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D1scord

D1scord

Member Since 2022
Hi, I'm Robert from the UK and my lovely boy Roland was recently diagnosed with diabetes. Obviously I am shattered and I'm trying to get him the best help as possible.

He's 12 and as soon as we got the diagnosis we switched his food to Hill's m/d dry+wet. He's not a fan of the wet food, but will eventually eat it. He's always been a fussy eater, but mixing a few dry food chunks in there makes him eat it. He's on 1IU of Caninsulin and absolutely hates the shots.

The vet wanted to do a glucose curve at the hospital but Roland was way too stressed and they didn't manage to do it. Now it's up to me to do it and my first question is - what glucometer should I get? I've been looking online and there are so many options and conflicting information that I'm not sure what to go for. The vet suggested Alphatrak 2. I know it's the most expensive one on the market and while I'm ready to spend any money to keep my boy happy and healthy, I need to know if it's actually good. I want to do this glucose curve as soon as possible, so we can adjust his dose.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 
Welcome Robert and Roland ,he's a handsome boy
You have come to the right place if it wasn't for the experienced members here and their advice Tyler wouldn't be in remission today
I'm not from the UK but I did find this for you to read Tap on here there is a lot of information

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...-vit-b12-and-other-need-to-know-stuff.137376/

There is no reason to feed prescription food at all, especially dry they are high in carbs
What food were you feeding before you switched to the MD and when

I wouldn't change any of his food yet until you start home testing everyday and night
Changing to a low carb diet wet food like we recommend can drop his BG by 100 points so you need to start home testing
Glad you ate going to start home testing it's the only way to keep Roland safe
Caninsulin isn't the best insulin for cats , used mostly for dogs
But you can see how he does on it
You need to test, feed and then wait 30 minutes then give insulin because it can hit hard and fast
You can do a curve at home yourself
We need you to fill out what's called your signature

If you can fill out what we call our signature that will be helpful,it's at the end of everyone's post in gray

To set up your signature which you will see is at the end of everyone's post in gray, click on your name up top and then tap on the word signature and add this information
  • Add info we need to help you:
    • Caregiver & kitty's name
    • DX: Date
    • Name of Insulin (do not include dose or frequency)
    • Name of your meter
    • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
    • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
    • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
    • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
    • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
    • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.
Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.

Take a look at mine


We also use a spreadsheet to track our cats BG so we know how the insulin is working and how low they are dropping so we know when to either increase or decrease the dose
We adjust the dose by 0.25 units at a time . We don't adjust the dose by going by the Pre Shots

About the spreadsheet
AMPS - means AM Pre Shot the first test you take in the AM ,you need to withhold food 2 hours before testing so it's not food influenced

Units is where you would put how much insulin you gave
+1 is one hour after giving insulin if you were to test then that's where you enter his _BG number
+2 two hours after giving insulin. ditto
+3 and so on until you get to PMPS - PM pre shot withhold food 2 hours before testing

+1 same as you do for AM cycle

We don't give times because we are all in different time zones that's why we use the + numbers
I'll give you the link to set it up , if you have trouble just ask and we have a member who will gladly do it for you


You can look at any members spreadsheet to see what it looks like, it's at the end of everyone's signature just tap on it

Link to create a spreadsheet
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/


Please read about Caninsulin here
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/caninsulin-vetsulin-and-n-nph.19/
 
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Home testing
About testing
Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up
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6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand
I find it better to see where I'm aiming

A video one of our members posted, she is using a pet meter ,strips too expensive plus you have to code it
A human meter is just fine, most of us use human meters ,that's what our numbers are based on


VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar
 
the Hills MD Wet
This formula contains 13.1 carbohydrates Too high
The Hills dry MD is around 15 - 17 % carbs Too high
We consider a food to be low carb if it is under 10% and most of the members tend to feed their cat food that's around 5%. or less

You want to have a hypo kit at home in case Roland drops to low and you need to bring his BG up to safe numbers
Between 11% and 17% is medium carbs.

18% and over is high carb.

You can look at the food list I gave you and see what they have
 
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D1scord said:
Hi, I'm Robert from the UK and my lovely boy Roland was recently diagnosed with diabetes. Obviously I am shattered and I'm trying to get him the best help as possible.

He's 12 and as soon as we got the diagnosis we switched his food to Hill's m/d dry+wet. He's not a fan of the wet food, but will eventually eat it. He's always been a fussy eater, but mixing a few dry food chunks in there makes him eat it. He's on 1IU of Caninsulin and absolutely hates the shots.

The vet wanted to do a glucose curve at the hospital but Roland was way too stressed and they didn't manage to do it. Now it's up to me to do it and my first question is - what glucometer should I get? I've been looking online and there are so many options and conflicting information that I'm not sure what to go for. The vet suggested Alphatrak 2. I know it's the most expensive one on the market and while I'm ready to spend any money to keep my boy happy and healthy, I need to know if it's actually good. I want to do this glucose curve as soon as possible, so we can adjust his dose.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Click to expand...
Welcome! I have a video in my signature showing how I tested my cat CC at home.
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
the Hills MD Wet
This formula contains 13.1 carbohydrates Too high
The Hills dry MD is around 15 - 17 % carbs Too high
We consider a food to be low carb if it is under 10% and most of the members tend to feed their cat food that's around 5%. or less

You want to have a hypo kit at home in case Roland drops to low and you need to bring his BG up to safe numbers
Between 11% and 17% is medium carbs.

18% and over is high carb.

You can look at the food list I gave you and see what they have
Click to expand...
Thank you for the welcome and useful information. I will add the sheet to my signature as soon as they deliver the glucometer and we start testing.

He was eating Purina Fresh and Fine before and we switched to MD because the vet recommended it. Now that I started digging around it seems MD is not actually the best idea for him, so as soon as we start home testing I will be looking into lower carb options. Katkin looks very promising.

JanetNJ said:
Welcome! I have a video in my signature showing how I tested my cat CC at home.
Click to expand...
Thank you for directing me to your video. It's very informative :)
 
D1scord said:
Thank you for the welcome and useful information. I will add the sheet to my signature as soon as they deliver the glucometer and we start testing.

He was eating Purina Fresh and Fine before and we switched to MD because the vet recommended it. Now that I started digging around it seems MD is not actually the best idea for him, so as soon as we start home testing I will be looking into lower carb options. Katkin looks very promising.
Click to expand...
You're welcome Robert once you set up your spreadsheet and start getting some tests in I can tag a Vetsulin/Caninsulin user for you, if you need help setting the spreadsheet up just holler
 
Another thing to consider Robert is that caninsulin is not always the best insulin for cats. It’s called caninsulin because it was made for canines who have a lower metabolism than cats. It’s short lasting and it hits hard so make sure he has food at least 30 minutes before you give him the shot. I wouldn’t do anything yet, let’s see how he does on it. Lantus and prozync are the 2 best long lasting insulin options because they work the entire 24 hours.
 
Not sure about meter options in the uk but we do have members who live there and can vets advise you on that. Here in the us, most of us use human meters like Walmart’s ReliOn. What makes the alphatrak expensive are the strips and you’ll use up 100 very fast
 
Hi Robert and Roland and welcome to the forum.
Roland is a handsome boy!
With caninsulin, did the vet tell you to feed 30 minutes before giving the dose of insulin? This is important because Caninsulin his harder and faster than the insulins we recommend for cats (Lantus or Prozinc). So when you get the glucometer to test the blood glucose you will need to test, feed the meal, then wait 30 minutes before giving the caninsulin.

*** I would not do any changes to the food you are feeding until you are home testing. This is because lowering the carb content of the food can drop the BGs a lot.
Two links for you to read about Caninsulin

INTRODUCTION TO CANINSULIN

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO CANINSULIN

You might like to set up a spreadsheet in preparation for when you are testing
You can find the link to this and other things…especially the hypo kit in this link…make sure you have a hypo kit set up asap as you never know when you might need it.
HELP US HELP YOU

One more link for you
UK INFORMATION ON INSULIN, FOOD, METERS AND MUCH MORE
 
D1scord said:
Hi, I'm Robert from the UK and my lovely boy Roland was recently diagnosed with diabetes.
Click to expand...
Hi Robert and Roland, waving to you from Surrey!
I'm on my second diabetic kitty now, and have been managing feline diabetes for nearly 16 years.
I know it can be very puzzling and scary when starting out. But it should soon get a lot easier. Honestly!

It's great that you want to hometest. The Alphatrak pet meter is a nice meter, but probably also the most expensive meter to use. The main cost of the testing is the test strips. And with Alphatrak that can mean around just over a quid a strip...
Many of us just use human glucose meters. These work just fine for cats and are a lot cheaper to use. It's just important to understand that human meters tend to read a smidge lower than pet meters and vice versa. But as long as you understand that - and understand which numbers are 'too low' for the type of meter you're using - there shouldn't be an issue.

Currently the most popular meter with UK folks is the (human) GlucoNavii. It's quite widely available online. And it's also possibly the cheapest meter to use.
Other human meters are just fine too. I happen to like the One Touch Verio, and get all my supplies cheaply on Ebay.
Many meter kits will only come with a few test strips (the Alphatrak may come with a full tub of strips), so do remember to also buy additional strips when buying your meter.

Any other questions, please just shout out.

Eliz
 
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