So many questions and so much information has me lost! Looking for general help.

[Casper's Mom 341]

My 15 year old (give or take since he was a rescue) has been diagnosed a diabetic about 4 months ago now. He was a good weight for most of his life until recent years. He is now over weight by about 2 lb. We are working on that. Casper and other pets in the house hold have always been on some type of Science Diet, changing over the years with age. After the diabetes diagnosis he was started with 1 unit of insulin 2x's a day after several curves at the vets office then me learning to do my own at home we have gone to 4.5 units and are now back down to 1 unit 2x's a day. I contribute this to a better diet and close monitoring of his glucose levels at home. I have been researching for months on insulin, food at home testing, etc. I don't feel as much of a newbie as I once did but I am still concerned about several things I would love some feedback:
1) Proper food choice. He is on Hill's Urinary/ Metabolic. The reason is that my other cat had a stone removed this year and this was thought by my Vet to be a good choice since both can eat this food. Which they do not but that is another story. This food is the second try with Hill's m/d being the first. My cat, who loves all food, wanted nothing to do with this! I want the best food possible that doesn't break the bank. Is there such a thing? At $40 a bag (not to mention another RX for another cat and dog in the family) I am going quickly broke purchasing Hill's Urinary/Metabolic.
2) Taking BG levels at home and when? - I started with the blood curves once a week at the Vet's office. After 6 weeks in a row of this I decided to look into doing this on my own and mentioned to the Vet I would like to learn. I have since been doing curves at home. I report the results to the Vet and she gives me a plan and time to do the next curve. Is doing a curve once or twice a week enough? Should blood be take prior to each meal for proper dosage? According to my Vet that isn't necessary. During one curve Casper was at optimal levels and we would have been in trouble if I would have dosed him with insulin that night with dinner which is where my thought process is on checking blood more often
2) Kind of insulin - When I do a blood curve at home Casper is in the mid to high 200's before breakfast going down to about 80's hours after insulin then slowing coming back up to the 200's before dinner. Is there an insulin that can be more consistent with keeping levels more even (he is on Humulin)? What about oral insulin since he is on such a small dose?
I would appreciate any suggestions on any of these questions. Thank you in advance!

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

1) Proper food choice. He is on Hill's Urinary/ Metabolic. The reason is that my other cat had a stone removed this year and this was thought by my Vet to be a good choice since both can eat this food. Which they do not but that is another story. This food is the second try with Hill's m/d being the first. My cat, who loves all food, wanted nothing to do with this! I want the best food possible that doesn't break the bank. Is there such a thing? At $40 a bag (not to mention another RX for another cat and dog in the family) I am going quickly broke purchasing Hill's Urinary/Metabolic.
2) Taking BG levels at home and when? - I started with the blood curves once a week at the Vet's office. After 6 weeks in a row of this I decided to look into doing this on my own and mentioned to the Vet I would like to learn. I have since been doing curves at home. I report the results to the Vet and she gives me a plan and time to do the next curve. Is doing a curve once or twice a week enough? Should blood be take prior to each meal for proper dosage? According to my Vet that isn't necessary. During one curve Casper was at optimal levels and we would have been in trouble if I would have dosed him with insulin that night with dinner which is where my thought process is on checking blood more often
2) Kind of insulin - When I do a blood curve at home Casper is in the mid to high 200's before breakfast going down to about 80's hours after insulin then slowing coming back up to the 200's before dinner. Is there an insulin that can be more consistent with keeping levels more even (he is on Humulin)? What about oral insulin since he is on such a small dose?
I would appreciate any suggestions on any of these questions. Thank you in advance!

Hi Casper's Mom. Welcome! You have learned so much already and are doing the most important thing of all - hometesting. We urge you to test/feed/shoot. You want a test not influenced by food (which can raise levels) on which to base your dose. They can often have a much lower number than usual, and you don't want to shoot blindly. With Humulin, you definitely want food on board before insulin, because - as you have seen - it often hits early in the cycle and drops the levels low. With Humulin, it'd be important to see his patterns with a curve: how fast and far does he drop? When is he at his lowest point? When is he back in the higher ranges - how long did the insulin last?

Often Humulin drops the levels early in the cycle - 2/3/4 hours after the shot. And it may be a harsh drop : more than 50% in the first few hours. Usually it does not last 12 hours. We recommend milder, longer lasting insulin like Lantus, Levemir and ProZinc. I think he is at a nice dose and now would be the time to switch to a gentler insulin that you can control better. We have not seen success with oral meds. My understanding is that they tax the pancreas instead of letting it rest like insulin.

Check out this website by a vet for urinary issues. She has great suggestions and is a big advocate of wet, low carb food..BUT IF YOU SWITCH FOODS, BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT MONITORING. Low carb food can drop their levels by 100+ poiNts.

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

 

[Squeaky and KT (GA)]

Hi Casper's Mom! Welcome!

Proper food choice. He is on Hill's Urinary/ Metabolic. The reason is that my other cat had a stone removed this year and this was thought by my Vet to be a good choice since both can eat this food. Which they do not but that is another story. This food is the second try with Hill's m/d being the first

I'm not sure what the carb percentage is for the urinary/metabolic (I'm assuming wet) is but the m/d is 25% - a diabetic needs to stay under 10% so it would have just added to the glucose numbers. There's a great carb count chart at catinfo.org that Sue posted above. The Hill's vet prescription food is down toward the very bottom (pg 31?). There's nothing special about those diets other than the EXCELLENT salesmen that the company employs and their sales methods. Many of us feed Fancy Feast Classics or Friskies pates (no gravy foods-that's just carbs) - MUCH easier on the pocketbook! Vet won't like it but...oh well.....

Taking BG levels at home and when?

Just like a human diabetic, testing should ALWAYS be done before giving insulin each time to be sure it's safe. Curves and tests at a vet's office isn't overly reliable as stress raises bg and most cats are stressed just going to the vet....can be as much as 100-150 points. You also need to find the lowest point of that cycle (nadir) thus testing during each 12 hour cycle is also needed. You also want to catch any extremely low numbers that might occur to keep Casper safe.

You don't need a curve done at the vet - you can do it at home MUCH cheaper and know you're getting good numbers versus stress related raises.

Kind of insulin

Sue answered this one too...

We change doses for our kitties by .25 units so 1 unit still has 4 parts left to reduce. The oral meds work very differently and cause much more harm than ever good.

Poke around thru the articles and info on the site and holler when you run into more questions!! We LOVE questions!

HUGS!

 

[Casper's Mom 341]

Thank you for your helpful responses!
I am doing at home curves already so I familiar with how to properly take the blood. (Boy, this is stuff I never thought I would do or even be capable of! For the love of our pets I am so proud of how much I have learned to properly care for this aliment!) I will start to test prior to shooting going forward. I will have to figure out the dosing per reading and check further into the many different kinds of food.

 

[jane and stewey]

Regarding the stone...ask your vet if taking the med Ammonil would be of use? Dry food is very high in carbohydrates and makes the task of maintaining a stable blood sugar all the more difficult. I do home blood sugar monitoring and is easy to do. Just takes a little time to build up your confidence and to get the cat use to the routine of testing. Novulin was the first insulin we tried and she did not do well on that particular choice. After switching to lantus, she has done much better. Point is, all of our babies are quite unique...one size does not fit all. Most of what we do in the beginning is more or less trial and error. Good luck from Jane and Stewey

 

[nora]

You should be very proud of what you have learned and what you are able to do for your wonderful cat!! Love is a great motivator for things we never thought we could handle.