Introduction post: Batman

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thequeenofeverything

thequeenofeverything

Member Since 2023
Y'all, idevnk.

Trying to post our intro and the forum keeps telling me I'm spam-y. *shrug*

Let's boil it all down, shall we?

My name is Jen, my cat is Batman. He has diabetes. I am super over shooting up my cat, blindly.
Please tell me...
WHICH GLUCOMETER DO I BUY?
 
This is too hard. My kitty-boy baby is sick (and hungry) and if he d*es, my youngest child will never, ever recover from the trauma. Maybe I won't either.

Anyway, introductions. My name is Jen. I am the mother of 5, grandmother to 3, have been a teacher for 20 years (predominately preschool but for the last several have been teaching assistant/office staff in a high school)( I have also run award-winning summer camps, work as a wrestling meet manager in the winter for a large league, and have been the Health and Safety director/manager for a preschool for decades). I am also college student (first I went back to finish the degree, then to get my Early Childhood degree, now, at the moment back to achieve an IT certificate so I can get OUT of the teaching game (it's totally for s*ckers, man).

Batman is my kitty-boy. I (unwillingly, not gonna lie. I agreed to a week. 10 years later....) received him and his siblings when they were three weeks old. Bottle-fed around the clock. Weighed them every 12 minutes (okay not really, but it felt like it). Taught them how to p**p. Showed them how to lick themselves clean. Taught them how to play online apps on the phone. Talked others into taking the siblings and I was supposed to give him away too...but I simply couldn't. He was my kitty-boy.

He is soooo smart. He comes when called. Can do tricks. Can say "Hello" and "Hi". Only pees in my plants when I go out of town. Uses two separate litter boxes to do his business. Was ALMOST toilet trained but we did the family vacation at just the wrong moment (and then he peed in the plants so we never went back to that training).

And just after Christmas he started walking funny. And peeing in the plants when I was home. And drinking an inordinate amount. So by January, we'd figured out he was probably diabetic and tool him to the vet in early February.
Perfect health... except my baby has the betes.
 
Tonight I spent hours try to convert this st*pid Libre data from the Libre2 (that stopped working after 5 days- and was finicky even before that, even)(abbott+vet=racket) to a spreadsheet (guys. Far more confusing than it has to be. Why has no one made an APP yet?!?).

But what I REALLY SUPER NEED TO KNOW IS THIS:

What glucometer do I buy?

I have mostly weaned him from his extra dry food (he's mad. Let's be fair. You would be too if I told you that you could never have the occasional potato chips, ever again, too!), he hasn't peed outside of his box in *** time (*knocks wood and doesn't tempt fate) but I can't keep relying on this veterinarian to know what she's talking about. This freaking libre sensor was only good for a few days and now I just have a worthless piece of plastic *superglued* to my baby and Lord knows how we're gonna get it off...if he even remotely has a scab I will go OFF)

The prozinc appears to be worthless (seriously. No number below 351, at all. What?!?) and I starve my cat and inject him twice daily for...what appears to be no discernible reason.

What GLUCOMETER do I buy? (note: I have some medical background, am CPR and AED trained for infants and adults/medication administration trained. Not even a little plussed about gathering blood or injecting insulin or wound care (5 kids, y'all). I can do whatever he needs. I just need some purchasing guidance because its the money part that can not afford.

Every time I have to blindly up the Prozinc? I hold my breath. Get my emergency kit at the ready. Lecture all the people in the house, AGAIN.

I need some guidance on which kit to buy (that isn't Alphatrak because y'all. That feels as price-gouge-y as this libre 2 thing...)

But Hi! Hello! This is my introduction. ‍♀️




Jen
 
I've read the forum for months. I applied for the one-time assistance to get insulin and needles. (Thanks DCIN. You're the best!) I've paid the vet thousands of dollars (no seriously, we're up to 14% of my yearly income at this point. Inside of a few months. No idea how I will pay the mortgage this summer) and have a standing 3 week order at Chewy for ridiculously over-priced food that he probably doesn't need (except that we both h*te friskies -he doesn't like it and the smell makes me gag. *shrug*)
 
For now I’ll answer the most pressing question. No need to buy an expensive pet meter. Most of us use Walmart’s ReliOn. You can order the meter, strips and lancets online or at a Walmart near you.

Here is the link for the meter and test strips so you don't have to search for them Relion Premier Classic Meter at Walmart for 9 dollars
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ReliOn-Premier-CLASSIC-Blood-Glucose-Monitoring-System/552134103

The tests strips are 17.88 for 100
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ReliOn-Premier-Blood-Glucose-Test-Strips-100-Count/575088197
You can order them on line also
Our numbers are based on human meters

ps - also no need for expensive prescription cat food that is mostly too high carb for diabetic cats. Chewy will refund your money. All he needs is low carb foods that are 10% or less in carbs. If you don’t like Friskies, fancy feast is fine too.
 
Hi Jen did DCIN give you Prozinc or Lantus?
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. Which I see you already set up
We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help.
You can tap on your name up top then tap on signature add the info it asks you on the blue link I gave you and then tap save
 
Welcome to FDMB!

First -- take a deep breath. You found the best place you never wanted to be. Pretty much everyone here has been in your shoes so we understand the anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. FWIW, I've been here a long time. I don't recall a cat dying from diabetes. I can remember only one cat that had an episode of symptomatic hypoglycemia and died because the caregiver did not listen to our repeated warnings about low numbers and left the cat alone for the day. Diabetes is a treatable condition.

As Ale said, the Relion meter is very popular because the strips are the least expensive around. Any human meter will be fine. The pet meter strips run about $1.00 each which makes things rather pricey. Human meter strips are far less expensive and way more available. (You can only buy pet meter strips online and my experience was that I inevitably ran out of strips at the worst possible time. I could always find strips for a human meter because there was some pharmacy that was open.)

This is a link to information about Prozinc. The sticky notes at the top of the page will give you more background about the insulin and dosing methods. Both Prozinc and Lantus (glargine) are the insulins recommended by the American Animal Hospital Assn for the treatment of diabetes. The good news is your vet started Batman on a good insulin. If he's not showing a response, he may need a larger dose. It would be helpful if you could pull some of the readings you have from the Libre an add them to your spreadsheet. We tend to be rather numbers driven and seeing how Batman is responding to insulin will allow us to provide better informed input.
 
Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA) said:
Here is the link for the meter and test strips so you don't have to search for them Relion Premier Classic Meter at Walmart for 9 dollars
Click to expand...
I perfer the Premier Compact since it is smaller. It cost $20 but included 50 test strips and lancet pen and 5 lancets. The Classic only includes the meter, no strips or lancets or lancet pen.
 
THANK YOU! I picked them up from Walmart this morning before work. Then got home this evening and realized I don't have lancets or a lancing device. #Noob!
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Welcome to FDMB!

First -- take a deep breath. You found the best place you never wanted to be. Pretty much everyone here has been in your shoes so we understand the anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. FWIW, I've been here a long time. I don't recall a cat dying from diabetes. I can remember only one cat that had an episode of symptomatic hypoglycemia and died because the caregiver did not listen to our repeated warnings about low numbers and left the cat alone for the day. Diabetes is a treatable condition.

As Ale said, the Relion meter is very popular because the strips are the least expensive around. Any human meter will be fine. The pet meter strips run about $1.00 each which makes things rather pricey. Human meter strips are far less expensive and way more available. (You can only buy pet meter strips online and my experience was that I inevitably ran out of strips at the worst possible time. I could always find strips for a human meter because there was some pharmacy that was open.)

This is a link to information about Prozinc. The sticky notes at the top of the page will give you more background about the insulin and dosing methods. Both Prozinc and Lantus (glargine) are the insulins recommended by the American Animal Hospital Assn for the treatment of diabetes. The good news is your vet started Batman on a good insulin. If he's not showing a response, he may need a larger dose. It would be helpful if you could pull some of the readings you have from the Libre an add them to your spreadsheet. We tend to be rather numbers driven and seeing how Batman is responding to insulin will allow us to provide better informed input.
Click to expand...
I tried adding those libre reading the the spread sheet and adding it to my signature last weekend. Obvi, I didn't do it correctly. I do think he's doing better at the 3 unit dose (started that last Thursday morning) but I am still freaking out about shooting him up blindly.
 
Larry and Kitties said:
I perfer the Premier Compact since it is smaller. It cost $20 but included 50 test strips and lancet pen and 5 lancets. The Classic only includes the meter, no strips or lancets or lancet pen.
Click to expand...
Ha. Should have read down further before ordering and picking up, I guess. Got the ReliOn premier and test strips and got home and realized I can't stick him because I have nothing to stick him WITH. Haha.
I still need to read a ton more (links! so many links!) but thank you to you all. I feel so much better today than I did just days ago.

and that's on TOP of the emergency visit to vet I had to do today because the wounds created by the libre freaked me out.

Guys. This is so nerve-racking. How do you keep your aplomb??
 
whether you’re going to free hand, meaning not lancet device which I prefer, or not, you want lancets that have smaller gauge like 26 or 28 because it’s easier to make a slightly larger puncture and get more blood out.

you learn with practice just like anything else and it becomes second nature to you. We all felt that way in the beginning so just ask as many questions as you have to until it all starts to sync in. I know I did!
 
thequeenofeverything said:
Ha. Should have read down further before ordering and picking up, I guess. Got the ReliOn premier and test strips and got home and realized I can't stick him because I have nothing to stick him WITH. Haha.
I still need to read a ton more (links! so many links!) but thank you to you all. I feel so much better today than I did just days ago.

and that's on TOP of the emergency visit to vet I had to do today because the wounds created by the libre freaked me out.

Guys. This is so nerve-racking. How do you keep your aplomb??
Click to expand...
The meter you got is fine, it's a little overwhelming in the beginning but you will get the hang of it, you can always post and ask as many questions you want to :cat:
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 10 or 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand not the lancing device
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
Look at the lancet under a light and you will see one side is curved upward, that's the side you want to poke with
 
I did it! I stuck the cat and got a BG reading. I mean, its high and I got way more blood than the video said I needed because he was squirmy (he is completely non-plussed about getting insulin injections but obviously he hates his ear being touched. haha)

but...You people are THE BEST PEOPLE! Thank you so so much for your guidance. I still don't think my spreadsheet is showing in my signature properly but this is the link to it, in the meantime, until I figure out how to get my signature stuff to show up) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WFCWFD4YBXpQ5a2-BQwYW-nlwU8DQxkr7bWeFL0x26k/edit?usp=sharing
 
thequeenofeverything said:
I did it! I stuck the cat and got a BG reading. I mean, its high and I got way more blood than the video said I needed because he was squirmy (he is completely non-plussed about getting insulin injections but obviously he hates his ear being touched. haha)

but...You people are THE BEST PEOPLE! Thank you so so much for your guidance. I still don't think my spreadsheet is showing in my signature properly but this is the link to it, in the meantime, until I figure out how to get my signature stuff to show up) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WFCWFD4YBXpQ5a2-BQwYW-nlwU8DQxkr7bWeFL0x26k/edit?usp=sharing
Click to expand...
Good for you getting your first test with poking, your signature and spreadsheet link looks fine to me , You have Bateman's Spreadsheet in blue right underneath your signature so everything is fine

Don't know if this was mentioned to you but do not feed 2 hours before you test first thing in the morning AMPS ( AM Pre Shot) you don't want it to be influenced by food , during the day you can feed small snacks then
You would do the same thing when you do the first test at night PMPS
We don't increase by full units , we increase by 0.25 units at a time ,so do you have the U-40 syringes with the half unit markings? It makes it easier when you do this

One other think since you are now going to use the human meter on your spreadsheet where you have Libre up top and you put Relion and the date you started using it
 
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