A new user seeking for a small advice.

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O_and_N

Member Since 2015
Greetings from Spain.My cat is 13 yeas old(quite strong and energetic)untill the start of last week.Three days ago we took him to the vet to see why he was so weak and lazy and after the blood analisys,etc de diagnosted diabetes.(not that just a few days befor he got weak he had 3 days of diarea and a antibiotic was injected)After the shock and quikly getting together im now giving him every 12h caninsulin(a versy small dose) and today is the third day and he starts to look ok but here are the questions.

The vet said that some times 50/50 cats pancreas can start to work good again(after a few months of insulin treatment)and that i will only have to monitore him with no injections needed.Is that correct?

Yesterday the cat didnt wanted to eat i insulin was applyed a few hour ago so i triturated the wet food with litle milk+syringe and it to his mouth.Was that the right thing to do?He does have apetite today.

And lastly are there any good places for taking blood easy for the blood shugar test?I did it quite a few times on all 4 paws but most of the time all most no bloog drop can get from there or difficult.I saw the cat ear thing.Im a litle confused.Shoud i poke slightly the vein or is it the rim edge of the ear?

O,im using caninsulin.
 
Hi and welcome! Yes it's true that a cats pancreas can start working again, that is why it's so important that you home test. If it were to start up again and you kept your insulin dose the same, you could risk a hypo event. I see you are feeding a wet food that's good, but make sure it's low carb, not all are. I'm not familiar with caninsulin, but some of our members are and I'm sure they'll come along and help you more. Again welcome.
 
Greetings! Glad you found this site as there are a lot of great people here to help you . I am not sure what you meant about monitoring as per your vet. Here we monitor before every shot. So test, feed, and then give insulin. Also, with Caninsulin there can be drops in the blood glucose that can be very steep and fast. That is how that particular insulin functions, it has a fast-acting component, which can cause drops around the +3 to +4 time frame, and it also has a longer acting component that kicks in to try and get optimum duration. This second component can cause another drop but usually not as sharp or as fast, sometime around +7 hrs, give or take. So, it would be best for you to check at the 3 or 4th hour after you give the insulin and also again around the 7th hour to make sure you kitty is not going into a hypo situation. A hypo situation would be anytime the BG goes 50 and under. Please look at this link to help you understand what to do in the event that you kitty goes 50 or below.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

As far as the test site, most of us test on our kittes ears. There are some good videos on the forum to show how to test, it is the area between the vein that runs along the side of the ear and the outer ear. If you need help, please ask and we can give you some tips.

It was good that you syringed your kittie some food as it is very important that your cat has food on board before giving the insulin.

Hope I answered your questions. Please ask any more questions that you need answered that is how we all learned and keep learning.
 
Bobbie And Bubba said:
A hypo situation would be anytime the BG goes 50 and under. Please look at this link to help you understand what to do in the event that you kitty goes 50 or below.
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I will add that 50 is in US numbers, which measure mg/dl. The rest of the world measures blood glucose in mmol/L. Here is a conversion chart.
http://www.joslin.org/info/conversion_table_for_blood_glucose_monitoring.html

When testing the ears, we aim at capillaries a little in from the edge of the ear, not the vein. The meters are designed for capillary blood. And if you hit a vein you will get a lot of blood! So be ready to put pressure on the ear just in case you do miss and hit the vein.
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Hello to Spain! Welcome to FDMB!

Some cats do go into remission, some never do. The earlier the diagnosis the more apt kitty may be to go into remission.

I use Vetsulin, same thing as Caninsulin, so I'm pretty familiar with it. What dosage is your kitty getting? Here is a link to information on Caninsulin: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/vetsulin-caninsulin-humulin-n.19/

We have a spreadsheet we use here and it would be really helpful to you and to us if you could download it and enter your test results, etc. It helps you see patterns in BG rises and drops that you might not see otherwise, and it helps us to use as reference if you need help or advice. You can find it here: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/ If you click on the link in my signature (below) you can see mine so you get an idea of what they look like.

What do you feed your kitty? (By the way, try not to give much milk; contrary to everybody's mental image of a cat lapping up a bowlful of milk, it is actually quite hard on their tummies and can cause diarrhea) Bobbie and Bubba are right, a diabetic cat should eat food that is less than 10% carbohydrates, and preferably canned or wet. However, if your cat is not currently on a low carb diet, and you want to switch to one, you MUST do this slowly and gradually, and be testing frequently, to avoid a hypoglycemic episode! As you reduce the number of carbs your kitty eats, kitty's need for insulin becomes less. If you do not monitor this change of food very closely it could be fatal, as his blood glucose could rapidly plummet too low. As you see a drop in BG, you may need to lower your insulin dose accordingly.

The general advice here is first test, then feed, and finally dose (in the case of Caninsulin, wait 20-30 minutes or so after eating). This way you know your BG reading is not influenced by food, and the wait after feeding is just to make sure kitty has food in his/her tummy before dosing (Caninsulin can cause fast, steep drops in BG, the food helps buffer that a little bit). You were right to make sure your kitty had some food in his tummy!

The ear seems to be the preferred place to test BG. If you look at the back edge of your kitty's ear you will see the vein that runs along the edge there (if you can't see it clearly sometimes it helps if you shine a flashlight from underneath). You want to prick the area between this vein and the edge of his ear, there are lots of capillaries there. It helps a lot if his ear is warm. Here is a link to some very good information about testing: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

I hope we've been able to answer your questions, without overwhelming you! Don't ever hesitate to post for help or advice! There a great bunch of people here, who have loads of experience and are always willing to help or offer advice. Last but not least, here is a link to FAQs a lot of newcomers have, there is a lot of really good information here. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/health-links-faqs-about-feline-diabetes.14/

Lucy :):):)
 
Many thanks guys.I will take a look at the carbs chart right away as in every country there are different brands of food.I was a litle overwhelmed at furst as its such a small animal but my big brother does have diabetes since litle(uses insulin 4 times a day)so all that training will come handy now.Ive seen the effect of when you put insulin and dont eat...it wasnt pretty so ill be aware with the cat.Good thing is that today it had enough strenght and interest of going for a 20 min walk arround the house.I have noticed that the back legs seem very litle unstable when jumping but i suspect its because he is still tired and have lost a litle weight.I have appointment with the vet in 2 days and and by than i hope he will be in top shape.(or somewhere there :) )
What i know is that when i finish the caninsulin he will search for human insulin replacement.I supose that one is stronger.

Will try the cat ear thing tonight calmly.
Thank you again.

Forgot to say that the device my brother has for the blood shgar is in mg/dl.The vet said it shoud stay between 71-159.In the begining was 326.Will start a diary for this.Than we managed to get to 123 and today at the afternoon was 226.Will se how it goes tonight and make the final tweaks between food and insulin.

So it good to take the blood shugar first,depending on the nubers give less food,more food or no food,wait 30 min and give the insulin?
 
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O_and_N said:
Forgot to say that the device my brother has for the blood shgar is in mg/dl.The vet said it shoud stay between 71-159.In the begining was 326.Will start a diary for this.
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Since you are using a human meter that measures in mg/dL, we recommend you do not shoot insulin if the pre-shot number is below 200. If you get 200 or more on that meter, you're good to give the insulin.
The routine is: Test blood glocose, feed usual meal, THEN shoot the insulin. Normally you'd give the Caninsulin twice per day, generally about 12 hours apart on the doses. Try to test blood glucose around low point (nadir) - about 4 to 6 hours after the shot - to make sure your cat stays within safe range. If you get a number nearing 50 on the meter, steer the blood glucose (BG) up with a little food, and retest the BG in 15 to 20 minutes to make sure it is rising. If not, repeat these steps until it rises and stays higher.

Caninsulin lasts between 8 to 10 hours in some cats, and in others it can last up to 12 hours.
 
Thanks,i will give it a good read.
Buy the way,i just made the blood shugar test right now from the ear(succes)and it was a wooping 530!In the afternoon 13.00 it was 260 and he did ate litle.Was strange to see this but right now he looks quite good and i dont see anything strange in the behaviour to be alarmed.Called the vet on the phone and he told me to put the usual dose which is 0.05 ml(if im not mistaking the name of the units but its what he showed me at the clinic).And he said that right now it shoud be normal and with that dose we will get it stable litle by litle.Ive asked him about food and he said the if the cat wants,than give him the food.And he ate 10 min ago a litle.(its mainly the sause from the wet food)

Speaking about food i took a look at the wet food i have at home right now and im surpised how litle is documented.Here is a small translation of the main feaures.

brute protein 9%
brute fibers 0.8%
brute fat 5%
brute ash?(ceniza in spanish) 3%
humidity 82%
vitamin e 10mg/kg

Something tells me the food my not be that good.
 
Bobbie And Bubba said:
I'm not sure if it is or not, I am going to tag @Squalliesmom as she knows the formula for figuring out.
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I don't, really, but it's probably safe to say if it's in gravy it's likely high in carbs. Somewhere on here, just recently someone did post the formula for figuring out the carb content, I will look to see if I can find it. There are also some list floating around of foods manufactured in Europe, I'll try to find them, as well.
 
Squalliesmom said:
I don't, really, but it's probably safe to say if it's in gravy it's likely high in carbs. Somewhere on here, just recently someone did post the formula for figuring out the carb content, I will look to see if I can find it. There are also some list floating around of foods manufactured in Europe, I'll try to find them, as well.
Click to expand...
Thanks Lucy!
 
Many thanks people and im so sorry for the sudden trouble.With that info i have more than enough to take things in my hands more calmly.
Thank you again.
 
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