Panthersmom said:
Hi. I am Panther's mom and panther is a male 14-18 yr old cat (i think lady said he was 9 when we got him, she says now that he was 6). He just got diagnosed with Diabetes about 2 months ago and we thought we had him stabilized on the insulin at 3 ccs twice a day but last wed when we got up, he was on the floor with his four paws sprawled out and he couldn't get up. I took him straight to the vet where they hooked him up to iv and gave him dextrose. Luckily he was ok but has cost me almost 2000 in the last couple of months. I live in Oshawa, ON Canada and off on work disability right now and finding this has drained me financially and my vet doesn't take payments. She also told me that the meter for testing a cats bg is a specialized one and that the human ones don't measure the same nor accurately. I had to post this way as i'm not sure how to post here. I see you guys offer a kit for testing glucose but since you don't deliver to Canada (wouldn't have an issue paying the shipping here) it's not beneficial to me. If anyone can add any info on where to obtain one free or for shipping here in Canada would be awesome as I'm on a very tight budget. I see you also make mention of a specific type of syringes that walmart sells for 15...the one's I get for Panther at walmart, I pay $40 for 100 so again, if someone knows where I can get them cheaper here in ON it would be awesome. It's just myself and my daughter and she goes back to school away starting Sept and I will be going back to work. Is there a way to switch hours according to work schedules as my schedule changes from wk to wk. Right now, he's at 1 PM and 1 AM so how do I go about changing that if my schedule runs from 8 - 4 so ideally 7 would be an ideal change. Should I start giving them like 11.5 hrs til I wean him back to 7:30 or is this not safe to do. Thanks in advance.
Panthers mom
Welcome to the site. I was living in Toronto for many yrs and had 2 cats getting insulin. There are many others on this site living in ON, so if you can add your location, Oshawa, ON to your profile.... upper right corner, select User Control Panel, then select profile and add your city into the Location box, and click on submit at bottom of that screen.
By posting where you are, you may connect with others close by who can help you in many ways in caring for Panther.
OK, a couple questions.
1. What insulin are you using? 3cc is alot, you are talking about units? I would guess you are using U100 syringes, and I hope with 1/2 unit markings on the syringe barrels?
2. What meter are you currently using? There are a couple meters that have proven to be unreliable: the FreeStyle meters have strips with 'butterfly technology' which is crap as you don't get any readings over 299 or for you, no readings over 16.6. Also, meters with TRUE in their name are not good. You do NOT have to use a pet type meter as it's no better than human ones for what you need and the strips are horribly expensive when comparing to others.
I believe you can arrange for shipping of Bayer meter and cheaper test strips $25USD for 100 from DCIN. The meters are very good; Bayer is my meter of choice after comparing several.
I got most of my supplies from Shopper's Drug Mart and I used their Optimum card for points... believe me, the points add up and a couple times a year, I had enough for my 5-pack of Levemir insulin to be purchased with just points. There are others in ON who may have some money saving tips for you as well.
3. What food are you feeding Panther and how often are you feeding? If he is eating any dry food, you will need to switch over to low carb wet food, but do not switch until you are testing Panther's BG because the numbers will fall lower and less insulin may be needed. A great amount of cats are diet controlled.... once they are put onto a low carb wet food diet, they no longer need insulin or need much less. You can feed any of the pate varieties of several kinds of wet foods available: fancy feast, friskies, special kitty, sophisticats, and many others. Just stick to no grilled kinds and for sure no gravies.
For switching your shot times, of course it can be done. Just post what date you are needing to be at the 7am/7pm shot times, and a schedule can be worked out for you, but first we need to know the insulin you are using, and to know that you are home testing so you can see how well Panther's numbers are doing.
Please reply with the meter, the insulin, and the food info, and ask all questions you have....
Finally, change your Subject in your first post to read "I am new and in Oshawa, ON" .... that will catch the attention of all the other Ontarians.
