Questions on home testing

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Scratchie'smom

Hi, my name is Jo and my 11 year old beautiful brown tipped tabby Scratch was diagnosed with diabetes back in February. It has been a roller coaster. He is suffering from neuropathy, but I do have him on a daily dose of Methyl B-12 (thanks to this site) While this is the first time that I have posted on this site, I have been reading everything I can get my hands on. We started out at 1/2 unit 2x day - now we are up to 4 units 2x day. Errors on my part as I was still giving him treats (he loved those Temptation nibbles), then Tuna once I found out on the second or third visit that these were bad! Now I am even more full of questions. We had to go out of town for a few days so I boarded him with my vet. He was there for 4 nights and there was one night when they didn't have to give him any insulin. I'm terrified now that he is getting too much. When I picked him up on Saturday the vet wasn't there for me to talk to as he went out of town and they didn't give me any type of report (which is unusual) with his numbers. He is supposed to call me today so I am waiting with bated breath.

I do not have him on canned food. Extreme diarhhea and vomiting. He is on Science Diet M/D and seems to be tolerating this pretty good now. He eats a little over 1/2 cup per day and weighs a little over 13 pounds, but under 13.25 pounds. I am still trying to get him on the canned food, but it's very difficult and since I work and he doesn't work well with my husband, it's up to me to get these things done. His back legs are doing much better (been on the Methyl B12 for 3 weeks today) but I just feel I need to do more for him. Yes, I obsess about him. I never had children other than my Scratchie. He is much more playful (getting back to his old self), waking me up all night to play so I believe he is doing much better.

Now for the hard part. I want to start home testing. I purchased a Relion meter yesterday but they were out of the test strips. I should have those in the next day or two. I've watched the videos and hope I know where the 'sweet spot' is so will start that this weekend. My question is - how do I know where his level is supposed to be? I know it's probably in here somewhere, but for the life of me I can't find it. Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
Welcome Jo and extra sweet Scratch!

Don't get discouraged if you don't get blood regularly or at all in the beginning. Scratch's ears will 'learn' to bleed by adding capillaries in that area as testing continues. If you do 3 pokies and nothing, quit for a bit, give treats and congratulate both of you. That's 3 strokes down already! When you're both ready, try it again up to the 3x. Don't forget to BREATHE and no, your cat will NOT hate you for it!!! KT comes running to the shake of the strip container, the zipper of the pouch or the beep of his meter....he's been 'stuck' about 1600 times...literally.

BIG HUG!!!! You CAN do it - you're already mostly there!!!
 
While you are waiting for the strips (or try another Walmart?) start getting him used to the routine. Pick a place where you will test and put him there. Lots of praise and petting and messing with his ears. Then a treat and off he goes. Then add the rice sack and heat his ears. Praise, treat and off. If you have the lancet, you can practice clicking it. By the time you are ready to poke, he should be okay with the routine and realize a treat is coming.

Be sure your lancets are in the 25-28 gauge range - more likely to make a big enough hole at first. Have something to put behind the ear when you poke - folded kleenix, small makeup sponge....

And just because everyone here does it, don't assume we all got it on the first try. We poked poor Oliver every couple of hours for a weekend before we got a drop. If you have trouble, post and ask for tips. All of us have things that helped.
 
Are you feeding canned or dry M/D? Both are too high in carbs for a diabetic cat, but the dry is much worse than the canned and is likely what is keeping your cat's blood sugar high. I would highly recommend switch to a low carb, canned diet once you are home testing. The diet change can drop Blood glucose levels by 100-300 points, and even cause spontaneous remission in some cats.

Purina DM canned is the only prescription food appropriate for a diabetic cat, but it's pretty much the exact same thing as Fancy Feast and other pate style grocery brand canned foods. Check out this link for food options: http://www.felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm. But do NOT change the diet unless you are lowering the dose and testing. Otherwise it can cause a dangerous hypoglycemic incident.
 
Thanks everyone for your wonderful advice. Without this website, I'd be so lost!

I know the Science Diet M/D is still too high in carbs and not good, but it's better than what he was on previously so just trying to work through this.

Since we were out of town last week, I am going to be working very hard on getting Scratch to eat canned food, as I begin the testing. I'm using the Relion Comp and received the test strips yesterday so I'll start all of the fun stuff tomorrow. I'll check the size of the lancets but hope that what came with the monitor are the right size. I work 10 hour days - five days a week so the weekends are when I can devote total time to him and new things. This week I've just been concentrating on letting him mellow from the boarding and 'curve' and getting back into his normal routine. My husband is very squeemish about the whole injection/Methyl B-12 and now the testing. Sometimes he thinks I'm crazy but he is finally admitting that things are getting better. I think he just gets too sad watching Scratch (breaks his heart) but he just doesn't have the courage to help with these things. That's ok he's my baby so I'll deal with it.

Thanks again everyone for your advice!
 
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