Newly diagnosed with schedule questions

[Becky Young]

Hi there!

My name is Becky and my 10 year old cat Davis was just diagnosed with diabetes. His most recent blood glucose was 315. The vet began talking to me about what I need to do in order to help him and I am so overwhelmed. It feels beyond my abilities.

My biggest issue is with my schedule. I am self-employed and I do not have a regular schedule at all. Sometimes I leave my house at 6am, sometimes 11am. Sometimes I'm home by 3pm, sometimes 10pm. Sometime I'm out of town for 2 days, sometimes 6 days. I just don't know how I'm going to be able to do this. I feel like I'm already failing him and I haven't even begun insulin yet.

Does anyone have advice for how I can do this with an unpredictable schedule? Is this type of schedule even possible/helpful?

Monday, 7am - 7pm
Tuesday, 6am - 8pm
Wednesday, 7am - 7pm
Thursday, 8am - 9pm
Friday, 9am - no pm shot
Saturday, 7am - 7pm
Sunday, 7am - 7pm

 

[Phoebes (GA)]

I am too new to give you dosing advise, but I can give you some support and say you are not alone. If you would post this on the health forum you will get more eyes. you're in the best place you'll never want to be. Hugs

 

[Yong & Maury GA]

Welcome Becky and Davis!
We understand the overwhelmed feeling for sure!
Few questions:

1. Which insulin is Vet recommending?
2. Will you be home testing?
3. Do you have a friend or neighbour that could help you? Missing a shot every Friday is a lot.
4. Have you tried a diet change first?

We'll try to help as much as we can. You are not the first to come with a hectic schedule but insulin does prefer consistency of 12/12 hour schedules. Lantus / Levemir are more strict. Prozinc can give you an hour flexibility with little impact. These 3 are the longer lasting insulins.
Let's get your Signature information setup so you can get some more eyes on the Main Health Forum as Angela suggested
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/

 

[Becky Young]

Thanks for your reply!

1.My vet is recommending Lantus, we have not discussed dosing yet, we just set up an appointment next week for me to get the medication and learn how to inject it. She is a house-call vet, so I am thankful she will be able to give me a little extra time in teaching me how to do things!

2. Yes, I plan to home test. My vet had an entire testing kit donated to her from a previous client, so I get the whole kit for free!

3. Maybe...my mother in-law is usually at home on Fridays and could probably come over, if I can help her get over her fear of hurting him.

4. We have been trying diet changes over the past 8 weeks. He is eating Fancy Feast wet food and grazing on Young Again Zero Mature. His glucose numbers were steadily dropping, but when the vet check him yesterday, they had gone up. So we decided that diet changes probably weren't going to be the only thing I could try. She suggested insulin a few weeks ago, but due to my schedule I thought it was best to at least try dietary changes first and see if that helped at all. He went from 474 to the 200s, so it's better but he still needs a little extra help from insulin.

I will post in the main board, thank you!

 

[Yong & Maury GA]

But that's still a nice improvement just from diet! I will find you on Main Health Forum too, just last thing: the insulin shots and BG tests are really not as painful as we think. As you home test, his ears will "learn to bleed" by growing more capillaries in them, only hurts when you prick the actual marginal vein. Yes it's easier to get blood but can hurt. The shots are done Subcutaneous (SubQ), majority of kitties don't even feel them, especially if you give while they're distracted by eating . See you over there!