Newbie question about pre-shot checks

[Team Pavel]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for this wonderful message board!

I'm Juliet, and my newly diagnosed cat is Pavel. Pavel was first diagnosed as having high BG in January. We switched him to a canned-only, low-carb diet and checked him again after a few weeks, but a fructosamine test showed that his BG had worsened. About 10 days ago, we started Pavel on Prozinc, 1 unit, and we (meaning DH and I) are learning to do home testing. Our vet advocated using a cat/dog-specific monitor, so we got an Alpha Trak 2. Pavel has been a model patient, and seems to love all of the attention he gets during testing.

My question is this: when do I do a pre-shot test, before or after Pavel eats? We always feed him just before his shot; he eats a couple of tablespoons or so at that point and then free-feeds throughout the day.

Thanks!

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

Welcome! You are doing everything right for your sweet Pavel. A good insulin, testing and wet low carb.

It's test, feed and shot. Food can raise levels so you want for him not to have food 2 hours before each shot. Lots of us shoot while they are eating, after the test.

Here's our protocol for ProZinc.


http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=109077

Let us know how we can help.

 

[Team Pavel]

Thank you for the quick response! This message board is an incredible resource, powered by a lot of generous people!

I'm sure I'll be back with lots of questions!

Juliet

 

[BJM]

For the really antsy cat, it may help with testing to start feeding as you test. It takes roughly 20 minutes for the food to start spiking the glucose level.

 

[Deb & Wink]

Hi Juliet and sugardude Pavel and welcome to the message board.

Have you seen this food chart? Put together by vet Dr. Lisa Pierson after countless hours with the pet food manufacturers to get good data. Lots of us here feed the Fancy Feast classic pates or Friskies pates or Wellness grain free foods because of their lower cost and wide availability.

What low carb food did you pick to feed Pavel?

If you're not in the US or Canada, we have another food chart for Canned cat food for EUROPEANS and INTERNATIONAL buyers

I started with the Alphatrak 2 meter, but the test strips were so expensive, $1 - 2 each, that I switched to a human glucometer. The Relion Confirm or Micro available at Wal-Mart takes the same small blood drop as the Alphatrak and the test strips are only 36 cents apiece. It made it possible to test my sugardude Wink more often without agonizing over the high cost of the Alphatrak test strips. Just a thought for you to consider.

We have this from member BJM, with glucose reference ranges for the different meters.
Reference ranges for decision making

[Glucose reference ranges are unsubstantiated and have been removed by Moderator]

 

[Team Pavel]

Hi Deb,

I just printed out the chart you posted for me after spotting it on another thread--it looks really useful! Thank you for the advice re. the Relion. I have a bunch of Alphatrak strips now, but once I'm through them, I'll consider switching.

That list by Dr. Pierson is incredible! I used it to choose foods for Pavel when we first put him on a canned only diet. I had been feeding him the Wellness grain free, but he was also getting a grain-free dry food (with green peas)--only after all of this started did I do enough reading to discover that "grain-free" does not necessarily mean "low-carb."

We initially discovered Pavel's high BG numbers accidentally--he was at the vet for bowel problems, which he's struggled with for some time, but which had suddenly become much worse. We had noticed lots of drinking, but nothing else seemed amiss, so it never occurred to us that he could be diabetic. Despite the absence of obvious parasites, we treated him with metronidazole and fenbendazole and his bowel issues have improved. At the same visit, the vet tested his BG and found it was high (in the 300's, if I recall correctly). They followed with a fructosamine test, and after that we initiated the low-carb diet. Because of the bowel issues, we decided to give him carageenan-free foods only for a while. We have a great pet store nearby with a huge selection of foods. Pavel tried just about every carageenan-free food rated under 10% carbs on Dr. Pierson's list. We've since returned to the Wellness, which Pavel likes best, and the carageenan does not seem to be an issue. As soon as we initiated the diet change, back in January, the drinking lessened some, but there's still plenty in the box.

Thank you for your interest and advice!

 

[ebuckley]

I have a bunch of Alphatrak strips now, but once I'm through them, I'll consider switching.

I'd keep those Alpha strips. Not a bad problem to have. I switched to ReliOn but had already purchased a True meter from the CVS chain. I had about 15 strips left and muttered something similar to what you said but someone told me that it's nice to have a back up. And indeed it was! One night, like any other night, I got a "LO" reading well into the evening on the ReliON with only 2 strips left! eek! Having that True as a back up was really, really crucial that night.

 

[BJM]

Heads up on meters with "True" in the name. They may incorrectly report lower numbers than are accurate for cats. You may think control is good, only to find no improvement in clinical symptoms, and high fructosamine at the vet's.

 

[Deb & Wink]

Hi Juliet!

Glad to hear that Pavel likes his Wellness grain free canned food. That's a good one as you found out by reading that fantastic food chart by vet Dr. Lisa Pierson. She makes some good points about what food is better for cats. I switched all mine to canned a year ago after reading her information on her catinfo.org website.

Keep us posted on how Pavel is doing. You've joined a wonderful, supportive family here. We're happy to help in whatever way we can.

One tool we find useful, is a standard formatted, color coded google spreadsheet. No math involved, it's just data entry and is a great place to keep track of your test results, units of insulin given, food given, and any other remarks that you find useful. It's a great way to get doing suggestions from the experienced members here that use your insulin. It's also a good tool to share with your vet.

Here are the setup instructions on setting up your own copy on your google drive and putting it in your signature here on the FDMB so we can look at it. The instructions forgot to mention that you need to change the share options to "anyone with the link". That gives read only access. You need to sign into your google account to update it as the signature version can't be updated.

If you're in the US, you use the US version. If you are elsewhere, you use the World version, enter your data on the World tab and then it has a built in conversion to calculate the BG's in mg/dL used in the US on the US tab.

Hope to see more of you here.