Does anyone else have a cat with diabetes? I want to get a blood glucose monitoring kit, and I'm wondering if anyone has advice about getting the best price on one. I see deals all the time for human ones, but my vet tells me that those are calibrated differently than the ones for pets. The one I found online is $200 for the monitor and related supplies.

Any suggestions? Any advice on caring for a diabetic cat?

I had a diabetic cat. He has since passed on....old age. He was not on any meds. for this, we just had him on a special veterinary food.

Is your cat on medicine for it or are you just trying to monitor it with his/her food???

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

My cat is on insulin. His blood sugar is very high without it.

Is he also on a special food??? Was he just Dx as diabetic? Overweight??? My kitty had many health problems.....diabetes was the last one he got. He wasn't over weight, just got diabetes. My vet told me that stress will also raise the sugar level.

Good Luck with your kitty.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Yes, he's supposed to be on special food too, but he won't eat it. He was diagnosed pretty recently. He isn't overweight. He was a good weight and then rapidly started losing weight. I took him to the vet and they determined he was diabetic. For right now, on the vets advice, he's just eating chicken that I cook for him. The vet wants him to eat *something*. Once he's feeling better, we'll put him back on the special food.

Thanks for the good luck wishes.

I have an 12 year old female cat that has diabetes and is on insulin. She was diagnosed about a year and a half ago.
She is pretty much regulated now but when she was first diagnosed I had to take her into the vet every two weeks to have a glucose test. We had discussed at the time getting a test kit for cats but since she seems pretty stable we just take her in every 3 months to make sure she is still on track. My vet had not had much luck with owners being able to get good results with the test kits. Maybe you vet has different info.
I am fortunate that my vet doesn't charge for a full office visit to do the tests. I just take her in and the techs at the desk take her back and do the test. The vet calls later with the results and if meds should change.
She does eat the Purina DM food and is fed about 1/4 cup twice a day.

Sometimes things can throw her off track like an upset stomach due to a furball but after she hucks it up she's fine.

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Glad you're kitty is regulated and sounds like she's doing well.

Mine was just diagnosed and he seems miserable. He's 16. The vet thought it might be helpful to have the monitor so I could call in the results now and then. She still plans to test him on a regular basis.

When mine was first diagnosed it was not a fun time. This is a cat that lives on it's stomach. DIET was not in her vocabulary. I mean this cat would literally sit beside the table at dinnertime and beg like a dog. Cutting back on food for her was really hard on both of us. She wanted to be fed and I wanted to give her something just to shut her up. But we toughed it out and now she is doing good.
The first couple months were the worst. Now that we have our routine it's much easier.

Good luck to you and your puddy tat

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Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Thanks. He looks like he feels so lousy, it breaks my heart.