Introducing Big Boy

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Hi Everyone, my “soul” kitty, Big Boy, was diagnosed with diabetes on November 7, 2023. He is a 12 year old short hair tabby, who has mostly eaten dry kibble and typically weighs 18lbs. Although, I have been working on reducing his weight for some time now, it’s been difficult with two other cats in the house.

I took him to the vet due to throwing up and diarrhea on November 7, 2023. His glucose level came back as 455, and the fructosamine test came back at 628. No ketones. I have purchased ketone testing strips which I will start using when I am able to catch him in the litter box.

Unfortunately, I was leaving on a 4 week trip the following day, which meant my 75 year old mom had to manage all of his insulin and blood glucose testing. She did an excellent job, but the whole ordeal was very overwhelming for her. During this time, I had a chance to read through a ton of information on this forum and I am truly grateful for all I have learned. It has provided me with the confidence to be able to tackle Big Boy’s diabetes.

He is fully on wet food now, but this has taken us almost 3 weeks to fully switch. He has lost .32 KG in the last 4 weeks

Big Boy was put on Lantus insulin starting at 1 unit every 12 hours and now has worked up to 2.5 units every 12 hours. He had the Freestyle Libre 2 installed and has had a few sensor exchanges over the past 4 weeks. I arrived home last night and plan on using the Libre for at least the next 2-4 weeks depending on my ability to blood glucose test him manually. I have tried testing him manually a few times before I left on my trip and last night a couple of times, but I just can’t seem to get enough blood from his ear. I plan on buying bigger gauge lancets tomorrow.

I am currently working on entering data on the spreadsheet from the freestyle libre. We had a bit of an episode last night. I woke up to a low glucose alarm on the Libre of 52. He had never dropped this low before and not this fast. (270 to 52 in 2.5 hours) I tried manually testing his blood glucose, but I managed to get more blood from my finger than from his ear. I fed him a bit of dry food and his numbers went up a bit and then dropped again at which time I feed him even more dry food. (probably more than I needed to) If this happens again, I will just feed him a high carb wet food. I was probably testing him every 10 - 15 minutes. There were significant swings in his BG level in short timeframes, such as 10 minutes. Should I be adding all the additional testing numbers to the spreadsheet? There was an hour where I tested him over half a dozen times.

Also, if I add the numbers on the world tab at a different time than on the hour it doesn’t transfer to the US tab properly because I have added the @ symbol. Are there any suggestions? Should I not add the @ or only add one number per reading? In addition, if I add two numbers per hour and they fall in different ranges making the colour different, what colour should I manually code the cell as?

Because of the low episode last night, I decreased his dose this morning to 2.25 units.

Thank you for reading and sorry for the long post. I plan on finishing his spreadsheet for the last week over the next day or so, but any suggestions on how best to handle multiple testing numbers per hour would be appreciated or if they are necessary to add to the spreadsheet.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum Jasmin and Big Boy.
Well done to you and your mom for managing Big Boy.
What type of manual glucose meter are you using? Can you put that into the signature as well please so we are aware. When you buy the new lancets, look for size 26 or 28.
Make sure you get a hypo kit set up with some high carb wet food and some honey so you are prepared.

The freestyle libre can be unreliable when it gets to numbers under 100. So it is always a good idea to recheck with a manual meter in those circumstances.
In regards to the SS and transferring numbers from the world SS to the US SS. If you are just writing a number it will transfer over normally but once you start adding anything else like @ or +, you have to manually transfer the numbers over. Most people here only understand the US numbers, so I would make sure you do the manual transfer each time so that anyone looking at it to help you, understands the numbers. Some of us who live in other countries (I am in Australia) understand the world numbers.

Strictly speaking, Big Boy did not earn a reduction in dose with the 52 when following TR, but seeing you have done the reduction, I would stay at 2.25U and see how he goes. At the moment he is bouncing from the green BG. Stay with the 2.25 U unless he drops under 50. Keep posting so we can help you.
Information about bouncing
  • Bouncing - Bouncing is simply a natural reaction to what the cat's system perceives as a BG value that is "too low". "Too low" is relative. If a cat is used to BGs in the 200's, 300's, or higher for a long time, then even a BG that drops to 150 can trigger a "bounce". Bouncing can also be triggered if the blood glucose drops too low and/or too fast.The pancreas, then the liver, release glucogon, glycogen and counter-regulatory hormones. The end result is a dumping of "sugar" into the bloodstream to save the cat from going hypoglycemic from a perceived low. The action is often referred to as "liver panic" or "panicky liver". *Usually*, a bounce will clear kitty's system within 3 days (6 cycles).
 
Thank you for the reply. Could you check my SS. I just tested and I am supposed to give him his insulin, but he is much lower than normal preshot. Is it ok to give 2.25 as usual?
 
Yes, it was okay to give 2.25. You might want to give Big Boy a snack to slow the drop.
Are you home today?

Waving from Ontario. Grew up on Vancouver Island. Welcome.
 
Hello and welcome from the lower Mainland. I'm super impressed with your mother's ability to pitch in while you were gone. Feline diabetes can be overwhelming at first and she did amazing.

Can you tell me what wet food Big Boy is eating now?

Over time, as you get more data on how Big Boy responds to the Lantus, you'll find you can shoot lower numbers. Today was fine to shoot what you did and a good chance to gather data on what happens when you shoot lower numbers.
 
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