Me and Hootie are new here

[yukon25]

My guy Hootie was diagnosed about 2 weeks ago. He's 16 and in excellent health other than the diabetes, so we're going the insulin shot route. He has a 10 month kitten buddy named Trixie. I've already read a bunch of stuff from this site -it's awesome! I don't feel nearly as scared and nervous as when the vet called. Thank you all SO much for sharing what you do and know!

 

[Olive & Paula]

Hello Hootie's parent. Welcome. There is so much help here.

One the best things you do for Hootie is to home test (regardless what vet tells you). By testing you will know when to give more or less insulin and keep Hootie safe.

What insulin has been prescribed?

Are you giving dry food? It's normally to high in carbs for diabetic kitties. Prescription food normally not needed unless there is other conditions.

We can advise as to more affordable food, syringes, insulin, glucose meters etc.

Please read the informational stickies throughout this site and ask any and all questions.

 

[yukon25]

The vet did suggest home testing. She wants him on ProZinc. And I got both kitties totally off of dry food a few days ago. We have our consult and instructions this afternoon.

 

[Olive & Paula]

Good on the no dry food and vet on board with home testing.

A human meter is fine for testing. Wal-Mart brand Confirm or Micro meter are very popular here. The most expensive item in the long run of FD is the test strips. You go through a lot of them. These you can order or pick up in store. Although I like the Alpha Trac meter it became to expensive and could only order strips, well vet sold them for double price. My vet now likes the human meter but a different one.

Make sure the vet shows you how to read the syringes and they are the correct ones for the insulin you are using. There have been a few accidents recently because parents was not instructed properly or given wrong syringes which caused an over dose.

One thing to remember, never ever give insulin again if you think it didn't go in the first time. That just happened to. Vet tech double shot thinking first was a fur shot. Let's just say it was a very scary long night for parent.

Looking forward to your progress. In the prozinc forum there is a informational stickie on using prozinc. If you have time you might want to give it a read before your visit.

 

[Callie & Patches]

Good on the no dry food and vet on board with home testing.

A human meter is fine for testing. Wal-Mart brand Confirm or Micro meter are very popular here. The most expensive item in the long run of FD is the test strips. You go through a lot of them. These you can order or pick up in store. Although I like the Alpha Trac meter it became to expensive and could only order strips, well vet sold them for double price. My vet now likes the human meter but a different one.

Make sure the vet shows you how to read the syringes and they are the correct ones for the insulin you are using. There have been a few accidents recently because parents was not instructed properly or given wrong syringes which caused an over dose.

One thing to remember, never ever give insulin again if you think it didn't go in the first time. That just happened to. Vet tech double shot thinking first was a fur shot. Let's just say it was a very scary long night for parent.

Looking forward to your progress. In the prozinc forum there is a informational stickie on using prozinc. If you have time you might want to give it a read before your visit.

You can get the FreeStyle Lite strips to use in the AT meter for about $35/50 at Amazon. They are just as good as the AT strips. I just bought 4 packs yesterday. We go through a lot of strips.