> We tested LB's urine again and it's the lighter brown colour @ 30 seconds. I think this is what it should be yes?
> We called in to the vet surgery yesterday and talked to the other vet who did the teeth cleaning fiasco. She
> said it's good if the urine turns to light brown as the blue/green colour would mean he's not getting enough
> insulin. (we didn't even understand that)
Okay, from your comments on "switching to lighter brown" and "30 seconds", I think I may have mis-interpreted your previous post. I had thought you were testing the urine for ketones, but it actually sounds like you're testing urine for sugar levels. Is that correct?
Urine test strips come with an interpretation key that looks like a bunch of colored tiles next to each other. It's usually on the side of the bottle or box of strips. You can see an image of one
here; is there something similar to that on your bottle or box?
I can't tell you whether your results are good or bad, as I've only used a couple of brands of sticks and am not certain whether / how they might differ from what's available where you are. Nor am I sure whether your strips use a different colour sequence. In the sample strip I linked to above, you'll notice that the sugar measurement starts out at a light green and grows progressively darker. For these particularly strips, the darker the colour, the more sugar is present in the urine.
Unfortunately, what the stick shows is only an average of the cat's numbers in the past few hours, when you're really more interested in knowing what the highest and lowest numbers have been. For example, if you get a reading that your cat's sugar was 250 for the past few hours, that might be okay if they stayed around 250 all the time. But, if they had a high reading of 550 and a low reading of 50, that could also average to 250 but would be very bad.
In order to tell what's going on with blood sugar levels, you really want to do blood sugar testing, which will tell you what the blood sugar levels are *right then*. You can test before giving insulin to see if it's safe to give insulin, and you can test halfway to the next shot to see how low Little Boy's blood sugar goes. Testing blood sugar levels gives you the tools to make informed decisions about how best to treat Little Boy's diabetes. To test blood sugar levels, you'll want a glucometer, test strips, and lancets; you should be able to find them in the diabetes section of your local pharmacy. And, yes, human glucometers are perfectly valid for use in your cat.
> Vet gave us a strip to test keytones (sp?). None detected in urine. Keytones showed up in blood test but not
> urine test done done in surgery.
There are several types of urine test strips. There's a diastix, which will test sugar levels (as discussed earlier, they're not nearly as accurate as you need). There's a ketostix, which will test for ketones. And there's a ketodiastix, which will test for both sugar and ketones.
Since Little Boy had a history of ketones, you'll want to keep an eye on his ketone level, at least until his diabetes is under control. The easiest way to do this is to use the urine test strips (ketostix) and see whether they change colour. Low levels of ketones may be treatable at home, but high levels of ketones may require hospitalisation.
> OK, so my question is: Given that Lantus is a slow acting insulin and changing insulin too often is not recommended -
> what am I going to gain by doing the home BG test over a urine test.
See above: the urine test isn't as immediate or accurate and will only ever give you averages. For you to gain control, you need precise data. You can get precise and immediate data with blood testing.
> We still don't have the home test kit btw. I think we are mostly concerned that we won't know what to do with
> the information.
You can take the information you get from the test and post it here to ask for advice. Our ability to advise is limited by the data we receive; the better data you supply us, the better we can respond. As an example, let's go back to my example of a 250 sugar reading. We'd actually like the numbers to be lower, so if someone came in and said they had a 250 reading, we might advise them to increase the insulin. However, if someone came in and said that their pre-shot tests were 550 and their mid-way test was 50, there's no *way* we'd advise increasing the insulin -- 50 is *extremely* close to hypoglycemic territory, which can be life-threatening.
Using an average instead of exact highs and lows isn't good because an average is just that: an average.
> Even if we can get the blood and test it, what is the immediate thing it will tell us? What reading am I wanting?
> Speaking in American numbers - do I want his BG level to be 150 or under that? If he's on 3 units and his reading
> is 150 does that mean that I need to give him more or less insulin or keep it at the same level? What is the daily
> level that I am aiming at and am I meant to change the dosage according to the BG reading every time. I
> think the letters KIS apply here.
In *general*, with Lantus, you generally don't want to change the amount of insulin you give at random. The exceptions to this would be if Little Boy had a hypoglycemic incident, or (possibly) if he currently had ketones. So, no, you wouldn't normally change the dose based on a single reading.
Insulin works on a curve. You can see a curve
here. This curve reflects the blood sugar readings taken during the day. The point on the left is where the insulin is injected and is usually the high reading for the time frame. As the insulin takes effect, the blood sugar levels go down; then, as the insulin wears off, the blood sugar levels rise again.
You want to keep the numbers in a good range for Little Boy. Exactly what those numbers will depend on Little Boy, how he reacts to the insulin and any other health issues he may have.
> It's just that I still don't have a mental picture of what I am meant to be doing. Pls understand that I'm one
> of these people who take longer than other people to pick things up.
That's not a problem.
You'll want to test for ketones, because Little Boy has had ketones in the past and they can be a serious complication.
You'll want to test blood sugar levels prior to each shot, to see whether it's safe to give insulin. You can post your numbers here or in the Lantus forum and, based on your numbers, folks can tell you what they think you should do: stay at the same dose, raise it a little, lower it a little. (I'm not qualified to give dosing advice on Lantus, as I've never used it.)
I'd also suggest heading over to the Lantus forum: if you scroll to the bottom of this page, there's a listbox in the lower right corner labelled 'Jump To'. Use that list to go to the Lantus (glargine) forum. Near the top of the page are three posts that will give you a lot of information about Lantus and how it works. Those posts are labelled "New to the Group? Please read"; "Insulin Depot, AKA Storage Shed"; and "Info: Proper Handling and Storage". Those should hopefully give you the basics about Lantus and how it works in cats.
> I think our reluctance to buy the kit is a lack of understanding of how it will work for us - or that it may be
> too complicated for us to handle.
For most folks, it's a question of getting the blood test result and posting to the forum and asking for help. Folks will read your post and give you their best advice on what they think you should do. As time goes on, you'll become more knowledgable about determining what dose to give, but at the beginning we all ask for this help.
> Obviously worried about trying to get the blood too. LB has a memory like an elephant. I stood on his paw
> for the first time in 11 yrs). He was having his dinner. For weeks he would stand back from his dinner when
> I walked past him. I don't want to do any more fiddling with him than is necessary because I don't want to
> queer my pitch for giving him the insulin.
Talk softly to LIttle Boy all through the testing process, and give him cuddles before and during. After the test -- even if you weren't successful in getting a reading -- give him a treat. There are a *lot* of folks here who have been surprised that their cat doesn't end up resenting the testing, and even more surprised when they come up and point out that, hey, it's testing time, already!
> BTW I read Dr Lisa's diet page thoroughly on the first day. I loved the idea of grinding up whole rabbit.
> This would be very healthy as wild rabbit would be full of omega 3 and the goodness in the ground up bone
> would be fantastic.
If you're using wild rabbit, you might have to do some variation on her recipe, just in case of parasites or such. Also, Kate & Lucky bring up a good point: cats need taurine in order to see. Without taurine, their retinas degenerate and they could go blind. If the diet Little Boy is getting hasn't contained enough taurine, that could explain why his pupils are dilated.
> These are LB on youtube. video two shows what a lovely garden little boy owns.
I can honestly say that I've never seen a cat getting his back scratched with a rake :lol: That's hilarious. And, yes, it's a lovely yard.
-- Jean and her Gwyn
The raw food diet is great for some, just read the link she gave you so you can make sure your kittie's getting the proper balanced diet.![JJ & Gwyn [GA]](/FDMB/data/avatars/m/0/167.jpg?1419296044){kind=avatar}
