3rd October 20, NEW MEMBER.

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Lyn Annis

Lyn Annis

Member Since 2020
Hello everyone. I have just signed up.
I read some of the posts a few months ago and wanted to share my journey of my cat and also some advice please.
Bradley, my white tabby 12 year old was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in April. A few weeks before, I noticed that he was drinking a lot more than normal. He was never a big drinker! He was overweight (7.5 kg) roughly.
The Vet confirmed he had diabetes after carrying out tests. They immediately started him on Caninsulin and diabetic food. He took to it, but with numerous vet trips later, his blood sugar levels were not lowering. Vet kept putting the dose up and still not lowering, was suspected insulin resistant. He had further scans, tests etc basically the works. Was so another insulin which was a human based one to see if that worked. Nope. Vet wanted to up his dosage again, but after reading this forum about the same problem, a few of you said that it was the biscuits causing the high blood sugars, as they are high in starch which is a carb! I was feeding him 25g of biscuits twice a day with some wet food. So I immediately started feeding him just wet food and within a few days his blood sugars dropped from in the 40's to under 7. I was amazed, so on a weekly basis I have been testing his blood sugars at home and each week dropping his insulin dose by 1/2ui. As of last week they were reading 5.4 on 2ui twice daily, so he is now on 1.5ui twice daily and will test again next week. I want to thank you to everyone that mentioned this. I had no idea until after some research into it. My poor cat has been through it since April, costing me a hefty bill, fortunately my insurance company paid for the majority of it. Even the vet had no knowledge of the biscuits causing his blood sugar levels to be so high, which is surprising really!
I would also like to say that he is still hungry after his meals. Can anyone suggest anything as his diet is mainly protein now. I give him a handful of biscuits before I leave for work as he had a Hypo a month ago which I didn't want to happen if I wasn't at home. Sorry for the long story! Thank you for reading and any advice is welcome, Lyn
 
Welcome Lyn and Bradley, so glad you are home testing.
The first thing to do is if you can set up your signature so members won't have to
ask you the same questions over and over again, they can just take a quick
look at it. It's the gray info under my writing
  • It would be helpful if you can set up your signature
  • On the left, under Settings, Click on Signature. This is where you will put information that helps us give you feedback.
    • There is a limit of two lines which may include two links; you may separate pieces with commas, dashes, | etc. This is where you paste the link for your spreadsheet, once it is set up.
    • Add any other text, such as
    • Caregiver & kitty's name (optional)
    • DX: Date
    • Name of Insulin
    • Name of your meter
    • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
    • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
    • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
    • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
    • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
    • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.
Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.


tap on your avatar where it says your name ,then hit profile page ,tap on that ,then go up to the very top, upper right hand side and tap on your name ,it will bring down a drop box, tap on signature, the signature will be under settings, tap on the signature then and you can start to add what I posted above, make sure you hit save ,
Welcome to the best place you could ever be and an awesome group
 
Welcome!
Good job on starting home testing, and catching the dry food causing high sugars!

One thing concerns me though- you mention weekly testing at home, but not when you test. You absolutely need to test more than once a day. At minimum, immediately before each shot, with food withheld for 2 hrs prior. This lets you know if it is safe to shoot. And optimally at least 1 test somewhere in between.
Depending on when you got that 5.4, your boy may actually be going much lower through his cycle. Cats also tend to go lower at night.

Don't beat yourself up over possibly making mistakes, all of us have. The start of this journey is usually a little bumpy! It sounds like your boy is responding well and you caught it quick.
 
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/


Here is the link for setting up a spreadsheet that we use to enter all of our cats BG readings. In case you need advice on dosing we need to see this in order to feel comfortable giving advice.

If you need help setting it up we have two awesome members that will do it for you.
Take a look at Tyler's where it says Tyler spreadsheet or any other members
spreadsheet.

I will post the link about explaining the spreadsheet
 
Welcome Lyn and Bradley!:bighug::bighug::bighug:

can you tell us what insulin he’s on?

When it comes to food, diabetic cats can’t process the nutrients in food efficiently so they’re always hungry and usually lose weight. They also burn calories just be peeing since there’s sugar in their urine. Most of us feed wet food that’s low in carbs, lower than 10%, and here’s a food chart you can use as reference. I assume you’re not in the US, maybe U.K.? Not sure what the options are there but I’m sure there are other members here who do! We tend to feed the bulk of the meals around shot times but also smaller meals or snacks throughout the day since cats have a higher metabolism and it’s also easier on their already compromised pancreas.

majandra is spot on. You need to test before each insulin shot to make sure he’s at a safe number to shoot, especially with the hypo incident you mentioned. It’s also great if you can manage to do a midday test and an evening +2 so you know where he’s headed overnight. You want that number to be going up not down.

I stopped being shocked or surprised at how much vets don’t know. It’s a miracle so many diabetic cats are still alive despite of it :mad::mad::mad:
 
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WELCOME TO FDMB Lyn and extra sweet Bradley! We are glad you found us! Good for you reading here and learning about carbs! This small piece of information is priceless.
I think maybe you might want to start here and get the hang of how all this works:
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

We are a community of cat lovers that are dedicated to guiding anyone who needs HELP. As you already know theres a wealth of information here with really good people to help you navigate this disease and give Bradley the best chance of a long healthy life.
WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY :bighug:

Again welcome to the best darn site on this planet to learn everything you need to know about feline diabetes!
jeanne
 
I have to echo Ale and majandra about testing. Would you shoot insulin into your child without know its safe to do so? Here is a VERY useful tool to help you AND us track and see just how the insulin is working in Bradley's body:
FDMB SPREADSHEET INSTRUCTIONS

Believe me this spreadsheet will offer everyone here an at a glance record of Bradley's insulin journey. It too is priceless!

If you have trouble setting it up just ask we have two excellent people here that can help you! ;)
jeanne
 
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