Introduction: Additional Questions Regarding Recent Diagnosis!

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True92

Member Since 2021
Hi all-

Reaching out to try and get some additional tips, tricks and advice regarding this recent discovery within our family!

Our 5 year old female cat (Karmin) was recently diagnosed with diabetes. While she has always been a cat obsessed with the bathtub, I began noticing that drinking water from that faucet was literally all she wanted to do. In addition, we found her urinating outside of the litter box on some clothes a few times. In addition to seeing the other main symptoms of diabetes. Originally, we thought it may have been territorial due to our new (human) baby. However, we decided to take her in. Much to our surprise (and our vets), it was discovered that Karmin likely had diabetes with a glucose level of approximately ~415 and some elevated liver values. When going back in, she was pricked and shown with a level of ~354 with glucose also being evident in her urine. At this time, our vet provided us a tutorial on the shots and what would be needed. We went with prozinc which would be administered at 1 unit twice a day, at 8pm & 8am. We are on day two today, with day one going very smoothly with Karmin only going in the bathtub once and appearing to have plenty of energy throughout the day (with her usual naps). So that brings me to my main questions:

  1. Our vet suggested going to a twice per day feeding schedule briefly before her insulin injections. Prior to this, she would eat midday as well. He seemed hesitant on the midday feeding, so I'm asking, what is the recommendation for snacks/some sort of meal so she her & our non-diabetic cat aren't yelling at us from 4pm-8pm?
  2. We purchased the AlphaTrak 2, was this the correct call or incorrect call? We just received it a few hours ago but want to include it in most days to ensure safety.
  3. Our vet suggested waiting 10-14 days before doing the glucose curve so we can have some baseline and ideally some regulation, does this sound like an okay plan?
  4. Any advice on not going crazy in those overnight hours when I need to sleep but want to make sure she doesn't dip too low or have any incidences like that?
  5. Is there any other thoughts, questions, advice you all could provide me!? This is very stressful and a bit scary!
Thanks
 
Welcome to FDMB!! I'll do my best to answer your questions.

Feeding: Most of us feed our diabetic kitties more than twice a day. Ideally, you can spread out meals but you want to not feed after the nadir (the lowest point in the cycle) since this is where the effect of insulin starts to wane. You also don't wan't to feel 2 hours prior to shot time. All of this works provided your cat isn't in low numbers whereby you need to intervene with food. Some vets emphasize only feeding twice a day. If your cat is used to more frequent meals, there's no reason to not allow them to graze.

Meters: The AlphaTrack is fine. Most vets like it since it's calibration is closer to what they get from a serum chemistry analyzer. However, the cost for the AT strips can be prohibitive. They are the most expensive strips around. Many of the people here use a human meter. The Walmart Relion brand meter is inexpensive and the strips are also very inexpensive. All of the dosing methods we use are based on a human meter. If cost is not object, the AT is fine.

Curve: Waiting to do a curve is fine. It's also fine to not wait. A lot will depend on how often you test. You should be testing before you give a shot both in the AM and PM. You also want to get spot checks so you know how low your Karmin's numbers are dropping. Getting those spot checks and a before bed test every night is the best way to keep you kitty safe.

Sleep: As above, a before bed test will help. Some folks will "sleep test." In other words, if you wake up to use the bathroom, test our cat! The more data you collect, the more you'll learn Karmin's patterns.

Everything else: This is very stressful in the beginning. I promise -- it will become routine! There are a few things to help you get started. This is a link to a post on helping us to help you. There are instructions for setting up your signature and a spreadsheet. The signature will have you put information in a place where we can see it and so we don't ask you the same questions over and over again. The spreadsheet is a means for you to track Karmin's progress and will allow us to follow along. Can you tell us what you're feeding your cat? We can provide you with lots of information on feeding a low carbohydrate diet which will be very helpful if you've not already transitioned your cat to a diabetes-friendly diet. This is a link to the Prozinc forum. You'll want to look over the sticky notes at the top of the board. There's information on Prozinc and dosing methods.
 
Thank you so much for the thorough answers! That was incredibly helpful and insightful and provided some peace of mind during these changes!

I do have one more follow-up regarding the glucometer if you don't mind? While the AlphaTrak sounds nice due to the closer read, the cost of ($1 per strip!) is a bit of a concern for us. Are they any threads/pages that can explain what numbers to look for in a human reader/which relion reader to use? I want to check all of our bases and test frequently to concern no concerning dips or changes, however, at $1 a strip, that becomes very expensive, very quickly.

Again, thank you a million!
 
Hi there.

The Relion Prime and Premier both have more wallet-friendly strips (I think it's less than $18 for 100 strips). I think the Prime is probably the more popular of the two with members here.

The normal feline BG reference range as measured on a human meter is 50-120mg/dL.


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