Hi all! My male kitty, Orion, was diagnosed with diabetes about a month ago. He's 10 1/2 years old. We have him on Lantus twice a day. Switched him to Fancy Feast Classic soft cat food from the Science Diet hard stuff he was eating. He seems to be doing better. Had him in at 2 weeks to have him tested at the vet for 12 hours to get a curve??? He was so stressed out that it didn't work too well. I joined the Facebook page on Feline Diabetes and, after reading various posts, decided to watch the videos on here on home testing. I'm going to go to Walmart to get my supplies tomorrow. Wish me luck!
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Wendy&Tiggy(GA)
Member Since 2011
Hello and welcome to the board!
Most of the time cats are so stressed at the vet that their blood glucose is high (over and above the diabetes effect ) so the vets tend to give them a lot of insulin to compensate. But when the cat needs gets home, it isn't stressed so needs less insulin . Plus a change from high carb dry to low carb wet food can cause a drop in blood sugar. So curves at the vet tend to be inaccurate. And costly!
That's why we strongly recommend home testing. Here is useful links on diabetes and this forum https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rd6sMfsrNB41yQVEqpyjlHrJsDIbGEhbRIWR4QAwu3c/pub
Many people here use the Walmart relion cos its reliable and cheap . Other items to pick up while you are there..
- Lancets
- Neosporin to apply on the wound after
- cotton balls to apply to stop bleeding
- freeze dried chicken treats (big bags in dog section) as a reward for after!
- hypo kit.. Necessary to have on hand for any cats on insulin... Karo/Corn or other syrup, spare strips, plus couple of cans of a high carb fancy feast
Let us know how you get on. We would love for you to post your results so we can watch and help advise or if you have questions.
Wendy
Most of the time cats are so stressed at the vet that their blood glucose is high (over and above the diabetes effect ) so the vets tend to give them a lot of insulin to compensate. But when the cat needs gets home, it isn't stressed so needs less insulin . Plus a change from high carb dry to low carb wet food can cause a drop in blood sugar. So curves at the vet tend to be inaccurate. And costly!
That's why we strongly recommend home testing. Here is useful links on diabetes and this forum https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rd6sMfsrNB41yQVEqpyjlHrJsDIbGEhbRIWR4QAwu3c/pub
Many people here use the Walmart relion cos its reliable and cheap . Other items to pick up while you are there..
- Lancets
- Neosporin to apply on the wound after
- cotton balls to apply to stop bleeding
- freeze dried chicken treats (big bags in dog section) as a reward for after!
- hypo kit.. Necessary to have on hand for any cats on insulin... Karo/Corn or other syrup, spare strips, plus couple of cans of a high carb fancy feast
Let us know how you get on. We would love for you to post your results so we can watch and help advise or if you have questions.
Wendy
Tara & Buster
Member Since 2012
Welcome! Great job on getting supplies to start hometesting! It really is the only way you can keep Orion safe. I was hesitant to start hometesting and nearly lost my boy in just following the vet's advice and shooting blindly. Feel free to ask, ask, ask questions - we're here to help!
crobshaw said:
There you are! So glad you made it over here!
Carol's heading to get a Relion and I told her that you guys would be able to help her with any troubles she had when just starting out with testing. We all know how rough it was for us and for our cats, so we have lots of suggestions to help, I am sure!
The curves at the vet office are really useless for the most part because the cats are frequently stressed and that causes their numbers to be higher, then the vet gives you a dose that is too high once you get your cat home and he/she calms back down again. And never mind how expensive it is for those vet curves!
Once you get settled with the testing, the others here can help you get set up with a spreadsheet so you can track your numbers, and you will be able to see the progress that Orion is making.
When you go shopping for the Relion meter, be sure you get the strips and lancets for the lancet device. Also, it would be a good idea to pick up a container of KETOSTIX so you can test Orion's urine for ketones. Ketones can happen even at lower BG numbers, and some cats are more prone to ketones than others, so best to test and see if Orion has any issues.
If you have any questions about foods or feeding, just shout. Someone will have answers.
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