Question:
Some of you may remember the diabetic cat I was looking after last month. The owner had been out of town and left him with, well, let's just say an extremely irresponsible person. I found him with no food or water in filth, horriby skinny and dehydtrated and unable to walk. Took him in to the vet and discovered, on top of it all, he was diabetic and FIV+. Try breaking that to the owner half way around the world!
Anyway, he's done beautifully! Put on weight and is walking almost normally. He was put on Science Diet m/d (what a purprise!) and was on 2 units of insulin 2x a day but his glucose levels were still way high. When the owner got back we had a discussion about the food and he decided to switch Watson over to Wellness. Within 2 weeks on his new food his glucose levels are normal and he's down to 1 unit 2x a day. Coincidence? My bet is the vet would say so. The owner still hasn't told him that he's changed the food cause he's afraid he'll get a lecture. But if things continue well he will. The vet is hopeful that he may not need insulin at all in time. Fingers crossed!
Just thought some of you would be interested.
Answer:
That's excellent, nanook. I'm glad the cat is doing so well.
Answer:
Hurray for the happy ending I'm glad to hear that he's doing well!!
Owned by Pepper and Pumpkin RIP Snickers 8/22/00 -- 11/28/06
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/

Answer:
That's good!
Just one word of warning. A cat that is testing normal at the vet is not necessarily a good thing.
Many diabetic owners are starting to test their cats at home. My cat for example, can read 100pts+ higher at the vet than at home. That's a huge difference. It's referred to as vet stress and it's very well documented.
When my cat was first diagnosed, she was on insulin for 3 months before I decided to start testing her at home. I was giving her 3 units twice a day. When I first started testing her, I didn't believe my meter because she was never reading over 150. At the vet she was reading close to 300. Luckily I had to leave town for an emergency and unfortunately (or fortunately!) NO ONE besides me can give her insulin. I came back from the trip expecting to find her sugars really high after a week without insulin. To my surprise she was still at about 100. It was 3 years before she needed insulin again. Had I continued to give her insulin blindly I would have killed her eventually. Luckily for her, when blood sugar dips too low the bodies natural defense mechanism is to release glucagon into the blood which in turn has the liver release stored glucose which increases the blood sugar. This will eventually bottom out when the stored glucose is all used up and can lead to hypo. This is a pretty basic discription. It's referred to as Somogyi's rebound.
Long story short, I highly recommend testing at home. Especially when changing to a food that has been known to get some cats off of insulin. Korbel has been diabetic for almost 7 yrs (in April!) now, and I most likely would have lost her 6yrs ago if I didn't test at home.
Jennifer and the monsters
They say...
it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a Day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
Answer:
Thanks Jennifer. That's really good info and I will pass it on to the owner. I keep saying (and the owner agrees) that he does much better on less insulin. I asked the vet, whenI first brought him in, about home testing and he said it was very expensive ($500 for the kit??). Does that sound right to you? Where did you get yours?
Answer:

You can use a human glucometer on cats. So you can get them at any pharmacy.
My old vet had me check my glucometer against the "animal" glucometer that they have (that would be the $500 one) and they had the same readings. My new vet is very pro-testing. It's sort of a new thing, so like diet, it takes some vets a while to get on board.
They can run as little as $20 for the walgreens brand to $50 for brands like accucheck.
The strips can get a little pricey over time, I test Korbel 2 times a day (shot time) and occasionally mid-day. The walgreens strips are about $30 for 50 strips. The bigger brands are more like $50 for 50 strips.
You can get everything cheaper (strips are $20 & $35 instead of $30 & $50) if your willing to wait for delivery and go through www.hocks.com usually it takes a week to get the stuff, so not too bad of a wait it's just that I'm a procrastinator and I usually only have 1 strip left when I decide to get more! They are also cheaper per strip if you buy in bulk.
Jennifer and the monsters
They say...
it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a Day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
Answer:
If he ends up wanting to go this route, here's a link to free meter deals at hocks.
As far as strips go, you want ones that "suck" up the blood, not ones that you need to drop the blood onto.
The True Track system is the walgreens brand.
I have both the walgreens brand and the accucheck. They are both good, walgreens is cheaper.
Obviously you need to match the meter with the strips.
Almost any meter will do fine. Some people have reported problems with the freestyle, I think they have a tendency to run high, but I'm not sure.
http://hocks.com/hocks_com_on_line_pharmacy/freemeter.html
Jennifer and the monsters
They say...
it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a Day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
Answer:
Thanks Jennifer.
That's not expensive!! What WAS the vet talking about?!
I know this is probably a really stupid question, but not having dealt with this before...where do you test? On the ear?
Answer:
yep, the ear.
A few tricks I've picked up over the years.
The first time you try it use a flashlight to see the veins so you know what you're aiming at. It helps to have 2 people, but I got pretty good at holding a small penlight in my mouth Once you know where you're aiming, you won't need this, but it helps in the beginning
Also, in the beginning use a sock full of uncooked white rice. Throw it in the microwave for about 30 sec (warm NOT hot) and use the sock to warm up the ear, it'll get the blood going faster. You won't need to do this once you get the hang of it, but it makes a world of difference when you first try it.
Also, applying a thin layer of neosporin or vasoline will help the blood drop bead up more. Again, you won't need to do this once you get the hang of it. Be carefull though and don't add too much or the blood gets mixed in with all the goo, just a very very thin coating.
Even after 7 years, I can only successfully get blood on a regular basis from Korbel's right ear, not her left. So, if you (he) have problems, try the other ear.
Here's a link that shows how to do it.
http://www.sugarcats.net/sites/harry/earprick.html
In the link, they use a washcloth instead of the rice, I like the rice sock better.
I don't bother with cotton or anything on the other side of the ear, I just use my finger, I haven't pricked myself yet!
My method is quite simple.
Get the meter ready with the test strip in it and the lancet locked and loaded!
I grab Korbel (she likes this, she knows food is coming soon!).
I use my forefinger and thumb to massage upward on the ear (like you're milking it)
Then, using the lancet device (some people find it easier to free-hand the poke, I don't) I poke the ear.
Then, milk out the drop of blood
Sip it up on the strip and put the meter aside somewhere to finish reading.
Do NOT let go of the ear, the cat will fling its ear and get blood everywhere! I made that mistake the first time with Korbel and it looked like a crimescene. It's not even that much blood, but it goes everywhere.
Apply gentle pressure to stop the bleeding. This is important because it also helps prevent bruising.
Jennifer and the monsters
They say...
it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a Day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
Answer:
oh and for anything you've ever wanted to know about the tricks and trades of the world of diabetic cats.
www.felinediabetes.com
There's a link on the site for the best message board I know of for diabetes.
Jennifer and the monsters
They say...
it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a Day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them.
Answer:
Thank you SO much! The devil is always in the details and those are great tips!
I will pass it all along to him (he gets back tonight) with the links and I really hope he does it. As I said, my gut feeling is he needs to be on less insulin than the vet tests are showing.
Thanks again!