Need help with Reli-On glucose meter

[Karen & Biscuits]

Hello everyone,
I've been gone for quite some time but have been a member here for a few years. I have 2 diabetic cats, Biscuits and Skittles. Biscuits is very difficult to treat where Skittles is fairly stable with his glucose levels. They are siblings from the same litter, and will be 14 this month. Right now, I am in a predicament as I have no glucose test strips for my current meter, which is the VetQ pet glucose meter. I ordered strips last week and they are getting a tour of the country at the moment. When I contacted Amazon about it this morning, they said a replacement set would be here tomorrow and that is also a lie. It's showing Thursday, which is exactly a week since I placed the original order, that was supposed to be here this past Saturday. Now I have no strips for my Alpha Trak meter and none for the VetQ meter. I do have a Reli-on meter with strips that is in working condition but I have no idea how to read that and know where Biscuits sugar is at tonight. I am livid about this because amazon doesn't care and doesn't undestand how critical it is, and of course the post office doesn't care either. All I have until the strips show up is my Reli-On meter. How do I know what to look for as far as what her sugar readings actually are? I have never done this before and I'm a bit panicked right now. Can anyone give me some tips please? Thank you in advance.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

There is not exact way of converting from human meter numbers to pet meters. Our dosing methods were developed using human meters, as that's all that was around then.

The human meters, such as the Relion, will generally read a little lower than the pet meters. Though they are much closer in lower numbers, below 100. You don't want a cat to be below 50 on a human meter. Our dosing methods for Vetsulin say you don't want them below 90 on either type of meter. For a kitty using Levemir, it depends which dosing method you are following. If following the Start Low Go Slow Method, then a reduction is earned if below 90 on either type of meter. If using Tight Regulation, a reduction is earned if below 50 on a human meter or 68 on a pet meter.

Paws crossed you get the new strips soon.

 

[Karen & Biscuits]

There is not exact way of converting from human meter numbers to pet meters. Our dosing methods were developed using human meters, as that's all that was around then.

The human meters, such as the Relion, will generally read a little lower than the pet meters. Though they are much closer in lower numbers, below 100. You don't want a cat to be below 50 on a human meter. Our dosing methods for Vetsulin say you don't want them below 90 on either type of meter. For a kitty using Levemir, it depends which dosing method you are following. If following the Start Low Go Slow Method, then a reduction is earned if below 90 on either type of meter. If using Tight Regulation, a reduction is earned if below 50 on a human meter or 68 on a pet meter.

Paws crossed you get the new strips soon.

Thank you Wendy. I wasn't able to get back here to respond sooner. We're having internet issues and I haven't got all the passwords etc. in my phone. In any case, we went 72 hours with no strips and I was winging it with Biscuits. She tends to be lower in the morning and really high at night. I ended up giving her 3 units which is kind of in the middle and just watched her carefully for signs of low blood sugar. Thankfully, she did fine. I cannot get this bouncing under control. I don't know what it is. She's on high quality food and somehow her sugar is still all over the place. Our vet suggested Bexacat, and he's aware that she's on insulin and that it is not recommended to switch her to Bexacat. However, he also said he contacted the manufacturer and inquired whether or not taking her OFF the insulin for a few days would help to be able to switch her over. They said it can be done but it's not recommended for a cat that has been on insulin for more than a few months. So we opted out of that and secondly, she's already getting Levemir through DCIN and I don't want to mess with that. It's a privilege to be in the program for her and I don't want to stop giving her Levemir, try Bexacat, and then find out it doesn't work and have to start all over again or risk making her sick. Not worth it. The vet did say that with newly diagnosed cats, he has had a lot of success with Bexacat and those cats are doing very well. I wish we would have had that option from the start and maybe she would not be having these issues. This morning her sugar was at 419 - she had not eaten anything but a bowl of wet food as usual. Her sugar was at 386 before she ate. The wet food is mostly natural, doesn't bother her brother Skittles in the least, his sugar levels are almost always stable even after eating, and with her, the littlest thing makes it shoot way up. I feel so bad because it has to be hard on her system to have such high levels all the time, but nothing seems to help. We've switched foods, we've upped insulin, we were on Vetsulin in the beginning and she got switched to Levemir, which helps a bit but it's not working as well as it did. She's just had so many issues with bouncing that I fear her organs are getting damaged in the process. She seems fine on the outside but I'm sure internally she's a hot mess. She also has lost the ability to know where to pee and poop. She pees in the litterbox BUT, she gets right on the edge of it now and pees OUT of the litterbox even though she's in it. She also never covers it. She absolutely refuses to poop in the litterbox. That was never an issue with her until about 6 months ago. Now she will poop anywhere BUT in the litterbox. She's been tested for UTI and whatnot, and that was all totally normal. I think it's likely brain damage from the seizure she had 18 months ago. That's the only thing that makes sense because she was always really clean and never did her business outside of the litterbox until that seizure happened. I love my sweet girl so much but I feel like I'm failing her with her sugar being so high despite my efforts to keep it under control. Any suggestions?

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Has she got neuropathy or been checked for arthritis in her hind half? Neko got really bad arthritis, and couldn't squat properly in the litter box, so needed a high sided one. Do you have at least three litter boxes for the two cats? A place she can go and not feel threatened?

As for blood sugars, we won't be able to help you without blood sugar data in the spreadsheet. Even data for the last two weeks would be a good start and enough to help.