? New member - cat Nero

Hello all,
I have been a new member on this group for about 4 weeks now and have been reading a lot and used some of your advices .
My cat Nero will hopefully turn 18 this April. He has CKD and was diagnosed with diabetes in 2017 after a prednisone shot (he was scratching his belly). May 2019 he was off insulin. Unfortunately, May 2020 the diabetes was back. We started directly with Prozinc again, but had a difficult start because my Vet wasn't very known with diabetes. We were advised to start with at least 2 units because his blood sugar was way too high... Long story short: his blood sugar has never been regulated. Luckily the Vet suggested home testing. We use the Alfatrak2.
Nero is a difficult eater and prefers dry kiddle. The Vet suggested Hill's, but Nero doesn't like it. She suggested "any food, as long as he eats". She did prefer wet food because of it's CKD. We tried several of the more natural dry kiddle. Instinct was his favorite. Occasionally he accepted wet food, but only for a day. So we stayed with the dry kiddle.
September 2020 Nero was diagnosed with high blood pressure. He was in really bad shape and showed symptoms that are a lot like diabetic symptoms. He was having convulsions, acted lazy, lost sight, walked like a drunken sailor and even had an epileptic attack. At the Vet he didn't show any of these symptoms. Great actor?
I started looking for answers on the internet and came to the conclusion that he had high blood pressure. The Vet's test showed I was right. His blood pressure was very high!
He is on medication now (amlodipine and Semintra) and his blood pressure stabilized. Please, note that 50% of diabetes cats have high blood pressure! Very often, the blood is not tested!
Because we couldn't get Nero's blood sugar regulated, I looked for "help" and found this Facebook group. So far, it has been very helpful! ❤️.
Nero is now on Dr Elsey's dry kiddle and we give him twice a day 1/2 pounch of Wellness Core Tiny Tasters pate (he won't eat more). He has been on this new food for a little more than a week and his blood sugar is dropping. We have seen this happening before, but I really hope he will stay low from now on! Unfortunately, he is still drinking a lot!! As his blood sugar is low, I am afraid it's his CKD. I will have him checked by the Vet soon.
Now my questions:
- is it normal that his blood sugar drops from 555 at 07.30am (tested directly after he ate) to 96 12.45pm? We gave him 3.7 units of insulin.
This morning he tested at 07.45am 456, but hadn't eaten yet (he ate a little later). We gave him 3.5 units of insulin. We didn't have time to test his blood sugar in the afternoon.
- We just bought the Walmart Relion Prime. What are the main differences with the Alfatrak2?
- Nero lost weight. Maybe because of the drinking/CKD (or other underlying problem?). Just to make sure: could the low carb food be the reason of it's weight loss? He is not begging for food...
Thanks in advance for your help!!

 

Alphatrak strips are about $2.00 each (in Canada). My vet mentioned that they used human meters for the past 30 years because there wasn't a pet glucometer and things were just fine. I started out with Alphatrak but the strips end up being the big cost factor with feline diabetes - way too expensive. Plus the majority of the information on this site is based on numbers from a human glucometer.

Cats that don't have well controlled diabetes tend to lose weight, so that could be one reason.

The people on this board are very data driven and it would be very helpful if you had a spreadsheet set up so we could see your test numbers and how your kitty is responding to the insulin. https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/

Are you still giving Prozinc? I'm not familiar with that type of insulin so hopefully someone else will chime in.