Did another test and about the same

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skybar22

skybar22

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I did my first test and now I would like some advice, please.

Morgaine is not on insulin and I am hoping to do this with diet. She was diagnosed 5/3 with a BS of 270 and she was on Hill's R/D prescription diet to lose weight. I changed her diet to FF high protein, low carb only yesterday so less than 2 days and my first test shows her at 162. Down about 100. She was also given a small dose of an injected steroid on Monday so that may be raising her a bit too so if I give her a couple more days she may be back to normal BS.

My question: Does anyone have any suggestions as to how long to keep going without trying insulin? I know she is still too high but she is so close and I would like to keep going with the diet and see where that goes since we are heading in the right direction. Does anyone disagree? BTW, she hadn't had any food in about 3 hours. I feed her several small portions daily because she likes to eat and twice a day makes her nuts. I am not overfeeding just giving her 1.5 oz at a time.
 
Re: I Did My First TEST!!!!

Congratulations on your first test! That's something a lot of us find hard to do early on =) Good job!

When did you test in relation to when she was fed? Was it before feeding (if so how long since last feed?) or after (if so how long after?)

I personally like that you are trying diet change first (but I don't know nuttin' about nuttin' really, too new to really understand much) because diet can make a huge difference. You may find she never needs insulin if this works.

When you test matters though. When there is no insulin on board you should test 3-4 hours after she has eaten. You want to see how her body is handling the food. If you test earlier than that you will get a number that we call a "food spike" because she's still processing it. Several hours later you will see the true number.

Example, my cat is currently not taking insulin. We're on a trial to see if he is ready to be completely off and diet controlled. My hubby got up earlier than I did but he didn't leave a note to say if he fed or if he tested. I tested Tugger and got a 113... which is high for him these days. So I couldn't tell if he'd recently eaten. I'll assume he has because I test often and know his patterns, so I fed him breakfast and I will test him again 4 hours after that feeding. The number I get at that time will be lower, or should be. It'll likely be in the 70's.

I can't advise you on how to go about trying diet from the beginning stages but hopefully others here will have some advice for you. There are a lot of really smart folks here and I'm sure some of them will be by soon to say hi =) It sounds like you've got a good start since you're feeding Low Carb FF varieties (did you find Janet and Binky's List?)
 
Re: I Did My First TEST!!!!

I consulted with Dr. Lisa Pierson by phone. She is wonderful and although I couldn't really afford it it literally saved me from a lot of stress and trial and error. As I mentioned in my newbie thread, I have type 1 diabetes myself and wear a pump so my learning curve is different since I already am totally familiar (46 years) with this insidious disease.

I tested her about 3 hours after she ate a small amount of food about 1.5 oz. She also had that streoid shot on Monday so she may still have some effect from that going on.

I did consult Binky's list too after I knew what I was looking for.
 
Re: I Did My First TEST!!!!

Well you got the best advice out there as far as I'm concerned =) Dr Lisa is great!

I really hope your girl will be fine with the diet change! It sounds like the chances for that are very good =)

I wish I had made that choice when Tugger was first diagnosed. The vet mentioned putting him on DM but I refused and he didn't push it or explain that diet alone could possibly have an effect. Tugger's numbers were much higher at dx though so maybe it wouldn't have worked. It would have been nice to try it though before trying insulin. Instead, I shot blindly for months and then eventually made the change. It did make a huge difference once I finally did it though and barely a month later here we are... it's enough that it really made me wonder how many kitties could be helped with diet alone if that were tried first.
 
Re: I Did My First TEST!!!!

It kills me that Morgaine was on Hill's prescription diet for 3+ years and she developed diabetes on it. As it turns out it is a bad diet for cats and I have every intention of composing a long and detailed letter to them when I am more composed myself. If Morgaine had just stayed on FF which was her favorite food and I had cut out the dry food I was feeding her which was a premium food called Nutro Max Lite she would have lost weight and maybe not be dealing with diabetes now. She may be able to be controlled on diet but she still has diabetes and it is bothersme that my vet put her on R/D. He is going to hear from me as well. The vets who are uninformed need us to inform them or they will continue to poison our pets with these awful diets.

Yes, Dr. Lisa is a godsend and I intend to consult with her periodically because it beats paying these local vets for bad treatment and advice and they charge me a fortune to do home visits.

Sorry to vent here but i am angry at it all and plan to confront it in some way after I calm down and can think about what is best. We have to speak out. Hill's has to be confronted too and I am going to write my experiences out and let them know how wrong they are to promote these high carb and fiber diets for cats. The general public needs to know not to buy these foods for their cats. We love these babies so much and we need to empower ourselves so they stop hurting our babies.

My Morgaine is feeling so much better. She had her first normal pee in her box in a long time. She had not been concentrating her urine and it was spraying outside the box and she is not drinking so much anymore but taking normal drinks of water again from her bowl. When I think of the damage done to her by these foods it appalls me because having type 1 for so long has damaged my body dramatically and I can't manage my diabetes with proper food only. It's a huge deal to me what these pet food companies are doing to our beloved family members.

As a consumer I know I have to do something but I am not clear enough yet to take any action.
 
Re: I Did My First TEST!!!!

I agree 1000%! I'm typing with one hand right now bc I have a kitten chillin' on my other one....

Tugger was put on that SD script food when he was dx'd with FLUTD and eventually switched to SD Adult Lite or whatever the diet otc food is. I later switched to expensive grain free dry, which we fed for a year or so before the FD dx. My crew wouldn't touch wet food with a ten foot pole... till one day in March they all decided to eat it. So I took the dry away immediately, before they could change their minds!

I've kind of been on a mission to educate people about the evils of dry food since then. I've managed to get my sis to switch her three male kitties over to an all canned food diet, which is good because one of them has FLUTD like Tugger so the change will be great for him and will hopefully help prevent issues from developing with the other two when they are older (only a year old this month!)

I do agree though that more vets need to educate themselves on FD. Sure seems like there are a LOT of FD kitties out there and a huge percentage of them are not being treated effectively! I've seen SO MANY people show up here with kitties in crisis because their vet (like mine) handed them insulin and showed 'em how to shoot and never told them to home test or how to manage the dose or even how to properly manage the insulin!

So many of Tugger's issues could have been prevented if our vet had educated me from day one... rather than me having to do it myself over time. I am SO grateful to this place for helping me get Tugger where he is today. Without this board and the information made available here... I'd still be shooting blindly, feeding dry food and taking my poor baby to stay at the vet's for curve testing and trusting them to help me take care of him and his FD.
 
Re: I Did My First TEST!!!!

skybar22 said:
I did my first test and now I would like some advice, please.

Morgaine is not on insulin
My question: Does anyone have any suggestions as to how long to keep going without trying insulin? I know she is still too high but she is so close and I would like to keep going with the diet and see where that goes since we are heading in the right direction. Does anyone disagree?
Click to expand...

Congratulations!!

My vet recommends diet change for 10 days for new diabetics to see what happens. but with that dramatic of a drop, you might just be able to hold out a little longer and see what happens.

Connie
 
I did a second test +2 hours after a feeding and her BS was 159, so about the same. It haS now been 3 days with the diet change but she was also put on an antiobiotic, Biomox, and I don't know how that might be effecting her. It has sucrose as the last ingredient but I was told it is negligible and to keep her on it for the full 10 days. So, still wondering if continuing without insulin is the best course of action. All symptoms are gone. I also had to order some new syringes with the 1/2 unit markings as mine are old and it would be hard to judge a tiny amount of insulin like .25. Any thoughts/advice would be helpful. She seems quite herself these days and that makes me happy.
 
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