New to Feline Diabetes, 2 days in, suggestions welcome!

[Pixxie037]

Hi everyone, my name is Shana and my husband and I have an amazing kitty named Paiyu, a 12 year old bengal kitty that was just diagnosed on Wednesday, 2 days ago, with diabetes. We noticed his excessive thirst and urination and took him to the vet right away. At the vet his BG was 531. Pretty scary for us, cause other than the new changes to his thirst this week, we hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. The vet gave us insulin to administer every 12 hours with special canned food. We have been mixing it with his old canned food as he has a sensitive stomach, and also have been mixing the diabetes weight management dry food with his old dry food to graze on, again, per the vet's instructions. So far he seems to be basically the same, only had 4 doses of insulin though, so not sure if we should notice a change in his drinking and urination yet? We managed to get 1 blood sample to test on a glucometer we got from the vet. His blood glucose was 76, which seems low, but he was acting his normal curious, active self. I am struggling with getting the blood sample from his ear. I tried 3 x yesterday and only got 1 viable sample. Couldn't get any blood the other times and kitty seemed quite stressed, so i didn't want to risk trying again. I am also struggling with administering the insulin. He jumps when we put the needle in. I thought he wasn't supposed to feel it? He has been a total trooper through all this, but we really want to get better at all the pokes so he doesn't get fearful of us. Any suggestions are very welcome!

 

[Jan Radar (GA)]

Welcome Shana and your family to the very best place you never thought you'd be... and congratulations to you on deciding to do home testing. It's the only way I know what's really happening inside my kitty so I can help him feel better. It was super hard for us in the beginning too until we learned a few important things;
1. The ear needs to be really really warm.... we put some uncooked rice in an old sock, tied it off with a string leaving enough "wiggle" room to wrap the sock around the ear. Then put the sock in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Always test sock on your wrist like a baby bottle before putting on the cat's ear.
2. Use a small flashlight behind the ear to "illuminate" so you can see what you're aiming for. This really really helped us.
3. Learn about the "sweet spot" on the ear.
4. Help the kitty see testing time as extra love and attention and yummy treat time. Always give yummy low carb treats whether you get enough blood for your test or not.
5. Know that the more you poke, the more the ear "learns to bleed" -soon it will be much easier.
6. Breathe and try to relax about all the poking. The cat has very few pain receptors in the ear so it doesn't hurt them.

Know also that we have all been where you are today and we will do whatever we can to help you help your sweet kitty.

 

[Pixxie037]

Thank you so much! We will definitely try the warm rice sock and look for some low carb treats to help the process. You have definitely alleviated some of my fears. I will continue to do the blood tests and hopefully we will all get better at it so that it's not a stressor for Paiyu or for us.

 

[Jan Radar (GA)]

Our Radar doesn't mind testing time at all. He loves the pieces of freeze dried chicken hearts and other tempting things we have for treats. Pure Bites chicken is available at Pet smart and is a favorite at our house. But go to the dog section to get it because it's much cheaper there. The only difference other than the price is that the ones for dogs are bigger pieces. I just cut them up into smaller bites for Radar.

 

[Pixxie037]

Thanks! I will definitely check those out!

 

[Olive & Paula]

Welcome aboard Shana. Was your kitty on dry food before diagnosis? There's a lot to learn, please ask questions when your ready.

 

[Wulfwin]

Welcome Shana. You mentioned that the one blood glucose test you were able to get was 76 - do you know when you got the test in relation to his insulin shot (ie, just before, 6 hours later, 10 hours later, etc.)? You said you got the meter from your vet, so I'm assuming it's an AlphaTrak? What insulin is Paiyu on?
With the jumping with the insulin shot, some people give it while the cat is eating and therefore distracted. Another possibility is that the angle may be too flat - I accidentally give my cat Rain 2 shots at too flat of an angle and she flinched really bad, so I suspect I give it into the skin, not below.
Sorry, I have to run to work now, but I'm sure you'll have lots of other members in here shortly!

 

[jayla-n-Drevon]

Hi --Welcome--
here is a good picture of the sweet spot--
I initially was aiming for the vein
Although the blood is the same Drevon did not appreciate it
Dre is not impressed with the freeze dried treats so he gets a few licks of skim milk after a little poke .... using a little salve ill lessen the "poke " as well.
your in a best place for help and guidance

 

[jayla-n-Drevon]

and just to ease your mind you are not testing to hurt your kitty you are testing to keep him safe. Here is a picture of Drevons ear (I only test his left ear he prefers the left) I test often and you can see his ear is puuuurrfect

 

[Cathy J.]

Hi Shana. I'm where you are now....my Myra was just diagnosed 2 days ago with steroid induced diabetes. She has not been doing well and had stopped eating. I just went out today and bought supplies to start home testing her. I'm overwhelmed right now and am reading as much as I can on this site...which I am soooo happy I found!! Please keep us posted on how Paiyu is doing. And how YOU are doing !