My apologies for the length of this post, but being my first post there's a lot to say
Snowball’s background
Snowball, our 13 yr old kitty was diagnosed with diabetes about two years ago. He went from weighing 23lbs to 13lbs. Following his diagnosis we switched him and our other kitties to Evo dry food and lower carb wet food twice a day. Snowball was put on insulin (PZI) twice daily and did fairly well regaining 5lbs and ending up at a much healthier weight. At the advice of the vet we didn’t do any home testing and instead relied on fructosamines every six months or so. When the PZI brand was discontinued we switched him over to ProZinc. His dosage had slowly shrunk down to 2 units, twice daily.
Snowball’s crappy week
Recently Snowball has lost some weight, had nausea (throwing up clear or slightly brown mucus), and also had a decreased appetite (usually he eats his food and all of our other cat’s leftovers). Last week Saturday we went to the store and he was fine, when we came back was like a little zombie cat. He kept pushing his head into things and was limping. (Poor little guy was Hypo and we didn’t know it). We took him to our emergency vet clinic and they hospitalized him. He was released the next day and seemed back to normal, but then the following day he threw up blood. After more tests, another hospitalization and a visit to a specialist with ultrasound equipment we found out that he had pancreatitis and the enlarged pancreas was pushing on his stomach, gall bladder and his bile duct. Snowball is now on antibiotics, steroids, and anti-vomit meds for a few weeks. His insulin dosage was shrunk down to 1 unit, twice daily amid concerns about the Hypo event and the results of his latest fructosamine
Testing
After his Hypo event we decided that we were going to start home testing even if our vet thought it was unnecessary. Now that he’s on steroids we definitely want to keep an eye on things. We also want to make sure that we’re really controlling his diabetes.
We purchased a ReliOn tester yesterday and took our first reading last night. I was so nervous – kept reading the instructions and then more posts on this board and then back to the instructions. Everything went real well and we realized that home testing wasn't anything to be afraid of. We took another reading this morning and are 2 for 2 on drawing blood, but it definitely helps that snowball is all white - very easy to see veins and “sweet spot” on his ears). We plan to do a curve this weekend.
Questions
1) I’m a little confused about when we should test Snowball‘s glucose levels. It looks like people often check for a glucose reading prior to giving insulin. But is that before feeding, a set time after feeding, or doesn’t it matter as long as you compare it to a similar time in the last curve that was done?
2) Normally we feed snowball and then give him his insulin 10-15 minutes later. Are we better off giving insulin sooner or later instead? Also, how long does it take for food to be absorbed and raise the glucose?
3) The two blood draws we’ve done have left marks on his ears. We decreased the lancet depth each time and I’ll try to go down another setting the next time, but I was wondering if bruising is normal? We were trying to figure out if we didn’t apply enough pressure, or if the marks are just exasperated by snowball having white ears.
4) Is there anything else we should be doing? Should we be checking for ketones? Does anyone have any experience with a diabetic with pancreatitis? Or with a diabetic on steroids, anything to watch for?
Finally, I want to thank everyone that posts in these forums. Two years ago we looked on this forum and found great information on low carb food alternatives which helped Snowball out immensely. Now returning back to this forum we've gained the confidence and knowledge to do home testing. I can't thank everyone enough!
Snowball’s background
Snowball, our 13 yr old kitty was diagnosed with diabetes about two years ago. He went from weighing 23lbs to 13lbs. Following his diagnosis we switched him and our other kitties to Evo dry food and lower carb wet food twice a day. Snowball was put on insulin (PZI) twice daily and did fairly well regaining 5lbs and ending up at a much healthier weight. At the advice of the vet we didn’t do any home testing and instead relied on fructosamines every six months or so. When the PZI brand was discontinued we switched him over to ProZinc. His dosage had slowly shrunk down to 2 units, twice daily.
Snowball’s crappy week
Recently Snowball has lost some weight, had nausea (throwing up clear or slightly brown mucus), and also had a decreased appetite (usually he eats his food and all of our other cat’s leftovers). Last week Saturday we went to the store and he was fine, when we came back was like a little zombie cat. He kept pushing his head into things and was limping. (Poor little guy was Hypo and we didn’t know it). We took him to our emergency vet clinic and they hospitalized him. He was released the next day and seemed back to normal, but then the following day he threw up blood. After more tests, another hospitalization and a visit to a specialist with ultrasound equipment we found out that he had pancreatitis and the enlarged pancreas was pushing on his stomach, gall bladder and his bile duct. Snowball is now on antibiotics, steroids, and anti-vomit meds for a few weeks. His insulin dosage was shrunk down to 1 unit, twice daily amid concerns about the Hypo event and the results of his latest fructosamine
Testing
After his Hypo event we decided that we were going to start home testing even if our vet thought it was unnecessary. Now that he’s on steroids we definitely want to keep an eye on things. We also want to make sure that we’re really controlling his diabetes.
We purchased a ReliOn tester yesterday and took our first reading last night. I was so nervous – kept reading the instructions and then more posts on this board and then back to the instructions. Everything went real well and we realized that home testing wasn't anything to be afraid of. We took another reading this morning and are 2 for 2 on drawing blood, but it definitely helps that snowball is all white - very easy to see veins and “sweet spot” on his ears). We plan to do a curve this weekend.
Questions
1) I’m a little confused about when we should test Snowball‘s glucose levels. It looks like people often check for a glucose reading prior to giving insulin. But is that before feeding, a set time after feeding, or doesn’t it matter as long as you compare it to a similar time in the last curve that was done?
2) Normally we feed snowball and then give him his insulin 10-15 minutes later. Are we better off giving insulin sooner or later instead? Also, how long does it take for food to be absorbed and raise the glucose?
3) The two blood draws we’ve done have left marks on his ears. We decreased the lancet depth each time and I’ll try to go down another setting the next time, but I was wondering if bruising is normal? We were trying to figure out if we didn’t apply enough pressure, or if the marks are just exasperated by snowball having white ears.
4) Is there anything else we should be doing? Should we be checking for ketones? Does anyone have any experience with a diabetic with pancreatitis? Or with a diabetic on steroids, anything to watch for?
Finally, I want to thank everyone that posts in these forums. Two years ago we looked on this forum and found great information on low carb food alternatives which helped Snowball out immensely. Now returning back to this forum we've gained the confidence and knowledge to do home testing. I can't thank everyone enough!
