Quick question (who am I kidding, they are never quick). I have not figured out the spreadsheet or any numbers really yet. I have been so focussed on getting that drop of blood and trying to work out a plan. I finally got a reading! Is the number on the human glucometer going to be the same as what was in his vet test results? I know he needs many pokes and not just one, but tonight it read 19.1 (converts to 344). The results on his test were 27.2. Can I interpret this as progress?
Awesome you got the reading! No, the human glucometers are calibrated differently so it will not be the same as what the pet glucometers would read. There is no way to convert from one to the other (a few people on the forum have tried in the past). If you'd like to learn more, you can use the forum search feature or try out Google (my preference). For example, google "difference between human and pet glucometers site:felinediabetes.com". Including that 'site' part will tell Google to just search this forum! I use it all the time.
The human meters tend to read lower values. For instance, the "take action your cat is low" number on the pet meter is < 3.7 mmol/L but if you have a human meter then you actually look for < 2.7 mmol/L. The large majority of people here use the human numbers, so keep that in mind while you are reading posts and other's spreadsheets. The pet glucometer spreadsheets will have a big red warning message letting you know that they are pet-calibrated values. We don't care as much about what FCC's BG values are "exactly". Instead, we care more about the trend and also keeping him safe if he goes too low. So the human glucometer is sufficient for this.
So even though we can't directly compare FCC's pet BG reading to the one you just took, the new value is lower and it looks like progress to me. It is hard to say because at the vet visit FCC could be stressed, just ate, having a bad time, etc. Or it could be that the food switch is making a big difference. But either way, it is very exciting!
I am having a late night freak out about the beginning of insulin injections tomorrow. Since I never really talked to the vet after all the tests I didn't tell him I was not going to follow his prescription of 2 units twice a day and instead use the SLGS regiment. When I said I wanted to do home testing he said okay, but then we received an email saying we should book FCC for his curve in 7 days. I am worried he won't be open to helping look at the numbers or won't accept a curve done with a human glucometer. I'm also terrified I'm doing the wrong thing.
I mean, look at it this way... you are starting with a safer dose and moving up. The only worry I could imagine is if you think you aren't treating him quickly enough. Yes, diabetes will damage his body over time, but you starting him on a higher dose of insulin now vs 3 weeks from now is pretty small in the grand scheme of things. You are doing a lot more than many cat owners would do, so please don't worry about doing the wrong thing. You are basically doing what the vet is saying, but then just taking it one step extra. It is obvious that you care about FCC very much by what you are doing here.
In my opinion, don't tell the vet about the SLGS regimen or the starting dose, and just don't respond to the email about the curve. If you want the curve in the future, you can book that anytime you want.
At this point, the vet has done all they can for you. It is now up to you to establish a good testing/insulin routine with FCC, and gather data. Learn the ins and outs of how to treat him. Get a few months of data and see his numbers do. Adjust the insulin dose and continue on from there.
If FCC's numbers start to get weird like staying continuously high, or unexpectedly jumping up to a higher range than normal, then you can get a vet checkup done and see if something else is going on. The numbers can change depending on if your cat is getting an infection and other things like that. If FCC starts to show other symptoms, then take him to the vet.
But don't expect to take in your spreadsheet of numbers to him and have him look at them in any meaningful way. Lots of vets are adamant that the pet glucometers are the only way.
I have Dixie's numbers regulated to the ideal numbers right now. That is because of choices I made and was nothing to do with my vets. The daily BG monitoring, the switch to low-carb food, the dental, and the switch from ProZinc to Lantus were ALL ideas from this forum, and were NEVER recommended by the vet to improve her diabetes (and I went to the vet a lot at the beginning because Dixie had stuff going on haha). When she had her dental, her numbers dropped drastically within a few days and I was able to catch it with the BG readings and lower her dose... what if I wasn't doing those readings and didn't read up on the diabetes stuff? Would I have been keen enough to notice her having hypoglycemic symptoms? Who knows...
My partner is confused because of the syringes and the pens and even with the videos we watched it seemed impossible to figure out how to put such a tiny amount in a syringe.
Yeah it can be a super tiny amount for cats... What I do is insert the needle and draw up more than I need. Then remove the needle and tap the air bubbles to the top. Then squirt the excess down the sink drain until I get to the dose I need.
Then there’s all the stuff about not shooting air into the pen and he got understandably frustrated and stressed out so we ended up using one of the handful of disposable needle tips the vet technician gave him when they did the demo.
Yeah in a typical vial (not like the special cartridges you have), if you only draw up insulin and never replace it with any air then the air pressure gets really low in the vial and it gets really hard to draw up any insulin (I know because I got lazy and this happened
). So with vials you shoot some air into it beforehand and then draw up insulin. This is what most people will be used to.
However, with the Lantus cartridges, it takes care of this for you! As you draw insulin, the bottle will get smaller so there are no air pressure issues. So basically that is why you see warnings to NOT inject air into the cartridges (since that isn't what people are used to doing). Hopefully that clears things up for you!
Because of this we were stuck using a whole number. We are going to work on figuring it out, but I like the suggestion of just saying something like that to the vet. I know it’s possible I will have to try and find a new one, but I am hoping this all smoothed over. I’ve been poking his ear all day and gotten a couple of successful readings, but more importantly I think both FCC and I are getting more comfortable with the repeated stabbing of his ear. He’s a big fan of the treats after. I feel bad for basically not following the vet or the recommended protocol, but I thought it was important we get him started after having so many delays. My partner thinks I am trying to put too much information in my brain and am confusing everything. Which is true in a way, but I am always going to try and understand what is best for my cat. I know the waves of panic will eventually subside.
There is nothing wrong with gathering more info. That is what I did when starting out. I learned from this site and went to my vet to clarify things (which honestly, was never useful...). You gotta do what you gotta do. I recommend that you try to get as many tests as you can in. During the first few days, the Lantus will start building up the depot and will have a stronger and stronger effect on him, so look out for that! And please don't make any mistakes with the pen dosing. Hopefully the instructions you saw online were clear about that.
I am looking at automatic feeders right now because the cats did not want anyone to sleep if they didn’t have food to stare at even though they probably wouldn’t eat it if it was there.
I found the automatic feeder to work great to take the feeding attention off of me. Dixie will lay next to the feeder now instead of bugging me
Tomorrow I am going to start tackling understanding the spreadsheet because I know it’s an invaluable resource and much better than my hand kept notes.
Great idea! You will want to use the
World Spreadsheet Template linked to the bottom of this thread. Looks like you already got a handle on converting between mmol/L and mg/dL. The spreadsheet will just convert to mg/dL automatically for you so that the Americans here can understand
. Pretty much everyone on the forum uses mg/dL which I never got familiar with... always need to divide by 18 every time I read posts here
. Our dosing protocols will typically increase/decrease in 0.25 unit increments. I think the Lantus pens only go up in 1.0 unit increments, which is another downside.
If he likes to sunbathe or snuggle under a blanket, maybe also try to snag one after that as well.