10/18 Calistica AMPS 296-Newbie

Status
Not open for further replies.
Thelma and Calistica

Thelma and Calistica

Member Since 2011
Hi my name is Thelma and my little girl's name is Calistica. She just turned 18 in July! she diagnosed either advanced IBD or small cell lymphoma in September 2008. We treated her with chemo (leukeran) and prednisolone. She was only on the chemo for 1 year but had to continue taking the pred which I suppose is the reason why we're on this board now.
The pred made her turn into a kitty balloon. We've had her on a diet but there the weight won't come off. We even give her less cals than the nutritionist recommended. She also has liver, kidney and mild heart disease. The liver issue has been around for over 7 years but has never really been much of an issue. She has really bad arthritis, hip dysplasia too. she gets acupuncture and her current meds are: prednisolone 5mg a day, 50mg gabapentin 3X a day for pain, buprenex 0.05ml (0.3mg/ml - 5mls) BID, denamarin, clamavox 62.5mg BID, Omega3 fish oil, potassium.
She eats mostly Hill's g/d and a tiny amount of Hill's z/d. We feed her small meals throughout the day with the help of an automatic feeder. Her insulin times will be 5AM and 5PM.

Calistica was diagnosed with diabetes on 10/14/11. We just saw the vet yesterday afternoon so we could start her on insulin. I've scared to death about doing this but the vet showed me how to do injections and everyone on the board has been incredibly helpful. I learned how to prick the ears last night but didn't get much blood for a reading. This morning I got my first reading.
Calistica was prescribed Lantus and that is why we are here so can learn from all of you. She will get one unit BID and I will be doing the first curve this coming Sunday.
I've downloaded the spreadsheet and will attempt to uploaded later on tonight.
 
Hi Thelma and Calistica! Welcome to Lantus Land, the most wonderful place you never wanted to be! :lol: Seriously, I'm glad you found this board - it's a wonderful family of highly intelligent, extremely knowledgeable, and endlessly generous folks. Wow, you really have a lot on your plate with Calistica, but you will get all the help you need here. So once again, Welcome!
 
Thanks so much Ann&Muffin! I've been terrified about doing this but after a lot of prayers and support from this group I feel that I can do this. Now I have to train DH to do it too just in case! He definitely needs to test at +1 and +2 in the mornings.
We have a lot on our plate and she just developed her first UTI hence the Clamavox.
 
Welcome aboard Thelma! We'll all be with you on this new phase of what has obviously been a difficult journey with your sweet Calistica.
 
Hi guys and welcome from us! yes, this sure can be all very overwhelming and very scary the first few weeks .. months? :-D But it does and will get easier .. everyone here is always more then helpful in answering your questions so know you are in good hands ..
 
Hi Thelma and Calistica,
Glad to see you made it over here. You will get a lot of good help here! Happy to hear you got a test done today! :thumbup It all gets easier from here.
Mares and Miss

Saw your post on the general health board.....yes, you will get faster at it! Once you figure out what works best for you and Calistica, how you want to keep her 'test kit' together, etc. You will soon be sleepwalking through it. I know I have. :lol:
 
Welcome to Lantus Land! Calistica, you are quite the grande dame. Thelma, you are doing great! There is a lot to figure out and you are making great progress.
Liz, Zener's other bean
 
Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! Calistica doesn't seem to be feeling well this afternoon. Not much energy in her today. I will check her BG shortly. I think this is more stressful because I have both my dear aunts visiting us for a month. Neither one of them speak English and they totally depend on me. I love them dearly and they understand that Calistica is our top priority but as you can imagine I'm feeling torn. So I apologize if I'm not getting to posts as soon as I should and I thank you for all your support.
I really hope I can get faster at doing this. I just remembered that I have an appointment with my rheumatologist next Tuesday at 3:30 which means I won't be home at 5PM for Calsitica's insulin. Can I give it to her a little later? I can also train Ray my DH to do it. He watched last night but not sure he feels comfortable doing this.
 
Re: 10/18 Calistica PMPS 216-Newbie

Hi everyone, right after I sent my previous post I thought Calistica wasn't feeling well but she was just sleepy.
Her PMPS was 216 and this morning it was 296. This is good!!
I did hurt her ear though because I poked her several times. It's all red now :sad: . I need to set the lancet at the highest setting otherwise; I don't get a good sample. Highest setting so far = excellent sample!
I gave her the insulin shot while she was eating her meal. She was almost done and didn't even feel it!

I have a question about diabetic neuropathy. Calistica definitely has it. Will it get better now that she is on insulin? Should I push for B12 shots? My vet is a pain about B12 shots. She will not prescribe it unless the cat really is deficient. I was surprised that she gave her one shot last week when Calistica had to spend the night there and they discovered she had pancreatitis. She gave me a prescription which I will pick up on Friday but I won't be able to give it to her yet because we're doing a cobalamin test on 11/4.
Thanks everyone!
Sending lots of prayers and healing energy to your fur babies!
 
Welcome to Lantus Land!

It sounds like you are getting the hang of testing. There is one cardinal rule -- no matter whether the test is successful, Calistica gets a treat. There are all sorts of low carb treats. Many cats here are fans of freeze dried chicken. If you need info on treats, let us know. You want your cat to associate testing with something positive -- a treat! It also takes a while for the ear to "learn" how to bleed. The more you poke, the more the capillary bed will build up and it will get easier. Also, if you need to poke more than once, keep the subsequent poke as close as you can to the original spot. The droplets may merge and make getting a big enough drop to test easier. You may find using a 28 gauge lancet (it's thicker than say a 30 gauge) will help you to poke more easily, as well.

Remember that Lantus dosing is based on the lowest point in the cycle. What this means is you need to get spot check tests during various point in the cycle in addition to your pre-shot tests. The pre-shot test is important to make sure it's safe to give a shot. The other tests are what you base your dosing decisions on.

Most people do not rely on B12 shots to treat diabetic neuropathy. Methyl-B12 is more effective and can be purchased on-line without a prescription. Zobaline is formulated for diabetic cats -- no sugar or flavorings. The tablet can be crushed and mixed into food or dissolved in some water and added to food.

Is Calistica eating the Hill's for medical reasons? Both the G/D and Z/D are very high in carbohydrates (i.e., over 30% carb for the canned foods). By way of comparison, I feed Gabby Wellness -- it's 4% carb. You will need a substantial amount of insulin to overcome the amount of carb you're feeding. If these foods are medically necessary, insulin can be worked around them.
 
Hi Thelma and the lovely Calistica!!

She is gorgeous!! Welcome to LL. The pokes will get better the more you do....I didn't get a chance to read through every word our family members here posted but if no one told you, you can put Neosporin Ointment for pain relief on her ears after you poke. Just a tiny bit...you don't want them to get too gooey. It will also help the blood bead up for you as long as you just use a little. On days we are doing alot of testing, I put some on Gracie's ears after every poke and then use a warm cloth to wipe it off for the next poke....and I alternate ears but some folks always poke the same one as it seems as if one bleeds better than the other.

You have started off on the right foot and we are ready to help out with any questions!!!
 
just want to add my welcome! and yes, calistica is gorgeous! you must be doing everything right to have gotten her to 18! that's awesome.

we love the neosporin ointment with pain relief too - punkin really appreciates it. we put it on at the end of the day and his ears seem like new the next morning.

ask away - this place is a treasure chest of knowledge about cats and their health, of course, especially on diabetes.

re the shot - first choice is if your husband can do it. you can go up to 1/2 hour late without a problem. if it's more than that it acts like a dose decrease. you can do it later, but then the next morning you need to shoot 12 hours after the night shot. so if you shoot at 6pm because of your appt, the next morning's shot is at 6am.

then you can adjust backwards by 15 minutes a shot or 30 minutes a day til you're at the time you want.
 
Hi Sienne, Marjorie, Julie, thanks so much for your kind welcome. Calistica is a beauty for sure.
Sienne, I always give her a treat. I bought those Halo chicken treats and she loves them.
Calistica is due on 11/4 for a cobalamin test. Will be the methyl-B12 tablets skew the results? Thanks for the name of the place to get the tablets from!
I am using 30G lancets. The lowest gauge I found for the relion pen I got was 26. Should I get those? Will I ever be able to use the 30g ones? I hope her capillary bed builds up soon!
Right now I'm only doing PS tests and on Sunday I have to do a curve.
In order to test at 1+ and 2+ I need to get Ray (DH) to learn how to poke so it would be best if I get him going on that ASAP. I probably need to get another lancet pen that has 28G lancets! Can you recommend one? I need to make this easy on my little girl.
Calistica was diagnosed in 2008 with advanced IBD or small cell lymphoma (inconclusive biopsy). Both look the same under the microscope. All IBD cats have incredible sensitive stomachs and any food change can cause them to relapse and have serious diarrhea. Calistica is one of them. She used to eat EVO venison but due to the pred she ballooned and we had to stop that food. Early in the year I tried to re-intro that food again and no luck. She got the soft poops. The best food according to her nutritionist was g/d because it helps her kidneys and it could potentially with her IBD. It took us 3 months to slowly transition her to this new food by giving her tiny amounts a day. we stared with 1/8 oz day and worked our way up to 75% g/d and 25% z/d. Wellness is one of the most recommended foods in my IBD group but Calistica didn't tolerate it. If I try EVO again she may gain more weight but we can try introducing tiny amounts of it. BTW, when I had her on EVO venison her kidney numbers were beautiful!

Julie, Calistica is our daughter and she is the center of our world. She is daddy's little girl. Ray is a big animal lover which is why I married her. He's learned to feed and pill her and now he needs to learn the poking and injecting part. We go to Tufts Veterinary hospital here in MA and the vets always laugh because Calistica's personal folder is pretty fat. They say she is on volume II! LOL
We faithfully do her meds and take her to the vet when needed so we do everything humanly possible for our baby. With a lot of love, commitment and good veterinary care our babies can live a long life.
Thanks for explaining how to do the shot next week when I may not be able to be home at 5PM. I will be working with Ray this weekend to make sure he knows how to do this. He needs to learn how to poke so he can test at +1, +2

Marjorie, I got the neosporin but thanks for mentioning that I only have to use a little and to wipe it off with a warm cloth! It seems that her left ear bleeds better. That is her black ear. The right one is half orange, half black. Thanks so much for offering your help!!!
 
Re: 10/19 Calistica AMPS 269

I forgot to mention this: 10/19 Calistica AMPS 269. It went up this morning which was kind of disappointing!

I have to do my first curve on Sunday. Can Calistica eat during the day? She gets her pre-insulin meal at 5AM, then eats at 8AM, 11AM, 2PM and again a pre-insulin meal at 5PM.
The vet told me to test for 12 hours.
Is the spreadsheet configured to do graphs?

Should I be starting a new topic each day?
 
Good morning!

Last question first -- yes, open a new condo daily. One condo per cat per day is the rule unless there is some question that you need to raise. However, even in the case of a question, you can always change your subject line to indicate you have a question. We also link the previous/last condo to the current one. That way if you, or any of us need to backtrack, it can be done more easily than trying to search the board.

It looks like the Google SS is set up to do graphs. I've never tried it so I can't tell you if it will work.

Do not withhold food if you are curving. In fact, unless you have a procedure with anesthesia planned or in some cases need a specific blood test that's influenced by the presence of lipids, I can't think of any reason to withhold food. In part, a curve will help you to determine how long a food spike may last, when Lantus onset occurs, and where the nadir is.

FYI: I can't get your spreadsheet to open. The error message is that it's not a valid spreadsheet URL.
 
Hi Thelma and Calistica and welcome to Lantus Land,

I couldn't get your spreadsheet to open, either. Perhaps you should post in the Tech Forum and ask if someone can figure out what is wrong with the URL.

Calistica is a beautiful kitty and you have done a great job with her health issues over the years. It is clear that she is very much loved. I hope that you can get all of the possible drug conflicts straightened out and that the feline diabetes routine will soon become just that--a routine that you and DH can handle without difficulty.

I really like my Accu-Check Soft Touch lancet device. I use it with BG 30-gauge lancets and put the setting at 3 (or 2). I have always found that the smaller gauge lancets work better than those fat "nails". Rusty's right ear bleeds much better than his left, so we use it exclusively. After warming his ear (I use a damp washcloth, microwaved for about 15 seconds and then put into a plastic bag; I test it on my own ear to see if it is too hot, and then gently wrap it around Rusty's ear until it warms up a bit), I put a little vaseline on his ear (to help the blood bead up), hold a gauze square in back of the ear, do the poke, get the reading, and then immediately wrap the gauze square around the ear and apply gentle pressure. At night, after the last test of the day, I put a little Neosporin creme with pain relief on the ear so it can heal overnight. I prefer the creme because it isn't greasy and absorbs well, but many people here prefer the ointment.

Good luck to you and your DH, and again, welcome,

Ella & Rusty
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top