Samantha - Kitty
Member Since 2021
Hello there! I have a wonderful cat named Kitty. At the end of April 2021, I noticed she was starting to drink a lot of water. At first I didn't think much of it till the large urine clumps showed up. Off to the vet we went. Her blood work came back normal except her Retics were 102.8 K/ul (normal 3.0K/ul-50.0K/ul) and then her glucose was 534 - we diagnosed her diabetic. The vet I was seeing said let's try a diet change first. For 30 days I tried to feed her Young Again Zero Carb and wet cat food. She was dropping weight quickly. She typically averages 9 lbs but on May 5th she was around 8lbs. Everything kept getting more stressful. I didn't know what to do or how to manage this situation. I didn't even know I was foolish for thinking I could walk out of the vets office with a number of 534 and think that was normal and a diet change was the right choice. Regardless, 30 days passed as they recommended and we saw no change. We returned June 24th with the same high numbers. We started Vetsulin after that at 1 unit and slowly increased to 2. There was zero changes at all. We returned on July 1st to check her thyroid. The TT4 came back 1.4 ug/dL - normal. That's not the issue. The vet told me her kidney's were failing (without testing her blood and her blood work in May showed ZERO signs of kidney or any other type of failure) and our options were probably going to be euthanasia. My heart sank. I decided I was done with this vet as I had to told them what to test, what to do and I'm completely blind to this. Have no idea what I'm doing. I switched that Friday July 2nd to another vet who wouldn't let my cat leave till we lowered her numbers. She was at 400+ then. She went out on a whim and decided to try Novolin. Her numbers sank to 167! The lowest they have ever been. We went home and continued to give her insulin twice a day. I was not home testing at this time.
Out of nowhere about a week in, she became insulin resistant (at least that's what I'm told) so I did my research and found out that Lantus is the best for cats so we started that Sunday evening, July 18th. Her readings were 500+ and I found out that it was my fault more than likely. I was feeding her as much food as she wanted because she dropped down to a measly 5lbs and weighed 6lbs the week of July 12th. She also was eating Friskies shreds with gravy, her favorite and very high in carbs!
Last night, July 19th, I switched to FF classic pate and her numbers have been much better now! But they are still high. My question is, do I need to lower her insulin or raise her insulin? See attached spreadsheet as to where we are at. A few other things, yesterday she became much more active FINALLY! She peed outside the litter box between the hours of 6pm-12am but then before 7am used the litter box to pee. She didn't pee outside the litter box yesterday at all between 6am-6pm but did have 2 poop accidents but zero last night.
Out of nowhere about a week in, she became insulin resistant (at least that's what I'm told) so I did my research and found out that Lantus is the best for cats so we started that Sunday evening, July 18th. Her readings were 500+ and I found out that it was my fault more than likely. I was feeding her as much food as she wanted because she dropped down to a measly 5lbs and weighed 6lbs the week of July 12th. She also was eating Friskies shreds with gravy, her favorite and very high in carbs!
Last night, July 19th, I switched to FF classic pate and her numbers have been much better now! But they are still high. My question is, do I need to lower her insulin or raise her insulin? See attached spreadsheet as to where we are at. A few other things, yesterday she became much more active FINALLY! She peed outside the litter box between the hours of 6pm-12am but then before 7am used the litter box to pee. She didn't pee outside the litter box yesterday at all between 6am-6pm but did have 2 poop accidents but zero last night.
I cannot believe it! This is the lowest I've ever personally been able to get her! Question though, yesterday she pooped outside the litter box in our bathroom. I left from 9:30am-2pm and the accident happened during that time. Since she is so covered in poop on her paws right now and I don't want to stress her and bathe her daily, we have to close our bedroom at night. She jumps into bed with me and sleeps with me! 
I still plan to do prior to feeding/insulin and then an hour after. Unless you all think I should do this all differently! I'm learning so much about diabetes in such a short amount of time!