? Brand new to this

Julie mueller

Julie mueller

Member Since 2019
Hello! I am currently doing my 3rd curve for my vet . We have done 3 curves over the past month to decide if he needs insulin . I actually already bought the lantus and just waiting for the time . I will attach two spread sheets I did and I'm currently doing one (his first reading was 286) . I am thinking it's going to be time to start because this weekend he started symptoms of neuropathy and it really scares me !! His drinking and urinating is normal though. Let me know what you guys think .. if he should be on insulin and dosage. I feel like my vet knows less than I do on the subject .
 

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Welcome Julie and Smokey! Sorry I can't help with dosing advice but try adding a question mark to your thread title to help get more eyes on it. I'll check back in a bit and tag some people if you don't get a response. :bighug:
 
Welcome Julie and of course Smokey! I love tuxedo cats, I have one also!:)

First, don't be worry about your vet, most of us are dealing with vets that don't know as much as we do!! It's too bad but at least, you will find help and knowledge here! There is so much information on the Forum, when you have a chance go through the Stickies! Nice that your signature is done and that you're ready for Lantus; you're on the right forum and can count on help for your little Smokey!
BTW, I like your curves with the food markings! For sure, he does need insulin but unfortunately I'm not a dosing expert!
As Sonia suggested, put a ? in your title (just edit title and choose ? instead of no prefix)! :bighug::cat:
 
Julie mueller said:
How do you add a question mark ?
Click to expand...
It's in the same box where you created the title for your thread.

Hover your cursor over "Thread tools" and click on “Edit title". On the left of the Thread Title box you will see "no prefix", hover your cursor over it and you will see a drop down menu with choices of “911”, “GA”, “?” and “no prefix”. Click on the question mark, save your changes and you should be good to go. :)
 
ve done two tests today ..
8am -286 with AT strips (190 insulinX strips)
10am -286 with AT (179 InsulinX)

I'm wondering if something is wrong with the AT strips considering they are exactly the same .. they are expired by 6 months ..
 
I'm curious if I should start insulin and also if I should order the b12 vitamin for cats now for the neuropathy or wait until after starting insulin ?
 
Julie mueller said:
I'm curious if I should start insulin and also if I should order the b12 vitamin for cats now for the neuropathy or wait until after starting insulin ?
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I would wait for some advice before starting the insulin. Don't worry, someone will be here soon.

However in the meantime, read as much as you can on all the yellow stickies at the top of the page, you'll get a lot of good information that will help you. Definitely order the B Vitamin as soon as you can and start using it. A lot of people here use Zobaline for neuropathy. I still give it to Leo even though he no longer has it. I believe getting Leo regulated and giving him Zobaline is what cured his neuropathy. It took about 3 or 4 months but he had it really bad, he could hardly walk.
 
Welcome to the group!

Where you start with respect to dose depends on which approach to dosing you chose. With the Tight Regulation Protocol, the starting dose is based on your cat's ideal weight (initial dose = 0.25 x ideal weight in kilograms) twice a day. Unless your cat is ummm..... "fluffy" or has lost a great deal of weight, this typically works out to around 1.0u of insulin. The other option is the Start Low Go Slow (SLGS) method. If your cat is on a low carbohydrate, canned food only diet, you start at 0.5u twice a day. If your cat is not eating a low carb, canned food diet, you start at 1.0u twice a day. Each of these methods has its pros and cons. If you start with one method, you can always switch to the other option. If you've not already gotten Smokey on a low carb canned food diet, I'd strongly encourage you to do so before you start insulin. The diet change may work wonders. Info on feline nutrition is here. This website is put together by a vet, Lisa Pierson, DVM, who has an interest in feline nutrition.

I would encourage you to start our spreadsheet. It's much easier for those of us who always open a cat's spreadsheets to make sense of the numbers when we can see what's been going on in the big picture vs on a cycle by cycle basis.

There is an overwhelming amount of information in the sticky notes at the top of the board. I'd encourage you to begin reading and to please not hesitate to ask questions. The people here are very generous with their time and expertise. We're very willing to lend a hand.
 
Based off of what my vet has said before I'm pretty sure she will call me tomorrow and say to do a half unit twice a day . I have the lantus pen and was told to shoot a half unit directly from that ?
 
Julie mueller said:
ve done two tests today ..
8am -286 with AT strips (190 insulinX strips)
10am -286 with AT (179 InsulinX)

I'm wondering if something is wrong with the AT strips considering they are exactly the same .. they are expired by 6 months ..
Click to expand...
With regards to meters, if you try comparing the readings from an AT to a human meter, you will drive yourself crazy! We always recommend that you pick one meter and stick with it.

The 190 and 179 are virtually the same number. All meters "allow" for a 20% variance, and these numbers fall within that range. So, even though they aren't identical like your AT readings, they are close enough to be considered the same number.

With that said, I would be cautious about trusting expired test strips. You do want to have accurate numbers to base dosing and safety on, and once a strip has expired there is no real way of knowing if the reading is accurate or not.

Julie mueller said:
Based off of what my vet has said before I'm pretty sure she will call me tomorrow and say to do a half unit twice a day . I have the lantus pen and was told to shoot a half unit directly from that ?
Click to expand...
I'm assuming you mean using the pen needles and shooting directly from the pen? If that's the case, you will not be able to shoot in half-unit increments, as the pens only shoot in 1 unit increments. What most folks here do us basically use the pen as a vial, drawing insulin from it with a regular syringe and then shooting from the regular syringe. We do strongly encourage getting syringes with half-unit markings so that you are able to shoot in these small increments. If you look at other kitties' spreadsheets, you'll notice that most dose adjustments are actually made in .25unit increments, and that is best achieved with syringes that have the half-unit markins.
 
Julie mueller said:
ve done two tests today ..
8am -286 with AT strips (190 insulinX strips)
10am -286 with AT (179 InsulinX)

I'm wondering if something is wrong with the AT strips considering they are exactly the same .. they are expired by 6 months ..
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t trust the expired test strips as that a while out of date.
 
I tested 2 more times ..

One was 271
2nd was 360

I'm scared because hes not normally this high . Its obviously definitly time to start insulin. He wont get alot worse for waiting until Thursday to start right ?
 
Had Smokey eaten before the 360 test? Food will cause a spike in blood glucose (BG) numbers.

I wish I could tell you with absolute certainty that nothing can happen within 1.5 days. As long as Smokey is healthy (i.e., doesn't have an infection or inflammation brewing) and is eating normally (by that I mean he's not refusing to eat) and his activity level is as usual, it's unlikely that something like his developing ketones will occur.

Your signature notes that Smokey is eating Fancy Feast. What variety are you feeding him? Hopefully, it's one of the low carb types.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Had Smokey eaten before the 360 test? Food will cause a spike in blood glucose (BG) numbers.

I wish I could tell you with absolute certainty that nothing can happen within 1.5 days. As long as Smokey is healthy (i.e., doesn't have an infection or inflammation brewing) and is eating normally (by that I mean he's not refusing to eat) and his activity level is as usual, it's unlikely that something like his developing ketones will occur.

Your signature notes that Smokey is eating Fancy Feast. What variety are you feeding him? Hopefully, it's one of the low carb types.
Click to expand...


Today he is eating friskies in gravy which has a carb count of 13 because he is fighting me with every other canned food (friskies is what he has always ate) .
 
The Friskies pates are low in carbs. 13% is what we would regardless at a medium carb food an it's likely why you're seeing that higher numbers.
 
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