Urine Testing (diabetes)

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

Dina B

Member Since 2020
Hi, I am new to the site. My cat Oliver was recently diagnosed w feline diabetes. And while the insulin shots are challenging enough, I am having the worst time being able to test his urine, which I am supposed to do daily. He is Very fussy about his littterbox, so the slightest change has had him holding it in and I don't want him to go elsewhere or giving himself a UTI. Anyway, I have recently been using a liner (never did before) and am just putting a small amount of litter in but lo and behold he manages to cover the urine w the small amount of litter (and if I put less in, he won't go.) My question (finally:) is does anyone know if the glucose sticks give an accurate reading through litter, my vet isn't thrilled w the idea, and does anyone have any suggestions for us? Losing my mind. Thank you!
 
Dina B said:
Hi, I am new to the site. My cat Oliver was recently diagnosed w feline diabetes. And while the insulin shots are challenging enough, I am having the worst time being able to test his urine, which I am supposed to do daily. He is Very fussy about his littterbox, so the slightest change has had him holding it in and I don't want him to go elsewhere or giving himself a UTI. Anyway, I have recently been using a liner (never did before) and am just putting a small amount of litter in but lo and behold he manages to cover the urine w the small amount of litter (and if I put less in, he won't go.) My question (finally:) is does anyone know if the glucose sticks give an accurate reading through litter, my vet isn't thrilled w the idea, and does anyone have any suggestions for us? Losing my mind. Thank you!
Click to expand...
. Welcome! Sorry about the diagnosis, but you've come to the right place!!!
Blood readings are far more accurate. The urine strips only tell you if he's over the Renal threshold recently, not what the number is at the moment.... So it won't help you to know if he's too low (hypoglycemia) which is far more dangerous. Please pick up a blood meter. I have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC at home.
 
Hi and welcome!!

Sorry to hear about the diagnose and even though right now it may seem a lot and very complicated, it does get easier with time and practice.

Please let us know a bit more about Oliver, what insulin is he on?, what dose are you giving?,how old is he? what is he eating? does he have other health issues?

Regarding the readings you get from the glucose sticks if you take them from litter, there are some litters that would work ok (special ones designed to help you colect the sample form example) others not so much, but as Janet mentioned before the glucose sticks are actually a helpful tool to check for ketones which you should do dayly specially if he's still seeing high glucose numbers, but it really does not work for glucose control, all that those will give you is a vage idea that he has been over the renal threshhold (renal threshold is the limit where the kindney can not process the amout of glucose in the blood and it starts kind of leacking to the pee and it is usually some number around 200) for some time during the last hours, but not really how high or how low he really was during that time or how he really is now for you to really monitor him and more importantly keep him safe when shooting insulin you need to use a blood meter and you will need to check him at least before giving insulin and probably at some other times.

There are some tricks that you can try to colect the urine sample, some use a large spoon that you place under him, I actually put the strick under him ( because he allows me to do it ) while he's peeing
 
Thank you so much both of you. I wish I could stick the stick under him but that is impossible (he is particular in there.) The sticks show ketones and are prescribed by his vet. I’m giving him the lowest amount of insulin twice a day and he is eating fine (he’d like to be eating more but is on a diet. It’s been “fun” around here lol.) He is 11 years old and so handsome. The vet says he doesn’t look diabetic (but is.) Our goal is to get him off insulin eventually but I need to test the urine daily and it has been challenging. The vet will test his blood weekly. Thank you so much for your replies. I am going to try Kit4Kat litter where the urine floats but it is 15 dollars for a tiny bag so here we go.... thank you again.
 
Dina B said:
Thank you so much both of you. I wish I could stick the stick under him but that is impossible (he is particular in there.) The sticks show ketones and are prescribed by his vet. I’m giving him the lowest amount of insulin twice a day and he is eating fine (he’d like to be eating more but is on a diet. It’s been “fun” around here lol.) He is 11 years old and so handsome. The vet says he doesn’t look diabetic (but is.) Our goal is to get him off insulin eventually but I need to test the urine daily and it has been challenging. The vet will test his blood weekly. Thank you so much for your replies. I am going to try Kit4Kat litter where the urine floats but it is 15 dollars for a tiny bag so here we go.... thank you again.
Click to expand...
There are also blood meters that read ketones. I use that because my cat is also litter shy. Muuuuch easier. If remission is the goal you are going to want to do daily testing. Most of us test 3-4 times a day.
 
Dina B said:
I’m giving him the lowest amount of insulin twice a day
Click to expand...
How much is the lowest? and what insulin are you giving him?

Dina B said:
The vet will test his blood weekly
Click to expand...
As Janet mentioned if you really are aiming towards remission you will need to test a lot

And since insulin is not a medicine but a hormone, his needs could change from one day to another, even from morning to night, it is not only not very effective to measure blood glucose once a week it could potentially be very dangerous, if for some reason his blood glucose is low and you give him insulin he could go hypoglicemic ( very low in his blood glucose levels) and it is seriously dangerous it can potentially kill so always checking his blood glucose levels before giving insulin is very very important and you could actually measure ketones as well and you will not need to test his urine
 
Last edited:
Hi Dina,

I've seen reports from some members who use the Tidycat Breeze litter box system. I've not used it myself but IIRC the box and the special litter that goes with it allow the urine to drain straight through into a collection tray beneath. Normally one would put a pee pad in the collection tray to soak up the urine, but to collect a pee sample you could leave the pee pad out until you get a sample to test.


Mogs
.
 
Critter Mom said:
Hi Dina,

I've seen reports from some members who use the Tidycat Breeze litter box system. I've not used it myself but IIRC the box and the special litter that goes with it allow the urine to drain straight through into a collection tray beneath. Normally one would put a pee pad in the collection tray to soak up the urine, but to collect a pee sample you could leave the pee pad out until you get a sample to test.


Mogs
.
Click to expand...
I use a similar system called the Smart Cat Box but if I had to do it all over again I would have used the Tidy Cat Breeze box, as I am using the Zeolite pellets for the Breeze in the Smart Cat Box. The pee goes through the litter, then through slats in the litter tray into another tray where the pee is collected. Makes it very easy to test. My vet also wanted me to test for glucose and ketones using Ketodiastix (my Ruby had DKA) in lieu of blood tests. I prick her for blood now but I still tested her pee daily for ketones when she was in high numbers--now I only do it periodically. You really should consider blood testing for all of the reasons @Veronica & Babu-chiri stated, but also because taking your cat to the vet is stressful for him and will potentially artificially elevate his glucose levels. Home testing would lead to the most accurate results. This board is fully of members (like me!) who never thought they would ever be able to home test, but once you get the hang of it you'll wonder why you never considered it before.
 
Hey Dina. I also used glucose urine strips on my cat, Dixie, because it happened to include that test on the ketone strips I bought. If you check out my spreadsheet (link in my signature), you can see a column on the right that shows all of Dixie's glucose urine readings (which show the amount in mmol/L and also the time I took the reading). Then you can compare that to Dixie's blood glucose (BG) tests for that day and see how the BG tests conveyed waaay more information than just testing the urine. The glucose in her pee would range from 0 mmol/L all the way up to the maximum reading of over 111 mmol/L.

I asked my vet about this and if it was a useful reading or not, and they said all that all it did was show how much glucose was in their urine since they last peed... so it isn't that useful.

The only thing that I liked about the glucose urine strips is that I could see Dixie go from a positive reading for several months all the way down to a negative reading of 0! That means that her sugar levels are low enough that it doesn't spill over into her pee :)
 
FarmKitty said:
Hey Dina. I also used glucose urine strips on my cat, Dixie, because it happened to include that test on the ketone strips I bought. If you check out my spreadsheet (link in my signature), you can see a column on the right that shows all of Dixie's glucose urine readings (which show the amount in mmol/L and also the time I took the reading). Then you can compare that to Dixie's blood glucose (BG) tests for that day and see how the BG tests conveyed waaay more information than just testing the urine. The glucose in her pee would range from 0 mmol/L all the way up to the maximum reading of over 111 mmol/L.

I asked my vet about this and if it was a useful reading or not, and they said all that all it did was show how much glucose was in their urine since they last peed... so it isn't that useful.

The only thing that I liked about the glucose urine strips is that I could see Dixie go from a positive reading for several months all the way down to a negative reading of 0! That means that her sugar levels are low enough that it doesn't spill over into her pee :)
Click to expand...
 
Thank you Farm Kitty. This helps as well (and congrats on the 0 glucose. That is my goal. I will speak to my vet tomorrow as I am unable to take his blood personally. (Still working on getting the urine as whatever small amount of litter I put in, he covers it completely. If I don’t put the kind he likes (FreshStep, Ever Clear or Johnny Cat (non clumping these days,) he will hold it in. I appreciate everyone’s help and will report back next week.
 
When I was trying to test Dixie for ketones, I thought that the spoon-under-the-butt method wouldn't work so I tried various methods to collect her pee. I experimented with putting Saran wrap (plastic wrap for food) over top half of the litter box and I think I got some successful readings that way. I did mess up a lot of the sticks though because I would wipe it on the saran wrap covered in clay litter and pee, and then the stick would get dark (which I'm pretty sure was from the litter).

I bought the Nova Max Plus glucometer + ketone checker all-in-one to test Dixie's blood for ketones. The strips are pretty pricey though... $20 CAD for 10 strips :nailbiting:. I ended up switching to a different glucometer because the Nova Max Plus had expensive blood glucose strips, but it was nice to have a backup for a while.

I eventually tried the spoon method and Dixie didn't actually care about it, so I got pretty lucky that way. I have heard of people training their cats to adapt to the spoon method by bringing a plastic spoon close to them while they are in the litter box and then rewarding with treats. Keep doing it until you can keep the spoon there close and long enough to collect a sample.

If that doesn't seem feasible, then there are those fancier litter boxes that collect pee that others have mentioned in this thread (Smart Cat Box, Tidy Cat Breeze Box, etc).
 
With the saran wrap method, try it a few ways. You can put a piece of saran wrap in the box, let Oliver pee on it (hopefully) and then when he kicks it it might bunch up and have some pee droplets that aren't affected by the litter.

If that doesn't work, try wrapping the saran wrap around the sides of the box as well and see if that helps keep the pee in place.

When you do this, only cover around half of the box or less. Maybe Oliver would use it then? If the original litter is still exposed for him to touch?

I wish you luck!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top