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Lianna

Lianna

Member Since 2021
I'm going to try to fit all the information I can into here. Squall was diagnosed with diabetes this month following a noticeable increase in urination. I didn't notice any other symptoms, although since he's been on insulin he seems to be doing better with climbing and jumping. He's a little shy of ten. He's tended towards being overweight. We've started him on prozinc insulin, 1.5 twice a day. He seems to be doing well, although he does seem pretty lethargic, especially during the morning. (He has two main meals and two smaller ones, all wet food, so the night is his longest time without feeding) I may be overthinking it, I'm very prone to anxiety.

Our vet told us to do injections in the armpits and shaved them so we could see what we're doing. He tends to be fine with the morning shot but he hates the evening one, I think just because he's always more awake so it's been a struggle. He's started getting antsy when I head towards the bed because he knows it's coming. I'm a little suspicious of our vet, he keeps telling us to go on the prescription dry food which has corn as it's first ingredient. He also told us not to get a glucometer anywhere but through them, and didn't mention them until I brought them up. I think it's mostly money, which is admittedly pretty tight. Obviously I want to do anything for Squall, but anything we can get cheaper that won't hurt him we want to do. He also didn't give us the specific numbers when we took him in for the multi-test thing to get a curve. I'm not sure if we should be looking for someone else or working with them, we've been taking our cats to the humane society clinic for years but they don't deal with diabetes.

I have a freestyle Glucose meter given to me by a relative. My research seems to state that Relion has the cheapest testing strips, although I'm a little worried about reviews and them maybe being too cheap. I haven't started a spreadsheet yet. I'm really scared of doing blood draws, but the injections scared the crap out of me for weeks so I assume I can get used to it if it's for Squall. I think paw pads sounds less scary than ears, but I'm again ready to do what's best for him.

I've read through a lot of stuff over the past few weeks, and I've tried to read through the recommended reading here, but I still don't have an idea of what the numbers should be and what I should be worried about, so I'm worrying about everything at once. We've had some bad luck with cat illnesses and I'm just hoping I can do this right.
 
In the armpit? Here is an injection site diagram. That really doesn't sound right. As for the food, i've heard it should be wet food and no dry, cats don't need vegetables. I'm not positive on the wet v. dry however so maybe somebody else can answer that.
49823824412_72fd707b6e_o.jpg


also, no you don't *have* to buy the meter from them. you can get one from walmart. i read a lot of people here use relion prime so that's what i bought. i don't know much about other monitors.
 
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Hi Lianna and Squall and welcome to the forum.
I’m so glad you are going to be hometesting. That is the biggest thing you can do to keep Squall safe.
The ReliOn meter is perfectly good and many people use it here. what ever meter you use, you will need the test strips that go with that meter to ensure it is correct.
I would not buy a pet meter as they are very expensive to run.
Hometesting is not as scary as you would think. Both you and Squall will very soon get used to it.

I see Len has posted the injection sites. I have never heard of injecting in the armpits before.

If he is lethargic, have you tried feeding him some more food and seeing if that helps…he could possibly be dropping low.
If he has no access to food overnight, I would look at maybe but buying an automatic feeder which will dispense the food while you sleep.

Ae you testing for ketones in the urine? If not, I would go out and buy a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy and test the urine. Anything above a trace of ketones needs vet attention.

If you need any help with the spreadsheet we can help you.
Do you have a hypo kit set up. If not I would definitely get one set up ASAP
I am going to send you some links

HELP US HELP YOU This link will give you links to the spreadsheet, the signature, the hypo kit (very i portent you get this set up ASAP)

PROZINC BASICS

PROZINC DOSING METHODS

I will tag a couple of Prozinc users for you. He may need his dose adjusted.
@Panic
@JanetNJ
 
I'd drop the dose to 1 unit twice a day until you have gotten the hang of testing. I've never heard of injecting into the armpit area. Most do it in the scruff area. I have a video in my signature showing how I tested my cat CC at home.
 
Thank you so much for your advice so far! Sorry for the delay.

image0.jpg


Maybe I misunderstood the vet. I thought we were supposed to go lower, but they're pretty big patches so it could be meant to be other places.

So far I have a Relion tester with the appropriate strips, I tried it on myself to make sure I was using it right. We do have the 30 gauge lancets, I can look into getting bigger ones tomorrow. I got some salmon as treats and have verified that the actual pricking doesn't actually bother him that much, but I've yet to get a usable sample yet. I haven't even been able to find pricks I've done on his paws, and I got a drip on his ear but it wasn't quite enough for a reading. I re-watched your video, Janet, and I can understand where it's going to be difficult at first, but I've tried like 5 times tonight and Squall says we can keep going as long as he gets treats but I think Mommy needs a break.

Next day 7/25: Tried with a 28 and 26 gauge needle in the paw and ear for at least 5 total, with my sister helping to restrain him and salmon every prick. I only got noticeable blood one time, and again it wasn't enough for a sample. I've tried by hand, with the larger pen-shaped lance holder, and with the single-use needle-and-applicator (the only one I could find with a 26 g) and I'm feeling profoundly stupid. There's several of us here, all of which have watched the videos together, so I know we're not doing something extremely wrong.
 
Don’t feed stupid! It happens to us all.
Are you warming the ear first, either with rice in the top of a sock or a warm washer.
Then milk the ear up towards the tip before trying.
Have you tried putting a torch behind the ear so you can see the veins and where you need to aim for….between the veins and the edge of the ear.
 
You"re actually better off with the 30 guage lancet because they"re thicker than 26 or 28. It's best to use thicker ones, at least in the beginning. As Squall's ears are poked more, more capillaries will grow and they'll bleed easier. And as Bron suggested, warm the ears first because that makes a big difference. I use a pill bottle filled with hot/warm water, and my sugar boys love it. It took me a few days to get Jack's ears to bleed in the beginning. But today, I have to be careful because they can really bleed a lot! You'll get this. You're doing great!

Edited to add: Oops! The 26 and 28 guage ARE thicker than the 30!
 
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Lianna said:
I've tried by hand, with the larger pen-shaped lance holder, and with the single-use needle-and-applicator (the only one I could find with a 26 g) and I'm feeling profoundly stupid. There's several of us here, all of which have watched the videos together, so I know we're not doing something extremely wrong.
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You're absolutely doing it right. It takes time to learn how to test. Also, even if you don't get blood, each time you "poke", the body starts to grow more capillaries into the area to "heal the injury" and it becomes easier and easier to get blood. We call it "learning to bleed".

I tested China over 15,000 times in her lifetime and I think I could just look at her ear and it'd bleed! (she only had 1 ear that bled well...the other was like getting blood from a rock).
 
Okay, I finally got the vet to forward me the curve they did in the office, and these numbers look scary. Squall has never had a problem eating, but I can see where he might at a vet. They recommended I keep the 1.5 and do another curve in a month
Squall_chart.jpg
 
Lianna said:
Okay, I finally got the vet to forward me the curve they did in the office, and these numbers look scary. Squall has never had a problem eating, but I can see where he might at a vet. They recommended I keep the 1.5 and do another curve in a month
Squall_chart.jpg
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did squall eat before you brought him in?
 
roxyboxy said:
did squall eat before you brought him in?
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The report says she brought him in "fasted" so no food.

I'm not at all surprised that without eating anything, he went so low, but I do have a few concerns. 1 is a vet that doesn't know that the cat should at least be willing to eat before you give them insulin (Test/Feed/Shoot is how it's supposed to be, not Test/Shoot/Feed and hope the cat will eat) and 2. dropping that low (even without food) while he's under stress at the vets might mean the 1.5 is actually too much.

I'd highly recommend you drop the dose down to maybe 1U and get some home tests in ASAP. We have a spreadsheet we all use to record our tests on that's very helpful. Here are the Instructions on getting the spreadsheet but if you need help, feel free to send me a private message by clicking on my name and choosing "start a conversation". Only takes me about 60 seconds to set one up for you once I have the information I need.
 
First off, thank you so much for all of this help, this has been very difficult but I'm so glad to have people who are willing to help.

I successfully got a reading just before we were supposed to get him his night shot and it tested 73. We gave him some treats (greenies) and wet food and no shot. He had his last shot at 9am so 12 hours ago, and it was 1.25 (I decided to go between the internet and vet suggestions until I could get a reading. He ate well and is resting. I don't know if I can get another successful reading next time I try, but when should I try again? Is there anything else I should be doing?
 
Thank goodness you tested before shooting!

Without insulin, if it's been more than 12 hours, he's probably going to be safe overnight but if you can, maybe get a +2 or +3? (that's 11 or 12 o'clock)

I'd definitely lower his dose....if 1.25 got him down to 73 after 12 hours, I think his dose is still too high.

Watch out for the Greenies...they're very high carb. Was he eating anything else before he was diagnosed or has he always eaten the kitten pate?

I'm thinking if this were my cat, I'd probably start over at .5 and start getting some testing data on our spreadsheet. We can always go to a higher dose if he needs it but giving too much can be a final decision.
 
He was on Costco dry cat food, and a second brand that was less good for him as treats. I'll admit I wasn't too worried about his diet, it hasn't come up before. We're talking about switching up the diets of our other cats, my sister has a set of brothers that are 14 and my brother has a five year old. I've also given him human food, and I'm surprised looking back how much he likes carbs.

I definitely agree that he should go further down for now. I'll see what I can do for getting more readings.

Are there any reliable urine based sugar testing strips? I feel so inadequate.
 
Do you need help setting up the spreadsheet? I think it is important you get it set up and get some of that data into it so we can see
.if you need help just ask.
 
Lianna said:
He was on Costco dry cat food, and a second brand that was less good for him as treats. I'll admit I wasn't too worried about his diet, it hasn't come up before. We're talking about switching up the diets of our other cats, my sister has a set of brothers that are 14 and my brother has a five year old. I've also given him human food, and I'm surprised looking back how much he likes carbs.

I definitely agree that he should go further down for now. I'll see what I can do for getting more readings.

Are there any reliable urine based sugar testing strips? I feel so inadequate.
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The problem with the urine ones is they will only tell you if he was over 250 in the last day... That's about when glucose spills into the urine. They won't say what his glucose is I'm the moment.


You are doing great!!!!! You got this!!!! It's hard now but will soon be so routine. Be patient with yourself.
 
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