Should I be home testing?

[Hercules]

Hello,
My cat Hercules was diagnosed with diabetes yesterday at his vet appointment. He has been given his first dose of bexacat today and I was told to look out for specific symptoms, but was not told to be testing his BG or Ketone level at home. I have a follow up appointment to check his blood work again on Saturday(4 days after diagnosis) and want to come prepared with questions. As I stated on another forum I did change his food from dry food to wet Tikki cat brand food. He has been eating normally, but then after reading other posts on here I saw that it said to gradually change his food over to avoid possible hypoglycemia. So I gave him some lower carb dry food that was tikki cat brand in between main feedings. He has been eating and drinking pretty normally today and has been behaving pretty normally as well. Should I be concerned or go out and purchase a glucose monitor tomorrow? My vet honestly gave very little information at this initial visit and I was in shock and didn’t even know what questions I needed to ask. Any help or advice would be appreciated. I am currently looking into trying to see if I can find a specialist provider for diabetic felines near me in case the vet I am seeing on Saturday does not know how to properly answer the list of questions I have been writing out to go over with them at this visit.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I don’t know a lot about bexacat but I have heard it can lower the BG (blood glucose) so I think testing the BGs would be a very good idea. And testing for ketones in the urine is another good idea.
I would test the BGs before the food in the morning and again about 6 hours later.
Do you give the bexacat once or twice a day?
If you have not bought a glucose meter I would recommend you buy a human one. If you are in the US you can get a ReliOn meter for $9 from Walmart and 100 test strips for $17.88. You will also need a box of lancets to prick the ear. Get size 26 or 28.
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With the ketones I would test a couple of times a week using Ketostix

 

[Hendrick Cuddleclaw]

Welcome to the group! This Bexacat stuff is very interesting and we're seeing it more and more lately. I hope it works well for you!

I have to agree with Bron, even if you're not giving insulin getting the hang of home testing is a good idea. Then if you ever DO have to give insulin, you're way ahead of the game. And even though you're not giving insulin, with the home testing you at least can start to have an idea what is going on in that little feline body, whether the Bexacat is lowering the BGs or not.