Hi everyone,
Thank you so much for all your information! It's been a crazy weekend!
I went to Walmart and bought a glucometer - ReliOn Prime, and spent a lot of the time I was home over the weekend wasting testing strips, but am now able to get it in one poke, with one strip (YAY)! I wish I had bought the next one up because it said it uses a smaller drop of blood. It seems like I spent a lot of the weekend looking at E13, the 'Not enough blood' error.
Since I'm home today, I thought I'd do a full 12 hour curve (the poor boy has to think he's a pincushion). Unfortunately, his numbers are still really high, before breakfast this morning was 392, after 2 units of insulin, it only went down to 375, and is now back up as of 2:15 to 434.
He's supposed to go to the vet on Thursday for an official curve, but I'm going to call tomorrow & see about sending my data and potentially avoiding that. I also think I'm going to up the insulin to 3 units as he's clearly not getting enough.
We now have a routine in the upstairs bathroom where he can lay down on the lid and I can lock out the other cats. They see the fish flakes - his favorite no carb treat - and go nuts!
I'm not entirely sure he's getting the full 2 units. When I give the injection, there's always a small drop of insulin left on the needle, and since 2 units is such a small amount, if any is wasted, I'm not sure he's getting enough. Any thoughts?
I'm glad to see I can potentially use the Lantus to its end if refrigerated, although I'm not sure I'll be able to manage a syringe. I'm visually impaired and don't know if I'll be able to see the markings on it. Maybe I'll ask the vet for a few if they'll give me them, and give it a try. They probably won't, but asking doesn't hurt I guess.
He absolutely hates the w/d wet food, but eats the kibbles happily. I'm going to call Chewy and see about returning the cans and trying something else. When I tried to give him his shot while he was eating, he immediately stopped eating and ran away, so unfortunately that won't work. I think we're going to make the trip to the upstairs bathroom the 'shot spot' and will bring him up to do that. Since I've been testing him around meals anyway, that's been working out just fine. It doesn't sound like the w/d is the right food anyway.
How much food is the right amount? The guide on the Hill's Science Diet seems awfully high! It says for a 12lb cat, he should eat 2 1/4 cans all by himself, or 1 1/8 cups of kibble, and those are 5.5 oz cans, not the 3.5 they're used do. Our guys have been splitting a Fancy Feast can four ways twice a day, then going through about 2 1/2 cups of kibble during the day. Yesterday and today I put about 1/4 cup of dry and a tbsp of wet in his dish at mealtime and he'd eat about half of the kibble and take a couple licks of the wet. I know he goes back a few times throughout the day to the kibbles. I figured that since he's not eating so much at mealtime, that as long as there's never a huge amount in the kibble bowl that he's not going to gorge himself. Am I being too obsessive?
He's being an amazingly cooperative boy and I'm feeling VERY lucky for that!
Thanks for all your information!
Stacey
Thank you so much for all your information! It's been a crazy weekend!
I went to Walmart and bought a glucometer - ReliOn Prime, and spent a lot of the time I was home over the weekend wasting testing strips, but am now able to get it in one poke, with one strip (YAY)! I wish I had bought the next one up because it said it uses a smaller drop of blood. It seems like I spent a lot of the weekend looking at E13, the 'Not enough blood' error.
Since I'm home today, I thought I'd do a full 12 hour curve (the poor boy has to think he's a pincushion). Unfortunately, his numbers are still really high, before breakfast this morning was 392, after 2 units of insulin, it only went down to 375, and is now back up as of 2:15 to 434.
He's supposed to go to the vet on Thursday for an official curve, but I'm going to call tomorrow & see about sending my data and potentially avoiding that. I also think I'm going to up the insulin to 3 units as he's clearly not getting enough.
We now have a routine in the upstairs bathroom where he can lay down on the lid and I can lock out the other cats. They see the fish flakes - his favorite no carb treat - and go nuts!
I'm not entirely sure he's getting the full 2 units. When I give the injection, there's always a small drop of insulin left on the needle, and since 2 units is such a small amount, if any is wasted, I'm not sure he's getting enough. Any thoughts?
I'm glad to see I can potentially use the Lantus to its end if refrigerated, although I'm not sure I'll be able to manage a syringe. I'm visually impaired and don't know if I'll be able to see the markings on it. Maybe I'll ask the vet for a few if they'll give me them, and give it a try. They probably won't, but asking doesn't hurt I guess.
He absolutely hates the w/d wet food, but eats the kibbles happily. I'm going to call Chewy and see about returning the cans and trying something else. When I tried to give him his shot while he was eating, he immediately stopped eating and ran away, so unfortunately that won't work. I think we're going to make the trip to the upstairs bathroom the 'shot spot' and will bring him up to do that. Since I've been testing him around meals anyway, that's been working out just fine. It doesn't sound like the w/d is the right food anyway.
How much food is the right amount? The guide on the Hill's Science Diet seems awfully high! It says for a 12lb cat, he should eat 2 1/4 cans all by himself, or 1 1/8 cups of kibble, and those are 5.5 oz cans, not the 3.5 they're used do. Our guys have been splitting a Fancy Feast can four ways twice a day, then going through about 2 1/2 cups of kibble during the day. Yesterday and today I put about 1/4 cup of dry and a tbsp of wet in his dish at mealtime and he'd eat about half of the kibble and take a couple licks of the wet. I know he goes back a few times throughout the day to the kibbles. I figured that since he's not eating so much at mealtime, that as long as there's never a huge amount in the kibble bowl that he's not going to gorge himself. Am I being too obsessive?
He's being an amazingly cooperative boy and I'm feeling VERY lucky for that!
Thanks for all your information!
Stacey