For Anyone Debating Home Glucose Testing!!!

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Harley Baby & Michele

Harley Baby & Michele

Member Since 2018
Please, Please, Please test your cats glucose at home! I mentioned this in another thread but thought it important enough to share in a new thread.

For the past 2 days Harley has been fussy with his food. This is a common occurrence. He refuses his food but crawls all over me to get human food! He gobbled up my scrambled egg (with Hot Sauce by the way) yesterday and then enjoyed a bit of pork loin for his/my evening meal. I knew he was eating something so not overly concerned. He often goes through these "I am being picky" phases.

I checked his evening glucose before shot and it was 121. I just about passed out when I saw that number!!! I rechecked 4 more times over 10 minutes as I could not believe my eyes. Of course I held his evening shot. I then proceeded to give him anything he would eat: canned tuna, diced turkey deli meat and a bit of sweet potato. He ate it all. But heaven forbid he would eat cat food!

You also need to know I sleep like a rock and Harley sleeps anywhere in the house he feels like.

Take away lesson: If I was NOT HOME TESTING GLUCOSE...…..HARLEY WOULD BE DEAD!!!! I would never have heard him in distress or if he was having a seizure. If I gave insulin his glucose would continue to drop overnight to critically, dangerously low numbers AND HE WOULD HAVE DIED.

Got it? Good. Now go buy a meter and learn to test your cat. It is not difficult with a bit of practice. And to HE*L with any Vet that tells you not to home test!
 
So glad you caught that, I know you are too. I hope all the new members that might be on the fence, or thinking it might be too difficult see this.
 
When my kitty was first diagnosed his (then) vet put him on a very high dose of insulin and told me not to test him at home. Needless to say, I ignored this directive; about two weeks into the whole dance I did a random test and was stunned - paralyzed! - with a reading of 22! Squallie is completely asymptomatic, and if it hadn't been for this site and the wonderful people here, he would no longer be with me. Yes, testing at home is absolutely critical to the safety of your cat!!!
 
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You are 100% correct. This is why we stress this so much to other new members on the forum. I see you are pretty new to the forum. It is unfortunate, but we have lost kittehs from new members' cats who had hypos...and they were not testing.
 
I definitely concur. Truffles went hypo from a reading of 268 with 1.5u given. My gut told me that might be too much but I was still trying to get enough readings to work the doseage. I tested +3 and he was 47 which dropped to 41 after honey and still +3 till he would reach lowest level. If I hadn’t been testing I dread to think as he showed no signs at all.
 
With my first kitty, I knew nothing. When I got him I listened to vet. They did his testing. One day I asked if I could that at home because it was hard trying to get him there when I worked. They showed me how but said I only needed to test if he was acting funny. If he has a seizure bring him in right away. So weeks go by. He up to 5 units Vetsulin and the say there is nothing more we can do. Cut the dry food out. So I do. Few weeks later I knew something wasn't right. Googled, found fdmb read all the posts over few days (holiday weekend). Starting writing my intro (after deciding it was a legit site). I remember reading test before going to bed. So I do, he didn't come when the can popped. He didn't get up when I tried to push him to get up. I drag him out from behind the chair. Tested and got 32. That was 3 hrs after his shot. Don't know what it was before. He probably would not have made it through the night without incident had I not checked then.

Testing showed me he would dive deep anytime day or night. I learned with him I had to test anytime I was going to be away/sleep from him longer than 2 hrs.

LEARN TO TEST AND THEN TEST TEST TEST.
 
After what I went through recently I completely agree, don't listen to the vet & test at home. I've only been doing it for 2 weeks and am still learning. Houston has had a few high readings but that is because I thought his # was too low (until someone replied to my post last night) & fed him carbs to get the # up. Still haven't spoken to my vet & I'm tired of calling but I will continue to test at home. Hoping to move back north in Sept & I can get my previous & awesome vet back.
 
Why would anyone not want to know??? Just a simple little test.
Be thankful you don't need this monster. Yes that really is a meter.
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Olive & Paula said:
With my first kitty, I knew nothing. When I got him I listened to vet. They did his testing. One day I asked if I could that at home because it was hard trying to get him there when I worked. They showed me how but said I only needed to test if he was acting funny. If he has a seizure bring him in right away. So weeks go by. He up to 5 units Vetsulin and the say there is nothing more we can do. Cut the dry food out. So I do. Few weeks later I knew something wasn't right. Googled, found fdmb read all the posts over few days (holiday weekend). Starting writing my intro (after deciding it was a legit site). I remember reading test before going to bed. So I do, he didn't come when the can popped. He didn't get up when I tried to push him to get up. I drag him out from behind the chair. Tested and got 32. That was 3 hrs after his shot. Don't know what it was before. He probably would not have made it through the night without incident had I not checked then.

Testing showed me he would dive deep anytime day or night. I learned with him I had to test anytime I was going to be away/sleep from him longer than 2 hrs.

LEARN TO TEST AND THEN TEST TEST TEST.
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What a terrible experience. I keep reading these accounts, and having received advice to only test a couple of times a week at midday, I just shudder. I sure hope that something will change and all vets will receive better education, so our fur kids are not in danger. I also hope pet parents continue to research and find this board, or any information that teaches how to care for a diabetic cat.
 
We have heard about a lot of vets on this forum. Various reasons to "not test". Baloney to all of them.

If a human child was diabetic, would you test them before dosing? Yer darned right you would. The same reasoning goes for our fur-kids.

I got lucky when Leo was diagnosed in 2015. My vet sold me an Alphatrak and said "start testing". She is also a good vet in a lot of other ways. We have saved Leo from multiple hypoglycemia events. Without testing he would be dead a long time ago.
 
One of my prior vets chastised me when I dropped him off for boarding with his notebook. (I was going out of the country for 10 days.) "You are testing him too much! He's probably stressed." I assured her that he was definitely not stressed at home, comes when he hears the testing supplies being taken out and purrs the whole time. She didn't really believe me. (Probably because he was so stressed by being boarded.) I knew he'd be safe there, so I just said to do what they thought was right, as long as I can come to a healthy and alive cat. (LOL)

A few days later I got a check-up e-mail .she apologized. I was told that once Gordy accepted being there he became very calm and he was very easy to test.

I've never had a vet tell me NOT to test at home. I think its extremely unsafe to give insulin to something that cannot communicate how they feel (clearly) - ie babies and pets.

It frustrates me so much when i read people were told not to by their vet. :(:mad:
 
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