Male 12 years - eating heaps

[Sarziib]

my baby boy is a 12-year-old, indoor, short hair domestic,male nurtured cat has recently been diagnosed with diabetes. I took him to the vet last Thursday to get a blood test and got the results on Friday. He went in on Tuesday for a glucose curb and they checked him five times between 9:30 am and 6:30 pm when he went in his blood sugar was 23. And did not drop much the lowest it dropped was 20 in the middle of the day. they discharged him to me at 21 and have given me glucose to do two units every 12 hours my question that I have is they want me to come back every two weeks for him to either do a glucose curb and stay there for a hospital admission for the day or get a patch installed on him to measure his glucose monitor. Why can’t I check his blood sugar myself? I don’t have the money to keep going to the Vet every two weeks they’re expecting me to pay $400 every two weeks. Can people give me advice on how they manage their cats? Diabetes? And is my cat gonna be okay? Even though his blood sugar is high they’re telling me that it’s better to be higher then low
I just wanna add as well that I have nerve and tendon damaging both my hands and I’m struggling to hold the needle and grab his skin. Is there any other options that I can do such as a pen?
Also, I just wanted to add his eating and drinking heaps

 

[CORKY]

Welcome to FDMB, you are absolutely correct, you can test your boy at home you can get any human glucose monitor and strips, and you can do the curve at home yourself as well, a curve means that you test every 2 hours for a cycle(a day) this is to see the reaction of the insulin. it is also important for a diabetic cat to have a diet of wet can food between 0-10 % carbs, cats cannot digest carbs, my Corky also sent 10 years eating kibbles, so it ruined his pancreas. let us know what state you are in we can send you a Drs food chart, also we would like you to create your signature and spreadsheet for your boy we are very numbers oriented, we need to know what insulin you are using as well so we can direct you to the right member that can help you ion dosing or any other concerns, below are a couple of links to create them, keep posting and asking we are here for you, we have all been there and it is overwhelming when we find out our loved fur baby is diagnosed with Feline Diabetes, this Forum is a Feline diabetic life saver, believe me, this Forum and dedicated members saved my Corky's life, if you have trouble creating the spreadsheet, we have members that can help you create it as well, ther are many sticky notes in the Main Forum page that have a lot of valuable information

Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/

 

[squeem3]

What is the name of the insulin? Are you in the US or another country?

You can manage all parts of your cat's diabetes at home. Ignore the vet for the most part. Vets have various reasons why they discourage clients from doing anything but daily injections at home.

If testing is hard, there is a blood glucose meter that sticks onto your cat's skin and sends blood glucose readings to an app on a phone. The meter is supposed to last 2 weeks but can fall off or malfunction before then. Some people have to put baby t shirts on their cat to keep the cat from trying to pull / scratch the meter off. @Staci & Ivy can give you more info about the Libre meter.

Insulin pens don't work well for cats. They only dose in whole units and sometimes cats need half or even quarter unit doses. The pen needle is super short and might not get through a cat's skin very well so you end up with fur shots. That said, many Lantus users here on FDMB use the Lantus pen but with insulin syringes.

The excessive thirst and hunger will go away once the blood glucose levels are in a more normal range. What are you feeding your cat? Prescription food is not needed at all and have no ingredient that helps a diabetic. The best food for a diabetic cat is low carb. For many people, this means low carb canned food. Many big name brands like Fancy Feast and Friskies have suitable varieties. Home cooked and raw diets are also options. Dry food should be avoided.

 

[Staci & Ivy]

What is the name of the insulin? Are you in the US or another country?

You can manage all parts of your cat's diabetes at home. Ignore the vet for the most part. Vets have various reasons why they discourage clients from doing anything but daily injections at home.

If testing is hard, there is a blood glucose meter that sticks onto your cat's skin and sends blood glucose readings to an app on a phone. The meter is supposed to last 2 weeks but can fall off or malfunction before then. Some people have to put baby t shirts on their cat to keep the cat from trying to pull / scratch the meter off. @Staci & Ivy can give you more info about the Libre meter.

Insulin pens don't work well for cats. They only dose in whole units and sometimes cats need half or even quarter unit doses. The pen needle is super short and might not get through a cat's skin very well so you end up with fur shots. That said, many Lantus users here on FDMB use the Lantus pen but with insulin syringes.

The excessive thirst and hunger will go away once the blood glucose levels are in a more normal range. What are you feeding your cat? Prescription food is not needed at all and have no ingredient that helps a diabetic. The best food for a diabetic cat is low carb. For many people, this means low carb canned food. Many big name brands like Fancy Feast and Friskies have suitable varieties. Home cooked and raw diets are also options. Dry food should be avoided.

Hello and welcome.
We understand how overwhelming everything is in the beginning for all new members!
I can give you some information about you using a freestyle Libre sensor, a CGM/continuous glucose monitor if that is something you are interested in using.

It does attach with an adhesive sensor backing on your kitty.
Some kitties don’t mind wearing it others will try to rip them off, so it’s usually best to put a little T-shirt or something on them to wear to protect the sensor.

Here is a document we have put together with lots of information on using a Libre in case that’s something you want to consider.
Please ask any questions if that’s something you would like more information on and we can help you with that to test glucose.

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...ucose-monitors-cgms-for-diabetic-cats.301950/

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Welcome to FDMB!

I think your vet was referring to the day of testing as getting a blood glucose "curve". When you measure glucose, the results when plotted out on a graph often look like a curve (higher at shot times and lower in the middle).

Likewise, I think your vet gave you insulin, not glucose. (Glucose would not treat diabetes -- it's what you measure when you test.) The dose your vet started your cat on is considerably larger than what we recommend. As others noted, it would be good to know what insulin your vet prescribed. The two insulins that are best for treating feline diabetes are Prozinc and Lantus (or glargine which is the generic/biosimilar).

Pretty much all of our members home test their cat for exactly the reason you raised a question. It's just too expensive to have your cat stay at the vet's office for a curve. Given how you reported your cat's test numbers, I suspect you're outside of the US. It also sounds like it would be easier for you to use a Freestyle Libre for testing given your nerve damage.

I'd suggest talking to a pharmacist to see if there's a way to make holding a syringe easier. My first thought would be to wrap a rubber band around the syringe but that may not be terribly effective. There may also be a way to wrap the syringe in a piece of foam rubber or something similar so it's easier to grasp. I was thinking this may be something that a pharmacist gets asked and they would know of a device that's already available.

What are you feeding your cat? We recommend a low carbohydrate, canned or raw food diet. We have lists of foods that are available but we would need to know where you're located. Also, we consider low carb as under 10% carbohydrate.

Corky/Maria provided you a link that gives instructions on setting up your signature and spreadsheet along with some basic information on how to get started. The signature will provide us with some of the basic information about your cat so we don't keep asking you the same questions. The spreadsheet is a way for you to track your cat's blood glucose data and it allows us to follow along and offer input.