Hello to all you wonderful ppl

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Belle100

Member Since 2017
Just wanted to start by saying thank you for all the information provided on this board I have learned so much just by lurking the past few days. Here's my cat story:

My pride and joy. My belle. Female calico cat about 12 years. Took her to the vet on Friday which is a chore within itself because she hates hates the vet and leaving the house. Anyway 700 dollars later vet tells me belle has diabetes and her numbers are very high. 504 glucose reading. She tells me other than that belle is very healthy but obvi needs to start on insulin ASAP. She prints out a list of things I should buy insulin/insulin administrative kit/prescribed wet food/prescribed dry food. I say ok. Let me take this home and do a lil research before I buy and starting shooting my dear belle with needles. Well that's when I found this board thankfully. Read some things and immediately threw out belles dry food. ALL BELLE WAS EATING WAS DRY FOOD THAT WAS LEFT OUT ALL DAY AND FILLED UP WHEN SHE PLEASED. now I know after reading this board that was the wrong move. So I threw out all that food and started her on an all wet low carb diet starting Friday night. Saturday vet was already calling me to schedule a follow up for 2 weeks. I really didn't understand why. So I stopped in the vet that day to discuss this with the receptionist who had also told me she has a diabetic cat. I explained to her the only thing I'm going to be buying from vet was the doctor prescribed wet food. Vet wanted $176 for 10ml of prozinc and I had already found it for a $100 online. So I bought the prescribed royal canine and was on my way and back to this board to do some research. So my next step was testing belle's sugar on my own. Today I went out and bought the reli on confirm kit and tested belle's sugar myself. I got a reading of 336. I'm sorry for my long winded post but I have some questions for you wonderful helpful ppl.

1. I have read the reli on meter is for humans. If belle has a 336 on that meter what would be the equivalent on the vets meter??

2. Belle has been on her new all wet food diet for approximately 2.5 days with a vet reading of 504 on Friday and a home reading of 336 on Monday. Is there a chance for me to continue this diet and get belle's numbers under control? Or should I begin insulin ASAP?

I am 110% committed to my pride and joy belle's health. Please help a fellow cat lover give his baby a full recovery. Thank you in advance. I look forward to all of ur awesome responses.

Belle's Daddy
 
Hello and welcome Belle and Daddy!

You have certainly been proactive that's for sure, good for you :)

Honestly I wouldn't buy thenvets food. It's expensive and you can buy lots of types of low carb from your local pet store or supermarket- and they are likely much tastier! ;) There's a list of food at the top of these forums but fancy feast seems to be a favourite. Just make sure you check the list for the low carb varieties.
Belle will thank you :cat:

I really wouldn't be stressing too much about the meter readings it's only the lower numbers that are important and there's not much in them at those levels.

You could give the food a few days more and see but the lower the carb level the better.

Hopefully that will help a little. Good job with the home testing too!
 
Hello Belle's Daddy and Belle! Welcome to FDMB, the best place you never wanted to be!

You are a quick study and Belle is in good hands. Kudos for testing and congratulations on getting a test so soon! And you've changed her diet. So two of the big hurtles are out of the way. You'll be a pro in no time!

I see you bought prescription food from the vet. That is not only expensive but it is also not necessary. There are plenty of retail foods that are just as good and in many cases better than the so called prescription diets the vets try to sell us. We have a great listing of foods and you can select any that are under 10% carbs to find some Belle likes. Most of us try to keep the carbs at 5% or below and many of us feed Fancy Feast Pates (Classic) or Friskies.

There is no conversion between your vet's pet meter number and your human meter number. Pet meters typically read higher than human ones and the difference between the readings gets larger the higher the BG. All the documentation on this site is based on the use of a human meter unless stated otherwise so no need to guess what the vet's number might be. I wouldn't be too concerned with the difference between the vet's 504 and your 336 because most cats have elevated BG in the vet's office from stress and that elevation can be 100 points or more in some cases. If Belle hates the vet that much, you can be pretty sure the vet's reading was inflated.

While there are some cats that go into remission as a result of diet change alone, they are not the majority. Diet change however can make a considerable difference in the amount of insulin a cat needs. It's also easier to change diet before starting insulin so you are already on the right path. If you want to give the diet another couple of days, I don't see that as a problem but I wouldn't hold off more than a week and use that time getting some more BG readings to get a baseline view of Belle's BG without insulin.

We have a wonderful spreadsheet that we use to log our BG readings and it is stored on Google so that we can add a link here for others to view it when and if we need/want an opinion or help. The instructions for setting it up are HERE. We don't deal in times here (we have members from around the globe) but refer to the hours post shots here to avoid confusion. THIS document explains how to use the spreadsheet. If you have any problems with the spreadsheet, just holler and we'll help you out.

You've no doubt noticed the light grey text below our messages. This is our Signature and it would be helpful if you could set yours up and include details about Belle, date of Diagnosis, weight, any other medical issues, diet, insulin, dose of insulin when you have that info, the meter you are using and any other info you'd like to share (like your name perhaps ;)). To set up the signature, hover your cursor over your user name up in right upper screen. Select Signature in the left column of the list that drops down. Type your info into the text box. It's limited to three lines of text so separating data can be done with slashes or |. When you are done typing, click on "Save Changes" button under the text box and you're done.

Well I've given you enough homework to keep you busy for a bit so I'll leave it there for now. :D
 
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Welcome Belle and her Daddy!
You've done such great research for her and we'd be glad to help clarify any other questions you may have :). Should the new low carb wet food diet show significant improvements to her BG and she can be diet controlled, this will be her diet for the rest of her life. You'll also still want to randomly test to make sure she remains diet controlled. We can get to that later but I just wanted to make sure you know it's not a cured condition. If she does end up needing insulin, we can help with that too. Don't let the Vet increase her doses by whole units. As you read around the forum, you'll see how this increasing method is not as efficient and sometimes dangerous a method :bighug:
 
Hello Belle's Daddy!
So wonderful and refreshing to welcome such a clever and proactive kitty's parent to the board!
The BG number you got from the vets might have been higher due to stress Belle had at the vet's and also they tested her blood with their equipment and that number is similar to what you would be getting by testing with cat specific glucometer like AlphaTrak. Human meters usually test a little bit lower, the difference is more noticeable on higher numbers but it really doesn't matter much. Most people here use human glucometers.
I would advise against using prescription diet, it is a con (there is nothing there which requires a prescription!) and it is a money making machine for the vets. Quality of ingredients is poor. Your kitty would be much healthier on very good quality very low carb wet food and should be fed at regular intervals over 24 hour period when on insulin to help to balance BGs and help not to overwhelm the pancreas. Treats should be freeze dried 100% meat.
I think you can continue to feed her a very low carb food for few days as it might get her BG slightly lower and it is better to work on this number when deciding on the insulin dose.
What is the dose of insulin your vet has prescribed?
Good luck and ask any questions.
Big hugs to both of you.:):bighug::cat:
 
You are doing a great job. If you still have the presciption food you can take it back to the vet for a refund. Just tell them she does not like it.
 
Welcome. Everyone's given great advice so far so I'll just say we are here for you... And great job jumping right into home testing!
 
Thank you so much for all of your helpful responses. I look forward to contributing to the board. Vet has prescribed an insulin dose of 1ml twice per day. I forgot to mention in my original post belle used to drink and drink and drink and pee and pee and pee so much. Probably 2 bowls of water a day. Now since starting new diet she is probably drinking a quarter of a bowl a day. I am praying and hoping she is on right track
 
Drinking less is a good sign but that may be largely a product of switching to a wet diet from dry. I never see my girl going near a water bowl now that she is on a strictly wet diet. Fingers crossed, the diet change works wonders for Belle!

I believe your vet prescribed 1 unit of insulin rather than 1 ml. That's a pretty normal and reasonable starting dose so your vet is starting you off on the right path!
 
I would like to add my voice and weigh in against the prescription diet as well. My Tigger was on Hill's prescription Z/d and his numbers remained high on it. As soon as I switched him to Fancy Feast classic and decreased his prednisolone (also for allergies), he started having lower numbers. We have been all over the place with units per day but even on two units now from five his numbers have been good. In fact they are bordering on too low so the diet change has really done a lot for him. We are hoping his allergies don't come to the Forefront again on that food and decreased pred. I can tell you I don't miss spending $62 on 24 cans of cat food so that's an added bonus.
 
Good advice from other members. Welcome aboard. It can be daunting, but after awhile it actually just becomes routine. I can't even remember the first insulin doses, but I do remember being real nervous. Now, it is just part of Leo's daily life and he tolerates dosing and testing.

Food: Fancy Feast classic pates are great for kittehs. There are about 10 kinds. Alternative but more expensive is Weruva Cats in the Kitchen. Both are perfect diets for our sugar cats.

Leo was on Prozinc. It was good for him. But it is expensive. I obtain Levemir. It is a good depot insulin with good blood curve characteristics. Plus it has a slight overlap at the 12 hour mark so it is good for your Belle too. The best thing is that I get it for pretty inexpensive from a forum member. Look in the subforum Supply Closet for offers.
 
Welcome Belle and Dad. You are certainly off and running. I would take the prescription food back, tell them Belle refuses to eat it and get a refund. Use the refund on test strips, you will need them. It's good to get the diet changed before starting insulin when you can. Will be looking forward to updates.
 
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