Newbie - feeling lost

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Matt and Katie

Member Since 2015
Hi everyone,

I'm Katie, my hubby is Matt and our little buddy is Augustus. He was diagnosed about 2 months ago after positive blood and urine tests. His initial glucose reading was 385. The vet started him on 1 unit of Lantus 2x daily, and he went back for curves once a week as we adjusted the dose. We landed at 2 units 2x daily before he really started to respond.

I've been doing the dosing according to the vet's instructions, but after our last visit she said she's happy with how he's doing and that she doesn't need to see him again for several months. Because of that, I felt like I needed to monitor more closely at home, and I learned how to use the glucose meter. Now I'm making myself crazy with data that I don't understand!

These are his numbers from the past few days. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A5SBnwNubrDooXK098WADcS7DLCHoHHvULtdvGZftVw/edit?usp=sharing
I switched from an AlphaTrak 2 to the Relion Confirm yesterday, and the numbers reflect a definite drop. I didn't realize that there was such a difference from one monitor to another, so I panicked and lowered his dose, then withheld insulin because his glucose stayed lower even without it.

At this moment I'm just not sure if I should give him his evening shot or not. He has not had insulin in 24 hours, but his most recent test was 89 (the lowest yet).

I apologize for not taking the time to entirely familiarize myself with this protocol yet (I have been lurking in DCH forums for a few weeks and just found this group) but I wanted to introduce us and hopefully get your input. I'm just very nervous about pushing him too low.
 
Welcome to FDMB, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!).
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 Carb found online.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir.
 
Per my vet's instructions, he is on the Lantus 2units 2x per day, eating Purina DM canned twice a day supplemented with DM dry (from discussions online it sounds like that will have to change). I have the Relion Confirm. I've been home testing for about a week, but at first didn't record enough information for it to be super useful.
 
Great! You're home testing!

Can we get you started using our grid to record your glucose tests? It will help us give you better feedback. Instructions are here.

Understanding the spreadsheet/grid:

The colored headings at the top are the ranges of glucose values. They are color-coded to clue you in as to meaning.

Each day is 1 row. Each column stores different data for the day.

From left to right, you enter
the Date in the first column
the AMPS (morning pre-shot test) in the 2nd column
the Units given (turquoise column)

Then, there are 11 columns labeled +1 through +11
If you test at +5 (5 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +5 column
If you test at +7 (7 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +7 column
and so on.

Halfway across the page is the column for PMPS (evening pre-shot)
To the right is another turquoise column for Units given at the evening shot.

There is second set of columns labeled +1 through +11
If you snag a before bed test at +3, you enter the test number in the +3 column.

We separate day and night numbers like that because many cats go lower at night.

It is merely a grid for storing the info; no math required.

Do check out this food list at Cat Info and compare the DM to some of the other foods. I think you'll find it interesting to discuss with your vet. A lot of vets have received their basic nutrition info from manufacturer representatitives. Unless they are very interested in the topic, few have pursued it further (usually due to limited time - they have to learn numerous species and be generalists for all of them). Your vet might find the Cat Info web site interesting as it is written by veterinarian Dr Lisa Pierson, who specializes in feline nutrition.
 
Welcome to the FDMB Katie, Matt and extra sweet Augustus!! Glad you made it over here from the Facebook group!!

What you're probably seeing (more than a big difference in meters) is that Augustus isn't eating as much of the dry and is eating more wet food instead. Getting him onto a low carb canned or raw diet can lower the blood glucose as much as 200 points!

Here's a Food Chart that lists most brands and types of foods available and their nutrient breakdown....You'll want to feed wet foods that are less than 10% carbs. This also means you can buy food "over the counter" for a lot less than the "prescription" foods!! A lot of us here feed Fancy Feast Classics or Friskies Pate's

The TR protocol we use here is based on the Romp & Rand protocol which has been published in a veterinary journal. There's lots of information on our protocol HERE

There's lots of great people here who will help you every step of the way in learning the "sugardance" so I hope you'll become a regular here! We love to share what we've learned over the years with new sugarcat moms and dads!
 
With the exception of a couple of numbers, Gus is doing great with normal numbers with no insulin. I looked at the prior spreadsheet as well. I am a little concerned about the "urine down his back" from yesterday. Do you have another cat? If you keep him off of the dry food, he may not need the insulin. Just my opinion. I'm sure others will give their advice.
 
He's our only cat. He's a fairly big guy and he has a tendency to squat too close to the side of the litterbox so that urine splashes back onto him. Not often, but often enough. I do keep an eye on his eliminations because that was our clue initially that something was wrong - he was peeing massive puddles every time he used the box.
 
Have you tried using a cement mixing tray as a litter box? They are long, wide, and deep enough for a Maine Coon!
 
That's a good suggestion - wish I'd thought of it before I shelled out for a "giant" sized litterbox on Amazon! For some reason I was hung up on it needing to be an actual litterbox, but I've since seen people make brilliant ones out of rubbermaid containers as well.
 
Nothing with corners - they just hold the dirt!
I also nest the cement mixing trays inside half of a plastic dog kennel. This cuts down on kicked out litter everywhere as it gets corralled, plus reduces any spray over.
 
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