Need help from others with steroid-induced diabetics

[Lu Lu]

My cat takes 2.5mg of predz twice a day for ITP & IBD. He started 1 unti or prozinc twice a day as well yesterday. He been on the prez since March 2020. Has anyone been in this situation before? I'm so freaking nervous. His number was 277 today. 276 last week and when he was brought to the doc March 4th he was in the high 300s. I'm so worried. He is eating almost 1/2 cup of DM food. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi Lu Lu and welcome to the forum. it is not unusual for a cat on pred to get steroid induced diabetes.
You will need to give your cat insulin and hopefully he will go into remission. Cats that have steroid induced diabetes can go into remission. But you need to get your kitty onto a low carb wet food such as fancy feast pate food. Look for foods that have 10% or less carbs. Dry food is high carb and nor recommended for diabetic cats.
Offer you kitty a low carb meal before the dose of insulin and then give 2 snacks of low carb food in the next 6 hours during both cycles (12 hours) each day and night.
FOOD CHART

I would also recommend you look into hometesting the blood glucose as that is the only way you will be able to ensure your kitty stays safe and is getting the correct insulin dose.
HOMETESTING LINK


you can a buy a human test meter at Walmart called a ReliOn Prime for $9 and 100 test strips for $17.88. You will also need a box of 100 lancets to prick the ear….ask for 26 or 28 gauge lancets. Also some cotton rounds to hold behind the ear as you test and to hold the ear afterwards.

With testing the blood glucose (BG)you need to test, feed then give the dose of insulin in that order. If the BG is under 200 stall, don’t feed and test again in 20 minutes to see if it is rising….and post and ask for help. Change the subject line to let us know you need help.
Once you have giving the insulin, if you can get another BG test around the +4 to +7 mark, that will tell us how low the dose is taking your kitty and if it is the correct dose.

HELP US HELP YOU has the links to the spreadsheet, signature and hypo kit.
If you have any trouble settling out the SS let me know and someone will help you.

Keep asking questions. It is stressful in the beginning but we are here to help you.

 

[Rachel P]

Hi! My kitty was diagnosed two months after some very intense steroid injections in the prior months. We had good results and have gone into remission two months later. This is the best place you can be - everyone here will help you!

 

[Lu Lu]

My cat has to be on steroids for life. He has ITP. So unfortunately remission isn't in the cards for us. Super depressed and its been 24hrs hes on his insulin tomorrow is day 2. My poor baby.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

We do have kitties here that need to be on steroids for health reasons. We just work around the steroids with the dose of insulin. It is very doable. Don’t be depressed. Cats can lead normal lives with diabetes

 

[Lu Lu]

We do have kitties here that need to be on steroids for health reasons. We just work around the steroids with the dose of insulin. It is very doable. Don’t be depressed. Cats can lead normal lives with diabetes

Question how far apart do you space the steroid and the insulin?

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

I’ll tag @Wendy&Neko to answer that. She will be online tomorrow.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Question how far apart do you space the steroid and the insulin?

No need to space them from a medical reason. I would just start with a time that's convenient for you. Over time, as you gather data, you may decide to tweak the pred timing for what works for your schedule. We had one member who gave pred in the AM cause it started to affect her cat's numbers within a couple hours, and meant kitty would be safe while she was gone at work all day. Note that how one cat processes pred may differ from others. So you have to gather data and see what works for your cat.

Any particular reason you are giving pred twice a day instead of once?

 

[Lu Lu]

No need to space them from a medical reason. I would just start with a time that's convenient for you. Over time, as you gather data, you may decide to tweak the pred timing for what works for your schedule. We had one member who gave pred in the AM cause it started to affect her cat's numbers within a couple hours, and meant kitty would be safe while she was gone at work all day. Note that how one cat processes pred may differ from others. So you have to gather data and see what works for your cat.

Any particular reason you are giving pred twice a day instead of once?

He has low platelets 100% has ITP. If we don't he will bleed out. I don't get my testing kit till tomorrow. I'm worried about poking him and having him bleed out. I give him steroids at 5:30am he eats at that time then at 6am we give the insulin.