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Manx-Luces

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Hello everyone. I've been following the board for a few days and thought I should come out of the woodwork and say hello. My six year old cat Gil was diagnosed on June 7th (initial readings around 27mmol/L) and started on Caninsulin June 10th at 1 unit, every twelve hours. Since then he has progressed to 3 units every twelve hours, with the newest dose set to be 4 units. The first few weeks were spent with difficulties getting him to eat the Hills w/d food received from the vet, cut with his old food (a do-not-do, as I understand it). After yesterday's vet appointment, where he was reading 22mmol/L only five hours after his morning shot, he was switched to Medi-Cal, which he has been eating uncut with no fuss (so far). I'd be much more comfortable upping his dosage as recommended only after beginning home testing (of which I finally got his vet on board with yesterday), particularly with this dietary switch (eventually would like to move on to wet foods given all that I've read here, but not really sure if this is really the best time for a switch, after a lifetime of dry food and all the other alterations in the last month). The local pharmacy only carries Accuchek, One Touch, and Freestyle; haven't yet been able to settle on one but am determined to make a go of it.

I'd just like to say that the main site provided a load of helpful information in the past month, and I wish I'd discovered the board earlier.

Regards,
Sam and Gil
 
Hi Sam and Gil,

It sounds like you have been doing some reading - this site is full of great information.

Any brand of meter works as long as they sip and take a tiny sample. The meters aren't expensive - it's the strips that are. Many people here use the ReliOn from Walmart as it has cheaper strips. We got a free PrecisionXtra from the drug store and bought our strips on ebay. Have you seen the video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zE12-4fVn8

This is a great site by a vet: http://www.catinfo.org. She explains why wet lo carb is best and has some valuable tips on transitioning from dry.

Come back often with questions. We are all paying it forward because we received such good help from the posters on the board when we were newbies.
 
Welcome Sam and Gil. I second Sue's recommendation to check strip price and note how much blood you need. The smaller the sample, the better.
 
Hi Sam and Gil,
You are in the right place now to get Gil feeling better.

You already know that it's alot of learning at the start, but I figured I'd give you some links and info to get you all set up here.
Spreadsheet Template and Instructions
Setting up a spreadsheet will be most helpful to you, to track how Gil is doing and to share with others so that they can help you with decisions on dose and even just to let you know what the numbers are saying.

Profile Creation
A profile of sorts is a good idea because people will be asking the same questions over and over, like where are you located? I am guessing that you are in Canada as you mention Caninsulin which is the first insulin I used for my Shadoe, plus you said BG value of 27 which is equivalent to 486 - I am in Toronto and so I just made up a sheet for converting the numbers I get on my meters to numbers that others on this site understand.

New to the Group
There's a bunch of stuff in this link; quite a bit should be of use to you.

List of Hypo symptoms
How to treat HYPOS – They can kill! Print this out!
With a high dose of insulin and no home testing yet, plus a change to all wet food, there is always a possibility of Gil going too low, so it's best to be prepared with what many would call their Hypo tool kit. Read over the two links and know the signs, and what you need to do.

As Gil has quite high numbers right now, you want to be testing his urine for ketones. Just get a container of ketostix and test him when you can. If you get even a trace on the strip when you test, please post on the board right away so that someone can fill you in on what needs to be done, and quickly.

What else?

OK home testing is easy peasy. Be sure to test just before every shot because the day will come when Gil gives you a nice low BG and you will wonder if you should give a full dose or something less.
Be sure that Gil eats no foods in the 2hrs prior to his shot because food affects his BG numbers and you want a pure number to decide what to shoot.

There is a group where many others who use the same insulin as you post; look for the Insulin Support Group with Caninsulin in its name.

Welcome to the site. Ask every question you have; there will be someone who will help you with the answer.
 
Hi and welcome to you and Gil,

Just wanted to say hi from another Canadian.
The others have covered the basics, so rather than repeating, I'll just say - ask questions!

One thing I wanted to mention is that the cheapest strips I found in Canada are from Costco, for the TrueTrack meter ($43 vs about $73 for other brands). People say it's not quite as accurate, but if cost is an issue, it's certainly better than not testing. The meter is free when you buy the strips. Same for the other meters - go to Walmart rather than a pharmacy - the exact same meters were around $10 rather than $40. (we can't get the often-recommended "Relion" meter in Canada)

Odiesmom
 
Thanks for the advice, everyone. Picked up a One Touch Ultra last night as all the strips seemed to be around the same price range. Watched the video and a few more and only WISH Gil would be that calm. Right now, I'm just trying to get some results regardless of the time to get us both used to it. So far haven't been very successful; one of us is bleeding but it sure isn't him. Just gave the rice sock a try but still no luck; he doesn't seem to want to bleed from the ear. I'll try again after he recovers from the last round of failed poking.

Picked up the Ketostix today and just got a reading; had a hard time telling whether it was negative or trace, and will keep monitoring. Assuming it is trace, would this be an issue for his regular vet to be informed of tomorrow morning (not open weekends) or should this warrant a call/trip to the emergency animal hospital today?
 
Testing takes some getting used to - for you and for Gil. I think everyone here has stories of their first little while with testing.
Soon you'll have a routine figured out that works for both of you though.

A few other things that might help, if you haven't tried them:

- wrap Gil in a towel, "burrito-style", if you can get him nice and snug, then he can't wiggle away and his paws are contained.
- try putting his ear flat against a flash light - the hard surface will make it easier to get a good prick, and the light will make it easier to see where you're pricking
- try putting a *very thin* layer of vaseline on his ear before pricking, that way when you do get some blood, it'll make a nice drop rather than smearing in the fur
- if you do get blood but he's too wiggly to test, get the blood onto your fingernail, let go of Gil, and then test from your nail
- prick "free-hand" rather than using the device that comes with the glucometer. It makes it easier to see exactly where you're pricking
- try two quick pricks right next to each other, between the two of them, it might be easier to get enough blood

Oh, and his ears will probably end up bruised for the first while. It'll get better, really. Squeezing the spot with a tissue for a few seconds afterwards will help reduce bruising.
 
Welcome, Sam and Gil. You've found a great place to get the help and moral support you need.

As I understand it, trace ketones are not an emergency but a situation to keep watching. Ketones can get bad fast, so for now rechecking every time you can is a good idea.

Make sure Gil is getting a lot of water. Adding an extra spoonful of water to his food often works. He may not like an extremely watery bowl of food, but he probably won't mind a spoonful of water.

To be clearer about whether the reading is negative or trace, try wetting a ketone strip with tap water. Compare how that looks with how the strip looked when you weren't sure about the reading. (Dry strips always look a little different from wet strips, even if the reading is negative.) I've read here that when the reading is "trace," the strip turns almost fluorescent, even though the color change isn't huge. I haven't yet seen that myself, but that's what people here have said.

For testing, Gil WILL get more calm about it, and his ear WILL bleed. It's extremely normal to have a hard time getting a test at first.
 
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