Hello out there

[meggi2006]

Hello,

I am new to this forum. My name is Meghan, I'm 28 years old. My cat, Precious, is suspected to have diabetes type II, as per senior blood work done yesterday. Her blood glucose was 225 and there was glucose in her urine. She is 10 years old. I am going to gradually change her diet from evo dry food to wellness wet cans. And in a month she is to have more blood work to see what her levels are. I'm glad there is a forum for this, I was kind of freaking out earlier when I got the call at work from the vet.
confused_cat confused_cat nailbite_smile :smile:

 

[Dusty Bones]

Not too bad of a glucose reading, hopefully a lower carb wet food diet will be enough to get her down in the safe zone.

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

Welcome Megan and Precious,

Good job on changing the diet. We like to stay under 8-10% carbs. Here's a food chart.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=88162

So will you try the diet first before insulin? Not a bad idea if she was only 225. I assume this was a test done at the vet? Often stress can raise levels and most cats are stressed at the vet, so she might be quite a bit lower than that. (and 225 is not all that high. We tell new diabetics not to give insulin under 200)

Do lots of reading and ask questions. We'd love to help you help Precious.

 

[BJM]

A few infobits:

1) Vet stress may raise the glucose level from 100 to 180 mg/dL, so that test at the vet may be due to stress.
2) Switching to a low carb, canned or raw, diet may drop the glucose about 100 mg/dL.

If you pick up an inexpensive glucometer such as the WalMart ReliOn Confirm, you can test at home without the vet stress elevating the numbers. Then you can compare them to our reference values to see if they seem elevated. (note: meters with True in the name seem not to do well reading high numbers in cats; we suggest you avoid them.)

Comparing a human glucometer to a pet-specific glucometer is like reading temperature in Celsius vs Fahrenheit. Both are correct. You just need to know the reference ranges to interpret what the numbers mean.

[Glucose reference ranges are unsubstantiated and have been removed by Moderator]

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Examples of using the chart:

Ex. You are a new insulin user and you test your cat before giving insulin. The test is 300. It probably is safe to give insulin.

Ex. You are an established user of Lantus, following the Tight Regulation protocol. You've tested around +5 to +7 to spot the nadir. It is 200 mg/dL. You probably need to increase the dose, following the instructions for the protocol.

Ex. Your cat is acting funny. The eyes are a bit dilated. You are concerned and test the glucose. The number is 35 mg/dL. ACK! The cat may be in a hypoglycemic state. You quickly follow the HYPO protocol linked in the glucose reference values chart. (which we really, really, suggest you print out and post on your refrigerator.)

 

[Deb & Wink]

Hello Meghan and sugarkitty Precious and welcome to the message board.

You've gotten some good information already, so I won't give you too much more.

Just thought you'd like to know what the Post icons mean, so here is a link to the post that tells you. The Rainbow is used for kitties that have gone ahead to the Rainbow Bridge, so you might want to change that one.

You need to edit your first post in a topic to change that.

You'll find lots of help here and it will get easier as time goes on. The food change is a great one to bring the BG (blood glucose) levels down.

Keep asking questions and read the posts from other people.