George Pusskins: How much change in a day is ok?

[RuthC]

Thanks for the great info and advice I've received here - what a wonderful community! "His Royal Pussness King George" is coming along ok. After changing his diet, George's BG number has tumbled from where we began at 432 to the much improved 184 I measured today. Numbers go up and down, but the average is continuing to fall. As I've been doing the testing day to day, however, I have wondered how much of a variance through the day is acceptable. For example, that 184 at lunchtime today was followed by a 289 at the next poke two hours later (I'm doing a curve for an upcoming vet appt). I expect we'll be putting him on insulin at this point, but I would like to have a better feel for what kind of spikes are "normal" so I'll make better sense of the monitoring.

By the way, my vet was very accepting and even enthused about the treatment program advocated on this site. I provided her with lots of links and info and she was very interested in providing it to her other diabetic pet owners. She commented that I am the only owner she's had who has been successful with home monitoring. This floored me, as I did not think testing was difficult to learn, especially with the good video link you provide here. I'm fortunate to have a cooperative cat.

 

[Denise & Honey]

hi Ruth

289 seems a little high and I would think with those numbers, he does need to go on insulin - which, now you've mastered the testing, is a piece of cake @-)

I think people give up on the home testing because it often is hard at first and we are all so frightened of hurting our kitties - although everyone tells us it doesn't hurt, its not until we get proof that we believe it.
Also, I guess we want to take charge of our kitties health and don't want to be passive - not everyone has the time or energy that requires.
So we should all get a bit pat on the back :mrgreen:

 

[BJM]

Normal glucose levels, using a human glucometer, without being on insulin, are from 40 to 120.

The level at which the renal system starts excreting glucose in the urine is approximately 240. This puts quite a workload on the kidneys and may contribute to their damage long term. You really don't want that.

You need to be testing ketones, since you are not giving insulin. Please pick up urine kteone test strips asap. Any ketones, a byproduct of fat breakdown for calories when not enough insulin is present, are an emergency. Please see my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for instructions on how to do that.

Feeding mini-meals, either by hand or by using a timed feeder, helps keep the glucose from spiking. You also may freeze part of the day's meals to thaw and be nibbled upon gradually to slow the food/glucose surges.

 

[Tara & Buster]

Welcome to the vampire club! Glad to see you're hometesting - it's the only way to really understand what's going on. I have no idea how a vet is supposed to be successful with FD via office visits alone. The more data you have, the better you can see trends to understand how much your particular cat will fluctuate. Especially in the beginning, kitties tend to be all over the place. Keep getting numbers and the picture will become more clear. There's a spreadsheet/template we use here to help track the numbers. It helps you see the trends and also acts as a quick reference for anyone trying to assist with dosing changes as they come along. Here's how to set it up: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207

I'm so glad to hear your vet is onboard with this approach! Sounds like you can work together to get George back on track :thumbup