Newly diagnosed and upcoming trip..help!

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CarolandTigger

CarolandTigger

Member Since 2015
Tigger was just diagnosed yesterday and we started him on insulin last night. We do not have a testing monitor yet and will wait till Friday when he has his all day glucose test and then find out more. The problem is we had planned a 6 Week Rd. trip in our RV starting next Monday, with the cat. He has no problem traveling but now I'm worried with his new diagnosis. I'll be asking the vet all of these questions on Friday but wondered if anybody else ever had a similar situation? I guess we will have to test along the way or we have to stop at various vet offices across America to get him tested? Part of me just wants to stay home now and watch him, and to be close to our own vet, but then the other part of me says we shouldn't have to cancel our plans and if he can go with us so we can take care of him while we travel that would be okay. I guess if we're just in close contact with our vet we can call in his numbers and see if his dosage needs to be adjusted? If we weren't so new with this problem I wouldn't even be asking this . Thanks! Also...he's on 2 units of Vetsulin 2xday, and Purina DM canned food.
 
Yes, you can travel with you diabetic cat.
Add into your planning a list of emergency/vets along your way - your own vet may know of some - just in case you need one.
You'll need to refrigerate the insulin; many RVs have compact refrigerators.
Be sure you are comfortable with blood glucose testing before you go and have an ample supply of test strips, lancets, urine KetoDiastix, high carb food/Karo syrup in case you need to steer numbers, low carb food and the location of stores & hours where you can get low carb food (unless you want to pack that much).
 
Many of us use inexpensive human glucometers to test. The Target Up and Up or the WalMart ReliOn Confirm or Confirm micro do well. Get a supply of test strips - average 4 per day, to test before each shot, plus snag a before bed & between shots when possible. The lancets for alternate site testing are 25-28 gauge and may work best starting out.
 
We got the Walmart Relion Ultra today. Wasn't too hard to test him, but now I'm getting confused! Gosh this is all so new and scary! I had a long talk with the vet last night and she was very reassuring. She suggested the Walmart glucometer and gave us a chart of over-the-counter low-carb canned food, even though we picked up several cans of Purina DM in her office yesterday. Since we're leaving on this trip, it will be difficult to keep him on the Purina DM Unless we stop in vet offices in different cities along the way to buy some! We should've just skipped starting him on the Purina DM, and gone with an over the counter food to begin with, but I don't think we were thinking at the time with all the information we were trying to absorb all at once. It will be much easier on our trip to pick up food over the counter. So how do you transition between different brands..or do you? Maybe The longer transition period is when you're going from dry food to wet? My vet also said that he can range from 100 to 300 on his BGs. Said the cats can have a looser control than dogs. She also said that testing him just once a week would be okay but maybe that's after he becomes more stable with his blood sugar? Lots of questions to ask tomorrow when we take him in for his curve testing. Even though he was just diagnosed two days ago they wanted to do this before we leave on our trip Monday.
 
Most of us feed the Fancy Feast classics or the Friskies pate's...they're low carb and better than any of the "prescription" foods...also available just about everywhere...If you're currently feeding another food, make small changes....add 25% of the new stuff to the old stuff and increase by 25% each day until they're fully eating the desired food.
 
sounds like you have a good vet willing to help you home test :-) yay! you'll start reading more on here about when to test and how much- preshot is very important. You'll be just fine on your trip and then it sounds like you'll be immersing yourself on the board like I did when you get back :-) I just read everything I could get my hands on. It is so much information, but this group is so helpful and kind even when you ask questions that others have before you. You will want to start a spreadsheet for testing, everyone has theirs in their signature and there are directions on a sticky.
Welcome Carol and Tigger- have a great vacation!
 
Thanks all! I can see with this group is really going to be a wonderful support and life saver! And here I was worried about ME getting diabetes! I do have to watch my numbers and get tested every six months as I run borderline. My brothers type 1,my dad was type 2 and most of my dad's family. I've been worried for years about getting this and I just thought it was ironic that my cat got it. Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise, because when or if I do get it I'll be well-versed on it and Tigger and I can share the testing kit! Ha ha! It certainly won't be as overwhelming as it is now. He loves the new food So as of this morning I just switched him over completely instead of mixing the old high carb Friskies meaty bits in with his new food. We will probably transition him over to more readily available over-the-counter food during our trip once we run out of the Purina DM food,which we bought about 12 cans of. I'll carry Karo syrup with us and also some high carb food for emergencies. I'll be on this board while on my trip so that's a very comforting thought.
 
Question..probably a stupid one! I've been reading other cats charts. Morning pre-shot test...is that BEFORE morning food or after? And evening?
 
Generally, we test/feed/shoot....all within about 5-10 minutes each morning/evening

You always test first to make sure they're high enough to give insulin at all

Feed to make sure they're at least eating "normally"

Shoot

We like to have the pre-shot test without the influence of food too, so take the food up 2 hours before shot times so when you do the Pre-shot tests, they're not food influenced
 
If you do decide to stick with the DM, then look to see if there are any PetSmart's along your route. They frequently have a vet's office inside the store.
 
When you have a moment, could you add a few tidbits to your signature? It will help us give you feedback without having to go look in all your past posts.

Editing your Signature

In the upper right corner of the screen, within the dark blue bar, you will see ID, Inbox, and Alerts

Click on your ID.

On the left, under Settings, Click on Signature.
This is where you will put information that helps us give you feedback.
This is where you paste the link for your spreadsheet, once it is set up.
Add any other text, such as
your name,
cat's name,
date of Dx (diagnosis)
insulin
meter
any other pertinent issues like if there are any food issues, history of DKA, hepatic lipidosis, pancreatitis, allergies, IBD, etc.
Click the Save Changes button at the bottom.

Always click the Save Changes button at the bottom when you have changed anything.
 
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