What would a normal range be for cat to not take insulin shots.

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Tom Shooter

Member Since 2017
I have a cat who was recently diagnosed with Diabetes. The vet wanted to start insulin right away but they also gave me the option to try a change in diet as he was on dry food with a very high carbohydrate component. The vet was not confident it would do any good.

When tested he was 25.3 on our human glucose meter. He has been on a strict diet and in one week has dropped to 19.1. My question is what number do we need him to hit to define the change of diet as a success and forgo Insulin? Also any advice would be sincerely appreciated.
 
I'm guessing that you are in Canada or one of the other countries that use metric units. Most of the people on this board are in the US, and do not use metric units. To switch to non-metric units, multiply by 18. This might seem trivial, but if someone looked quickly at the number '25.3', it would say emergency - too low to them. In fact, it is too high.

Soooo - to answer the question, in the units you are using, you would like the bg to be below about 11 most times. I tested my civvies a few times to prove that my metre was not broken, and always got 4.5, which is apparently perfectly normal.

If this were my cat, I would start with one of the longer acting insulins (Lantus or Levemir) immediately and try to get him into healthy range. The sooner this happens the more likely he is to go into remission. I personally have not had success with Prozinc, but others have and if this is what your vet uses, then give it a go. I would not use any of the R insulins as the sole treatment.

There is plenty of information in the insulin-specific forums to help you and your kitty. Have a read of the documents and ask questions so you are well prepared at your next vet visit.

And good for you for testing at home. This is critical!
 
We are using a human meter. As suggested above we are from Canada so reading would have been in Metric. My wife is very anti drug in humans (as well as I find out now in pets) so she does not want to start him on insulin if diet will control it. If we do start to get it under control is it possible to stop in the future or is he most likely on it for life?

If we use 11 at the goal than my cat dropped 35% of what he needed to get to in one week of diet change. I am not sure if that is good or if it is a very quick process and he would have dropped far quicker if he was going to get down to the level needed. Personally I thought it was a big change in just one week.

Also his Urine test was negative for protein and ketones.
 
Tom Shooter said:
If we do start to get it under control is it possible to stop in the future or is he most likely on it for life?
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Actually, the sooner you start on insulin, the better the chances that kitty's pancreas can heal and he may go into remission (Off The Juice). No, there's no guarantee and he may need it for life....there's no way to really know....it depends on how much damage has already been done.

Cat's have the unique ability to have their pancreas heal, but the key is to let it rest....to do that, you need to give insulin as soon as possible.

Reducing the carbs first is always a good idea, but only dropping from 455 to 344 isn't a big enough drop. If he's been on nothing but low carb canned food for a week, he's going to need insulin

What we want is to get them in normal numbers as soon as possible to allow that healing. Normal blood glucose numbers for cats (on a human meter) are 50-120 (2.8 - 6.7)
 
Tom Shooter said:
We are using a human meter. As suggested above we are from Canada so reading would have been in Metric. My wife is very anti drug in humans (as well as I find out now in pets) so she does not want to start him on insulin if diet will control it. If we do start to get it under control is it possible to stop in the future or is he most likely on it for life?

If we use 11 at the goal than my cat dropped 35% of what he needed to get to in one week of diet change. I am not sure if that is good or if it is a very quick process and he would have dropped far quicker if he was going to get down to the level needed. Personally I thought it was a big change in just one week.

Also his Urine test was negative for protein and ketones.
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. Insulin isn't a medicine, it's a hormone. Your cat's pancreas is not producing enough of the insulin hormone. As Chris said the sooner you start the better. I wouldn't wait more than a few more days to start. Normal is under 6.7 and you are far from that. Very few cats are diet controlled without ever having insulin support to allow the pancreas to heal. So glad you started testing right from the start! Well done!
 
I was in a similar boat having fed my cat an all dry diet (thinking I was doing the right thing because it was a Urinary support food, only to discover after landing here at this amazing place that I was effectively killing her with it). I immediately switched her to an all wet, <10 carb, low phos, diet and the impact has been huge. Having said that so has insulin and getting her on a dose that has been able to support her pancreas that was so stressed from her previous diet. As Janet says it's a hormone not a medical drug (I'm not a fan either) and it's given her a life line and stabilised her, so much so that just over 3 months we're trialling no insulin to see if she can do it on her own with a better diet... and 4 days in and the signs are promising. I'd definitely recommend starting your kitty on insulin and with your home testing you can gain a really good profile of where they're going. Good luck! This place is an incredible resource with some seriously knowledgeable people who have helped my FD journey tremendously.
 
Yup, I'd now like to blow it off the face of the earth....didn't get anymore uti's, just got diabetes and ckd instead! :confused: Oh we live and learn. It just baffles me why vets aren't aware of the damage dry food does to poor kitty cats' systems.
 
I was prescribed the RC Urinary s/o dry, too. I've been a member here for three years and, while it might not come up in some cases, I have been struck by the number of members who report that their cat became diabetic after being on this particular diet (and several of those cats were Dx'd with chronic pancreatitis, too).

Fiona & Ruby said:
Yup, I'd now like to blow it off the face of the earth ...
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You and me, both. :bighug:

Fiona & Ruby said:
It just baffles me why vets aren't aware of the damage dry food does to poor kitty cats' systems.
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I feel the same way. When I adopted my first two rescues I specifically asked the vet which diet was better for cats (and I was assuming the answer would be "wet"). I was told in no uncertain terms that dry was f-a-r better for cats. There was nothing I wanted to do more than to give my little ones the very best food going for their needs and instead it cost several of my fur babies very dear because I trusted vets' food recommendations completely. Whereas I am more angry at myself for just trusting the vets unquestioningly in the past instead of educating myself about feline nutrition, I still feel upset that there was a betrayal of that trust because those vets' knowledge of feline nutritional requirements wasn't what it should have been.


Mogs
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:bighug: This is why I truly believe FDMB has been a life line for my dear Ruby (and my sanity!) I'm only now starting to realise just how much I was poisoning her and how crap she must have been feeling (the look on her face each morning was a pretty good indicator!). She's sooo food orientated (aka such a guts) though that she would've eaten anything I served her. I wholeheartedly agree with you about the stats of why we've got so many fur babies here and the likely diet connection. It's really empowered me to tune into what's going on and trust my instincts on reading the signs rather than blindly following, never easy when one feels like they're groping around in the dark but well worth it. :)
 
Tom Shooter said:
We are using a human meter. As suggested above we are from Canada so reading would have been in Metric. My wife is very anti drug in humans (as well as I find out now in pets) so she does not want to start him on insulin if diet will control it. If we do start to get it under control is it possible to stop in the future or is he most likely on it for life?

If we use 11 at the goal than my cat dropped 35% of what he needed to get to in one week of diet change. I am not sure if that is good or if it is a very quick process and he would have dropped far quicker if he was going to get down to the level needed. Personally I thought it was a big change in just one week.

Also his Urine test was negative for protein and ketones.
Click to expand...
He may only need insulin just a short while to kick start his pancreas again like my kitty. He was on all dry. I switched to all wet and 1 unit of insulin twice a day and he was in remission within the month. I’m in Canada too and use the metric numbers. There’s a lot of us Canadians on here. The US folks won’t have any issue multiplying your numbers but if you download the spreadsheet the forum uses - there’s a US tab they can switch to. Not sure where you find the template but am sure someone can help with that if you ask.
 
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