Squeakycats
Member Since 2017
Hi, everyone—I haven’t been active here much but have a question now about rapidly decreasing blood glucose levels. My kitty, Misha, has been on insulin for 5 years now, with a couple of brief (a few weeks) remissions early on. He is 15 years old and is on Levemir. I have never been able to get him tightly regulated but his bloodwork and overall health have remained ok most of the time. He now has arthritis, which we are treating with a low dose of meloxicam (.1 mL daily) and Adequan injections. He also gets chlorpheniramine daily for allergies. He weighs about 15 lbs (should weigh more like 12-13). Until very recently he has eaten Vital Essentials raw freeze-dried rabbit (basically zero carb) with a little wet very low carb food (Tiki Cat, Weruva) daily. (I know wet food is best but his apparent chicken allergy and his general pickiness have limited our options. He unfortunately gets scabs all over his head on Fancy Feast even if there doesn’t appear to be poultry.)
That’s his background info. He has been on a dose of between 1.5 and 2 units of Lantus or Levemir basically forever. A couple of weeks ago, he was running kind of high, so I pushed things a little higher (2.25 units) for a few days to see if I could get him back under better control. His BG at shot times would be 300-350, and his nadir was around 200-220. (I don’t have spreadsheets right now; I was using a Libre for a while and he’s been quite steady/predictable.) After a few days of the slightly higher dose, I noticed his shot time numbers dropping. Over the course of about 3 days, he went from 2.5 units down to .5 this morning, with numbers at shot time ranging between 80 and 120 and nadirs under 50 (hence the rapid reductions). Today he hit 28; obviously I will not be giving insulin tonight.
The only things that have changed recently are that we’ve been doing the meloxicam daily (instead of occasionally) for his worsening arthritis and that—very weirdly—he has been sneaking some higher carb dry food (Fussie Cat, I think around 25% carbs) that we got for a new rescue kitty. (There are two other cats in the household—the new rescue and another he’s been around pretty much all his life; the rescue is almost totally isolated from him and he doesn’t appear stressed.)
I don’t understand what’s happening. It seems weird that he would go into remission after 5 years of not being particularly well regulated, and after a few days of a change to an overall *higher* carb diet. (In addition to sneaking snacks, he has been getting some medium carb wet food whenever he goes to 50 or below.) Is the higher carb food somehow magically having a *good* effect? He has been wearing a Libre on and off for the last few months, so I got very detailed data on him, and I have been using multiple meters the last few days for all tests (2 human meters and an AlphaTrak) just because I thought these numbers must be a sign of a broken meter or bad test strips, but no. He has not had symptoms of hypoglycemia and has overall seemed to feel slightly better.
The only other thing I’ve noticed is that he looks especially fat or bloated to me, but that’s very subjective. But I worry—could he somehow have fluid in his abdomen? Are there conditions that cause a decrease in blood glucose—some kind of cancer or something? I would greatly appreciate any insight anyone has—especially about whether there might be another health issue at play. His last blood work was about 4 months ago (senior panel) and was unremarkable. I work at a vet clinic (receptionist) and can certainly get x-rays, perhaps even an ultrasound, if that seems warranted. My vet/boss is not very familiar with managing diabetics and has no theories about what’s up with him.
I’m sorry this is so long—I just never know what details might be relevant or ring a bell for someone.
That’s his background info. He has been on a dose of between 1.5 and 2 units of Lantus or Levemir basically forever. A couple of weeks ago, he was running kind of high, so I pushed things a little higher (2.25 units) for a few days to see if I could get him back under better control. His BG at shot times would be 300-350, and his nadir was around 200-220. (I don’t have spreadsheets right now; I was using a Libre for a while and he’s been quite steady/predictable.) After a few days of the slightly higher dose, I noticed his shot time numbers dropping. Over the course of about 3 days, he went from 2.5 units down to .5 this morning, with numbers at shot time ranging between 80 and 120 and nadirs under 50 (hence the rapid reductions). Today he hit 28; obviously I will not be giving insulin tonight.
The only things that have changed recently are that we’ve been doing the meloxicam daily (instead of occasionally) for his worsening arthritis and that—very weirdly—he has been sneaking some higher carb dry food (Fussie Cat, I think around 25% carbs) that we got for a new rescue kitty. (There are two other cats in the household—the new rescue and another he’s been around pretty much all his life; the rescue is almost totally isolated from him and he doesn’t appear stressed.)
I don’t understand what’s happening. It seems weird that he would go into remission after 5 years of not being particularly well regulated, and after a few days of a change to an overall *higher* carb diet. (In addition to sneaking snacks, he has been getting some medium carb wet food whenever he goes to 50 or below.) Is the higher carb food somehow magically having a *good* effect? He has been wearing a Libre on and off for the last few months, so I got very detailed data on him, and I have been using multiple meters the last few days for all tests (2 human meters and an AlphaTrak) just because I thought these numbers must be a sign of a broken meter or bad test strips, but no. He has not had symptoms of hypoglycemia and has overall seemed to feel slightly better.
The only other thing I’ve noticed is that he looks especially fat or bloated to me, but that’s very subjective. But I worry—could he somehow have fluid in his abdomen? Are there conditions that cause a decrease in blood glucose—some kind of cancer or something? I would greatly appreciate any insight anyone has—especially about whether there might be another health issue at play. His last blood work was about 4 months ago (senior panel) and was unremarkable. I work at a vet clinic (receptionist) and can certainly get x-rays, perhaps even an ultrasound, if that seems warranted. My vet/boss is not very familiar with managing diabetics and has no theories about what’s up with him.
I’m sorry this is so long—I just never know what details might be relevant or ring a bell for someone.
