Newly diagnosed and freaking out!

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jessa07

Member Since 2014
Hi, my name is Jessica and my 15 year old furbaby Cali was just diagnosed on Saturday. Her BG was a whopping 622!!! I brought her back to the vet today so she could get a urine sample to test for ketones, and also to retest the blood. She was still high, so we started her on insulin. I am so freaked out! I have a lot of questions, but here are the main ones that come to mind:

I had lurked around this forum a bit before going in to talk to the vet and noticed that many of you home test. I asked the vet about that and she said it would be too difficult to do at home. I did run out to Walmart and grabbed a meter, strips, and lancets to have on hand anyway. If so many of you do it, it can't be that bad, right??

The vet also has me injecting her closer to her hips. It has been really hard for me to inject her there by myself. My husband can help if he is around, but he won't always be there to help. Is there any better spot?

Gosh, I am just so nervous about poking my kitty and accidentally hurting her! Please tell me this gets better!
 
Hi Jessica!
I'm back on this site after getting Schroder into remission twice in the last 4 years thanks entirely to the help I received on this site.
Home testing is really no big deal if you have a fairly placid cat and if you have a fighter, it may take you some time to get him into the routine. Just stay calm and relaxed yourself and that energy will be passed along!

Here is a link that show the preferred injection sites on the cat. The insulin is going subcutaneous (the space between the skn and the muscle below). Up on the shoulder/chest, and abdoman are good places that you can usually get a good pinch of skin. They also have good blood flow; the scruff of the neck doesn't and isn't the besf for injection. Schroeder is a pro at getting his BG tested and getting injected. I have him up on the counter facing away from me and start stroking him. I have the rice sock warmed up a little and held to his ear for a minute, and then I poke the vein up around the edge of his ear with a manual lancet. I have the monitor ready to go with the strip in, so when the blood flows, it's a quick scoop and then a cotton pad on the ear to stop the bleeding and prevent bruising. Takes no time at all!

http://www.diabeticcatcare.com/DCCCOK/Injectionsites.htm

Here is the link to the how to on this site
http://www.felinediabetes.com/injections.htm

Lots of excellent information on this site, so read the stickies and the main FDMB page. First lesson, go low and slow (in increasing dosage), as insulin rebound is common (happened to Schroeder), which is when the cat is getting too much insulin and winds up producing high blood sugar, leaving you thinking youre not giving enough. It's a head scratcher.
Low dose at first is really important if you are also tending to diet - i.e getting your cat off regular dry food and using a wet food or ultra low carb dry food. The change in diet alone can have dramatic effects on the BG numbers.

Also do a little reading on the various insulins. Not sure what your vet has prescibed. Mine prescibed Caninsulin, on which my cat didn't stablize well. After a lot of research and info from this forum, I settled on Levemir - a human insulin. Schroeder did very well on it.

Let me know if you have more questions. I"ll see if I can dig up some of my more useful links.

Andrea.
 
Home testing is a skill that can be learned. The cat's temperment can make it easier or more difficult. I've been fortunate to work with 3 different diabetic cats and have had no problem testing them. Other folks have needed to burrito wrap the cat in order to safely restrain it for testing.

There are some Secondary Monitoring Tools in my signature link which you'll want to print out for reference. In particular, testing for ketones is important while you work on regulating the glucose. Ketones are a by-product of fat breakdown for calories. Too many ketones may indicate diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a potentially fatal, expensive to treat complication of diabetes.
 
Welcome Jessica and Cali! :YMHUG:

Diet also plays a huge part in managing this disease. What foods are you currently feeding Cali?

Here are some more Ear Testing Tips that you might find helpful. Please let us know how it goes. :-D
 
Hi Jessica and Cali and welcome to the message board.

Yes, it does get better and easier. Just keep asking questions and we'll try to help you the best we can. We were all where you are right now, new at managing diabetes for our beloved kitties and worried.

Deep breath, hold, release, deep breath, hold, release, deep breath, hold, release, deep breath, hold, release.
 
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