What was your fasting blood glucose? (full on chat)

gennepher

Master
Messages
13,238
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
For cat lovers on this thread I have a question that you may be able to answer. I have, over the years, consulted books and also the internet but it’s always good to try and get another angle on it. Is there really a way of keeping cats off my garden? Let me re-phrase; is there a pleasant way to keep cats off my garden.

For several years we have been defending our garden from a group of cats, all property of one human who lives a bit further down the street, on the other side of the road. A very unreasonable person who just thinks it’s quite amusing that her menagerie of mobile menaces use everyone else’s gardens as their toilets.

We have managed to make our back garden cat proof, at some expense and effort. It is now free of their disgusting gifts, safe for our grandchildren to play in and all the birds are back.

Our front garden however is a different matter. We have bark, collect pine cones and holly leaves from the park, shiny spinning things, spikes, stuff to spray on the ground and on, and, on, and on. Not really a garden of beauty more of a junk yard of paraphernalia that cats may or may not like.

I have nothing against cats, they are merely animals doing what animals of their irk do, but they do live in the UK under the protection of right to roam - I just seemingly have to battle away to deter. I blame lawyers, who, like economics professors and so called social scientist, fiddle away with society, chipping away at symmetry in their own little bubbles.

Anyhow, I digress. So just how do I keep a bunch of cats from continuing their nasty habits in our front garden. And please, don’t suggest getting a cat or even a dog - I would not let one into my house.

Like you, @dunelm I have made the back garden pretty much cat proof from stray cats. But my back garden does back on to some ancient woodland, and I have foxes and badgers etc that leave little messages. The messages are very distinctive to the animal...I have moles too.

I am unable to stop the foxes leaping from garage roofs.

But the badgers that burrow under the fence are a menace. There is a family of badgers that insist on their right of way. They are often in the front garden, which is dug up on a regular basis. But I draw the line to them digging near my bungalow walls, or under the wall from front to back garden. The badgers want my frogs for supper. The frogs are in my ponds in the back garden. So I asked around for advice. I was told chicken wire. I placed chicken wire near and beside my walls and fence. I even dug some chicken wire into the ground. The badgers then stopped digging their tunnels under my walls into the back garden. I found that cats don't like chicken wire either, they cannot dig their little messages in, they don't like the feel on their paws. But I was pleased how successful the chicken wire was stopping the badgers digging, and into the back garden. The badgers decimated my frog population one year. But I have a breeding pond they always return to each year, and so my frog population built up again.

Other ideas are black cat silhouettes, metal ones, that you stick on the edge of the lawn, you can get a set of 3 fairly cheaply. But you do need to move them around to keep a stray cat on its toes. I have a stone cat with glass eyes (but the eyes need replacing again). And stray cats are wary of that.

My cats in the past have been scared of large birds, like buzzards. We have birds of prey here including buzzards. Some idiot a few gardens away was enticing a buzzard into his back garden, so it would swoop in for the meat/kill, I assume he was using meat. So my cats in the past fled indoors if the buzzard was near. One small cat of mine wasn't quick enough, she was on my garage roof. I saw it and couldn't get out to save her. The buzzard got her. Popeye is still very very wary. So, you know you can get quite big plastic owls, that move their heads (and I am assuming make a noise as well), a person across the road has one. She is not an animal lover. And the owl moves its head. Cats don't go in her garden. They give it a big wide detour.

The Scaredy-cat plant I have used in the past in the front. I was hoping it might keep the foxes away. I think it did. But it wasn't hardy enough to stand the winter here, so they died.

I understand half full plastic bottles in the border might work. The light reflection is supposed to deter. It's an old game keeper's trick. It might work with strung CD's or other
shiny reflective stuff.

I have a neighbour who stands guard at her window and charges out with a powerful water gun....but I am sure cats return to annoy her.

I mentioned cat silhouettes before and a large owl. Well, you can get them with realistic glow eyes. It's the glow eyes that is important. This works for badgers too. Maybe, if you are partial to gnomes, maybe some with scary glowing eyes, possibly battery or solar powered.

I have had infra red sensor LED lights in the front, both battery charged and solar. A couple I had. Cats and badgers don't get used to them in the same way as a continuous light.

I have had a lot of problems with badgers and I don't want them making my garden their home...but what works for badgers works for cats....

>^..^<
 
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jay hay-char

Well-Known Member
Messages
3,682
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
View attachment 33937 I am completely knackered...

I had an appointment at the eye hospital today. Lots of travelling. Took all day. Clinic was very behind. The morning clinic had over run badly. I was afternoon clinic. But they promised they would see everyone no matter how badly it over ran into the evening...

It was far too hot in the eye hospital. Airless. Nurses and staff were trying to find fans, but they couldn’t. Some people got upset because of the waiting and heat. They didn’t make a fuss or anything, but some looked like they were going to peg out in the heat. And partners or friends were getting water and stuff....

I had to take extra inhalers because my breathing was hard to do in that airlessness. A guy in a wheelchair next to me kept saying he had been on dialysis since 5 this morning (I think he said), and he didn’t feel very well in this heat. He was on his own. I got a nurse to look at him. She was going to try and get him through it quicker, but there were so many really sick looking people there today. It was upsetting to me to see so many really sick people there in the eye clinic. It has never been like this before.

There were people in wheelchairs with leg amputations, foot amputations, toe amputations. This is a diabetic eye clinic as well. So I am assuming they were diabetics. The guy with all his toes amputated was chomping through packets of crisps and eating sandwiches bought in the hospital and drinking a diet drink. He wasn’t very communicative and looked a bit befuddled and mithered the nurses a bit, but they kept telling him he had to wait like everyone else. There was an elderly husband (I assume) tending to his sick wife. She was very frail. They looked like they had made their own way to the hospital. He was cradling her head. She wanted to leave.

I have been in that eye hospital on hot days before, but today was the worst. The nurses and staff were struggling badly themselves.

Anyway, the doctor came out to get me. Checked my eyes over. Did tests etc. My eyes are good. He is pleased with them. The laser procedure has worked well. Pressure in the eyes is normal. The surface of my eyes are dry and are rough and damaged a bit, despite me using plenty of eyedrops etc. So, he has given me a different eyedrop which is like putting Vaseline into my eyes. Not pleasant but has to be done.

So the laser procedure went well, and I see them again in a year’ time.

When I came out of the hospital there were quite a few patients in wheelchairs outside smoking. They are not allowed to smoke but they do. So I have to go through a fug of smoke which hurts my chest as I leave the hospital. They were all amputees. Either a foot, or below the knee, or above the knee. Were they all diabetics? I have never ever seen this many amputees at any one moment of time. It was scary.

I was totally exhausted when I got home. I just made a ginger and lemon tea and got into bed with a caterwauling cat because I had left him all day on his own...

So here are pics of a purring cat very glad to see me...
Here's one of our cats demonstrating his overwhelming joy at my return home
IMG_20190531_151241524.jpeg
 

pavlosn

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,705
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
6.6 this morning after going to bed at 5 5 last night.

Giving blood for analysis this morning and feeling quite stressed about it. Not about the giving of blood, though I am not terribly keen on needles, I always look away when they are taking blood, but about the results.

Not having A1C test yet as it has only been a month since the last one.

Rather the doctor is testing to see if there has been any improvement over the last month on other aspects of my blood works.

Regards

Pavlos
 

gennepher

Master
Messages
13,238
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
fbg at 4:15 am this morning.....drumroll...is 7.5

WHAT?

For me, that low? I am normally around 9’s, a bit above in double figures, but I cannot find a 7.5 in my little black book for a fbg....

It was a stressful day yesterday with driving that distance, the heat in the hospital, the wait because the morning clinics ran over, it was the eye check up from my laser treatment.

I have had less than 4 hours sleep, I can’t wind down yet, it will take me all of today. Yet I get a fbg of 7.5

Food wise yesterday was still very low carb, but the difference was I bought some really fresh fruit from the hospital farm stall, which is there daily, ate that while I was waiting in the heat and then driving home. I am talking of a humungous punnet of beautiful strawberries, that tasted as though they had just been picked off sun kissed strawberry fields. They were very local, just miles up the road. (I still have another very large punnet, and a punnet of strawberries. There is a heavenly scent from them.)

Then I had to pick up a parcel when I got home. I didn’t want to go out today, but stay at home. So I made the effort to pick the parcel. Next door was a fish and chip shop, and so I bought a piece of fish. Took the batter off, yes I had a tiny nibble, and just ate the fish inside. The fish in this fish and chip shop, is not frozen fish, but the fresh fish you get in some seaside town fish and chip shops.

How do I keep these lower blood glucose readings?

Grey day outside. Dawn woke me up when I would rather have been left asleep. Going to meditate now and then do my exercise and take it easy today.

If there had been beautiful blue skies it would have been uplifting, but no, another grey gloomy looking day...however I am uplifted by this 7.5

Have a good day

Take care x

>^..^<
 

PenguinMum

Expert
Messages
6,782
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Morning All. 6.2 after a terrible night tossing and turning. When I did sleep I dreamt of a ninja tiger wearing glasses stslking my garden. After reading @gennepher s post heaven knows what dreams that will invoke. Great FBG @gennepher I think you have been gradually getting your numbers down and you are in a good place. @jay hay-char I do love a ginger cat. Off to the eye clinic in a minute after my first cup of tea.
Have a good day everyone. Stay well, stay safe.
 

Krystyna23040

Expert
Messages
7,064
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
There were people in wheelchairs with leg amputations, foot amputations, toe amputations. This is a diabetic eye clinic as well. So I am assuming they were diabetics. The guy with all his toes amputated was chomping through packets of crisps and eating sandwiches bought in the hospital and drinking a diet drink.
This made me feel sad to read. It is ok if they knew that cutting down the carbs would save their feet but they made the decision to go ahead with the carbs and take a chance on the feet. It's ok because they have a right to make that choice.

The people who I feel upset about are the ones that didn't know that the advice to base meals on carbs was the wrong advice and would have followed the low carb way of only they had known about it.

On a happier note - brilliant fbs and great that your hospital visit went well in spite of the oppressive heat.
 

dunelm

Master
Messages
11,310
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
So ... you want 3% of us to come over and shout and scream at the cats in your garden?

What might also work is for you to order all those items on your list and then get us over there filming a move with a plot based on those props. :D

I wish more than 3% of us could meet up in Bristol and hang out in between our various interviews at the university ...

Bristol is a wonderful city, I have a brother who lives there. Are you being interviewed for a job there or for a study place?
 

johnpol

Well-Known Member
Messages
919
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Morning all from a damp, overcast, miserable Northeast I thought it was meant to be the summer (not jealous of those in the sunshine at all) the meter of doom threw a 7.8 at me, how dare it!! Mind I did have some cheese and pickled onions last night as an indulgent treat (not as nice as the bar of Hazelnut chocolate but the least said about that the better;)) anyway Rog "The Dodge" Fossie dog is settled in his new foster home and he seems to be coping.
Good luck for today @alf_Josiah and anyone else having tests and results today.

Take care everyone.
 

dunelm

Master
Messages
11,310
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
Like you, @dunelm I have made the back garden pretty much cat proof from stray cats. But my back garden does back on to some ancient woodland, and I have foxes and badgers etc that leave little messages. The messages are very distinctive to the animal...I have moles too.

I am unable to stop the foxes leaping from garage roofs.

But the badgers that burrow under the fence are a menace. There is a family of badgers that insist on their right of way. They are often in the front garden, which is dug up on a regular basis. But I draw the line to them digging near my bungalow walls, or under the wall from front to back garden. The badgers want my frogs for supper. The frogs are in my ponds in the back garden. So I asked around for advice. I was told chicken wire. I placed chicken wire near and beside my walls and fence. I even dug some chicken wire into the ground. The badgers then stopped digging their tunnels under my walls into the back garden. I found that cats don't like chicken wire either, they cannot dig their little messages in, they don't like the feel on their paws. But I was pleased how successful the chicken wire was stopping the badgers digging, and into the back garden. The badgers decimated my frog population one year. But I have a breeding pond they always return to each year, and so my frog population built up again.

Other ideas are black cat silhouettes, metal ones, that you stick on the edge of the lawn, you can get a set of 3 fairly cheaply. But you do need to move them around to keep a stray cat on its toes. I have a stone cat with glass eyes (but the eyes need replacing again). And stray cats are wary of that.

My cats in the past have been scared of large birds, like buzzards. We have birds of prey here including buzzards. Some idiot a few gardens away was enticing a buzzard into his back garden, so it would swoop in for the meat/kill, I assume he was using meat. So my cats in the past fled indoors if the buzzard was near. One small cat of mine wasn't quick enough, she was on my garage roof. I saw it and couldn't get out to save her. The buzzard got her. Popeye is still very very wary. So, you know you can get quite big plastic owls, that move their heads (and I am assuming make a noise as well), a person across the road has one. She is not an animal lover. And the owl moves its head. Cats don't go in her garden. They give it a big wide detour.

The Scaredy-cat plant I have used in the past in the front. I was hoping it might keep the foxes away. I think it did. But it wasn't hardy enough to stand the winter here, so they died.

I understand half full plastic bottles in the border might work. The light reflection is supposed to deter. It's an old game keeper's trick. It might work with strung CD's or other
shiny reflective stuff.

I have a neighbour who stands guard at her window and charges out with a powerful water gun....but I am sure cats return to annoy her.

I mentioned cat silhouettes before and a large owl. Well, you can get them with realistic glow eyes. It's the glow eyes that is important. This works for badgers too. Maybe, if you are partial to gnomes, maybe some with scary glowing eyes, possibly battery or solar powered.

I have had infra red sensor LED lights in the front, both battery charged and solar. A couple I had. Cats and badgers don't get used to them in the same way as a continuous light.

I have had a lot of problems with badgers and I don't want them making my garden their home...but what works for badgers works for cats....

>^..^<

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this. What nut job decides to entice a buzzard into his back garden?

We are off to a large garden centre this morning for a look-see and will see if they can fulfill some of your ideas. Our back garden is full of light at night as Mrs Miggins has festooned the place with a good number of solar powered lights - there are even lights climbing some of the trees.

Cat silhouettes sound good, with glow eyes and we will think about the idea of chicken wire. We know about the half full plastic bottles - seen them in Spain but not sure how effective they will be on dull days.

Thank you again and everyone who has contributed - I think that I have heard enough about cats now. It’s like a cat version refresher of Sun Tzu, on the Art Of War and Sun Zi’s Military Methods. It’s all defensive tactics.