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JennyB51

JennyB51

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Hi all
I have been browsing the sites for support with our Tinkabelle, she was diagnosed with Diabetes in August this year followed by concerns also with her liver. She is just 11 with no previous health concerns etc.

We are not yet home testing and feel that we are just blind dosing, but have had no guidance from our vet. Tinkabelle is still hungry, thirsty and pees loads after all this time but is generally happy although can cry for food especially early hours of the morning. We are so confused what we should be feeding her and have slowly managed to get the majority of her food to wet food instead of dry although she still wants the dry food more.
Any advice to start moving us forward would be wonderful. We are happy to home test but just need to know what it’s all about. I have read some of the threads and looked at the spreadsheets but feel quite overwhelmed by everything.
 
WELCOME TO FDMB Jenny and Tinkabelle I am proud to say search no more you have landed in a safe place to get ALL your questions answered!
We are dedicated to helping anyone who finds these pages .
First I'm going to direct you here so you can get acquainted with how things work around here. Please pay particular attention to the "Profile/Signature" section. All the information you enter into your signature will help anyone that comes to help. That way you wont be answering the same questions over and over.
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

Tinkabelle is hungry because an unregulated cat isnt processing food properly. They eat and eat yet lose weight, Once Tinkabelle is closer to regulation that will subside. We highly recommend feeding wet low carb foods 10% or under. Example would be Fancy Feast pates. Dry food is also packed with carbs.

BUT AND THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT DO NOT change the food you are feeding, until you are home testing Tinkas blood sugar levels.
The removal of dry food can drop BG numbers into dangerous levels. We can teach you to test AND how to slowly remove those carbs from her diet.
ALL THAT SAID:

WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY:bighug:

We look forward to getting to know you both!
This is the best site on this planet to learn everything you need to know about feline diabetes and beyond;)
jeanne


 
Welcome. Waving from Canada.
I'm going to tag a few members from the UK to help get you sorted.
@Elizabeth and Bertie
@Critter Mom
@Diana&Tom

JennyB51 said:
Any advice to start moving us forward would be wonderful. We are happy to home test but just need to know what it’s all about. I have read some of the threads and looked at the spreadsheets but feel quite overwhelmed by everything.
Click to expand...
Feline diabetes is a steep learning curve but will become second nature quite quickly. We can help you figure out the spreadsheets and everything.
 
Hello and welcome - I've removed the GA as it's thankfully not appropriate.

The value of home testing is for several reasons. First, we test before giving insulin to make sure it's safe to do so. We also test at times throughout the day to make sure are kitties are still in safe numbers, and we use those blood sugar test values to help us determine how to change the insulin dose. Truthfully, home testing can be overwhelming at first. For the first couple times, then it becomes just part of the routine. Many of us use that time for cuddles with our kitties, and they come to like it cause it means treats.
 
jt and trouble (GA) said:
WELCOME TO FDMB Jenny and Tinkabelle I am proud to say search no more you have landed in a safe place to get ALL your questions answered!
We are dedicated to helping anyone who finds these pages .
First I'm going to direct you here so you can get acquainted with how things work around here. Please pay particular attention to the "Profile/Signature" section. All the information you enter into your signature will help anyone that comes to help. That way you wont be answering the same questions over and over.
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

Tinkabelle is hungry because an unregulated cat isnt processing food properly. They eat and eat yet lose weight, Once Tinkabelle is closer to regulation that will subside. We highly recommend feeding wet low carb foods 10% or under. Example would be Fancy Feast pates. Dry food is also packed with carbs.

BUT AND THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT DO NOT change the food you are feeding, until you are home testing Tinkas blood sugar levels.
The removal of dry food can drop BG numbers into dangerous levels. We can teach you to test AND how to slowly remove those carbs from her diet.
ALL THAT SAID:

WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY:bighug:

We look forward to getting to know you both!
This is the best site on this planet to learn everything you need to know about feline diabetes and beyond;)
jeanne
Click to expand...
Many thanks, I will get reading, we need are contented lazy cat back!
 
jt and trouble (GA) said:
also I dont know why you have a GA in your title but here GA means, "Gone Ahead or Guardian Angel." Like on my screen name, Trouble passed away many years ago. You might want to remove that GA ;):bighug:

also heres some reading you might want to do:
Hometesting Links and Tips
Click to expand...
Sorry to have used the wrong tag and sorry for your loss, I have no idea why I used it, I thought it meant general answers or something like that xx
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Hello and welcome - I've removed the GA as it's thankfully not appropriate.

The value of home testing is for several reasons. First, we test before giving insulin to make sure it's safe to do so. We also test at times throughout the day to make sure are kitties are still in safe numbers, and we use those blood sugar test values to help us determine how to change the insulin dose. Truthfully, home testing can be overwhelming at first. For the first couple times, then it becomes just part of the routine. Many of us use that time for cuddles with our kitties, and they come to like it cause it means treats.
Click to expand...
Thank you for removing it, we will buy our strips this week and print out the spreadsheet, it feels so overwhelming x
 
No worries its a common mistake. Most folks think the GA means we are from Georgia. Beautiful state!
Well done on the signature. There will be some tweaking once you start to progress. but for now? good job. It a LOT to take in we know so take your time. We'll be here.;):coffee:
j
 
Welcome to FDMB.

The link that Jeanne (JT and trouble) posted in her first reply has all sorts of helpful information including how to set up your spreadsheet. We link our cat's spreadsheet to our signature so everyone can see it. Unless you want a copy to write on, most of us do all of the record keeping online.

Please let us know if you have questions. The initial getting used to managing your cat's diabetes is overwhelming. We've all been there. This is a link to the insulin board here that discusses the use of Caninsulin/Vetsulin. There are a few posts there that may help to provide you with more information about the insulin you're using.
 
jt and trouble (GA) said:
No worries its a common mistake. Most folks think the GA means we are from Georgia. Beautiful state!
j
Click to expand...

It is so strange that you say that Jeanne. When I first joined I thought exactly that and it represented people's home state. I did think there was a lot from Georgia but thought no more of it.
It is why I put the (UK) after my name when I first created my log in :banghead:. :facepalm:I was going to take it off when I realised but by the time I worked out how to edit my log on I was used to it :)
Glad I'm not the only one to have thought that!
 
JennyB51 said:
Thank you for removing it, we will buy our strips this week and print out the spreadsheet, it feels so overwhelming x
Click to expand...

Hi Jenny - welcome from a fellow UK-er. We are relatively new to this too with Mac being diagnosed just a few months ago. Don't worry - although it's overwhelming now you will get there one step at a time with the help from the wonderful people on here.
Best wishes to you & Tinkerbelle
Gill
 
Gill & Mac (UK) said:
Hi Jenny - welcome from a fellow UK-er. We are relatively new to this too with Mac being diagnosed just a few months ago. Don't worry - although it's overwhelming now you will get there one step at a time with the help from the wonderful people on here.
Best wishes to you & Tinkerbelle
Gill
Click to expand...
Many thanks, it’s just so overwhelming and our vets has said nothing about testing at home so feels like a bold but needed next step xx
 
QUOTE="Gill & Mac (UK), post: 2682254, member: 30855"]Hi Jenny - welcome from a fellow UK-er. We are relatively new to this too with Mac being diagnosed just a few months ago. Don't worry - although it's overwhelming now you will get there one step at a time with the help from the wonderful people on here.
Best wishes to you & Tinkerbelle
Gill[/QUOTE]

Hi Gill, please can you advise what monitor and strips you use as I have been recommended the Alpha Track but the strips are very expensive
 
JennyB51 said:
QUOTE="Gill & Mac (UK), post: 2682254, member: 30855"]Hi Jenny - welcome from a fellow UK-er. We are relatively new to this too with Mac being diagnosed just a few months ago. Don't worry - although it's overwhelming now you will get there one step at a time with the help from the wonderful people on here.
Best wishes to you & Tinkerbelle
Gill
Click to expand...

Hi Gill, please can you advise what monitor and strips you use as I have been recommended the Alpha Track but the strips are very expensive[/QUOTE]

Hi Jenny I actually use the Alpha trak and it is very good but the strips are ridiculously expensive at almost £1 a strip. If my insurance wasn't paying for it I would probably think again.
@Critter Mom
@Elizabeth and Bertie
@Diana&Tom
Can you recommend a meter for Jenny. I've gone blank and can't think of more UK members with sugar kitties at the moment. Can you think of anyone else to tag?
Thanks
 
Yes the Alpha Trak strips are ridiculously expensive, £1 per strip is crazy, so if you’re getting through several a day it quickly adds up.

A popular meter these days is the Code Free (check on Amazon) or the trusty One Touch Ultra or Verio... there are others that I can’t think of right now. Basically though it’s all about how easily you can source strips and how much they are. Some chemists such as Boots sell strips for the dearer meters which is fine if you need them urgently, otherwise you can buy online but beware postal delays atm. My best advice is to be sure you are well stocked with strips as you don’t want to run out at a crucial moment.
 
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JennyB51 said:
I have been recommended the Alpha Track but the strips are very expensive
Click to expand...
Hi Jenny (and Tinkabelle!). Waving to you from Surrey!

The Alphatrak is a nice meter, but as you say it is very expensive to use. (The main cost of testing is the test strips).
Many of us just use ordinary human glucose meters as these are much cheaper. The most popular human meter with UKers at the moment is the SD Codefree. This is probably the cheapest to use too. There is now a newer meter made by the same manufacturer, the 'Gluco Navii', and this has the advantage of being able to use a much smaller blood sample than the Codefree. I think it is a similar price too.
Other human meters are also fine. I happen to like the One Touch Verio. And I get all my test supplies more cheaply on Ebay.

Pet meters and human meters read the blood a little differently. Tests from pet meters are 'usually' a smidge higher than tests from human meters. Conversely, tests from human meters are 'usually' a smidge lower than tests from pet meters. The results tend to be closer at lower blood glucose levels and further apart at higher blood glucose levels.
Pet meter results are likely to be closer to what your vet would see in their clinic or in a lab result. And for this reason vets sometimes recommend that people use a pet meter. But, human meters were around for a very long time before pet meters ever came onto the market. And they work perfectly well.

If a vet is 'insistent' about people using an Alphatrak then something that some people do is to use a human meter for day to day testing, and an Alphatrak to do occasional 'glucose curves' for their vet to see. (A glucose curve is a series of tests done at intervals throughout the course of an insulin cycle).

Eliz
 
Gill & Mac (UK) said:
Hi Gill, please can you advise what monitor and strips you use as I have been recommended the Alpha Track but the strips are very expensive
Click to expand...

Hi Jenny I actually use the Alpha trak and it is very good but the strips are ridiculously expensive at almost £1 a strip. If my insurance wasn't paying for it I would probably think again.
@Critter Mom
@Elizabeth and Bertie
@Diana&Tom
Can you recommend a meter for Jenny. I've gone blank and can't think of more UK members with sugar kitties at the moment. Can you think of anyone else to tag?
Thanks[/QUOTE]
Gill & Mac (UK) said:
Hi Gill, please can you advise what monitor and strips you use as I have been recommended the Alpha Track but the strips are very expensive
Click to expand...

Many thanks, I didn’t think of my cat insurance so will check with them tomorrow xx
 
Another fellow Uk member. Hercs was diagnose in Jult and I bought the alpha trak2. The cost is so high though that I kept thinking twice before doing each test, so quickly changed my instance and got a gluco navii. quite happy with it. I bought from amazon for £9.00 and get a 100 strips for £17. Also if you have the mebership, it delivers quite fast.

I started testing because the vet told me to "keep an eye" for a hypo, but after doing much research I realized that many of the symptoms of a hypo are quite similar to Hyper.... so there is no way for me to tell unless I test, and am I glad I do! If you look at Hercs spreadsheet he is a very unreliable cat, and everyday it is different. We have had quite a number of very low numbers (which require lots of strips to know he is out of danger), so I am happy to be testing and using a cheaper device!

Every cat is different, but Hercs settled in his routine quite quickly as you can see in his profile photo. He comes to the testing spot and is always happy to get his treat afterwards. It looked really scray in the first dat, but by the next week it was like normal. You'll do great!
 
Elizabeth and Bertie said:
Hi Jenny (and Tinkabelle!). Waving to you from Surrey!

The Alphatrak is a nice meter, but as you say it is very expensive to use. (The main cost of testing is the test strips).
Many of us just use ordinary human glucose meters as these are much cheaper. The most popular human meter with UKers at the moment is the SD Codefree. This is probably the cheapest to use too. There is now a newer meter made by the same manufacturer, the 'Gluco Navii', and this has the advantage of being able to use a much smaller blood sample than the Codefree. I think it is a similar price too.
Other human meters are also fine. I happen to like the One Touch Verio. And I get all my test supplies more cheaply on Ebay.

Pet meters and human meters read the blood a little differently. Tests from pet meters are 'usually' a smidge higher than tests from human meters. Conversely, tests from human meters are 'usually' a smidge lower than tests from pet meters. The results tend to be closer at lower blood glucose levels and further apart at higher blood glucose levels.
Pet meter results are likely to be closer to what your vet would see in their clinic or in a lab result. And for this reason vets sometimes recommend that people use a pet meter. But, human meters were around for a very long time before pet meters ever came onto the market. And they work perfectly well.

If a vet is 'insistent' about people using an Alphatrak then something that some people do is to use a human meter for day to day testing, and an Alphatrak to do occasional 'glucose curves' for their vet to see. (A glucose curve is a series of tests done at intervals throughout the course of an insulin cycle).

Eliz
Click to expand...
Many thanks, hope you and Bertie are well in Surrey. Can I ask are you managing to test twice daily as I am getting differing opinions.
Kind regards
Keep safe
Jenny
 
JennyB51 said:
Many thanks, I didn’t think of my cat insurance so will check with them tomorrow xx
Click to expand...

Definitely worth a try, mine will cover everything except the charge the vet makes for writing a prescription. NB they wouldn't pay for special prescription food as well as insulin if I wanted both but I don't. Even if they will pay for the meter & strips etc if will be worth checking what your cover limit is as a cheaper meter may make it stretch further. I'm quite lucky in that we went for a quite high per illness cover amount when we took it out so I don't need to worry about it for a while yet.
Good luck with whichever meter you go for.
Gill
 
Hercule's mum said:
Another fellow Uk member. Hercs was diagnose in Jult and I bought the alpha trak2. The cost is so high though that I kept thinking twice before doing each test, so quickly changed my instance and got a gluco navii. quite happy with it. I bought from amazon for £9.00 and get a 100 strips for £17. Also if you have the mebership, it delivers quite fast.

I started testing because the vet told me to "keep an eye" for a hypo, but after doing much research I realized that many of the symptoms of a hypo are quite similar to Hyper.... so there is no way for me to tell unless I test, and am I glad I do! If you look at Hercs spreadsheet he is a very unreliable cat, and everyday it is different. We have had quite a number of very low numbers (which require lots of strips to know he is out of danger), so I am happy to be testing and using a cheaper device!

Every cat is different, but Hercs settled in his routine quite quickly as you can see in his profile photo. He comes to the testing spot and is always happy to get his treat afterwards. It looked really scray in the first dat, but by the next week it was like normal. You'll do great!
Click to expand...

Hi
Many thanks, I was worried about how often to test as our vet has never recommended it but Tink always seems very up and down and we feel we could be meeting her diabetic needs so much more effectively.
Kind regards
Keep safe
Jenny
 
Jenny, ref your posts asking how much to test - we strongly recommend that you test before every insulin shot as a minimum, ie twice a day. You need to make sure that your kitty’s bg is high enough to warrant insulin. If you’re at home during the cycle you may want to do further tests to see how the insulin is working. That’s it in a very small nutshell - we can give you more info when you start testing.
 
JennyB51 said:
how often to test
Click to expand...


That will depend on tinkabelle. Some cats always do the same, and you mostly need to test before each shot to know it is safe to give insulin, and around the nadir (the time where the blood glucose usually go the lowest). Is the valeu at nadir that is usually used to see if the dose is too much or too litle. So you could do 2 or 3 testing a day and know you are safe. However, in the beggining when you don't know how your cat respond to insulin a meassuremnt every 2 or 3 hours would help you figure out what is going on.
 
Hercule's mum said:
That will depend on tinkabelle. Some cats always do the same, and you mostly need to test before each shot to know it is safe to give insulin, and around the nadir (the time where the blood glucose usually go the lowest). Is the valeu at nadir that is usually used to see if the dose is too much or too litle. So you could do 2 or 3 testing a day and know you are safe. However, in the beggining when you don't know how your cat respond to insulin a meassuremnt every 2 or 3 hours would help you figure out what is going on.
Click to expand...
Thankyou so much x
 
Diana&Tom said:
Jenny, ref your posts asking how much to test - we strongly recommend that you test before every insulin shot as a minimum, ie twice a day. You need to make sure that your kitty’s bg is high enough to warrant insulin. If you’re at home during the cycle you may want to do further tests to see how the insulin is working. That’s it in a very small nutshell - we can give you more info when you start testing.
Click to expand...
Thankyou so much xx
 
Diana&Tom said:
Jenny, ref your posts asking how much to test - we strongly recommend that you test before every insulin shot as a minimum, ie twice a day. You need to make sure that your kitty’s bg is high enough to warrant insulin. If you’re at home during the cycle you may want to do further tests to see how the insulin is working. That’s it in a very small nutshell - we can give you more info when you start testing.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much xx
 
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