Checkyboo
Member Since 2017
Hi Everyone,
I'm new here. Checker was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in May (4.5). At that time his BG was 70 in vets'office. At the same time I had an IBS and/or intestinal lymphoma cat and we were feeding grain-free dry food. She passed away in June. After that I got lax, because Checker was not eating the grain-free food well, and one night in desperation I bought a bag of Iams dry and he ate that well. He was always a kibble addict. (I know, big mistake!) Within days of starting the Iams I notice more urine in the litter box and Checker drinking more. I monitored this for a few weeks and it only got worse, and his energy level went down. Back to the vet we went. On his Chem his BG was 474! We immediately switched him to low-carb wet which, thankfully, after about 7 hours he decided to eat. I didn't get a meter until two days later (Relion Micro). The first evening I tested his BG it was 72; however, the next day it was back up to 220 and creeped back up to the 300s. Vet decided to put him on 1 Unit of Lantus twice a day. After a few days of fumbling with the pen and realizing that 12 mm syringes worked better I finally started getting insulin into him consistently. After getting through the syringe learning phase (and a couple of fur shots) his BGs began dropping dramatically. Last Sunday his AM BG was 293 and after 1 Unit of Lantus was 44 at 1:00 p.m! I kept shooting low (but not below 50) but adjusted his doses down consistently over the next 48 hours. His last dose was .25 unit in the a.m. on 10/3 and in the p.m. his BG was 66, so I decided to start a trial OTJ which so far has gone well! His BGs have ranged between 59 and 92 the last three days both fasting and non-fasting.
The only issue is his drinking and urination is still more than I think it should be. It might be 1/3 better, but still a lot. I just sent my vet an e-mail (I'm not entirely happy with my vet for reasons I won't elaborate on in this post except that she's not very responsive at times) wondering if this is still just an effect of weeks of high BGs, or if this is the hyper-T. His T4 level was back up to 3 after being 1.9 just two months before. I guess my main question is...do cats OTJ--or in this case honeymooning---still drink and urinate more?
Thanks in advance for any advice, and I apologize if I've not followed the exact formatting for my post. I hope I'm not an annoying newbie! Checker and I thank you!
Edited to Add: Checker did test positive for glucose shedding on his urinalysis, so he was officially diagnosed with UA correlation. Kidney functions were normal. No ketones on vet test or with in-home stick tests.
I'm new here. Checker was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in May (4.5). At that time his BG was 70 in vets'office. At the same time I had an IBS and/or intestinal lymphoma cat and we were feeding grain-free dry food. She passed away in June. After that I got lax, because Checker was not eating the grain-free food well, and one night in desperation I bought a bag of Iams dry and he ate that well. He was always a kibble addict. (I know, big mistake!) Within days of starting the Iams I notice more urine in the litter box and Checker drinking more. I monitored this for a few weeks and it only got worse, and his energy level went down. Back to the vet we went. On his Chem his BG was 474! We immediately switched him to low-carb wet which, thankfully, after about 7 hours he decided to eat. I didn't get a meter until two days later (Relion Micro). The first evening I tested his BG it was 72; however, the next day it was back up to 220 and creeped back up to the 300s. Vet decided to put him on 1 Unit of Lantus twice a day. After a few days of fumbling with the pen and realizing that 12 mm syringes worked better I finally started getting insulin into him consistently. After getting through the syringe learning phase (and a couple of fur shots) his BGs began dropping dramatically. Last Sunday his AM BG was 293 and after 1 Unit of Lantus was 44 at 1:00 p.m! I kept shooting low (but not below 50) but adjusted his doses down consistently over the next 48 hours. His last dose was .25 unit in the a.m. on 10/3 and in the p.m. his BG was 66, so I decided to start a trial OTJ which so far has gone well! His BGs have ranged between 59 and 92 the last three days both fasting and non-fasting.
The only issue is his drinking and urination is still more than I think it should be. It might be 1/3 better, but still a lot. I just sent my vet an e-mail (I'm not entirely happy with my vet for reasons I won't elaborate on in this post except that she's not very responsive at times) wondering if this is still just an effect of weeks of high BGs, or if this is the hyper-T. His T4 level was back up to 3 after being 1.9 just two months before. I guess my main question is...do cats OTJ--or in this case honeymooning---still drink and urinate more?
Thanks in advance for any advice, and I apologize if I've not followed the exact formatting for my post. I hope I'm not an annoying newbie! Checker and I thank you!
Edited to Add: Checker did test positive for glucose shedding on his urinalysis, so he was officially diagnosed with UA correlation. Kidney functions were normal. No ketones on vet test or with in-home stick tests.
Last edited:
