New Member 7/19/22

[Leslie & Louie]

Hello, I'm Leslie, one of Louie's caregivers. He was diagnosed at the very end of June following a couple weeks of increased drinking and peeing. In retrospect, I think he's gradually grown more sedentary and less active gradually over the last several months, but in a way that was easy to attribute to normal aging until he started showing other symptoms.
BG was in the mid-400s at diagnosis and again after about a week of transitioning to low carb food. Monday, after 1 week on 1 unit PZI had dropped to 386. Vet upped dosage to 2 units. I'm mildly concerned about that after reading here about smaller dosage adjustments being recommended. Louie also dropped a pound in the last 10 days, after not having had any weight loss as a symptom to that point. (Dropping weight is good, since he was 16 and change and should be 12, but that seems too fast.) Otherwise, he seems good, with modest but noticeable improvements to his energy level and drinking/peeing symptoms.
Getting a grip on the injections and feeding changes has been as much as I could cope with the first couple of weeks. Now I'm trying to learn more so I can be the best advocate and caregive I can for him. Frankly, though, I feel like I've hit an overwhelm point and starting to spin out a bit with anxiety feeling like there's so much to learn here, most of which the vet hasn't mentioned, and being afraid that I'm going to miss something that I should be on top of.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi Leslie and Louie and welcome to the forum.
Yes it is overwhelming in the beginning but the good news is it gets much easier as time goes by
Thanks for setting up the signature. If you could do the ads that would be very helpful and I am so glad you are thinking of hometesting. it is the only way to keep Louie safe.
Are you giving snacks during the cycles as well as the meal before the dose of insulin?
Have you increased to 2 units as advised by the vet? I am going to tag @FrostD as she is a PZI user and can help you, but I think that going from 1 unit to 2 units is too much. That is doubling the dose. An increase to 1.25 U would be much better, especially as you are not home testing yet.

I will give you a few link to read through as you wait for Melissa to answer the tag.

HELP US HELP YOU

HOMETESTING HINTS AND LINKS

You don’t need to feed prescription foods/diets. There are lots of canned foods that are suitable. Look for ones that are 10% or under. Most feed around 5-7%. The dry MD is 18% carbs so is high carb food. However don’t remove it until you are home testing as it could drop the BG up to 100 points
FOOD LINKS

 

[FrostD]

Welcome!

Did the vet do a curve in the office? If so, do you have those results? A single spot check on BG isn't enough to base a dose change off, especially such a big change!

Suggested priorities:
1. Get set up and comfortable home testing
2. Pending answers above I can recommend a dose in the interim
3. Diet change. As Bron said, it is very important to be home testing before doing the diet change, as it can have significant effect on BG. My own cat went from 300s at 2.5U down to 90-150 at 0.25U in the span of about two weeks from diet change alone. Do not change diet right now.

 

[Hendrick Cuddleclaw]

Hi and welcome to the club. Overwhelming is a nice way to put it, ha. I remember when my boy Hendrick got his diagnosis I got very depressed and felt like I had failed him for not noticing sooner, for not feeding him better food so maybe it never happens, etc etc. And then trying to learn everything about FD (feline diabetes), discovered my vet was near useless....that part is where I lost it. Realizing we were basically on our own here because the vet was not going to be much help.

but then I found this forum and it was like a life-preserver thrown to a drowning person. People like FrostD here reaching down with strong, confident hands to pull my head above the water.

Take it slow. There's a ton to learn, yes, but you don't have to learn it all at once. And the people on this forum are literally angels walking this earth, they will help you every step of the way if you let them. Glad to see you here, your kitty is still pretty young at 7 years old so you have a good chance at getting him regulated and making him healthy again.

Louie is adorable I love that little face! I'll see you around the forums.

 

[Leslie & Louie]

Welcome!

Did the vet do a curve in the office? If so, do you have those results? A single spot check on BG isn't enough to base a dose change off, especially such a big change!

Suggested priorities:
1. Get set up and comfortable home testing
2. Pending answers above I can recommend a dose in the interim
3. Diet change. As Bron said, it is very important to be home testing before doing the diet change, as it can have significant effect on BG. My own cat went from 300s at 2.5U down to 90-150 at 0.25U in the span of about two weeks from diet change alone. Do not change diet right now.

No curve done in the office. Was mentioned that would be done in future. The change in dose was based on a single spot check, as you mentioned above.
We did start with the new recommended dosing on Monday night, so the 2 unit dosage has been given 4 times now and is due again in about 30 min. Advice?

 

[Leslie & Louie]

No curve done in the office. Was mentioned that would be done in future. The change in dose was based on a single spot check, as you mentioned above.
We did start with the new recommended dosing on Monday night, so the 2 unit dosage has been given 4 times now and is due again in about 30 min. Advice?

 

[Leslie & Louie]

Also, thank you! I posted that quickly just to get the most critical time sensitive info in.
I will pursue home testing, but need to get the equipment, get familiar with it, etc, so it's not in the cards for at least a couple of days.
With regard to food changes, pre-diagnosis he was mostly free fed, with a combination of dry food and Fancy Feast classic. As soon as we got the diagnosis -- even before beginning insulin -- we switched to the Hill's m/d recommended by the vet's office, the specific quantities recommended for safe weight loss, with dry in the morning, wet in the evening.
Then, as I've been reading here over the last week or so, I've been cutting down (but not totally eliminating) the low carb dry food, and upping the wet food proportionally. Also, about 5 days ago, after finding out that his original FF (that he likes better) is actually lower carb than the Hills, I have started reintroducing that, while still using up the Hills -- generally giving one kind in the morning and the other in the evening.
So, basically, his diet has been constantly changing over the last 3 weeks and I'm not sure exactly how to apply the "no diet change" advice. I'm going to start by not making any more changes as of right now, but also not go back to the previous normal -- basically freeze the current status quo. But am open to hearing advice otherwise if you have a better idea.
Also, I am leaning towards giving just 1 unit (last week's dose -- not the new one) at the feeding that is coming up, until I get a chance to get more dosing advice.

 

[FrostD]

Sorry nobody was around in time. I think 1U is a good idea given the mix of food.

However, what I would suggest is dividing the food up evenly. Meaning - same amount of carbs both morning at night, for snacks, etc. So give a mix of the Hills and FF at each meal, that way carbs are consistent. Otherwise, you run the risk of him dropping lower during the day when he's.on less carbs, then running higher at night with more carbs, and it kind of throws them out of whack a little bit.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

I will pursue home testing, but need to get the equipment, get familiar with it, etc, so it's not in the cards for at least a couple of days.

Hi Leslie nif you live in the US most of us use The Reion Premier Classic from Walmart it's a human meter that's what our numbers are based on
17.88 for 100 test strips
Get 26 or 28 gauze lancets any brand
Some cotton rounds
You can order then online also
No need to use a pet meter such as the Alpha Trak the strips are crazy expensive


Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up

6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
Take a look at the lancets ,you will see one side points up, that's the side you want to poke with
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
You can also put a thin layer of vaseline on the ear ,to help the blood bead up
A video one of our members posted
VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar

Here is the link on how to set up our spreadsheet it also explains how it works
If you have trouble setting it up just ask , we have a member here that would be happy to set it up for you
Louie's a handsome boy