Cats are like all other animals, they can develop diabetes. Diabetes doesn't have to mean the end of the cat's life, it just means that blood glucose levels will need to be closely monitored to be sure that the cat has neither too much nor too little insulin in its body at any one time. One way to monitor the health of your cat is to check its urine with urine strips, which will indicate the blood glucose levels.
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Urine Strips
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Veterinarians regularly use urine strips to help monitor the blood glucose levels in felines. These strips can be purchased from the vet in some instances, although they are routinely available at drug stores. There are not urine strips made especially for felines, so strips intended for human use are used. The strips are simply dipped into urine, and after a few seconds, will report the amount of glucose in the urine, usually by turning a specific color that can be matched to the bottle that will indicate what the color means.
These strips are able to measure the amount of glucose that is "spilled" into the urine from the body. The body rids itself of excess sugar by flushing it out through the urine, so this is a way to know what is going on in your cat's body, and will also help you to make adjustments to insulin.
Catching Urine
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Catching urine is imperative if you want to use urine strips to monitor blood glucose levels. Many cat owners are not sure how they are actually going to get enough urine to dunk the strip in, which is what allows for an accurate reading. The most effective way to catch the urine for testing is to place two or three layers of plastic wrap over the litter in the litter box that is usually used by the cat. The plastic wrap is pliable enough that the cat will still use the box, as they can feel the litter under their feet. When the cat exits the litter box there will be a pool of urine that you can easily dunk the strip in to complete the test.
When to Test Urine for Glucose
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You'll need to talk to your vet about when to test, as he may want you to test more or less often in the beginning. Generally, the recommended times are right before a morning meal and then right around the second meal of the day. You may also need to check again in the evening, depending on what insulin you use, to be sure that the cat doesn't have too much or too little insulin in its body as you go into the night time hours, when you are less likely to notice if the cat is in distress.
What Results Mean and Adjustments Needed
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When you use the urine strips you may find that you get trace results, negative results or positive results. Trace results usually do not require any action and positive results in the morning hours before the first meal generally don't require any action, initially. If you see positive results across the board, you should talk to your vet about increasing insulin, because this is usually a strong indication that your cat is not getting enough insulin; generally, the recommendation will be to increase by 10 percent. If you never see any trace or positive readings, your cat could be getting too much insulin, in which case the dose will need to be decreased by 10 percent. When you make an adjustment to insulin, you will need to wait 3 to 4 days to make any more changes, as the body will need time to adjust.
Problems with Urine Testing
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Urine testing is not without its flaws. The problem is that there is a gap between when the body has too much glucose and when it shows up in the urine. So, if the urine is indicating there is too much sugar, there may actually not be too much sugar in the blood anymore. Another problem with urine testing is that you have no way to know if your cat is hypoglycemic, which means there is too much insulin in their body, which can actually be fatal. For these reasons, urine testing should not be your only means of monitoring the blood glucose levels of your cat. Talk to your vet about blood glucose monitoring.
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