New Member Intro - Mary & Paddington

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Mary Cornelsen

Mary Cornelsen

Member Since 2021
Hello everyone!
I am so glad I found this treasure trove of a resource! My name is Mary and I am the human to Paddington.

Paddington is a 9 year old American long hair, with the personality fit for a king! He was diagnosed December 2020 and it’s been a wild ride since.

He was diagnosed via blood work and symptoms. We started immediately administering Vetsulin twice a day starting with 1.7 units. we are now dosing 2 units each time. I keep his schedule religiously to a 15 minute window at 7am and 7pm. We are using the AlphaTrak2 BG sensor. He eats two cans of Fancy Feast pate at the same time window of 7am and 7pm (total 4 cans). He weighs 17.6lbs which his vet is happy about. At diagnosis he had dropped to 14.2 and was skin and bones. He’s a big boy!

We have never reached a stable point with his BG and I am considering switching my vet due to lack of support received from the staff and vet concerning his care. Recently, we have had a string of very low numbers (for him) in the PM and I would love some advice or even suggestions on what may be causing the lower numbers and how to dose when they happen. My spreadsheet is in my signature. I just put the last few days to get started but will be back dating as far back as my sensor has recorded this weekend.

Like I said, I am new here so I have a LOT of reading to do so please feel free to point me to posts that could be useful.

Best regards,
Paddington’s human, Mary
 
Hello and welcome from a fellow Oklahoman! :cat:

Vetsulin can be a hard insulin to get cats regulated with. It’s better suited for dogs and called Caninsulin (as in canine) in other parts of the world. In cats, it usually hits very hard and fast which can cause bouncing, and it also tends to wears off quickly. Bouncing is when the blood sugar drops too quickly, too low, or lower than the body is used to. This causes the liver to “panic” and release stored sugars, which may be a reason why you’re seeing low numbers and then suuuuper high numbers. Your spreadsheet looks a little weird on my end - did you delete all the columns in between the AM and PM preshots? Are you using both the AlphaTrak and a Libre?

Are you only feeding him 2x a day? If it's possible, it's usually better and easier on the pancreas to feed multiple, smaller meals. You do want to make sure he eats before you give insulin, but with a harsher insulin like Vetsulin, it can also be helpful to feed a snack around the onset, or when the insulin starts working. This can sometimes help to ease those huge drops in blood sugar. You may also consider switching insulins. The two insulins that are most commonly recommended here are Prozinc which is a cat specific insulin or Lantus, which is a human insulin. These insulins tend to work better for cats and get a longer duration. Vets that are not up to date on feline diabetes or ones that are more used to working with dogs tend to prescribe Vetsulin.
 
Thank you both for your reply!

On my spreadsheet, I hide the extra columns I do t have data for. I was building it on my phone last night so that was just easier to get the data into it.

I’ve read quite a few people on her switching to a different insulin, and I may do that when I switch my vet. I’d much rather him have a smoother curve than all this bouncing around. I am only using the AlphaTrak.

I’ve only been feeding 2X a day per guidance from my vet but will look into getting an auto feeder since I am at work all day so he can get a snack.

I had a follow up question after some reading. Are human meters just as actuate as pet meters for BG? If so, is there one people prefer over another?
Thanks again!
 
Yes human meters are just as accurate as pet meters, and on this board they are actually preferred. Most of the members here use them so they are more used to looking at those numbers rather than pet meters. The only real difference between a human and pet meter is that pet meters tend to read a bit higher than human meters. There is a separate spreadsheet for a pet meter vs a human meter because of this, but it looks like youre already using the human meter SS :cat:

Human meters are also usually much cheaper as well! One of the most common meters used here is the ReliOn Prime from Walmart. The meter itself is $9 and you can get 100 strips for $18. You can also just pop into any Walmart and pick up more instead of having to order them, so much more convenient :cat: But really any meter that you want to use is perfectly fine
 
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