New and Stressed cat mom

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Nicole&Master

Nicole&Master

Member Since 2021
Dear lord i was hoping there was a forum for diabetic cats out there. I'm so glad i stumbled on this. I've been pretty freaked out about it all. I've had my cat for 6 years and this past week I had to start giving him insulin and testing his sugars. I've been a bit of a nervous wreck, which i'm sure my cat can feel off of me. Its been a rough week. i'm still terrible at getting the bit of blood from his ear to test it. slowly getting better but i've pricked him so many times just trying. it hurts my heart to hear him yowl when i prick him.

today he decided to get into mischief and opened the cabinet where i keep his brother's dry food. he then dug his way into the clothes pinned bag until it had a hole big enough to stick his head in and dine... He did this not once, but twice today. He broke the clothespin the second time. I've since put the food in a container that is plastic and cannot be broken into. I'm monitoring his sugars but yea.. thats been my day.
 
Oh dear! I’m sorry it’s been such a rough day.
You are going to find a TON of support here. This community is great. I’ve not been here very long and was INCREDIBLY overwhelmed just a week ago. Now with more info and practice, I am feeling much better about being able to help my kitto.
 
There used to be a member who's avatar was a photo of her kitty stealing a waffle out of the toaster. They can truly be carb junkies!!

Welcome to FDMB!! I'm glad you found us as this is the best place your never wanted to be.

The great news is that you are home testing. It takes a little while for the capillary bed in your cat's ears to build up. Once it does, it's easier to get blood. It may also help if you are using a wider gauge lancet. The lower the number the wider the lancet. In the beginning a 28 gauge may help. Also, every time you test, successful or not, give your kitty a treat. Associating pokes with treats goes a long way to getting your cat to get used to the poking. Most of us use freeze dried protein -- chicken is the most poplar. Some members will also use cooked chicken as a treat.

We will have lots of questions for you.What insulin you're using, the dose, what your feeding your cat, when he was diagnosed, and the list goes on. This is a post on helping us to help you. It provides instructions on what to include in your signature so we don't keep asking you the same questions over and over again. It also includes instructions on how to set up a spreadsheet so you can track your cat's test numbers and we can follow along and offer input.

You might want to consider ditching the dry food and feeding both of your cats low carb canned food. The diet that is most appropriate for your diabetic cat is also appropriate for your non-diabetic. It will make your life considerably easier if you don't have to feed your cats separately or worry if their stealing each other's food.

Please let. us know how we can help. The people here are very generous with their time and knowledge.
 
Hi. I am a disaster! This forum is saving my life. If you need to unload feel free to message me. We can be disasters together. I’m starting insulin tomorrow.
 
Nicole&Master said:
Dear lord i was hoping there was a forum for diabetic cats out there. I'm so glad i stumbled on this. I've been pretty freaked out about it all. I've had my cat for 6 years and this past week I had to start giving him insulin and testing his sugars. I've been a bit of a nervous wreck, which i'm sure my cat can feel off of me. Its been a rough week. i'm still terrible at getting the bit of blood from his ear to test it. slowly getting better but i've pricked him so many times just trying. it hurts my heart to hear him yowl when i prick him.

today he decided to get into mischief and opened the cabinet where i keep his brother's dry food. he then dug his way into the clothes pinned bag until it had a hole big enough to stick his head in and dine... He did this not once, but twice today. He broke the clothespin the second time. I've since put the food in a container that is plastic and cannot be broken into. I'm monitoring his sugars but yea.. thats been my day.
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If he cries when you test him you may be accidentally hitting the vein which hurts more. Move closer to the edge.
 
Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up
c2b8079a-b471-4fa6-ac36-9ac1c8d6dcca-jpeg.57072
fec17d29-5ab4-44a8-912b-3a91944c3954-jpeg.57073

6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
Are you using 26 or 28 gauge lancets?
 
I had a good cry for a bit yesterday but today i was able to get a sample of blood on the first prick without too much complaint from him. followed it with some diabetic friendly treat after. it was a little low this morning, at 36. He had just had some breakfast though so i'm going to retest here shortly to see if its higher and see about giving him his insulin. the ear tips really helped. thank you guys <3
 
Follow up, just tested his blood again. it was a nice 64 so i'm not gonna give him any insulin since that seems to be within the nice sweet spot range. I will test again tonight after dinner.
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up
c2b8079a-b471-4fa6-ac36-9ac1c8d6dcca-jpeg.57072
fec17d29-5ab4-44a8-912b-3a91944c3954-jpeg.57073

6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
Are you using 26 or 28 gauge lancets?
Click to expand...


i bought 33 gauge lancets cuz that was what the vet used. is that too big?
 
Nicole&Master said:
i bought 33 gauge lancets cuz that was what the vet used. is that too big?
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Hi Nicole, you should get either 26 or 28 gauge lancets
The higher the lancet #33 it's makes it more difficult to get blood
The lower the lancett number the bigger the hole . Don't worry we are not talking about the size of a huge whole , it will be fine. Look at the lancet and make sure the one side that is pointing up is the side you prick the ear with

Do you have syringes with HALF UNIT MARKINGS?
It makes it easier to eye ball lower doses, we increase or decrease by 0.25 units
 
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Nicole if you would like someone to set up your spreadsheet for you we have 2 members that would be glad to do it for you in a couple of minutes
Just ask and I will tag them for you.
How many units of lantus is he getting?
That reading of 36 was really low even the 64 ,was that with a human meter?
It's good to have the spreadsheet set up so you can track his numbers , in case you need help with dosing we need to see how the insulin is working and how low it's taking him.



Please read this about lantus , to see which dosing method you want to follow
It will determine when to increase or decrease his dose
Like I said that 36 was really low, glad you didn't give any insulin even with the reading of 64

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-low-go-slow-slgs-tight-regulation-tr.210110/
 
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It's also a good idea having some med and high carb food in the house and some honey or Karo

For your hypo kit you can get the following and also look at the food chart


med and high carb food on hand in case he drops too low and you need to bring his BG up to safe numbers

Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Beef Feast in Gravy 20% High Carbs



Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Gourmet Chicken Feast in Gravy. 15% Med Carbs




Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Turkey Feast in Gravy. 15% Med Carbs


Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Chicken and Beef Feast in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Or any other ones from the food chart
:http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
Nicole if you would like someone to set up your spreadsheet for you we have 2 members that would be glad to do it for you in a couple of minutes
Just ask and I will tag them for you.
How many units of lantus is he getting?
That reading of 36 was really low even the 64 ,was that with a human meter?
It's good to have the spreadsheet set up so you can track his numbers , in case you need help with dosing we need to see how the insulin is working and how low it's taking him.



Please read this about lantus , to see which dosing method you want to follow
It will determine when to increase or decrease his dose
Like I said that 36 was really low, glad you didn't give any insulin even with the reading of 64

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-low-go-slow-slgs-tight-regulation-tr.210110/
Click to expand...


the vet said to start him with 2 units twice a day.
yes, it was with a human meter. I also though it was low so did not give him any insulin and instead gave him some breakfast.
i checked his numbers tonight and got 296. you can see how much we are fluctuating right now. i am starting to plug the numbers i do have on him into the spreadsheet. its a really great resource!

i did read some on lantus last night. how its best to do every 12 hours because its a time release through the day. i've been sticking to that pretty well.
 
Good job setting up the SS

You also said Dosing , you just had to put 2 units

That 28 @+4 during the night cycle was way too low, was he showing any signs of hypo?
Did you test anymore after that?

You need to at least be testing him @+2, @+4 @+6 , same with the PM cycle
Do you work ?
We like to test at different times , like filling in a puzzle
One day test @+3, then @+5, @+7
Did you read about the two dosing methods yet ? This will determine when to increase or decrease his dosage
If you feed any kibble you can only follow SLGS

Just to be sure you feed him wet food only, other than him breaking into the cabinet and having a feast on his brothers dry food :p
Is it possible to switch his brother to all wet also?

I know he was just recently diagnosed ,but you need to start testing him more both day and night. That 28 during that night cycle was a surprise. You should have reduced his dose to 1.75 units the next morning

I am going to tag a few members to see if they think 2 units was too high to start with.
Ladies should she have reduced to 1.75 when she got that 28?
WHAT SHOULD HER NO SHOOT NUMBER?
See #14
Already 2 neon BG and one low green

@Bandit's Mom

@Chris & China (GA)

@tiffmaxee

@Sienne and Gabby (GA)

@Wendy&Neko

Thank you ladies
 
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Nicole&Master said:
I had a good cry for a bit yesterday but today i was able to get a sample of blood on the first prick without too much complaint from him. followed it with some diabetic friendly treat after. it was a little low this morning, at 36. He had just had some breakfast though so i'm going to retest here shortly to see if its higher and see about giving him his insulin. the ear tips really helped. thank you guys <3
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That's two fairly significant hypos! It's very important that you lower the dose immediately. I would give no more than 1 unit to start.
 
wow, so much info. okay.

so i have him exclusively on wet food now. he's on friskies classic patees. i checked that it was a low carb option from the AAHA's site linked to this https://catinfo.org/chart/index.php. i am working on switching his brother over to only wet food too. we've put all food in rubbermaid containers now so he cant break in. its been 3 nights with no break ins to spike his BG. I also have some wet food that has med and high carb counts because his brother so i have some of each. also honey in case of a crash.

i do not work at the moment but i'm due to start soon. in the mean time, yes i can test him every +2 hours to get more data. the vet is going to want to do a glucouse curve here in the next week too.

when he was low with the 28BG, i did notice him laying around in places he doesn't usually lay in. that's what made me think to test his BG. i'm going to call his vet and confirm about the 1unit of insulin moving forward. i feel like his numbers are just bouncing around like crazy thus far. I'll test his BG every +2 today as well to watch him throughout the day.

as a small win... i'm betting better and faster at testing him! i only needed one prick with the 33 gauge lancet today and got a good sample. he's getting more used to it as well. less squirming. he seems to know a treat will follow now.
 
Hopefully your vet agrees, but you should really reduce the dose regardless of what they say. 28 is extremely low and the fact that he was only at 36 8 hours laters shows he had a hard time getting his blood sugar back up. 50 is the take action number we use here and both of those readings are well below that.
 
Nicole&Master said:
yes i can test him every +2 hours to get more data. the vet is going to want to do a glucouse curve here in the next week too.
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You don't have to always test every 2 hours... But once in a while. If you're doing a curve at home there's really no reason uou also need to do it at the vet. Save yourself some money.
 
2 units was way too much insulin. Your kitty was breaking into dry food to try and bring his numbers up on his own. Smart kitty. We find it's much easier to start lower and work your way up in dose, than start to high and risk a hypo. Let's see what he does on 1 unit. However, I say this assuming that he was not diagnosed with DKA or ketones when he got his diabetes diagnosis. If so, that changes the suggestion.
 
so.. as an update. i did call my vet. it turns out the techs had taught me to give 2 units when it was only supposed to be one. so yea.. someone got yelled at the office. but we are at 1 unit twice a day for the last few days. things have going well. his numbers are in the 100 to 200 range. i'm gonna give him another day or two at these levels and then do another curve to track his BG. he's doing really well. he's been active and playing with his younger brother again. even initiates the playtimes. doing the BG tests are going smoother too. he knows he's gonna get a treat after it now.

just wanted to give a little update on us. <3
 
Nicole&Master said:
so.. as an update. i did call my vet. it turns out the techs had taught me to give 2 units when it was only supposed to be one. so yea.. someone got yelled at the office. but we are at 1 unit twice a day for the last few days. things have going well. his numbers are in the 100 to 200 range. i'm gonna give him another day or two at these levels and then do another curve to track his BG. he's doing really well. he's been active and playing with his younger brother again. even initiates the playtimes. doing the BG tests are going smoother too. he knows he's gonna get a treat after it now.

just wanted to give a little update on us. <3
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I'm glad things are going so well
 
I'm glad he's doing better, if possible you should be getting more tests in during each cycle, not just pre shots. We want to see how low he's dropping :cat:
 
Hold the dose for at least a week:
  • Unless your cat won’t eat or you suspect hypoglycemia
  • Unless your kitty falls below 90 mg/dL (5 mmol/L). If kitty falls below 90 mg/dL (5 mmol/L) decrease the dose by 0.25 unit immediately.
After 1 week at a given dose perform a 12 hour curve, testing every 2 hours OR perform an 18 hour curve, testing every 3 hours. Note: Random spot checks are often helpful to "fill in the blanks" on kitty's spreadsheet. The goal is to learn how low the current dose is dropping kitty prior to making dose adjustments.
  • If nadirs are more than 150 mg/dl (8.3 mmol/L), increase the dose by 0.25 unit
  • If nadirs are between 90 (5 mmol/L) and 149 mg/dl (8.2 mmol/L), maintain the same dose
  • If nadirs are below 90 mg/dl (5mmol/L), decrease the dose by 0.25 unit
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
Hold the dose for at least a week:
  • Unless your cat won’t eat or you suspect hypoglycemia
  • Unless your kitty falls below 90 mg/dL (5 mmol/L). If kitty falls below 90 mg/dL (5 mmol/L) decrease the dose by 0.25 unit immediately.
After 1 week at a given dose perform a 12 hour curve, testing every 2 hours OR perform an 18 hour curve, testing every 3 hours. Note: Random spot checks are often helpful to "fill in the blanks" on kitty's spreadsheet. The goal is to learn how low the current dose is dropping kitty prior to making dose adjustments.
  • If nadirs are more than 150 mg/dl (8.3 mmol/L), increase the dose by 0.25 unit
  • If nadirs are between 90 (5 mmol/L) and 149 mg/dl (8.2 mmol/L), maintain the same dose
  • If nadirs are below 90 mg/dl (5mmol/L), decrease the dose by 0.25 unit
Click to expand...

thankfully we havent had any drops below 90

i'm going to do another 12 hour curve test next week to get some more data at his current 1 unit. he snuck into some cat treats less then a week ago so i want to get a proper base level before testing him. i swear guys... i dont leave treats out. he is just a Houdini when it comes to getting into things. He knocked over the sealed clean tea tin I have his treats in from such a height that it actually opened. i have to use a carabiner to "lock" his cat carrying crate closed when we travel or he gets out of it somehow. i've put a child lock on the cabinet door that the cat food is in. this boy is just crafty.

thank you for your help!
 
I'm glad he's doing better, if possible you should be getting more tests in during each cycle, not just pre shots. We want to see how low he's dropping :cat:
 
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