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kmz3301

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Our 12 year old cat was just diagnosed with diabetes last Friday. I was nervous at first because I did not know how he would do with the shots and to be honest, I was not sure how I would do. I have been pleasantly surprised how well he is handling the shots. When I was told to get him on wet food, I was concerned because this was a cat who never ate wet food (our other kitties love it). But, all the sudden, he is eating it.

I'm glad I found this site!
 
Welcome! I'm glad it has proved easier than you thought. Now the last thing to do is learn to test at home. Can we help you learn how?

One thing to be careful of - when you switch from dry to wet, the numbers can really go down. That's one of the reasons we home test. When we switched from Science Diet to Fancy Fast, Oliver went down 100 points overnight. If we hadn't been testing and just gave our usual dose, he would have hypoed.

What kind of insulin? What dose?
 
Welcome... and ditto what Sue said about switching to wet food can change the bg levels. My guy was diet controlled after I completely switched him over & put him on a 2 meal a day feeding schedule. I know I was one of the lucky ones... but it is something to keep an eye on. Good luck & I'm glad you & your kitty are adjusting to the changes!
 
He has been getting 1 unit of ProZinc twice a day. We have not started in home monitoring right now. We wanted to get used to the shots and make sure he tolerates them. I bring him back to the vet this week for more testing to see how he is doing.
 
As for food, he has been getting a half a can of Wellness canned food after each shot. We still leave the dry food down for grazing during the day (Costco version of Iams). I have 3 other cats, so I am trying to keep things as consistent as I can.
 
We strongly urge you to home test. Cats are stressed at the vet and stress raises glucose levels. Then the vet can raise the dose based on that stress induced number. We like to base doses on home numbers without stress. The other good by product is that it costs a lot to get those inflated numbers at the vet; it is much cheaper to do at home.

We figure we would never get a dose from the doctor for our two legged child and just blindly give that amount. We test before each shot to be sure the amount we are giving is safe, and midcycle to see how the insulin is working.
 
Just my suggestion, but if you find out his numbers are still high when you get that test done at the vet, don't increase the dose even if the vet recommends you do so? At least not until you are home-testing and can get numbers at home. I understand the "3 other cats" thing and your desire to keep things as normal as possible. But as long as dry food is available, that's going to keep his BG numbers higher than canned food will.
If you switch to all canned, at least for the diabetic kitty, that will drop his BG numbers. So if and when you do that, you want to be home-testing, because his insulin needs will drop accordingly. And that can happen overnight, so you don't want to do the switch without a meter in your hand.

Carl
 
This has been our first week of shots. To be honest, when we got the diagnosis, I did not know how (a) he was going to react and (b) how I would do giving him the shots. Now that I know we both do well, the next step is home testing.
 
Thanks for all the pointers!

Can you use human testers for cats? I have mine from when I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with my daughter. The only thing is getting the testing strips since I had a prescription for those.
 
Most of us use human glucometers. (although we don't feel meters with "true" in the name are very accurate.). I bought my strips on eBay - just make sure the seller has a good reputation and that the expiration dates work - and save more than half the price in drug stores. The Walmart ReliOn meter is very popular here; it is the cheapest meter with the cheapest strips. I haven't heard of anyone needing a script for the strips.

You need lower gauge lancets. Humans use 30-31 gauge. With beginning diabetic cats, we suggest 25-28 gauge so it makes a bigger hole.

And we heat the ear to get the blood flowing. Some people use a rice sack (thin sock filled with raw rice heated in the microwave until very warm) or a pill bottle filled with very warm water.
 
I'm pretty new too, just diagnosed a couple weeks ago. My Emma's blood sugar (BS) was all over the place the first week - I was so worried I wasn't going to be able to get her regulated. But, it turned out it was because I was letting her free feed dry food in between wet food. And this was the Purina DM dry food the vet suggested! Dry food is much higher in carbs than canned, so her BS would vary depending on how much dry food she ate. I was afraid to leave wet food out all day, but now I mix it with some no-salt chicken stock to keep it moist and she loves it. Her blood sugar has been much more stable since I got rid of the dry good altogether. Every cat is different, but please keep this in mind if you have a hard time getting your kitties numbers down.
Best of luck with your kitty, and keep coming back here - it's a wonderful resource! I also learned a lot from catinfo.org.
 
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