Newly diagnosed. Help

[Tamra]

y 8 year old cat has been newly diagnosed. His blood sugar was in the 600. Yesterday he had an all day monitoring at the vet. He ate food all day, which he hasn't done in months, and his sugar dropped to 300! He came home and ate a whole can of food! This morning he only ate three bites. I wrapped him in a towel and gave him his insulin. He layed on the couch all morning and didn't touch anymore of his food acting like his old sick self. I became panicked and took him back to the vet because I thought his sugar was low again. The vet said his sugar was normal. Help I can't afford to take him to the vet every time I freak out. Does a human glucose meter equal the same reading a pet meter does? Why isn't he acting normal if his sugar is normal?
He did eat later in the day at the vet. Will testing his sugar on his paw hurt him?

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

Where are you right now? When was his last shot? Has he eaten? Did you recently change his diet? I think he is getting 3 units of ProZinc?

Testing at home will help you see exactly how the insulin is working and whether your dose is working and will keep you out of the vet's office. Have you tried testing? Some things that helped me were to use a large enough lancet (sometimes 25-27 gauge works best. The 30/31 gauge humans use can be too small.) and to get the ear really warm before poking. You can use the ear or the paw.

 

[Ferndoc]

Sue from the Welcome page:

"I just started injections yesterday with the vet he is on 3 units prozinc. In two days his sugar has went from 600 to 300. He didn't eat a lot this morning so I took him to the vet after he was so lethargic all morning but they said his sugar was fine. Will his paw be ok if I test there."

I think she is trying to test right now.

 

[Jeanne & Dottie]

Try using the outer edge of his ears to test. There's a sweet spot just a few millimeters from the edge, to the edge itself. That way you might not need to make a burrito out of your kitty by wrapping him in a towel. The key here is to make your pokes as uninvasive as possible, so he doesn't freak when you test him.