Glucose reading questions

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MachoZeCat

MachoZeCat

Member Since 2017
Monday at the vet my cat was around 350 (post food, no insulin, pre-diagnoses) This number diagnosed his diabetes. We started Vetsulin 2 units once a day. Home testing Tuesday AM showed prefood and insulin at 510. 3 hours post food and insulin 366, later at 374, then 424 that evening. This morning home test showed glucose at 399, then drove to vet and they tested glucose pre food and insulin- at 441. Come home, feed him and give insulin, 3 hours later home reader says 329. Vet said home readers can be inaccurate and to now give 2 units Vetsulin twice a day. They are worried about kidney damage/failure but told me to give new dose and bring him next Friday for a recheck on glucose. They told me I can do that or go to a specialist (they prob wanna get rid of me because I am high maintenance, sorry I am trying to be an advocate for my cat, although they have not been rude to me).

I made an appt. with a "feline specialist" for Monday AM for second opinion and hoping they'll give us better working insulin. He has had history of UTI and crystals, recent urine culture showed NO bacteria. I am worried about additional issues related to bladder etc. because he has had crystals pre-diabetes diagnoses. Hoping specialist can help with this also.

My questions- can home readers be so inaccurate that testing twice in 5 min can give numbers that differ by around 100 points? This happened during one testing.
Also his Monday pre-insulin (post food) number was 350 and day later pre-insulin number 510. Why/how can the glucose number raise so much? Can food alone lower the glucose number that much?
Should I do a curve at the feline specialist (or ask them to let me do it at home) even though the stress can give false glucose numbers? Will this help us get the correct insulin dose faster than testing at the vet once a week?

I have been switching him from the dry prescription glycobalance to Wellness canned food.

This is scary and I am worried about his kidneys. I suspect the specialist will check his kidney function.
Thanks,
Anne
 
Larry and Kitties said:
The accuracy of the hand-held human and pet meters is only +/- 20%.
It is unclear if one test was at vet. Vet stress can raise BG by 100 or more points. Also, a pet meter tends to read lower than a human meter.

Most of record our reading and other info in a spreadsheet. See:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
This allows us to better see what is going one with BGs over time.
Click to expand...
Its a human meter- Relion. Thanks
 
MachoZeCat said:
Monday at the vet my cat was around 350 (post food, no insulin, pre-diagnoses) This number diagnosed his diabetes. We started Vetsulin 2 units once a day. Home testing Tuesday AM showed prefood and insulin at 510. 3 hours post food and insulin 366, later at 374, then 424 that evening. This morning home test showed glucose at 399, then drove to vet and they tested glucose pre food and insulin- at 441. Come home, feed him and give insulin, 3 hours later home reader says 329. Vet said home readers can be inaccurate and to now give 2 units Vetsulin twice a day. They are worried about kidney damage/failure but told me to give new dose and bring him next Friday for a recheck on glucose. They told me I can do that or go to a specialist (they prob wanna get rid of me because I am high maintenance, sorry I am trying to be an advocate for my cat, although they have not been rude to me).

I made an appt. with a "feline specialist" for Monday AM for second opinion and hoping they'll give us better working insulin. He has had history of UTI and crystals, recent urine culture showed NO bacteria. I am worried about additional issues related to bladder etc. because he has had crystals pre-diabetes diagnoses. Hoping specialist can help with this also.

My questions- can home readers be so inaccurate that testing twice in 5 min can give numbers that differ by around 100 points? This happened during one testing.
Also his Monday pre-insulin (post food) number was 350 and day later pre-insulin number 510. Why/how can the glucose number raise so much? Can food alone lower the glucose number that much?
Should I do a curve at the feline specialist (or ask them to let me do it at home) even though the stress can give false glucose numbers? Will this help us get the correct insulin dose faster than testing at the vet once a week?

I have been switching him from the dry prescription glycobalance to Wellness canned food.

This is scary and I am worried about his kidneys. I suspect the specialist will check his kidney function.
Thanks,
Anne
Click to expand...
I'm glad you're testing at home. That will help you figure this out. Newly diagnosed kitties often have erratic responses to insulin. They will settle over time, although some remain volatile. A regular home testing routine is how you'll learn your kitty's patterns. The odd test here and there doesn't give enough information to know if a dose is too high, how low it takes BG, when the insulin starts working, when it's at it's peak, how long it lasts, etc. These are all bits of data that help you judge how things are going.

Human meters read differently (lower) than pet meters but you can learn what the too high, OK and too low ranges are. Pet meters give results closer to the vets but the test strips are too expensive to use daily.

It takes quite a bit of time to find the best insulin dose - weeks, months or more. The good dose can also go up and down over time because you're dealing with a hormone affecting multiple physiologic processes. It's not a drug like aspirin, for example, where if one doesn't help, take two. Patience in large quantities is what you'll need.

Re urinary issues: my diabetic had many bouts of cystitis and ate canned RC Urinary S/O for a long time before diagnosis. When that happened, all kibble left my house, he was switched to low carb wet food (prescription DM mixed with Friskies or Fancy Feast pates) to which I add enough warm water to make a stew. He hasn't had a bladder issue since.
 
Vetsulin is intended to be given twice a day with kitties, since their metabolism is much faster than with dogs, who only get one shot per day. Once a day will not cover 24 hours which will cause higher glucose levels for the 12 hour period that no insulin was given. Good to see that you are home testing so you can keep a good check on the readings. You can do your own curve at home to cause less stress than at the vets.
 
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