I need help with testing BG

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Yvonne & Freddie

Member Since 2014
I posted but now I see my post in the announcements and did not get any replies. I have a hard time with computers...and posting.
My Freddie was diagnosed with Diabetes and has been on Lantus, 2 units twice a day for 2 weeks Yesterday the vet put him on 2.5 unites. Could someone plaese help me with him. He just does feel good.
He now has diabetes, chronic pancreatitis, chronic asthma. I got him on pred 2.5 every other day for the asthma and he is on flovent 4 puffs a day
My husband went in to get the confirm Relion meter with strips and lancets but now I have not a clue how or when or what do it. . He is fed at 5:45 am in the morning and given insulin between 6 and 6:15 am. Evening fed at 5:45 and insulin at 6 or so. Is this what I need to be doing???He only eats the w/d hard kibbles food will not eat the wet W/D he is over weight 17lbs and needs to loose more weight down from 23 lbs in Aug.
I am totally frustrated because I called my vet and he did not call back first time ever. Vet does not want him off the W/D kibbles which I know is not good for him...don't know what to do because I have done so much reading and it says to test and feed soft food. Fred is a hard food junkie. If anyone can help steer me in the right direction I would love it..
Yvonne and Freddie
 
Hi Yvonne, welcome to FDMB! You are doing a great thing for Freddie. :-D I would recommend this youtube video, how to test a diabetic cat. It's much better if you can test before every shot and in between each shot.

The best place to find out about food is http://www.catinfo.org by Dr. Lisa Pierson. She has put together a fantastic resource about feeding cats, including how to get a hard food addict to eat wet food. We sure had our struggles with Zener. The hard food really isn't good for a cat, especially a diabetic one. And we fed our cats hard food for years, but no more! I hope this is helpful.
Liz
 
While you work on transitioning to canned food which can take a while sometimes, you might gradually switch to Evo Cat and Kitten dry (8% calories from carbohydrates), or Young Again 0 Carb dry (5% calories from carbohydrates).

Change about 20-25% per day until completely switched. This reduces the chances of GI upset.
 
Welcome, Yvonne! You are in great hands here!

Another thing that can really help with switching the foods is a product called Fortiflora. It is a probiotic supplement made by Purina. While the probiotic part will be good for Freddie's digestive system, even better is that is made with animal digest, which is the coating on dry food that makes it so addictive for our kitties! Many folks have had great success getting their kitties over to wet food from dry by sprinkling a little Fortiflora on the wet food before feeding it.

You're doing great! And one thing to remember about vets... they are almost always really great people who do very well at their jobs. But their jobs aren't always easy... they have to be experts on how to treat a whole host of conditions...over multiple species!! It makes it very difficult to keep up on the latest developments for every single condition... especially ones they don't see often in their practice. Many also deal with a lot of pet owners who don't want dealing with their pets' health conditions to interfere with the lives, so they tend to focus on encouraging the path of least resistance.

keep up the good work!
 
Re: new member Help with insulin dose

Hi
I finally learned to do ear testing. My Fred's ear are really a mess though with it looks like bruising.
Tonight at 8 I tested and Fred was 216 on meter so plus 30 points so it was a reading of 246. Is that the way you figure it Heck I didn't know if I should give his vet suggested dose of 1.5 units. I gave 1 unit. Do you thinkthat is ok orshuld I test again tonight. His BG has been bouncing all over the place.
On Tuesday it got to 64 1/2 hour later it was 80 after I fed him. I did not give insulin that night..per vet.
3-5 reading of 295 gave 1 unit then 242 9 hours later and 339 3 hours at testing time 1.5 units. per vet
3-6 384 am testing gave 1.5 units 6 hours later 216 at 12 hour testing it was 216 again and I gave 1 unit...I didn't know how much to give and was afraid to give 1.5 .

My vet sad not to test if below 200 isn't 216 pretty close to 200 and how much should i have given Freddie. Will he be ok with the 1 unit with feeding him
Yvonne and Freddie
 
Re: how to get HELP!

How do I get some help from this group when I need it fast. I do not know how to work this site. Could someone please help me to be able to post
Thank you
Yvonne
 
Testing:

Always before the shot every 12 hours (AM Pre-Shot & PM Pre-Shot)

When possible, test at the nadir, around +5 to +7 hours after the shot, to see how low kitty is going. Some folks will do this on days off; others will set an alarm for that time in the middle of the night.

Before bed, for peace of mind, or to determine if you need to stay up and monitor some more, possibly intervene to steer the numbers with food.

For the bruising, apply direct pressure to the area after testing. This allows a clot to form faster and reduces bruising and scabbing. Works in people, too! :smile:
 
Hi Yvonne!

Welcome to the Vampire Club and getting that test done. It does get easier.

No need to add any numbers to the BG readings your meter gives you. We want to see the actual number you get.

What insulin are you using? I'm not sure you ever told us.

You asked about posting and getting help, so here are a couple of tips for you.

If you have a question, use the question mark Post Icon ( it's up there above the free form text box to the right of the OTJ icon)

Many of us scan the board looking for people that need help. That means we only see the very first subject header. If you change your subject header, you need to go back to your very first post in this topic, click on the edit icon and change the subject there. You then need to post a new reply with your question.

When we read the topics, we click the last unread post icon so it takes us to the very end. We'll only see what is new since the last time we read through your topic. So please, do not go back and change the text or add to the text in a previous response.

If you have a medical emergency ( cat is comatose, seizures, very low BG numbers, breathing sounds labored, etc) then put the 911 icon on your very first post.

If no one is here in the Feline Health forum (more likely later in the evening through early morning) then you can try posting over in the Lantus TR forum. It's more active later at night and has a number of west coast people on that forum.

I know it can get frustrating when you don't get an immediate answer, but we don't have a "staff". We're all volunteers here, with jobs, families, pets and other responsibilities of our own. We're happy to help out when we have the time, but can't be here at all hours. Sometimes, you have to be patient with us.

In case of emergency, the best thing you can do is to call your vet's emergency contact number.
 
Yvonne & Freddie said:
I wrote it wrong on message before this correction vet said not to give insulin if # was 200 or less...
Yvonne
Click to expand...

Yes, that is correct. When you're first starting out, we recommend for new members who don't yet have enough data to not give a shot if the pre-shot is less than 200. Eventually, that number drops to 150 (on the Lantus forums) and then even lower as you get more experienced with testing and have more information on how Freddie does with shots at lower numbers. For the 216, since it's over 200, I would give the shot. Yes, it's close, but the 200 number is built in with a bit of a cushion so if there are new members who aren't as tentative as you and shoot when they get a 199 pre-shot ("close-enough," right?), they won't necessarily be endangering their cat.

If you ended up skipping the shot, that's also fine. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable giving the shot. Since you're still new at this, it's quite all right if you didn't feel comfortable with giving the shot or gave a reduced dose.

Yvonne & Freddie said:
I finally learned to do ear testing. My Fred's ear are really a mess though with it looks like bruising.
Click to expand...
When you first start testing, the ears can look pretty terrible. Don't worry! This clears up in a few weeks as their ears "learn to bleed" and pretty soon, you won't even be able to tell that you test him. Here are some more ear-testing tips that I'm not sure if anyone has shared with you yet.
 
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