June 6 NEW MEMBER EvieBme and Julius

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Eve Baillargeon

Member Since 2021
Hi all!
It’s a little over a month since diagnosis. We’re learning and struggling each day trying to get this right. We live in a small Alaska town with one vet and 2 grocery stores with maybe 2 other places where we are sometimes able to buy cat food/supplies, but mostly I’ve had to order online. Chewy won’t ship to Alaska.

At the time of diagnosis Julius had already lost over 3 lbs, from 13.2 down to 9.6. His BG in the clinic was 399, fructosamine 509, urine ketones 80, (on CBC) platelets were high at 624. No other notable abnormal lab values.

He was placed on 1U of Lantus bid and we began that at home while learning how to test as often as possible. We immediately threw out the dry cat food and started him on wet food only, except for treats, along with our other 5 cats. I have another sweet old cat with stage 3 CKD. Monitoring and managing Julius’ food/carb intake hasn’t been easy. We’ve switched them all to Friskies pates and Julius also gets Fancy Feast pate, plus homemade chicken with broth. He is ravenous most of the time.

Checked his urine and it’s negative for ketones now - whew.

On a day when we tried to do a glucose curve at home, all 4 of his readings that day were in the 240 to 280 range.

On another day we saw:
8:15 am (no food yet) = 127
10:30 am 1U given
4:30 pm (food of course) = 436
*exercise*
8:00 pm = 354
8:15 pm 1U given

He’s all over the place and so are we! As this is an introductory post, I’ll leave it there. Let me just say I’m thankful to have a place to go for advice from experienced sugarcat mamas/daddys and I think I trust you folks more than I do either of the two vets here in town, who are both overworked and overpaid - lol. I am not necessarily looking for diabetic advice right now tonight, but I know I’ve got to get a spreadsheet going and do all I can to learn how to use this forum. Thanks very much - Eve and Julius.
 
Hi Eve and welcome to the FDMB! It's amazing that you've gotten so far in terms of testing and getting rid of dry food. Blood glucose levels can start dropping quickly when you transition to wet food, so it's good that you're testing since you're already administering insulin to Julius. This bit of reading can help you handle low numbers, identify any signs of hypoglycemia and how to deal with it:
Don't Panic! or How to Handle Low Numbers

Please do get a spreadsheet going and fill out your signature. Here's a post that is really helpful to get you acclimated to how we do things around here:
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

Since you're testing already and understand curves and the importance of feeding low carb foods, you can make your next post in the Lantus forum: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-basaglar-glargine-and-levemir-detemir.9/.

Please keep track of the blood glucose (BG) readings and post in the forum everyday so we can get to know you and your cat. We can help guide you about dosing, when to test and when to feed. We'll also help you out when you start to see those lower numbers.

Do let us know if you have any questions!
 
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