as I am aware from whenever the vet has tested. When we took him to the vets last Monday the vet managed to get a urine sample and did a strip test and some other test from the urine and he didn't mention anything about the ketones. I can always double check when I call him with an update next week.

Since the wet food has been introduced and the 4 units the numbers have improved (though I know not where we want to be) so I don't want to jump the gun putting it up again when the vets usually give us 2 weeks on a dose before upping it further.

Also Kyra gained 0.2kg this week, which I am thrilled about. We really seem to be on the right track, just not quite there yet!
 
Evening all (Morning, maybe to most?!)

So Kyra's numbers are coming down a little better now - tempted to go up the extra .5 unit, to 4.5, as of tomorrow morning. What do you eagle eyed spreadsheet experts think?:bookworm:
:):)
 
I'm sorry to be a pain about this, and I'm sure it's normal, but so far putting Kyra up to 4.5 his BG is seeming to be higher.

Is this normal? Am I just not giving it long enough to take effect? I'm a bit (probably wrongly) annoyed that we were starting to get some goodish numbers on 4 units but now they are creeping up again since the 1 & 1/2 days on 4.5

I'm meant to ring the vets tomorrow with my readings and I don't want them jumping us up to 5 units if 4 would have been enough if we'd given it another week.

Again I'm sorry to be a pain I just want by little man to be on the right course :)
 
KyraCat said:
I'm sorry to be a pain about this, and I'm sure it's normal, but so far putting Kyra up to 4.5 his BG is seeming to be higher.

Is this normal? Am I just not giving it long enough to take effect? I'm a bit (probably wrongly) annoyed that we were starting to get some goodish numbers on 4 units but now they are creeping up again since the 1 & 1/2 days on 4.5

I'm meant to ring the vets tomorrow with my readings and I don't want them jumping us up to 5 units if 4 would have been enough if we'd given it another week.

Again I'm sorry to be a pain I just want by little man to be on the right course :)
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First of all...You are NOT a pain! Get that out of your head.

I'm NO expert but its only been two days on this dose. Patience may be your answer BUT as you know wait for more responses.
You WILL get there! ;):coffee:
j
 
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