Looking forward to interacting with all you knowledgeable people!

[RockyRoo]

Hello! My name is Allison, and my sugarcat is Rocky, age 11 years, neutered male. I also have a non-diabetic female, Enya, age 10. She was not happy when Rocky appeared in our house three months ago but she has slowly accepted his existence in her general area. Rocky, bless his dumb little heart, is totally chill with whatever cat is around, or maybe just does not notice them. He does have cataracts and honestly I think he's a little "slow" for a cat lol.

We started fostering Rocky in December 2015, and shortly after he was diagnosed with diabetes. We did our best to learn and manage it, and my sister took ownership of him in summer 2016. I didn't have much to do with his care after that until Sept 2019.

I took him in at my house then and have been relearning how to best treat him. I noticed right away that he was peeing buckets and draining his water bowl, but thought he was still regulated okay at least. In November I reordered strips for the AlphaTrak meter we bought in 2016 (they're so expensive!) and did a full curve on him. Saw that his sugar was way too high. Since then I've found this site and have been adjusting his care. I stopped kibble, and bought LC canned food that was also low phosphorous so my other kitty can share - she has a history of crystals. I started checking his blood sugar much more often. As I continue to learn, hopefully we'll get him where he needs to be!

I haven't yet learned about using human glucose meters but I want to switch when my AlphaTrak strips run out. I can't believe they charge so much for those.

 

[MrWorfMen's Mom]

Hello Allison, Rocky and Enya and welcome to FDMB. Rocky sounds like a sweet heart even if he is little "slow". LOL! Wonderful of you to take Rocky back into your family again.

On the glucometer front, a lot of folks here use the Relion meters from Walmart and the strips are much cheaper than those for the AT2 meter. I believe the Relion meters do take a bit bigger sample of blood but most folks don't find that's a problem.

Rocky is on a fairly hefty dose of insulin and his numbers are staying pretty high. We can help you work on getting him better regulated and you are all set up with a signature and spreadsheet already so come join us over in the Vetsulin forum and we'll see what we can do to help you help Rocky.

 

[RockyRoo]

Hello Allison, Rocky and Enya and welcome to FDMB. Rocky sounds like a sweet heart even if he is little "slow". LOL! Wonderful of you to take Rocky back into your family again.

On the glucometer front, a lot of folks here use the Relion meters from Walmart and the strips are much cheaper than those for the AT2 meter. I believe the Relion meters do take a bit bigger sample of blood but most folks don't find that's a problem.

Rocky is on a fairly hefty dose of insulin and his numbers are staying pretty high. We can help you work on getting him better regulated and you are all set up with a signature and spreadsheet already so come join us over in the Vetsulin forum and we'll see what we can do to help you help Rocky.

Thanks! I know his numbers are really high right now. I don't have time to do a full curve on him until Monday night but I'm curious to see how it is. It's been three days since I stopped giving him kibble and there has been an improvement at least! I think I will get a Relion soon. I still have maybe half a container of AT2 strips to use.

 

[Red & Rover (GA)]

Welcome.