home monitoring procedure and tracking help

[notanotherxerox]

My newley diagnosed diabetic cat ihas started getting insulin 2x a day and I'm going to be getting a Relion meter as soon as it gets back in stock at my local walmart. I've been researching everything I can about diabetes and home monitoring and there seems to be so much info, I'm overwhelmed. I just want to double check that I have this right.
I test right before giving each shot and then at some point between the shots right? I feed him and give him his insulin as soon as he finishes the bowl, do I test him before feeding or between feeding and the insulin?
I was looking at starting a spreadsheet to track his levels and found this one, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub ... utput=html

but I'm so confused by it. Can anyone help me learn what I need to record and what time to test him and anything else that might be important that I'm missing. Thank you so much! This board has been the most helpful source of information I've found and I'd be so lost without it. Thank you for sharing such wonderful advice with everyone!

p.s-My mom handles his insulin so I don't have the name of insulin he's on or anything else right now but I can easily get any info thats needed. Thank you again!

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

This is the one we use if you are in the US:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/fm?key=0Atq6T7zqQwhtdFVZZ3I3TVh3YU5pNWRES0RYclZ2YUE&fmcmd=24

If you need the metric version, it is here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/fm?key=0AklWqliZpWZpdEIwY3NlS19jQzF2dEM0OF9XREpXWnc&fmcmd=24

If you need help figuring it out, just ask.

The routine is test, feed and shoot. Lots of us shoot as the cat's nose is deep into his breakfast or dinner. The exception is if you are using a harsh insulin like Humulin or Canninsulin, which we will try to talk you out of since there are much better insulins available. Then, yes, it is wise to get some midcycle numbers as they will tell you how low the insulin is taking him and help you adjust the dose as needed.

Let us know the insulin type and we can be more specific with help.

 

[hmjohnston]

Also- from left to right
Date- self explanatory
AMPS (and PMPS)- the BG test result at the AM/PM pre-shot.
+1, +2, +3- the hours after the shot. As we are all over the world it doesn't make sense to say 7am as there are so many time zones. Since the shots are on a 12/12 schedule for (most) people we say- at +2 hours after his AMPS shot the BG level was ---. This helps us to give good advice once you have the data to back up.
Remarks- use this to record food, any stressor for the day, amount/size of pee balls/poop- if there is any difficulty at all or something you think is odd. Since it widens as you type you can actually use the comment box to add everything you want without stretching your chart down to middle-earth.

The BG levels should automatically populate with colors once you type in the number- so we will often say "Surfing the yellows" or "spending time in the blue sky" or "Drat those black and red boxes- what is going wrong!!???"

And this is attached to your signature line so that people can look at it and see what is going on.