Meet my owners: Lucy and Jasper

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kalyv

kalyv

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Hi again,

I took Carl's advice and opened a separate thread so as not to highjack Pamala and Bug's.

Meet my kitties: Lucy and Jasper. Lucy, especially, likes to wrap herself up in my stuff when she is nervous or upset which she has been a lot lately. Jasper knows something is up but he is more interested in enjoying the last of the sunshine before the cold weather hits. We live in Toronto, by the way.

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You can freeze the wet food and leave it out to thaw during the day so they can graze. (I use a silicone cupcake pan- a can of FF fits in each cup.)

BUT don't completely switch over to wet food until you are hometesting. The diet can make a huge difference in the numbers. My cat Oliver went down 100 points overnight when we switched completely from dry to wet.
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Cool tip Sue. I will definitely try that when I do wean them off the dry food.

My vet actually suggested I start home-testing this week. He wants me to track the BG curve once I have gotten used to the process. I have to go get the glucometer and stuff tomorrow.

Feel free to start a new thread so that you can introduce us to you and your brand new sugarcat! Please let us know also what kind of insulin the vet gave you, and what the dosage is. Like Sue said, if you aren't already, you should consider home testing before making a complete diet change. The current dose may be too high once the wet food starts to lower the BG level. You definitely don't want to be shooting "blind" when changing to a low-carb diet.
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Thanks again for the advice Carl.

Lucy is on Lantus insulin, 2 units every 12 hours. As I said, she just started last Saturday so this is all very new to us. (Though my Mom also has Type II so I guess it runs in the family. ;-) )

When we tested Lucy's blood sugar at the vet, she was reading at 23.5 - normal range is supposed to be 10 - so very high, but she had just eaten a bunch of dry food before we left home. Anyway, the vet didn't want to increase her dose until after the he sees her BG curve.

I guess it makes sense to do the cuver while Lucy is on her current diet. But since her insulin dose is so low, maybe it is best to wean her off the dry food before doing the curve. What do you guys think?
 
Lovely kitties... that's all I wanted to say really... they look so sweet and comfy!

As you go into the cold weather we are facing the on-set of warm weather 'down under'. My kitty hates the heat - and boy do we get some hot weather in Melbourne! He and I are much happier in the cold weather - we had a long cold winter this year.... yaaaa.. no snow or anything as troublesome as that - just very chilly days for a long time. Welcome to the forum.

Marilyn
 
Hi Anyname and thanks. They are adorable, if I do say so myself. Your avatar is very pretty.

Re: the weather, we should switch places because I hate the cold. I would be perfectly happy to live in one of those single season tropical climates.

Not sure about Jasper though but as long as he has a garden to go stalking through, I suspect he would be happy. Lucy mostly just stays indoors and follows me from room to room.
 
Hi again!
Her insulin dose isn't actually "low". Most kitties are started on 1u twice a day (every 12 hours).
A starting dose of 2u BID isn't rare, however. I think to convert your numbers to "US" numbers, the multiplier is x18, so the 23.5 would be 423. What is considered "normal" here would be between 50-120, so while "10" is a good place to shoot for, that would convert to 180.
All that math aside, you should first consider home testing with a human meter. When Lucy stops eating dry food, just that could drop her BG 100 points or more. The reason you want to home test is because you need to know how low her BG goes as a result of her insulin shots. If you do a curve now, you will see how low she goes even though she is eating dry food somewhat (I know you said she's eating both wet and dry). Also, if you decide to feed her non-prescription low carb wet food, that will also improve her BG levels.
So, I would try to do a curve as soon as possible. Then after you know what that looks like, you can start to wean her off her current diet onto a good low-carb one. You may find that after doing so, you will be able to reduce her dosage.

There will be a lot of great folks chiming in with advice, but maybe not till tomorrow morning! Don't hesitate to ask questions. This can be overwhelming at first, but in a week or two, you'll feel a whole lot less overwhelmed.
Your kitties are gorgeous!
Carl
 
Thanks for the feedback Carl.

I did my first BG test on Lucy today. It wasn't too bad. I only had to prick her twice and she seemed to tolerate it well.

I did the test at about 2 p.m. (her morning shot was at 7:40 a.m.) and of course she had both wet and dry food at that point. Her BG was 20.9 or 376.

I will be giving her evening shot in about half an hour but I wanted to ask how long I should wait after her shot before testing her again?
 
Test just before giving any shot, am or pm. Then you can test again a couple hours later. You always want to test before shooting to verify it is safe to do so.
carl
 
Hello again.

I have been doing Lucy's BG curve this weekend. The numbers seem pretty high but I am waiting to hear back from the vet as to what to do about her insulin dosage.

In the meantime, I also tested my non-diabetic but rather over-weight Jasper and his BG, tested several days apart, are 3.7 and 3.3 or 66.6 and 59.4.

He seems perfectly healthy and active but I was told that a BG below 4 for a diabetic cat is dangerous. So I am wondering if this is something I should be concerned about in my non-diabetic kitty?

Some background, Jasper has always been a very heavy cat, though he is rather muscular even with a big belly though he seems to be putting no more weight recently. I suspect that has to do with Lucy stealing his wet food, leaving him to eat mostly dry food for the past few months.

When Lucy was diagnosed with diabetes a couple of weeks ago, I switched them both over to the DM wet and dry prescription food.

I would appreciate any feedback you can offer on Jasper before I take him to the vet. As I said, he seems perfectly fine and to be honest, my vet bills are a little above manageable for me right now so if I don't need to worry about Jasper as well, that would make all our lives a little bit easier until Lucy settles into a routine.

BTW both my kitties just turned 12.
 
A non-diabetic cat is fine witn numbers that low. Unless he shows symptoms of hypo I wouldn't worry. Technically he can't hypo without insulin.
 
That's a relief. Thanks bookwOrm. Sorry for the very elementary questions but this is all still very new a scary to me.
 
Kalyv,

"Normal" BG for cats is 50-120. Jasper is just fine with those numbers. Actually, Lucy is okay unless she goes below 3 (54), so if you start seeing 3.something with her, that's still okay at nadir. You need to become concerned if you see her drop lower than that and her nadir is still a couple hours away.
If that ever happens, make sure to alert people here ASAP.

Carl
 
Thanks Carl. That is good to know. Now I can go back to worrying about how high Lucy's BG is. She remains well into the 20s even after 2 units of insulin. I hope the vet gets back to me soon.
 
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