Getting my test kit, now what?!?

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Butkus2012

Butkus2012

Member Since 2012
Just checked and my test kit is to be delivered today. I know I need to first learn how to use it and test but this brings up numerous questions for me.

I'm very nervous doing this on my own. Well, not on my own because I see how helpful and informative everyone is on this board. What I mean is without the help of my vet. She never mentioned home testing and when I told her I read about feeding low carb canned food she said she never heard of it and told me to stay with the dry Science Diet WD. She then told me to bring Butkus back in 3 months for another check unless I notice a change.

I can't keep feeding him the same and pumping insulin into him when I see so many people have reduced the doses and even eliminated the doses by diet changes and home testing. I have to try but I'm scared of something bad happening to Butkus and I would never forgive myself.

I'll try my first BG test tonight to practice. Does it matter when? I believe I read to always test before feeding and dosing so maybe that's what I should do from the start.

Next question is when to I stop the dry? Butkus does like his dry but has always had some canned too so I don't see it being an issue of him not eating when I stop all dry. Then how to I know what dose to give him when I stop the dry? This is I'm sure where the testing is extremely important but I have no idea what doses I would give after seeing the numbers. This is what scares me the most. Is there a chart?

After I get all this down I'll need to find a new vet. I'm in the NW suburbs of Chicago, Elgin area. If anyone has a vet they recommend please let me know.

Thanks for reading and for any advice.
 
Butkus2012 said:
Just checked and my test kit is to be delivered today. I know I need to first learn how to use it and test but this brings up numerous questions for me.

I'm very nervous doing this on my own. Well, not on my own because I see how helpful and informative everyone is on this board. What I mean is without the help of my vet. She never mentioned home testing and when I told her I read about feeding low carb canned food she said she never heard of it and told me to stay with the dry Science Diet WD. She then told me to bring Butkus back in 3 months for another check unless I notice a change.

I can't keep feeding him the same and pumping insulin into him when I see so many people have reduced the doses and even eliminated the doses by diet changes and home testing. I have to try but I'm scared of something bad happening to Butkus and I would never forgive myself.

I'll try my first BG test tonight to practice. Does it matter when? I believe I read to always test before feeding and dosing so maybe that's what I should do from the start.

Next question is when to I stop the dry? Butkus does like his dry but has always had some canned too so I don't see it being an issue of him not eating when I stop all dry. Then how to I know what dose to give him when I stop the dry? This is I'm sure where the testing is extremely important but I have no idea what doses I would give after seeing the numbers. This is what scares me the most. Is there a chart?

After I get all this down I'll need to find a new vet. I'm in the NW suburbs of Chicago, Elgin area. If anyone has a vet they recommend please let me know.

Thanks for reading and for any advice.
Click to expand...

Hi Butkus....I am in the southwest burbs (Will County). Unfortunately I do not know of any good vets in your area. I recently connected with a VCA-animal hospital and so far the vets seem extremely supportive with my mission to cure Pookie (my sugar cat) which includes home curves and low-carb diet. Perhaps you should consider a VCA hospital?

As far as home-testing, I was VERY nervous in the beginning. Luckily, Pookie is a VERY mild-mannered cat, so he succumbed to the testing very easily. It's just a matter of getting your cat acquainted to the testing, but everyone approaches it differently, as it depends on the temperament of your cat.

Here is a good reference with regard to home testing. It also includes instructional video: http://www.felinediabetes.com/bg-test.htm and also here for even more references: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=287

It is also a good thing to indicate what kind of insulin you are using so that others can provide a more thorough feedback. For example, if you are using Lantus, that is an insulin designed to work on a 12-hour basis.

Re: the dry.....stop it immediately. The sooner you stop the dry, you will most likely notice a huge improvement with his blood sugar. The dry that is prescribed by the vet is not good because it is still too high in carbs for a sugar cat. Go here for further reading: http://www.catinfo.org/

I am not big on writing lengthy posts, so I would rather provide you with links and references to answer the rest of your inquiries. I'm sure others will add further clarification. :)
 
Hi,
I can't help you with your insulin but here is the stickie that is over in the PZI forum that has many links for you to reference to.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=32799



This link is about home testing. There are pictures of where to prick the ear ( sweet spot).
Be sure and give a low /no carb treat for participating. You want him to associate his treat with getting tested so that
he learns to be more cooperative.

http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=287

A really good treat is available at petsmart called PureBites. They are freeze dried and no carbs. (shrimp, chicken, turkey, beef and liver)
It's getting easier to find freeze dried treats in stores . Sometimes you might have to look in the dog sections too.
You can also use boiled chicken, some cats love that.
If your cat loves tuna, you could give a pinch of that.

The food change is important.
You will need to adjust your dose BEFORE you change the cat food but we need to get someone over to help you with that.
Your numbers could drop a lot from the food change which could be dangerous for your cat.
I think Carl is our prozinc guy but I'm not for certain. I'll ask him to come post to you.
He can also tell you the most important times to test for prozinc.
You had a 98 a day or so ago and I think you might already be on too high a dose.
( DId someone loan you a meter ?)

Many vets don't know about the low carb diet option. They are spoon fed by companies like Hill's who fund veterinary research.
My cat dropped very quickly from her original diagnosis number just with the food change. Feel free to look at my spreadsheet.
I changed food immediately before the shots started. And then I got lucky because my vet started me at 1 unit. (which could have
been too high for a starting dose with the food change)
I'm sure someone has given you this website but here it is again.
It describes everything about the importance of changing to low carb.
http://www.catinfo.org/
She explains why she would never feed any of the prescription foods to her cats for diabetes.
She prefers raw . I've been trying to get my cat to eat raw but she really likes her canned food.

Keep asking questions.
Welcome.
 
Hi,

Thanks Rhiannon for the invite!
Just to make sure I'm current. You are still feeding the W/D dry food, right?
Good job getting the profile and the SS set up! The only thing I saw that made me do this :o was the 98, which I assume was the number at the vet the last time you brought him in? And they only told you to reduce by .5u??? The Fructosamine test numbers you have in the comments section...that is not really a high number. When was that test run?

Now that you have your meter, you can do this more safely, and Butkus will love you for it. :smile:

I think your dose is too high, and I also think your vet raised it way too quickly from .5 to 5u, and it's actually a good thing he's been on that high carb food.

First thing to do - get a blood test tonight before feeding and before given insulin. Let's see what it is. My gut is to tell you to lower the dose tonight no matter what number you get, but let's take it a step at a time, ok? What time will you be testing?

Carl
 
Hi Carl-

Thanks for responding and sorry for my delayed response. The evening did not go as planned. My mail was delivered late (with test kit in it), my husband worked late, my 3 yr old was being a 3yr old, and I had a class to go do which I just got back from. So as you can guess, no testing was done and Butkus was given his usual dose.

I've never tested a cat or used a BG meter so I will need to read the manual and watch some videos. I've watched a couple demo videos but don't feel like I can go give a test yet. I plan to look into that shortly. I was sent a Arkray Glucocard 01.

To answer some of your questions:

Yes Butkus is still eating the dry. It was suggested on another post that I continue feeding the same until I could do some testing. I just posted those numbers to my SS today. I didn't have them (didn't think to keep track at the time) but called the vet because I thought it would be helpful to have that initial info on there. I must say I was a quite surprised when she told me the 98 reading and she still had me up his dose. That number was from his 6/28 visit. It wasn't recommended to drop down to 4.5 until he had the Fructosamine on 7/28.

Actually she had me up the dose the last two visits even thought his numbers were coming down. So you think I'm overdoing him? Should we lower his future doses even before some tests?

I feel terrible but I was trusting a vet would know what she's doing and a the time I didn't know anything about where those numbers should be.
 
Yes, I too think the dose is too much- a 98 and she says to up it??!! But looking at the other numbers I would have retested as that number is WAY too low for a vet test. Bet she would have charged you twice, too. I will tell you that we usually test again if we get an extremely high or low number just to make sure it is correct.

AND she doesn't want to see you back until 3 months is up with no office curves for three months???

YES! Find a new vet!

Go easy with the testing. It really isn't hard to do, just unfamiliar. Warm up the ear well first- that is the biggie. No warm ear, no blood :lol: . Take it slowly and know you might not be successful the first few times- the capillaries need to expand into the area and that takes pokes and more pokes. Be calm and your kitty will be calm- annoyed, but calm (mostly- ECID :roll: ).
 
Carl,

Just did my first test on Butkus about 20 min ago and it read 49. He was fed just after 5 and got his dose just before 6.

Just gave him some more food, both dry and canned since that number seems low and he was hungry. I doubt I can get another test tonight but will try again in the am before food and insulin.

Seems like he is getting too much insulin but I have no idea how much to reduce.

Suggestions?
 
I was a little worried about the low and when your peak time is for your insulin.
The pzi page says 4-7 hrs is the usual range, so hopefully that is your low tonite and you said you were feeding.

I just didn't want your bg to keep dropping if it had only been a couple of hours.
Carl and the others had wanted you to lower the dose tonite but obviously you can't do that now.
So tomorrow.
They didn't say by how much....

I'll go remind Carl to check back on you so you might have that information before morning shot time.
 
49? Wow, glad you caught it! Without knowing what the number was when you gave the shot, we can't tell how much the 4.5 brought it down, but you don't want it any lower than 49. That's the low end of "normal".
I think I would cut it down to 2u at the most. Get a test in the morning, before feeding and before shooting. It is likely that you'll see a fairly high number in the morning because he went very low tonight. That's something we call "bouncing".

If you see a number lower than 200 in the morning, do not give him a shot. That's too low a number to give insulin when first starting out with testing.

If you do give 2u in the morning, can you get other tests during the day? A good time would be 3-4 hours after the shot to see what effect the dose is having.

Carl
 
I just did another test now and got 83.

Can I be doing something wrong? These numbers seem so low. I thought I would feel better after I started testing but now I'm more stressed.

I just fed him but won't do a shot and will try to retest before I go to work @ 9.
 
3 hrs later and he ate and now got an 80. I'm starting to wonder about this meter (or maybe the user).

Have to head to work so won't be able to test again until tonight.
 
NO, I don't think you are doing anything wrong. You can test yourself to see if the meter they sent is good but those are some GREAT numbers to have- but if they are caused by high doses of insulin that isn't a good number to have. We call this the dance of frustration- or namely the "Sugar Dance".

Maybe the high dose of insulin kind of knocked Mr P into making an appearance and told him to get the ball rolling.

Others will chime in who have more experience.

If the shot is above 200, and it could be bouncing high, the dose Carl suggested would be good. The problem is we don't have the data- that is always the problem with new sugar cats and not your fault. It would be great if they taught this in school, wouldn't it, along with first aid and CPR... "How to test your cat/dog and do this once a week so you can get a baseline against future diabetes!" Pie in the sky :lol: .
 
I'm not going to give advice on how much you should drop the dose, as I'm not familiar with Prozinc/PZI, but I would definitely say the dose was too high which is why you're getting these low numbers. Just remember--the Hills Prescription W/D is just about the worst thing you can feed a diabetic cat, which is keeping his BG sky high. Once you remove that food, his BG is going to come down--A LOT. So you want to make sure you lower the dose significantly and are testing.

Unfortunately, far too many vets don't understand the connection between diet and diabetes. The pet food companies show up and tell vets that a specific food is formulated for diabetes, and the vets trust that the pet food company reps know what they're talking about. Hills especially is pretty awful because they purposely misinform vets about feline nutrition so that they'll sell their foods with incredibly cheap and inappropriate ingredients at a super high profit margin for Hills. Nevermind that these diets are actually making the cats sicker--ugh, I really hate Hills. It's like feeding a child McDonald's for every meal, and then the child gets type 2 diabetes from the food, so then McDonald's says, "Here, try our diabetic Happy Meal!", which has the exact same ingredients as all their other unhealthy foods.
 
Helo.
I agree about the food. Here is a shortcut shopping list to help give you more time to research all the food lists for
others, and there are others. ( this is just my own shopping list so I don't buy the wrong flavors) Try to pick mostly
chickens or turkeys. You don't want a diet based on only seafoods, or only beef or liver.




carbs
5% - fancy feast CLASSICS chicken feast-- stay away from any that are not classics
2%- fancy feast chopped grilled feast pate
2%- fancy feast cod, sole & shrimp feast pate
3%- fancy feast Ocean Whitefish and tuna pate
4%-fancy feast Savory Salmon feast pate
3%- fancy feast Seafood feast pate
4%-fancy feast Tender beef feast pate
4%-fancy feast Tender beef and chicken feast pate
2% - fancy feast Tender beef and liver feast pate
4%- fancy feast Tender liver and chicken feast pate
3%- fancy feast Turkey & giblets feast pate

2% - Blue wilderness Chicken recipe

5 % - Friskies flaked with tuna and egg
7% - Friskies Poultry platter

5% - Merrick Cowboy cookout
3% - Merrick Surf n Turf
4% -Merrick Southern delight - this one has crawfish in it. My cat likes it occasionally.
1%- Merrick Before Grain 96% beef
2% - Merrick Before Grain 96% chicken
2%- Merrick Before Grain 96% turkey
4% - Wellness chicken
4% - Wellness turkey
5% - Wellness turkey and salmon
3% - Instinct Grain free Nature's variety -
0% - Natura Evo chicken and turkey
4% Natura Evo 95% duck
2% Natura Evo 95% venison - haven't tried this one yet
Click to expand...
 
I would suggest that you not give insulin until you figure out whether your meter is reading correctly. Test it on yourself to be sure that it is accurate.

If you determine it is okay, then I would plan not to give a shot if your preshot number is under 200. If it is near 200, retest in 20 minutes without feeding. If it rises and is over 200, come on for advice for a dose.

You are doing everything right - nothing wrong! If your kitty is below 100, you have saved his life by not giving insulin at those low numbers.

Since you haven't given insulin in over 12 hours, you could start the diet change. It may be all you need to do to keep him in safe numbers (paws crossed)
 
You said you got a Glucocard 01? That's he same as a Relion, so it's a good meter unless it is defective in some way. Check the expire date on the strips. And test yourself.
Your kitty may not need insulin if all these numbers are correct.
I would verify the meter is working properly. If so, then I would probably sit back and do an awful lot of smiling:-)
Carl
 
Thanks for all the advice and responses. This can be very overwhelming. I'm just of course concerned about harming Butkus instead of making him better since I'm a newbie, not a vet, and going against what my vet advised. If his numbers have been this low how could he not have gone Hypo when we were still giving him those same high doses?

Yes I do have the Glucocard 01. I did test it on myself last night and also did a setup test per the instructions in the manual. I got a reading on myself and it seemed to work fine. I guess since the numbers were still low this morning after over 12 hrs with no insulin and after eating dry food I thought they would have been much higher. My first thought was that I'm not testing right but I feel better if you all think I am.

I went to Petsmart on my way to work and got several cans of different brands of canned food (from Binky's list) to find what Butkus will like best. Just to confirm, at this point I should stop dry totally??

I will test tonight when I get home before feeding and see what kind of number we get.

Thanks again for all the help.
 
Some cats can switch right from dry to wet with no issues. Others have some digestive problems and need a transition time. Maybe 30 wet and 70 dry, then 20/80 or some range like that. As long as you haven't given insulin, you don't have to worry about the wet taking his glucose levels down suddenly.

It may be that 2 units was just too high a dose and that made his numbers go down low. We usually suggest a starting dose of .5 to one unit twice daily. The other factor might be if his numbers were in high ranges at the vet, they may have come down a lot since he got home. Stress raises glucose levels - in some cats by a hundred points or more -and most cats are stressed at the vet.
 
Hypo's are scary and dangerous especially if you aren't around to monitor.
You could have been borderline hypo with the lows.
Each cat is different (ECID) so until you actually have a hypo or see symptoms starting so you can remedy it, you don't know what
your cats low number is. You do want to have couple of cans of high carb ( usually anything with gravy) put away in a hypo kit
with honey/karo syrup for rubbing on their gums if you find them glassyeyed and drooling, shivering, lethargic. Be prepared.


If your cat likes wet food then you can switch when you want now that you are aware of the dangers of a hypo and testing/monitoring
glucose as long as you are changing to a lower dose (maybe the .5 or 1 unit that Sue is suggesting.)
You could drop 100 less in bg readings if it's all at once. ( cold turkey, no more dry)
IF your cat hasn't had wet food before, it could disrupt his digestion system so you probably want to mix it in the dry and give
the system some time , giving less dry in it every day until you are giving nothing but wet food.
If you completely stop the dry, you definitely need to monitor and keep your dose on the low side to prevent overdosing/hypo.

There are many here who are going against their vets advice, especially about what to feed.
Vets don't research diet and it' affects on pets. They just listen to the sales rep for the prescription foods and all the false promises.
And many still give out dosing advice on the newer insulins based on how they gave out doses for the old insulins.
They just aren't keeping up with the latest.

That's why this board is so helpful, you really are getting the latest most up to date advise. We have plenty of vets here
who are keeping up with what's working for our cats.
Keep asking questions. If you have a specific new question, you might want to start a new post because most people are
reading the subject heading before deciding whether or not to read a thread. for example. "What dose should I be on"
And you can always pm someone if you want a specific question to get addressed or for them to give you a clearer answer.
 
If you are not testing right, you would most likely be getting error messages. And if the meter works for you, it should be fine for him.

I would change the diet and keep testing. When (and if) you get a number over 200, post and ask for dose advice.
 
Sue-

Correct I have not given any insulin today.

Just tested and got a 78 so I went ahead a fed him.

Do I always need to test before feeding or can you test after?

Do I do my next test tomorrow am or should I do another tonight?

I will not give any insulin unless I go over 200 and will ask for dosing advice.
 
That is a lovely number and a non diabetic one :mrgreen: I would test and then feed. That way if you do have a shootable number before he eats, it will be a true number not influenced by food and you could safely figure out a dose.
 
You can test after feeding, as long as it is only a few minutes later. You want the number before the food starts affecting the BG, which can be 30 minutes or less after eating. It's usually best to test, then feed, and then give insulin if needed. But some cats insist on eating first, and will be less cooperative than you would like them to be.

These numbers are awesome! I would take the dry away now, since you haven't had to give any insulin. You don't really need to test again till breakfast since you haven't given a shot since last night.

Carl
 
We're on day 3 without any insulin and Butkus's levels are staying good and in the same range. I'm pleased but also surprised they went and stayed down even before I removed his dry food. I can tell he's hungry and he's not eating all his canned food. He not happy about the total change to canned but I know he'll adjust.

Scary to think what would have happened if I didn't start testing when I did. Thank god for this board!

Do I keep testing him 2 X per day? If so, for how long?
 
Our "standard" is if he stays in the normal range (40-120) for 14 days with most of the numbers in double-digits, they we officially call if "off the juice". You can test him at any time during the day, it doesn't have to be every 12 hours since he's not getting insulin. One reason people do that is just in case they do need to give a shot, then they could do so "on schedule".
If you do happen to get a wonky test number at some point, then just check it a couple hours later and see if it came back down on its own.

The big reason to ditch the dry is that even if he doesn't need any insulin, he'll always be considered a "diabetic", so an appropriate diet is the best way to keep him in the "diet controlled diabetic" club. I always say that Bob is one bag of dry cat food away from needing insulin again.

Carl
 
just make sure that dry food is gone - forever. You may have won the diabetes lottery if you never have to give shots. :mrgreen:
he will adjust. You can experiment with different cans to see what he likes best. Just keep them in the low carb range,
the lower carb varieties of food that he likes are going to be the best ones.

I want my cat to eat really really low carb values but she's not so keen on that so far. I'm adding things to make it more attractive
and she keeps wanting the 5%. She's not liking the more expensive ones.

Make sure any treats you give him are no carb like boiled chicken or freeze dried packaged cat treats .
Those kitty treats in the stores like greenies, and friskies party mix and pounce are very high carb. I had to throw a bunch
of that stuff in the trash as I don't even want to give it to our pet shelter.
 
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