Hello and introducing Oliver - diagnosed 2 days ago

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ecurie

ecurie

Member Since 2012
I'm so glad i found you!!! I've already gotten lots of useful information. I'm sure you hear that A LOT.
Oliver went to the vet 3 days ago because he was "off his game" and had a coughing fit. They said he has asthma and gave him a cortisone shot. Then they did a blood test. All his numbers came back normal except that his blood glucose was 460. After a urine test, they decided he was diabetic. His breathing is fine and normal (27-32) breaths/min)
He is taking Lantus, 1unit, 2x/day
we just gave him his first shot.
He was eating fancy feast: 1/3can in the morning and evening; free feeding a mix of purina cat food, purina healthy weight and purina for indoor cats. We bought canned purina dx - he wouldn't eat it so we mix it with his fancy feast - he likes that.
He seems to have self regulated himself off of his dry food and now waits for his wet food. He's getting half a can of purina dx mixed with half a can of fancy feast 2x a day...
we give him shrimp to keep him busy while we give him a shot.
here's what i wonder:
our vet says she will give Oliver a blood test again in 10 days. She says it's inhumane to test cats more than once a month. She wants to regulate him at just under 250.
we would like to test him at home and more often. I'm not sure i'm happy with regulating at just under 250. I would like to get him closer to normal (always hoping he will go into remission) but thinking the closer he is to normal, the less damage will be done from this disease.
any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
thanks so very much
Mary/Mark - Olivers' slaves
I'm hoping for your thoughts.
 
I would (and do test my four diabetic cats) before each shot. They do not seem to mind at all. Good for you want to do it. You can use a human meter. You can get a meter h(see this link) but not until Oct 6th).
I would return the Purina and just feed the canned Fancy Feast.
 
Hi and WELCOME to you and your extra sweet Oliver!

our vet says she will give Oliver a blood test again in 10 days. She says it's inhumane to test cats more than once a month.
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HUH? WHAT??? Oh I'm a MEAN, TERRIBLE, INHUMANE person putting my cat thru 4-5 blood tests a day! Wait...if I'm such a mean, terrible inhumane 'Mama', WHY does my cat come to ME for tests? Why does he come GET me when it's time for his shots if I'm running a bit late? After all, I've been poking him with lancets AND insulin needles for 16 months. Really sounds like 'inhumane' treatment doesn't it? NOT!!!

IMHO, 'Inhumane' is a VET that thinks that! Why are our animals any different than humans when it comes to diabetes? They're NOT! It's even the SAME insulin in many cases! WHY would any medical person not understand the importance of testing each time before a shot? Even young diabetic CHILDREN get tested several times daily...would anyone consider THAT inhumane?

Let me give you a quick example - NOT meaning to scare you but give you info. This JUST happened to us earlier this week. I've copied this from an earlier post about it so the 'night before last' wasn't yesterday - our spreadsheet is in my sig if you want to see:

KT has been on insulin for over a year, we test test test. During night before last's cycle, I got up and tested at +6 as I suspected (from spreadsheet history) that he would probably drop. So...at pm+6, I got a 186 - perfectly safe at half way thru the cycle....I returned to bed. When I woke up at pm+10.75 - little over an hour until his NEXT shot. His bg SHOULD have been much higher in the curve than that 186 but I don't ASSUME anything anymore....so I tested...and got a 33!!! Yes that's 33!!!!!! MAJOR HYPO NUMBER!! If I hadn't tested and shot into that number, I would have killed my cat...no other way to say it....he would be dead and I would have to live with knowing it was MY fault for not testing just like anyone taking insulin.
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Your vet needs to study enough to come up to date if they're going to treat a diabetic cat....

BIG HUG! You've fallen into the right place for your sweet Oliver! WE live feline diabetes 24/7....
 
thank heavens i found you!
i'm going to ask her how many diabetic cats she has treated. Oh forget it... i'm going to find a vet who's good at this.
another question????
How long or how many shots before the insulin kicks in and lets the energy into Ollie's cells? When should i start to notice he's "better"? He was getting into a napping all day habit.. he's now 3 hours after his first shot and he's sitting here next to me on the desk playing with my fingers.
 
She says it's inhumane to test cats more than once a month.
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I guess all of us on FDMB are inhumane then because we test every day :roll: I've been testing Mishka for 9 years come Oct. 6th and spot checks during the day. Those spotchecks can also be lifesavers sometimes. I learned to test back in Fall of '98 and never a day since have I ever given insulin without testing first and before feeding. Hope is in remission after 4 1/2 years of daily testing. We still don't understand why other than she went off insulin when she started with her heart trouble. Please learn to test ASAP.....it is so important and a lifesaver.
 
Hi Mary/Mark,

Right now, I do not have a diabetic cat, but the two that I did have, I was able to give them 3 more years of life each, by giving them insulin, twice a day, and TESTING them before each and every shot. My two boys used to follow me to the bathroom, like little doggies when they knew it was time for their test and shot. I always used their right ear, due to the way I had to sit them in my bathroom window, and after I got used to testing and giving the shots, I would say, for the two of them, that I could do it in a matter of maybe 5 minutes for each. I still have their record books that I kept, written by hand.

Now you can make spreadsheets to keep track of everything, but it still might help to get a little notebook and write down your kitty's numbers after you learn to test, and also how much insulin you give, and what time, etc. They need to have food in them also before giving insulin, at least some. You will learn so much from the folks on this site.

Take care, and it is a good idea to find a new vet if you can, that is encouraging about treating diabetes and testing before each shot, along with 'spot checks' as Hope mentioned.

Hugs, and Welcome!
Jean and Charcoal (GA) cat_pet_icon
 
Welcome to the FDMB!! Here we are all family and we are all here for you day and night. First things first, mt kitty Doogle was diagnosed a year ago today. Our vet started us on Humilin N and I did not do any testing at home. After almost 9 months with no improvement and finding all the wonderful information and people here, I decided to talk to my vet to change to Lantus. He isnt very used to using it but trust me enough to do what is right. He did encourage testing at home and after learning everything I needed to do here, I started. I was so scared at first but it was so easy and actually made me feel better afterwards knowing more about what was going on than before. I bought a Relion Micro from Walmart because after reading about all the meters, I found it was one of the best and the strips were cheaper. So the first thing I would do if I were you is go out an buy a meter, test strips and 28g lancets. Watch all the videos about testing on the ear. The ear has very little nerve endings so they dont really feel it. Testing often is no different than humans testing all the time. So please I encourage you to start testing ASAP. You could do more harm than good. Please setup a spreadsheet and a profile for you and Oliver. Here are the links to help you get setup. Setting up profile Setting your spreadsheet. Then join us all on the Lantus board Lantus Boardand start posting your numbers for the more experienced eyes to see and help you with. I am so glad you have all joined our lovely family and we all look forward to talking with you and Oliver!! :-D
 
ecurie said:
...vet says she will give Oliver a blood test again in 10 days. She says it's inhumane to test cats more than once a month.
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Maybe when your vet says this she means the method of restraining the cat and then shaving a patch on the neck and then removing blood from there? (Well, that's how my vet does it anyway...)

That's not how home-testers test, of course. We take a teensy drop of blood, usually from the outer edge of the ear. For most cats this is not a stressful experience and therefore cannot be deemed "inhumane".

I'm sure that home-testing has saved my cat's life (or saved him from possible brain damage) on a number of occasions when his blood glucose dropped too low (or where it threatened to drop too low but a spot-check made intervention possible). (My cat is a particularly tricky diabetic that needs quite a bit of monitoring.)

Conversely, home-testing will also let you know if your cat's blood glucose is consistently too high!

Home-testing (especially if you do regular 'curves' and spot-checks) will give you a vast amount of information about how insulin is working in your cat's system. I wrote recently on another thread about the difference I found after I started home-testing. I said it was as though I had been trying to find my way around an unfamiliar house in the pitch dark; and then someone switched on the lights. The difference really is that profound.
 
Thank; you all so very much. inhumane??? i think not!
We bought a Reli On tester yesterday and did his first home test before his 2nd shot. He's not crazy about it, but since he got his favorite shrimp during and after it, we got through it. Mark did the testing,.. I couldn't see the vein on Ollie's ear. At the vet, his blood gucose was over 450. last night, 11.5 hours after his first shot.. it was 302.
I will go set up his profile and spreadsheet. I just cleaned the morning litter boxes and the volume of his urine is much less than it has been. He is calmer and more like his old self.
Bring on the good numbers!!!!!!!!!!
Thank heavens for felinediabetes.com. You are angels
 
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