Glucose Test Meter Just Arrived, HELP

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keykey

keykey

Member Since 2022
I'm trying to do research but I just feel overwhelmed with so much information, none of which is what I'm after. If someone could please inform/educate me I'd really appreciate it.

My cat was diagnosed 1 week ago, and for just under a week now I've been giving insulin. The vet/bottle says give 2 units, but my first post in this forum someone said I should probably only give 1 unit so that's what I've been doing. I've been kind of worried because without a testing kit, I've literally been shooting in the dark. My mother ordered a testing kit online for me and it just arrived today.

My questions are: When should I be testing? Before/after meals? How often throughout the day? When I do get a reading, what numbers am I looking for? At this point in time even if I got a reading it wouldn't really mean anything to me. The kit came with a little journal/diary for number entries so that's cool. I just need to know what and when. The basics to start feeling confident I'm giving her the right amount of insulin.

She's eating half a can of fancy feast classic at 7:30am and the other half at 7:30pm. She gets her shot after eating a majority of it and she usually finishes it off shortly after.

She's doing a lot of sleeping and seems somewhat lethargic, but to be fair to her she seemed that way before the insulin.
 
Hi there! You're on the right track.

To answer your questions I first have to ask some - what insulin, what meter, and what's her diet? Any other health issues?

We recommend you start here, getting a spreadsheet and signature set up is the most important part.

Home testing links and tips - warm the ear, use Vaseline so the blood beads up, and aim for a drop of blood the size of the ball on a ballpoint pen, it will save you wasted strips. Many more tips in that link

We also recommend you put together a hypo kit, discussed here. If you are in the US, here is a food list. If you are elsewhere, just let me know country and I can pull the other lists.
  • We define low carb (LC) as under 10%, most of us feed around the 3-7% range. Medium carb (MC) is 10-15%, high carb (HC) is 16%+. You will want some of each type of food in your hypo kit. We recommend writing the % carbs on each can in permanent marker, so when you're in a pinch you don't have to dig. I personally keep very high carb food on hand as well, 23%+.
  • You want to feed a low carb wet diet. If he is not currently low carb wet, do not transition food yet. Transitioning food alone can have a drastic effect on BG and be dangerous (life threatening). We will help you through that.
  • I'd suggest getting some feeding syringes, as well as a few jars of the Gerber 2nd foods meats or some A/D recovery food. Diabetic cats are prone to all sorts of weird things (pancreatitis, bouts of inappetence, etc) so it's much less stressful if you have some things on hand in case they don't want to eat
Ketones and DKA are a risk for diabetic cats, namely unregulated ones. We define regulated as 50-120 on a human meter. DKA is very serious and life threatening. The recipe for DKA is not enough insulin + inappetence + underlying stress/inflammation. We recommend checking urine daily while unregulated, weekly when regulated. You can just buy regular urine ketone strips from a human pharmacy, like Ketostix. If you think that will be difficult, they make blood ketone meters but strips can be expensive (I have the NovaMax Plus

We withhold food for 2 hrs before the shot. That just gives you a consistent data point to base decisions on (shoot, skip, reduced dose, token dose - I'll explain when you get there lol)

Shots should be 12 hrs apart, give or take 15 minutes.

The largest part of the meals should be fed right before shot time. Small snacks during the cycle are ok, we just try not to feed after nadir (the lowest point) because the insulin is wearing off. Some cats get ragey without food, so any food after that, just try to keep it small amounts.

I would focus your testing on the first 6 hours of the cycle for now. At minimum, you should be testing before each shot, and then once again each cycle (day and night - cats often go lower at night). More testing will be needed if they seem to be on a trajectory to low numbers. I would start with a +2 each cycle if you can, a lot of people opt to shift the shot time to accommodate that.
 
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Melissa gave you some great information.

You want to test every time before you give insulin and in between shots. Since you are just starting we recommend starting with a reading of 200 as your "don't shoot" number. If the reading is below 200, hold off giving insulin and retest 10-15 minutes later to see if the glucose number has risen. Once you understand how the dose effects her glucose readings, you will be able to lower your "don't shoot" number.
 
Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it inyour signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help.

If you need help setting anything up just ask we have a member who will be happy to do it for you
 
Okay. I’m just trying to process all of this because when I’m met with a wall of text, with links, that follow to other walls of text, my anxiety spikes and I start shutting down. I need to try to take all of this one step at a time…

The insulin is called “Insulin Glargine” and it’s labeled as a generic for Lantus. It’s U100.

The meter is called “Cera-Pet Blood Glucose Test Meter”.

Her diet right now is one 3oz can of fancy feast, classic patte. She used to just graze on Purina Cat Chow Naturals. She usually never ate more than 2/3rds of a cup a day. I switched to the fancy feast after coming home with the diagnosis.

This is where I start getting anxious, and begin juggling everything you wrote.

You said don’t transition food yet, and you’re the first person to say this to me. The vet sent me home with a bag of Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diet DM dry food. She ate a little bit of that when I first brought it home, but she won’t touch the stuff now. I was told to take her off of the kibble she had been eating, so now I’m just giving her the fancy feast. I understand this may already be doing something to lower her blood sugar levels, but until I know what I’m actually doing with a meter, *shrugs*.

I click through to the start your spreadsheet stuff, just to make sure, under #2, you have human stuff listed first. I just ignore all of that and click through to the feline blood link correct? I believe I set up the signature hyperlink correctly, so that should be up and running now.

On a separate but related note, nothing in that spreadsheet makes any sense to me. I absolutely need help figuring out how to use that.

This is the second time I’ve been told about Ketones, and while I’m sure this is serious to learn about and buy the strips, at this moment I’m really just trying to wrap my head around understanding the things I have already spent money on, the things I already have the materials for. I will get to learning about it soon and get the strips soon, but I really just feel like my head is under water right now with all the other things I’m trying to learn.

Going further into what you’ve written, now I shouldn’t be giving insulin twice a day, but only once? I understand why you say this, just wanting to get the baseline for the spreadsheet to see where we’re working. It’s just difficult reading that when I’ve already been doing it twice a day for a week now, and I still don’t understand anything on that spreadsheet, and I still don’t know what the numbers mean, what the range is, what’s a good number or bad number.

I make sure she eats a lot before she gets a shot. I don’t really understand exactly what you mean by nadir, but I think I generally understand the context in which you mentioned it? I don’t know what “start with a +2 each cycle” means.

The following post mentioned to not give insulin if it’s below 200. I guess that’s my starting point.

I’m sorry if I seem really overwhelmed and upset. This is all so much, all at once, and I really need to take one thing at a time. This cat really is my best friend. I’ve had quite a few over the years, but she really is the nicest, sweetest animal I’ve ever owned. I just want to make sure she’s feeling better.

I truly appreciate all the help everyone has offered me. This is a very informed and thorough community who know quite a deal about this topic.

I just feel like Billy Madison in grad school right now. I need someone to hold my hand while I learn how to walk across the street. lol.
 
No worries! We know it's a lot...we just try to put all the main reference material in one place for you to refer back to, certainly don't expect you to remember everything!

So -
1. When was the last time she had any dry food? The reason we advise to pause any food changes (or not start them yet) is because a high percentage of newcomers here have cats at too high a dose to begin with, and because the transition can be dangerous. Also - is that one can a day? Or twice a day? Is she over/under/ideal weight?

2. Yes continue with the twice a day, that was wires crossed on my part - I'll edit post to remove that

3. Spreadsheet - yes, feline blood one. I assume the date and dose columns are clear? The AMPS means morning preshot - so before you give the morning shot, you do a test and log it in that column. PMPS is same, for the evening shot. The +1, +2, etc are tests that many hours after the shot - so if you gave a shot at 7am, and tested at 9am, that result goes in the +2 column. I'll tag @Bandit's Mom if you still need assistance

4. A regulated diabetic tests 68-150 on a pet meter, regulation is your first goal once you get into the swing of things. BUT the only numbers you care about right now are:
  • Any preshot below 200, stall without feeding and ask for help
  • If you ever get a number below 90 (or think she went below 90), reduce your dose by 0.25U starting with the next shot. You continue to give that new reduced dose for a few days unless she drops below 90 again.
  • If you get a number below 90, start a separate post on Main Forum so people can keep an eye out in case she keeps going lower.
  • If you get a number below 68, give her high carb food immediately and post on Main Forum asking for help

Priorities -
  1. Get a hypo kit put together
  2. Buy ketone strips
  3. Start practicing testing. It will be frustrating at first, you will probably cry or throw something in frustration, but after about a week or so you'll have the hang of it. Just have to power through for a bit.
  • Prioritize preshot tests, and tests around the +4 to +6 hr mark (this is typical nadir, or lowest point they go after a shot). I said +2 earlier because it's a good indicator of how the cycle will go, but so it's not overwhelming start with the +4 to +6
  1. Post numbers in this thread while you get the hang of the spreadsheet if needed. Good news, I can open and view the spreadsheet!
 
The last time she had dry food was maybe a little less than a week ago. Maybe Wednesday or Thursday of last week. Should I give her some of her old food? Like a little bit?
She's almost 13 years old, she's about 13 lbs as well. Vet said her blood work was fine, except for the diabetes.
The fancy feast is one can a day. Personally, I think it should be more, but I listened to my mother.
Any time I've done that in my life it hasn't ended well, so I'm 100% open to correction.

I've tried 3 times now to get blood drawn. Twice in the ear and once in the paw now. Ear got next to nothing. Paw, I got a bit, but putting it on the test strip does absolutely nothing with my meter. Cat gets upset, I get upset. I give up.
I yelled at the box when it wouldn't let me shut it because the manual was blocking the top. You were right I did get frustrated.

I don't know if I'm over analyzing it, or if I'm correct in thinking, that lately she looks a little loopy this time of night. I'm too tired to keep trying to get blood and it'll only upset her. And I know I won't be successful. Should I give her a bit of her old food and see if she perks up? It is late and she's usually asleep this time anyway. I'm just so worried I'm making things worse poking holes into her and injecting hormones without a clue in the world as to what I'm actually doing.

tl;dr: I'm getting a new vet.
 
She definitely needs more food. The average indoor cat needs around 20-30 calories per lb of body weight, and diabetics can sometimes need more than that because their body doesn't process food fully. I don't know the calories of fancy feast offhand but I don't think it's even close to that.

My cat is 14 lbs and ate 3-5.5oz cans a day when he was unregulated. Now that he's regulated, he eats the majority of 2-5.5 oz cans a day, leaves a bit behind. He has always maintained his weight within a lb.

Deep breaths :bighug: it takes time for their ears to form extra capillaries. But the good news is if you were able to try that many times, she's at least somewhat amenable to it. Tomorrow is a new day. Warm the ear as best you can to get blood flowing, put Vaseline on the test spot, poke, and you kind of have to milk the ear a little bit. Aim for a drop of blood the size of a ball on a ballpoint pen

As for the food ... I get a little nervous when someone mentions things like loopyness, especially when testing isn't up and running yet. Yes, leave her some higher carb food out to be safe...if dry is all you have that's ok (just note it in spreadsheet when you get a chance). Since you transitioned food since your last post, I would reduce to 0.5U starting with tomorrow morning's shot (1U is our standard guidance if on high carb diet, 0.5U if low carb).

On the contrary - you are just starting on the path to making her life much, much better. Two steps back, one step forward lol it gets better I promise!
 
I put out 1/3 cup of her old Purina food. She's grazing at it. Thanks for the info regarding 20-30 calories per lb. Yeah, that one can is nowhere near enough. I was told to hold back, in order to make sure she would eat before her shots. I hated doing that, I'm usually under the mindset "if she's hungry, she gets to eat." But I was afraid that mindset caused this whole situation. Regardless, I'm definitely giving her more food.

Am I okay to give her .5U tomorrow morning, or should I focus on getting the testing done correctly before administering a shot?
 
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
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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
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
You can also put a thin layer of vaseline on the ear ,to help the blood bead up

Here is a video one of our members did
VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar
 
7:38 AM, just took a reading of 383 mg/dl.
7:56, been trying to get her to eat. She took a nibble at her high carb kibble before I could get it off the ground, and she took a small nibble at some fancy feast but it refusing to eat any substantial portion of it. I put the high carb stuff back down and now she's not eating any of that. She's been having a bit of a sneezing issue lately, I think she's got some kind of sinus thing going on. Maybe explains her lack of appetite.

This is what I don't understand...if I'm not basically starving her, she won't eat a good amount at any set time. She's a grazer, always has been.

Do I still give the insulin even if she hasn't eaten a whole lot? Dancing this dance for half an hour to an hour every morning without a clue in the world as to what I should do, is really upsetting.
 
8:15am, I got her to eat a bit of the fancy feast. Not as much as I would have liked, but she was eating. Gave her her shot around approx 8:25am.
I'm not sure if I gave her .5U, or 1U. They're so damn close on these syringes the measurement basically looks like the same thing. I had to play with the damned thing quite a bit just to get the bubbles out. I hate these syringes. The needles are so small, unless I really feel it break the skin, I can't even tell I'm actually doing anything. That combined with the unit being basically nothing in terms of feeling plunger movement.

I'll try to measure BG again in a hour. I'm leaving the food out hoping she'll eat more.
 
keykey said:
8:15am, I got her to eat a bit of the fancy feast. Not as much as I would have liked, but she was eating. Gave her her shot around approx 8:25am.
I'm not sure if I gave her .5U, or 1U. They're so damn close on these syringes the measurement basically looks like the same thing. I had to play with the damned thing quite a bit just to get the bubbles out. I hate these syringes. The needles are so small, unless I really feel it break the skin, I can't even tell I'm actually doing anything. That combined with the unit being basically nothing in terms of feeling plunger movement.

I'll try to measure BG again in a hour. I'm leaving the food out hoping she'll eat more.
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You may want to get syringes with 1/2 unit markings. That will make it easier to dose in .5 units. Also there are two lengths for syringe needles, 5/16 and 1/2". If your cat has longer hair, you may want to use the 1/2" needles.

Here is an example of what a syringe with 1/2 unit markings looks like

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Good job on the BG readings!

Grazing is perfectly fine. Lantus is a fairly gentle insulin, so it's ok if she doesn't eat a ton at once. 383 was high enough she should be ok. Most of us test, feed and make sure they eat maybe a tsp or so, then shoot. Can all be done within like 10-15 mins (once you have the hang of it lol)

Give yourselves a break and try for a test around +4
 
Just tested an hour after giving insulin.
Before insulin: 383
One hour later: 422

Someone explain this to me.
 
keykey said:
Just tested an hour after giving insulin.
Before insulin: 383
One hour later: 422

Someone explain this to me.
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Few things are happening:
Meter variance. Pet meters are allowed 15% variance. Don't lose your mind about it, just take the numbers at face value, but it can be an explanation sometimes

Lantus doesn't onset (start working) until 2-3 hours after you give the shot in most cases.

She also ate, and that increases BG.

The other possibility is she is bouncing from low numbers or big drops. If they drop lower or faster than they're used to, their liver "panics" and does fun stuff to spike BG back up. It doesn't even have to be unsafe numbers, just numbers different than they're used to. You mentioned the loopyness last night, plus she was on a higher dose, plus the food transition it's possible this is what's happening as well. It can take up to 3 days (6 cycles) to clear. They just stay kind of high and flat til it clears.


Also - you would smell the insulin if you missed a shot. Very strong, distinct smell. Sort of like fresh rubber tires if you've ever smelled those. A lot of us kind of rub the fur in the shot area after giving it to see if there's any wetness or smell
 
2:12pm: reading was 107, is this a little too low or okay?

So just trying to collect my knowledge here, 80 and below is hypoglycemic, 40 is like you better rush to the pet hospital. 200 or below you don't wanna shoot insulin as a newbie because you're still not sure how it may affect your cat, and it may get too low. And the video you linked me, her cat was 121 which she said was fine.

So the range you're shooting for (pun intended) is for somewhere in the lower 100s?
 
keykey said:
On a separate but related note, nothing in that spreadsheet makes any sense to me. I absolutely need help figuring out how to use that.
Click to expand...
I see frostyd explained it above
I'll explain it again for you
Put the date in , AMPS means the BG you get when you test first thing in the morning,nput it in that spot
Units put in how many units you gave
+1 one hour after giving insulin so if you test one hour after giving insulin you but the BG there
+2. two hours after giving insulin BG goes in there if you tested 2 hours after giving insulin
And so on until you get to PMPS first test at night
And so on just like I mentioned above

Telling us the hours and the BG you tested after giving insulin tells us nothing because we are all in different time zones so that's why we do +1 etc

Can you please set up your signature so we don't have to keep asking you the same questions over and over again
Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it inyour signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help.

Tap on your name up top a drop down will appear ,tap on signature and add all the info then tap save
changes
 
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keykey said:
2:12pm: reading was 107, is this a little too low or okay?

So just trying to collect my knowledge here, 80 and below is hypoglycemic, 40 is like you better rush to the pet hospital. 200 or below you don't wanna shoot insulin as a newbie because you're still not sure how it may affect your cat, and it may get too low. And the video you linked me, her cat was 121 which she said was fine.

So the range you're shooting for (pun intended) is for somewhere in the lower 100s?
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That is 6 hrs-ish after the shot?

Right now you want nadir to be around 90. I don't think she went much below that, if at all. This is actually really good news, it means the 0.5U dose is very close to correct. The other thing to factor in is the depot from the larger doses is still affecting things - I will explain this some other time lol For now, stick to the 0.5U as best you can.

Since shot time was off this morning, you can work it back by 30 minutes once a day, or move each shot back by 15 minutes. So tonight you could shoot 30 minutes earlier than you did this morning, assuming she's above 200 (I suspect she will bounce, likely 300+ at shot time tonight)

Hypoglycemic is under 68 on a pet meter. My cat has been as low as 32 and been ok, but some cats get symptomatic hypoglycemia in the 40s.

If the dose is close to right because you've been monitoring, plus you can test and have a hypo kit, the vast majority of low numbers can be handled just fine at home - even 30s and 40s. They're usually just temporary blips. Pretty much the only ones we send to the emergency vet are new members that haven't been/can't test/don't have hypo kit, are seriously overdosed, or weird things happened like they gave two shots on accident
 
It is very much safe to say the 2U the vet prescribed would have put keykey in quite a bit of trouble and you wouldn't have known til she was stumbling around, or worse
 
@keykey
Thanks for adding some info you your signature and you please add what you are feeding is it low carb only the fancy feast pate ,so you are not feeding any kibble at all anymore is that corrrct
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
I see frostyd explained it above
I'll explain it again for you
Put the date in , AMPS means the BG you get when you test first thing in the morning,nput it in that spot
Units put in how many units you gave
+1 one hour after giving insulin so if you test one hour after giving insulin you but the BG there
+2. two hours after giving insulin BG goes in there if you tested 2 hours after giving insulin
And so on until you get to PMPS first test at night
And so on just like I mentioned above

Telling us the hours and the BG you tested after giving insulin tells us nothing because we are all in different time zones so that's why we do +1 etc

Can you please set up your signature so we don't have to keep asking you the same questions over and over again
Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it inyour signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help.

Tap on your name up top a drop down will appear ,tap on signature and add all the info then tap save
changes
Click to expand...


I had her spreadsheet linked. Is it not appearing for you? When I go idle and this site logs me out, the signature disappears, but when I log back in it reappears. If it's not showing up for you, please let me know and how to correct it. I followed the steps in setting it up.

I added some additional information into the signature like you suggested. I tried to model it based on your own, but I only understand about half of yours. Let me know if what I've written suffices and if there's anything else I should add.

I plugged in my numbers into the spreadsheet. Thank you Diane and frostyd for clarifying it for me. I was unsure about the abbreviations for the dosing method, but I was able to google the page here on this site that explains it. It's still above my understanding, but reading through it, the SLGS (start low, go slow) bullet points sounds like the advice frostyd was giving me? I'm not exactly sure so I left that blank.

I'm feeling a bit more confident with testing now. I've learned that her left ear just refuses to bleed well. Her right ear is far easier to get a sample from. I will continue to try the left, because I don't want to focus entirely on one ear. I feel like that wouldn't be great for her after a while.

Please let me know if you're able to access that updated information. I'm doing my best to try and figure all of this out. Thank you again.
 
FrostD said:
It is very much safe to say the 2U the vet prescribed would have put keykey in quite a bit of trouble and you wouldn't have known til she was stumbling around, or worse
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Yeah, I'm really not happy with how the vet sent me out so uninformed. I asked them while I was there if they could provide me with any reading material so I could learn. They said they didn't have any. I was told to give 2 units and come back in a week or so to have her blood tested again. I wasn't really informed that I could/or how, I could test at home. I figure they did this just to get me back in and charge me more money to test her blood levels. I'm really glad I found this site when I did and stopped the 2 units before I ever really began.
 
Yes, unfortunately the story for nearly every newcomer here :/ we just hope they get here in time is all. It's such a relatively easy way to keep them safe.

Some vets feel mentioning home testing, diet changes, etc are too overwhelming and caregivers would elect for euthanasia because they feel the don't want to/can't manage it. So they'd rather the cat at least be alive, and just come in for tests. But for the life of me I'll never understand why, when people ask about reading, home testing, etc, they tell them not to bother. My first vet was like that, I'm lucky Mr Kitty is still alive
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
@keykey
Thanks for adding some info you your signature and you please add what you are feeding is it low carb only the fancy feast pate ,so you are not feeding any kibble at all anymore is that corrrct
Click to expand...

FrostD said:
Yes, unfortunately the story for nearly every newcomer here :/ we just hope they get here in time is all. It's such a relatively easy way to keep them safe.

Some vets feel mentioning home testing, diet changes, etc are too overwhelming and caregivers would elect for euthanasia because they feel the don't want to/can't manage it. So they'd rather the cat at least be alive, and just come in for tests. But for the life of me I'll never understand why, when people ask about reading, home testing, etc, they tell them not to bother. My first vet was like that, I'm lucky Mr Kitty is still alive
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Okay, so I just did another test just now and she's at 48. I remember reading last night in a hypo thread that if you have wet food "with gravy" to give them that. That's correct right? I just gave her some Friskies Tasty Treasures Prime filets with turkey in gravy with liver, is that okay?
 
keykey said:
I had her spreadsheet linked. Is it not appearing for you? When I go idle and this site logs me out, the signature disappears, but when I log back in it reappears. If it's not showing up for you, please let me know and how to correct it. I followed the steps in setting it up.

I added some additional information into the signature like you suggested. I tried to model it based on your own, but I only understand about half of yours. Let me know if what I've written suffices and if there's anything else I should add.

I plugged in my numbers into the spreadsheet. Thank you Diane and frostyd for clarifying it for me. I was unsure about the abbreviations for the dosing method, but I was able to google the page here on this site that explains it. It's still above my understanding, but reading through it, the SLGS (start low, go slow) bullet points sounds like the advice frostyd was giving me? I'm not exactly sure so I left that blank.

I'm feeling a bit more confident with testing now. I've learned that her left ear just refuses to bleed well. Her right ear is far easier to get a sample from. I will continue to try the left, because I don't want to focus entirely on one ear. I feel like that wouldn't be great for her after a while.

Please let me know if you're able to access that updated information. I'm doing my best to try and figure all of this out. Thank you again.
Click to expand...
The only thing you need to add to your signature is what you ate feeding and the meter you are using, everything else looks great
Yes you did the spreadsheet correctly
 
keykey said:
Okay, so I just did another test just now and she's at 48. I remember reading last night in a hypo thread that if you have wet food "with gravy" to give them that. That's correct right? I just gave her some Friskies Tasty Treasures Prime filets with turkey in gravy with liver, is that okay?
Click to expand...
I have some honey and maple syrup too, but no feeding syringe. How should I handle this?
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
How much longer until the next test
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I set a timer for 20 minutes when I saw your post. 11 minutes left. She's eaten a bunch, walks away. I put it back around her and she starts eating again so that's good. I'll update you with the numbers when the timer goes off.
 
keykey said:
I set a timer for 20 minutes when I saw your post. 11 minutes left. She's eaten a bunch, walks away. I put it back around her and she starts eating again so that's good. I'll update you with the numbers when the timer goes off.
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OK I'll be waiting don't feed her too much we want to keep her hungry if you have to keep feeding her, give like a tablespoon
 
Good job. Yes, the "good news" is that she should be at about nadir so shouldn't go too much lower. That food should keep her flat/bump her up

How many days before today have you been giving 1U?
 
FrostD said:
Good job. Yes, the "good news" is that she should be at about nadir so shouldn't go too much lower. That food should keep her flat/bump her up

How many days before today have you been giving 1U?
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I'm glad you saw this I get so nervous when I have to tell a member what to feed, when to test again
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
I'm bglad you saw this In get so nervous when I have to tell a member what to feed, when to test again
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Unfortunately dinner time so it's spotty if I'm on

If the next test is flat or dropped, I'd add honey with the food. Need her above 68, so gravy food and honey til she's above that. I'd keep testing every 30 mins til +8

I'm leaning skip tonight but let's see
 
Okay so she's at 348 now. That friskies really perked her up too.
I remember reading last night about putting in entries that aren't exactly 1 hour apart, but it had different measurements in terms of +1, +2. It had like half and quarter measurements . Do I need to do that with this reading entry, and if so how do I do that correctly? I think these were about half hour apart.
 
Uh holy crap, retest please. That is unusual. So either the 48 strip was bad, or this one was

It's possible she bounced like that but unusual

You would stack the numbers in the cell, so it would be "48; 348@+6.5" look at my spreadsheet from July 7 of last year for few examples
 
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FrostD said:
Uh holy crap, retest please. That is unusual. So either the 48 strip was bad, or this one was
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It's saying 373.
I had to test twice this time. The first one it counted down from 5 and just said "LO" and the second time it wasn't even registering I had put blood on it until I took the lancet and moved it around on the testing strip some. Then it registered and counted down and kicked out 373.

I don't know if it's the meter or what, but I can tell you that when I first tested and it said 48 she was mad sleepy. Just tucked away in her little kitty house/bed. Now that she's eaten she's acting more like herself, moving around and licking/cleaning her self.
 
Sometimes if the blood drop isn't big enough it will still throw an odd reading instead of giving an error.

It's not outside the realm of possibility she got down to 48, so we'll still be careful

What time is shot time tonight, and what time zone?

I know there was a syringe debate in the last thread, you are using U100 syringes correct? It would say on the side of the barrel.
 
FrostD said:
Sometimes if the blood drop isn't big enough it will still throw an odd reading instead of giving an error.

It's not outside the realm of possibility she got down to 48, so we'll still be careful

What time is shot time tonight, and what time zone?

I know there was a syringe debate in the last thread, you are using U100 syringes correct? It would say on the side of the barrel.
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Tonight's shot would be scheduled around 7:30pm. That being said, she didn't eat exactly at 7:30 this morning so I had to wait until she did start eating, and she got her shot around 8:00am. Should I push tonight's shot back a half an hour to account for this? (EASTERN TIME ZONE)

I am using U100 syringes. My vet sent me out with U40 syringes, and wrote the script for U100 insulin. Before I ever began giving shots, I watched like 5 youtube videos teaching me how to do it correctly. On the fifth video, they talked about making sure you're using the right syringe. I caught that error before I ever gave a shot (THANK GOD!). I was able to return the U40 syringes to the vet, and got the U100 syringes from Publix. I took pictures of them and they're posted in my previous thread if you need to reference them.

*EDIT:

Sorry, I'm trying to keep up with everything being asked. I gave her 2U as prescribed like, the first time I gave her a shot. Then I came to this site (my first thread) and talked about not being sure I did it right. They told me to only give 1U, so I've been doing that for just about a week now.

I'm not sure what Fructosamine testing is. I know when I went to the vet they tested her blood and urine. They told me other than having diabetes, everything looked fine. I'm thinking I may ask them to email me her blood work. Would that be something worth having this website look at?
 
I'm sorry I disappeared I got a call from the nursing home my dad is in, was on the phone quite awhile he fell they had to take him to the hospital
@FrostD
 
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Yes it's ok to do the shot at 730, assuming she's above 200 (she may come back down once that food wears off).

My dilemma is if she actually did hit 48 today, plus the loopyness last night...I would actually skip tonight to drain the depot (again I'll explain later), then start again with 0.5U in the morning. Err on the side of a smaller vs larger dose...for most syringes, 0.5U is with the back end of the plunger on the 1U line, but not always

Note for lurkers: this is a special case factoring in new to home testing + possible low numbers last night + hypo kit not stocked + not sure if 48 was real or not + she even had high carb dry food last night...so erring on the side of caution.
 
Try not to feed fish flavors everyday we suggest just feeding maybe once per week because of the mercury in them

For your hypo kit you want some
Med and High Carb food and some honey



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 in Gravy 15% Med Carbs

Good idea to mark the cans with magic marker how many carbs

Or any on the food chart.
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-chart.174147/
 
On your SS for @+6 can you color it neon green ,you would have to color it in manually
You did a good job raising her BG
Would you like to tell us your name ?
FrostyD's name is Melissa in case you want to know :cat:
 
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