NEW MEMBER - Jolie dx 5/25/22 - Not stable

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Jolie/Rochel

Jolie/Rochel

Member Since 2022
Hi everyone. I'm not sure I'm posting correctly. I created a signature and added it to my profile. Do you see it? My profile has a long intro in it. Can you see that from here?

My burning question has to do with vet's recommendations not working for me. Jolie had 2 incidents of hypoglycemia twice in the past few days, despite tiny amount of insulin. She is diabetic but her numbers are not through the roof. See my profile. :)

I'm taking matters into my own hands! regarding pausing the insulin for a bit, changing the diet to healthy canned low-carb food TODAY, adding exercise (again!) and watching the numbers. I'm supposed to go away for 9 days a week from this Sunday. I will have a live-in catsitter and cannot even imagine teaching her how to do insulin shots when I can barely do them. If Jolie's numbers improve with the new diet, I'll go on the trip. if they don't, I'll have to cancel. First trip to Europe in 3 years, oh well!! :( My dear Jolie is most important to me of course. :)
 
Hi Rochel welcome to you and Jolie to the forum.
Have you entered any day into the spreadsheet yet?. I can’t see any.
Can you add all the data you have so far so we can see it please.. we can’t help with dosing without seeing data.

I have read your profile. Thanks for doing that.
IMPORTANT……If you are pausing the insulin you will need to be testing daily for ketones in the urine. Diabetic cats can get ketones if they are not getting enough insulin and unable to utilise the nutrients in the food. Ketones can lead to the much more serious diabetic ketoacidosis. You will need to buy a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy and collect a urine sample and follow the instructions on the bottle. If there is even a trace of ketones, I would restart the insulin. Post here first though for advice.

In regards to food. Feeding two good meals before the insulin and then a couple of low carb snacks during the cycle is the best way of managing food for a diabetic cat.

Do you have a hypo box set up in case of low numbers? If not please set one up asap.
Help us help you https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
has the link to the hypo box in it plus other useful information.

The 59 and the 53 you mentioned in the profile are still safe numbers. If she drops under 50 you need to give some high carb food and test again in 20 minutes to make sure the BG is rising

We have two dosing methods DOSING METHODS https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-low-go-slow-slgs-tight-regulation-tr.210110/
Have a look at those. The SLGS method may be better for you initially.
Once you have chosen a dosing method and filled out the spreadsheet we can help you with the dosing.
We go up and down with dosing in 1/4 unit increments not larger increments like many vets do.
Keep asking questions
Bron
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Hi Rochel welcome to you and Jolie to the forum.
Have you entered any day into the spreadsheet yet?. I can’t see any.
Can you add all the data you have so far so we can see it please.. we can’t help with dosing without seeing data.

I have read your profile. Thanks for doing that.
IMPORTANT……If you are pausing the insulin you will need to be testing daily for ketones in the urine. Diabetic cats can get ketones if they are not getting enough insulin and unable to utilise the nutrients in the food. Ketones can lead to the much more serious diabetic ketoacidosis. You will need to buy a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy and collect a urine sample and follow the instructions on the bottle. If there is even a trace of ketones, I would restart the insulin. Post here first though for advice.

In regards to food. Feeding two good meals before the insulin and then a couple of low carb snacks during the cycle is the best way of managing food for a diabetic cat.

Do you have a hypo box set up in case of low numbers? If not please set one up asap.
Help us help you https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
has the link to the hypo box in it plus other useful information.

The 59 and the 53 you mentioned in the profile are still safe numbers. If she drops under 50 you need to give some high carb food and test again in 20 minutes to make sure the BG is rising

We have two dosing methods DOSING METHODS https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-low-go-slow-slgs-tight-regulation-tr.210110/
Have a look at those. The SLGS method may be better for you initially.
Once you have chosen a dosing method and filled out the spreadsheet we can help you with the dosing.
We go up and down with dosing in 1/4 unit increments not larger increments like many vets do.
Keep asking questions
Bron
Click to expand...


Thank you Bron for all of this. Will review and respond in detail. I bought the ketone strips and is Kit4Kat a good urine collector? If not, what do you recommend that I can get quickly at my pet store?

Thank you,
Rochel OBO Jolie
 
Jolie/Rochel said:
Thank you Bron for all of this. Will review and respond in detail. I bought the ketone strips and is Kit4Kat a good urine collector? If not, what do you recommend that I can get quickly at my pet store?

Thank you,
Rochel OBO Jolie
Click to expand...
Jolie/Rochel said:
Thank you Bron for all of this. Will review and respond in detail. I bought the ketone strips and is Kit4Kat a good urine collector? If not, what do you recommend that I can get quickly at my pet store?

Thank you,
Rochel OBO Jolie
Click to expand...

I bought the exact kit you mentioned and it is such a tiny amount for a very high price that my cat said heck no. It is so small that won’t cover even a small litter pan. Also if you need to test every day you would end up paying an insane amount. I tried to catch urine but kitty does not pee that often and I can’t always catch him in the act. Many members here use a human ketone meter like Novamax, Keto Mojo or Ketosens, Precision Extra. I use now Ketosens strips are cheaper. I buy from Amazon. 50 strips for 41 dollars or so. I do have the urine strips as well and when I see kitty peeing or if the litter did not fully absorb the pee I quickly do a test but I am not great at it personally so the best for me is the human meter. I usually do a glucose test and ketone test using same ear like if possible.
 
Last edited:
I have read through the FAQs and will work on the spreadsheet later. I’m pretty sure I did it correctly yesterday but will just do it again. Anyway another question I have is how long does a change of diet from high carb to low carb take to positively affect glucose? I read somewhere that if you change the diet as I have and still give the same amount of insulin there may be a bad crash “a few weeks later”. I am currently pausing giving insulin as I mentioned but I’m very interested to know how quickly I could expect to see results from this diet change. I am also curious whether weaning her off the steroid (which we have about finished doing) may make a difference. Perhaps this diabetic episode was secondary to the steroids we started a few weeks ago. Praying.

Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Hi Rochel welcome to you and Jolie to the forum.
Have you entered any day into the spreadsheet yet?. I can’t see any.
Can you add all the data you have so far so we can see it please.. we can’t help with dosing without seeing data.

I have read your profile. Thanks for doing that.
IMPORTANT……If you are pausing the insulin you will need to be testing daily for ketones in the urine. Diabetic cats can get ketones if they are not getting enough insulin and unable to utilise the nutrients in the food. Ketones can lead to the much more serious diabetic ketoacidosis. You will need to buy a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy and collect a urine sample and follow the instructions on the bottle. If there is even a trace of ketones, I would restart the insulin. Post here first though for advice.

In regards to food. Feeding two good meals before the insulin and then a couple of low carb snacks during the cycle is the best way of managing food for a diabetic cat.

Do you have a hypo box set up in case of low numbers? If not please set one up asap.
Help us help you https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/
has the link to the hypo box in it plus other useful information.

The 59 and the 53 you mentioned in the profile are still safe numbers. If she drops under 50 you need to give some high carb food and test again in 20 minutes to make sure the BG is rising

We have two dosing methods DOSING METHODS https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-low-go-slow-slgs-tight-regulation-tr.210110/
Have a look at those. The SLGS method may be better for you initially.
Once you have chosen a dosing method and filled out the spreadsheet we can help you with the dosing.
We go up and down with dosing in 1/4 unit increments not larger increments like many vets do.
Keep asking questions
Bron
Click to expand...
 
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