To newbies from a newbie - Home Testing

[DaniCoz]

My Charlie was diagnosed about a month ago, and to say those first couple weeks were tough is an understatement! Between all the vets I saw at the animal hospital and my regular vet, nobody mentioned testing blood sugar levels at home. It wasn't until I came here that I saw that people were doing that. It made sense to me--human diabetics need to test, so why shouldn't cats?

I believe that home blood testing saved Charlie from getting very sick again, and may have even saved his life. I had been watching for signs of hypo of course, especially since it took a couple days between getting my meter and actually getting a test result. The day before I got my first result I happened to be back at the vet for Charlie's rabies shot. Charlie's BG was low, so she told me to give him his usual dose (2u) once a day and come back in 5 days. Instead, I gave him 1u the next morning when I couldn't get a reading. That was our last dose of insulin. For the last week I have been testing his blood daily (I'm still not always successful!) and he has had the levels of a non-diabetic cat!. If I hadn't been testing and just followed the vet's orders, I would have been giving Charlie insulin that he didn't need!

I know I'm new at this, and certainly no expert, but I feel that this is the most important thing that you can do for your cat. Please, please home test!! :smile:

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

nothing like the voice of experience - thanks for sharing your story! it isn't rare for someone to be able to get their cat off of insulin by changing over to low-carb canned foods. you're very lucky to be one of those people!!!

 

[Teresa and Poopy]

Fantastic information of how home testing can make all the difference in caring for a sugar kitty!

I too, if following the vet's advice without home testing, would have been giving Poopy more insulin than his body needed. Unfortunately, too much insulin can cause a hypo situation. If not with the kitty during hypo, and taking corrective action, it can kill quickly.

I know we want to do as the vet advises. That's natural! It's why we take our fuzzies to the vet in the first place, to help us care for our kitties. But also unfortunately, many vets do not have much experience with diabetes and can only share what they do know. Sometimes that's just not enough to keep our kitties safe.

Home testing is a must to know what is going on with our kitties.