New member - Hello!

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Meowssolini

Member Since 2020
Hi everyone! I wanted to introduce myself - I'm Katie - and my newly-diagnosed kitteh, Meow-ssolini (our little dictator). She's 8 years old, loves causing mayhem, and had been low energy since quarantine. We thought it was the stress of all the changes now that we are home all the time, but found it is actually because of diabetes. I've been reading the resources and wealth of knowledge on this site for the past few weeks to figure out how the heck we're going to be able to manage her condition. It's like drinking out of a fire hose, but so so incredibly helpful! I appreciate everyone who shares their knowledge and experience.

The pharmacy sold us 29 gauge, 1/2 in length needles and we have had such a hard time administering the shot. Meow clearly knows what we are up to and it's obvious that it hurts / is highly uncomfortable / scares her. We just got new needles to try that are 31 gauge and much shorter length. Hopefully those will work better for all of us. I would welcome any tips on giving the shot to our slim (difficult to tent), flighty, and suspicious creature.

She takes Lantus twice a day and we've switched to all wet food and no/low carb. Still searching for high quality, low carb food options that we can order online though...

I'm here to learn from all of you and this library of information; maybe someday I'll have something helpful to share with others, but for now we are just trying to find our way! Thanks!
 
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Welcome to the FDMB Katie and Meow-ssolini! (love her name!) This is the best place you never wanted to be!

Sounds like you've started out right! You've switched to low carb canned food and you're using an excellent insulin for cats!

Are you home testing yet? It's very important to learn to home test so you'll not only be able to keep her safe but to see how she's responding to treatment. Tests done at the vet's are unreliable due to vet stress which can raise the blood glucose up to 200 points.

If you're in the US, you can go to WalMart and get a Relion Prime meter ($9), 100 test strips ($17.88) and a box of lancets (about $5 depending on brand) and we can teach you how to test her. It's not as bad as you're thinking it is right now!

On your problem with shots, instead of "tenting", you can do what we call a "wrist roll" method. You grab some fur between your thumb and forefinger and then "roll" your wrist to gently pull the skin until you get a "break" in the fur. Shoot into that "break" at about a 45 degree angle. It's kind of hard to describe but this picture should help
wrist roll.jpg


Keep asking questions! The people here are very generous with their time and we all want to help!
 

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Welcome when you buy the lancets get 26 or 28 gauge , they will make a bigger hole so they will bleed better. Don't know if you are home testing yet, if not JanetNJ who posted above me made a video on how to home test,do you see it
Video how to test your cats blood sugar, it's at the end of her post
 
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