I guess you may be right about there being no need or honestly no point in sending the email. Like all I am really hearing from them is "do it by the book, by the book". The actual vet who I talked to back in December wanted me to get the cat-rated glucometer. I kind of expect that if I go to them in two weeks with a chart of Miles' data they will say "well that data is invalid because it wasn't taken with the cat-rated meter".
Yup, they will likely say that. Even my very forward-thinking vet still talks about the pet meter. They even offered to let me borrow one for glucose curves. When you bring in data for them, just summarize it (highest values are x, lowest values are x, he stays in x range), and when you get Miles on insulin you can just bring in a glucose curve chart. Don't try showing off the spreadsheets we use here... it doesn't work in my experience
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I just tell the vet that the AlphaTrak strips are $214 CAD /100 strips (on amazon) vs $40 CAD /100 Bravo strips. And I don't even know if you can still order the AlphaTrak meter in Canada! All you need to say is that you plan to test Miles several times a day to monitor him and that this is within your budget.
The felinediabetes.com site also mainly uses the human glucometers, and there are countless cats getting regulated and going into remission (
here is a thread that is all the cats who went into remission using ProZinc - you should read some stories!)
Pet meters are more accurate, but the fact that you can home-test Miles when he is calm and at home will be even better. Going to the vet can stress out cats and their BG levels will raise (which may lead the vet to suggest a higher insulin dose than necessary!). So getting the home tests is preferable to taking him into the vet for a glucose curve.
Is your first test of Dixie before or after feeding? Also, injection of insulin? (Sorry I should just look this up instead of prevailing upon you.) I'm afraid that right now my morning usually involves Miles starting to whine and whine about food about (or at least) 15 minutes prior to feeding, when I am probably still in bed. At least that's the case with the Wellness food which evidently he maybe still thinks of as a treat, but in any case it would be hard for me to get him to sit still long enough to even do a test when he's in that state.
The standard method with ProZinc/Lantus is to do a BG test and see what you cat is at. If he is super low then you will need to refer to the dosing protocol for your insulin to see what to do next. Then, if your cat is in a safe range, you feed him. After he had eaten his meal, you give him the insulin.
With an insulin like Lantus, I think this should all get done on-time (like within 15 minutes or so), although I could be wrong about that since I don't use it. With ProZinc, you get more leeway (so maybe an hour variance). I started with ProZinc and I was happy with that because I found the whole test/feed/shoot thing to be tricky in the beginning, and it was nice to know I had some leeway with the ProZinc timing.
Getting Dixie to eat her whole meal before shooting was easy when she was unregulated. Diabetic cats don't process all their nutrients in the food they eat, and they basically feel hungry all the time (even though they lose weight
). She would bug me for food allll the time. But as time has gone on, I can now give Dixie the ProZinc while she is eating since she won't finish her whole meal but I know from experience that she will go back to her food later. So the whole process doesn't take very long anymore!
You will want to get that morning/night BG test without any food in him for 2 hours prior. The reason for this is that his BG levels will rise when he eats. Consider if you had fed him a meal before, he might have been low but then jumped to a higher BG level which you consider safe to shoot insulin. But that level is temporary and will start to come down AND the insulin will bring his levels down even further. So basically you need those BG tests at insulin shot time to not be food influenced at all. I hope this process isn't too difficult for you! If you do it every day then I bet Miles will adjust. When Dixie wants her meals then she basically begs to get tested hahaha.
As far as talking to the vet in person or getting them to show me how to inject insulin... I feel like there's almost no chance of that, because of COVID. They are operating under a "deliver your cat at the door and we'll take it from there" procedure. If it was possible to actually see the vet I would have turned around and asked for a hands-on lesson about how to test Miles for BC right away when I was having failures.
Ahh right, and you are in Ontario so that is definitely out of the picture! Well, the insulin shot demonstration was very short and simple. You basically just pull up the skin with your left hand and then insert the needle horizontal to their body with your right hand (is gets shot just right under the skin). There are lots of youtube videos on this and the forum can help you too, so don't worry about getting an in-person demonstration. I was nervous with needles and I did the shot with Dixie on the first try.
You probably don't need another vet appointment then. Just keep testing Miles the next week and gather some data. Then research which insulin you want to use (Lantus or ProZinc) which you can find on this board, and buy those ketone test strips. Once you feel ok with testing, you should work to get Miles on an insulin (do this sooner than later). At this point, you can send your vet an email outlining what your plan is and maybe ask them if they have any concerns about it. Remember, it is not about convincing them what is the "right" way to do it, it is more about gathering extra info. If the vet is super concerned with your methods then you can listen to them. I don't think you will gain anything out of taking Miles back there right now since you can't get a demonstration.
I managed to get a successful reading just now (about an hour after feeding). Gotta throw myself together for work now.
YES! That is excellent!
When you have some time,
get a spreadsheet set up so that you can track his BG levels and share them with the forum. Using that link, you will want to use the "World Spreadsheet Template" that that is at the very bottom (since we are in Canada and use mmol/L). The spreadsheet numbers at the top are how many hours after giving insulin. Since Miles isn't on insulin yet, you could just decide on the time that you would want to eventually give him insulin e.g. 9am/9pm and then enter in values like that. It can always be changed later. You can check out my spreadsheet in my post signature to see an example of how it will look (since I also use the World version).
edited PS: I share your concern about the fat level in the chicken Wellness. I think the profile of the fish looked better.
Yeah it is just something to look at. But isn't a big deal right now and should take a backseat to getting a start on regulating his BG levels!
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:sigh:
