ramonaghan
Member Since 2014
Hello all,
My 11.5-year-old boy Henry joined this club the day after Thanksgiving when he had his annual exam and rabies booster. We asked the vet to do blood work since we'd noticed some increased water consumption and large pee "bricks" in the litter box. Henry's BG came back at 465, other values all normal and physical exam great except for a couple of extra pounds, which we've struggled with his whole life. Other than the drinking/peeing, he is very much himself: maintaining weight, eats well, grooms himself and his sister Olive, plays a bit, glares at the dog. I did some research and had him exclusively on FF Classics within 2 days of diagnosis. He has never been finicky and was previously fed a combo of Blue Buffalo dry and wet, so no issues with the transition. At his spot check this past Friday, his BG was down to 350 from the diet change alone. He was also started on 1U of Lantus 2x/day on Friday. He will go in this Friday (one week on insulin) for his first glucose curve. He really hates the car ride and the vet, but I'm hopeful he'll chill enough over the course of the day for them to get some good numbers. The vet says she hopes he'll be a "Christmas miracle," and so do we!
The shots have been going well, but our first attempts at home testing yesterday were disastrous. I feel like we turned his poor ears into a pin cushion! We tried the rice sock and we are using the CVS Advanced Glucose Meter, which the pharmacist recommended because the strips are so cheap. My suspicion is that (1) the lancet gauge might be too thin to start with (33g) and (2) perhaps it requires too much blood (.5 µl)? I need to buy more lancets today and wonder if we'd have more luck with the 30g. Thoughts? We were only able to get one sample at AMPS +10 and I don't think it completely filled the window so question its accuracy. Because the value seemed low for that point (117), we agonized over whether to give him insulin and kept failing to get a good follow-up sample at PMPS. We decided to go ahead with his shot after his normal evening meal of 1 can of FF. I kept waking up and checking on him during the night, and thankfully I work from home, so am mostly around to monitor him.
It's been an overwhelming few days, to say the least. We've been through kidney disease and sub-q fluids with a previous cat, so we aren't new to injections, but all the charts and numbers and potential for hypo have my head spinning a bit.
So that's our story! I've linked to Henry's spreadsheet, but it's pretty useless at this point because we're such glucometer failures. :smile:
My 11.5-year-old boy Henry joined this club the day after Thanksgiving when he had his annual exam and rabies booster. We asked the vet to do blood work since we'd noticed some increased water consumption and large pee "bricks" in the litter box. Henry's BG came back at 465, other values all normal and physical exam great except for a couple of extra pounds, which we've struggled with his whole life. Other than the drinking/peeing, he is very much himself: maintaining weight, eats well, grooms himself and his sister Olive, plays a bit, glares at the dog. I did some research and had him exclusively on FF Classics within 2 days of diagnosis. He has never been finicky and was previously fed a combo of Blue Buffalo dry and wet, so no issues with the transition. At his spot check this past Friday, his BG was down to 350 from the diet change alone. He was also started on 1U of Lantus 2x/day on Friday. He will go in this Friday (one week on insulin) for his first glucose curve. He really hates the car ride and the vet, but I'm hopeful he'll chill enough over the course of the day for them to get some good numbers. The vet says she hopes he'll be a "Christmas miracle," and so do we!
The shots have been going well, but our first attempts at home testing yesterday were disastrous. I feel like we turned his poor ears into a pin cushion! We tried the rice sock and we are using the CVS Advanced Glucose Meter, which the pharmacist recommended because the strips are so cheap. My suspicion is that (1) the lancet gauge might be too thin to start with (33g) and (2) perhaps it requires too much blood (.5 µl)? I need to buy more lancets today and wonder if we'd have more luck with the 30g. Thoughts? We were only able to get one sample at AMPS +10 and I don't think it completely filled the window so question its accuracy. Because the value seemed low for that point (117), we agonized over whether to give him insulin and kept failing to get a good follow-up sample at PMPS. We decided to go ahead with his shot after his normal evening meal of 1 can of FF. I kept waking up and checking on him during the night, and thankfully I work from home, so am mostly around to monitor him.
It's been an overwhelming few days, to say the least. We've been through kidney disease and sub-q fluids with a previous cat, so we aren't new to injections, but all the charts and numbers and potential for hypo have my head spinning a bit.
So that's our story! I've linked to Henry's spreadsheet, but it's pretty useless at this point because we're such glucometer failures. :smile:
