New Member (Lexi / Lexington / Floofus)

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NicoleRadziwill

NicoleRadziwill

Member Since 2024
Hi everyone, I'm Nicole - and my son's cat Lexi, who we usually call Floofus (my cat now) was diagnosed on 6/11/2024 after an emergency vet visit on 6/1/2024 that diagnosed a UTI, the start of DKA (but no vets were worried), no probs with other organs, and diabetes highly suspected (cat's urine smelling like orange juice was a big tip-off). Our previously 13.8 lb cat had gotten down to 10.5 lb - and we thought it was because of the lower calorie food we had been feeding her since December. Nope.

Antibiotics went well and we started 1U of Lantus 2x/day on 6/11/2024, which vet eased up to 2U 2x/day on 6/27/2024. We are feeding Royal Canin glycobalance (3/4 wet, 1/4 dry).

On 6/19/2024 she had a Libre 3 implanted and we've been dealing with some combination of New Dose Wonkiness and the dreaded bounce... and this morning, the Libre 3 completely tanked. So here I am on a Sunday with no incoming readings, no training in manually getting the glucose reading, and just newly into increased dose territory so I'm pretty nervous.

I went to the drugstore and bought a glucose meter+strips, then attempted to do a needle-spot on the ear edge.. HUGE fail. Cat who doesn't mind insulin injections at all is virulently against ear poke. Lots of blood spray and anger.

My question is: DO THE LANCET PENS WORK BETTER IN AN EMERGENCY? Our next injection is scheduled for 6-7 hours from now and I'm now wondering... which one should I get? What depth do you set it at? Should I go get one? I KNOW IT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA TO GIVE A SHOT without a test... but her numbers have been steady in upper 300s and have only gotten into the blues briefly twice, so far.

Any advice or moral support would be welcome :)

Floofus's SS is at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PSwksrLGwLAW4423PT8IE6ujujA1_kmUMNTaoY1jTMk/edit?usp=sharing
 
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Welcome. You are increasing insulin by too much and too fast. With SLGS you need to hold each dose for 7 days unless there’s s BG under 90. Increases are in ,25 increments. Do you have syringes with half unit markings? Until you get some you can eyeball it. I would go back to 1.5 units. I’ll link a thread with videos on testing. Don’t worry. You will soon get the hang of it.
 
  • If nadirs are more than 150 mg/dl (8.3 mmol/L), increase the dose by 0.25 unit
  • If nadirs are between 90 (5 mmol/L) and 149 mg/dl (8.2 mmol/L), maintain the same dose
  • If nadirs are below 90 mg/dl (5mmol/L), decrease the dose by 0.25 unit
 
Hi, Nicole and welcome to FDMB.

I don't know if you had a chance to look at our info on home testing. This is a link to our home testing post that has a great deal of information on the process along with videos. If it's any consolation, my vet never taught me how to home test and I learned by watching YouTube. Some people really like using the lancing pen. I found it awkward and always free hand poked. Also, it takes a few weeks for the capillary bed along the edge of the ear to more fully develop so it's easier to get blood. It may also be a matter of the gauge of the lancet. you're using.. You want a thicker gauge lancet (26 - 28 -- lower numbers are thicker) until your cat's ear get's used to bleeding and then you can switch over to a thinner lancet.

A couple of suggestions. You've done a great job getting your spreadsheet set up. This is a link to our post on helping us to help you. There are instructions on setting up your signature along with how to link your spreadsheet into your signature so you don't have to keep pasting the link into your posts. The signature also will include some basic information so we don't keep asking you to repeat information.

You mention that you've been feeding your kitty a lower calorie food. Do you happen to know the carbohydrate amount in what you've been feeding Floofus? With FD, it's less of an issue of calories than it is carbohydrates. We consider less than 10% low carb although, most members feed their cat a diet that is around 5%. This is a link to a chart with nutritional information for most of the canned cat foods available in the US. If your cat is a dry food addict, there are only a very few dry foods that are low in carbs.
 
Thanks @tiffmaxee and @Sienne and Gabby (GA)! I tried again with a 28G lancet-popper and failed twice... that spooked the cat enough (and made me cry) so I'm going to try again in the morning. As recommended, I went back to the "last known safe dose of 1.5U" and will closely monitor behavior overnight... then try to test in the morning (and calling vet to see if we can get our replacement Libre installed). I know I have to develop skill on manual testing regardless.

We're feeding her Royal Canin Glycobalance wet (2 containers a day) + Royal Canin Glycobalance dry (1/3 cup twice a day) + supplementing with Churu and grain-free/rice-free/tapioca-free "special" foods occasionally. She had gotten to the "ravenous eater" stage of diabetes and has been FAR more "normal" in eating the past week or two... no more chasing my feet and biting toes for more food. She is NOT a fan of dry food, but vet wanted to keep it in the mix early so we had something to drop if we needed to... she eats it overnight and when the wet food is gone.

Thanks again to everyone. Fortunately we are with a diabetes specialist vet but I think this is all so normal to them, that it's hard for them to remember the first few weeks of panic.
 
The Royal Canin canned food is 14% carb. The dry food is 25.3%. The canned food is what we would consider medium carb (10 - 15%; high carb is over 15%). My guess is your vet, like most vets, doesn't have a clue what the carb count is in prescription diabetic food. Most vets believe what the food manufacturer's representatives tell them and they don't tell vets that they lost a class action suit for their claim that prescription foods have something that's medically necessary for them to be prescription. I'd suggest looking at the label. The Glycobalance dry contains my all time favorite ingredient, powdered cellulose. It's another name for sawdust. There are plenty of options for canned foods that are much, much lower in carbs. Canned food is also healthier for your cat. Cats are obligate carnivores -- they can't process anything except protein. In addition, they have a limited thirst drive. Dry food contains very little moisture (8%) whereas canned food contains a great deal (84%). If this were my cat, I'd be giving serious consideration to ditching the dry. If you get a timed feeder, you can leave food out for your cat overnight.

If you're going to make a transition to a low carb food, please get comfortable with home testing. The switch to a lower carb food will drop your cat's numbers.
 
WOW -- just went upstairs and dumped the dry back in the bag. No more dry, omg... I'm sure you've heard this before but "since my vet said to use it AND it says GLYCOBALANCE I thought it was the right thing to do" -- THANK YOU!

I just spent some time in the https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf and was looking up some of the specific grain-free low carb products... definitely going to spend some time over the next week closely monitoring food/glucose patterns. Fortunately we get our new Libre in the morning, which gives me 2 more weeks to get brave and become competent at blood testing.
 
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