Total newbie: can I trust my meter?

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Matt & Marley

Matt & Marley

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Our family cat (Marley, Female 7years) went to the vet Wednesday pretty sick, diagnosed with ketoacidosis and UTI. We brought her home Friday with instructions to give 1 unit vetsulin 2x per day and follow up in 7 days. Saturday morning she seemed a little less active than when we brought her home, and having been drilled by the vet to watch out for hypo, I was a little concerned...so i ran over to WalMart and got the ReliOn Confirm meter and some strips. Tested myself at 120mg/dl then started testing the cat. I'm getting numbers in 500s and 400s for her, but she seems to be feeling a bit better. Looking at the info on this site, I decided to test her every 2 hrs from when we got the meter and produced the following curve (so far):
Note: feeding times are squares, skipped a couple of x'd readings


Based on the high numbers I was getting Saturday, I upped her vetsulin dose to 1.5 units this morning (our vet isn't open 'til Monday, but I felt this would be better than continuing at 1 unit). So far today's curve is a bit better, but still quite high.

At this point I'm not sure whether I should trust the meter readings, and increase the dose to 2 units, or not. Any thoughts would be helpful.

marley.png
 
The meter is likely accurate. See my signature link Glucometer Notes.
And good job on testing her! A lot of folks find that difficult.

Just a thought - what are you feeding her?
 
We've been feeding 4 Friskies Special Diet varieties : Beef & Chicken Entree, Ocean Whitefish Dinner, Salmon, and Turkey and Giblets Dinner. They're all pate style..and supposedly fairly low in carbs.
 
Looking at Pierson's List:
Special Beef & Chicken Entree 35 60 5 242 45 32 6 1.1 181
Turkey & Giblets Dinner 37 58 5 189 45 30 6 0.8 166
Whitefsh Dinner 37 59 4 351 45 30 5 1.5 172
With Salmon 38 55 7 228 45 27 8 1.0 149

Per Vet, Marley's ideal weight is around 12 lbs (which she is), she's been getting 2 cans/day
 
Some of the fluctuation could be the calorie counts. In a small animal like a cat, 30 calories or so, can be a lot.
 
Hi Matt (and extra-sweet Marley),
Welcome to FDMB :bighug:

Top job on the testing! :D
Those numbers may continue to come down a bit once the UTI resolves.

Are you testing Marley's pee for ketones, Matt?
You can do this with Ketodiastix (or similar) test strips, available from most pharmacies.
Here's a link to a page of pics and info about how to use Ketodiastix, and also tips on how to catch a pee sample..:rolleyes:
http://www.sugarpet.net/urine.html

Best wishes,

Eliz
 
I did a ketone test yesterday evening, and got 'trace'. When she was hospitalized last week they were in the HIGH range both Weds & Thursday, and had come down (but not vanished) when she came home Friday. I will be checking again this evening to make sure they are not any worse. Certainly don't want her getting back to where she was last week.

I did try a bit higher (2 unit) dose of the vestulin this morning, but readings were still very high today (low 400s around nadir). Here's our full history so far...
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She's nowhere near too low and the nadirs, or lowest levels are well above 300 mg/dL. I would kick it up another 0.5 units.

Also, be sure to push the fluids - add some to the canned food, almost to point of being like a thick soup. This will help flush out any ketones.

I found our Vetsulin/Caninsulin Primer for you, too.
 
Update...
I heard back from our vet about the results we have had so far, and she wants us to stay at 2 units for 2 weeks.. she thinks Marley will show continued improvement without increasing the dose. I don't know if that's reasonable to expect, but I guess we'll go with the doc and stay at 2 units for at least a few days and see how things go.

I guess since we're not adjusting, we'll just test her pre-shot and at +4 for a couple of days. Her poor ears are well pricked at this point.
 
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