10/17 - Comet - OTJ - Glucose check higher, question?

[Amanda Comet’s Mom]

Hey everyone, I have a question! I have not posted here in a long while. But Comet has been in Diabetic remission since December of 2021. He developed Diabetes from Prednisone/Prednisolone. Since coming off of it and switching to Budesonide his numbers got better and he came off insulin. He is in what you call “Food Remission.” We were doing daily testing for a month after or more. Then weekly testing. Then a few months ago we went to every 2-3 week testing. His numbers were basically 85 the last 3 months. I had forgotten to test him for 1.5 months. Sunday night I tested him and he came back as 118. It was 2 hours before his normal meal. Tested again 2 hours later and he came back as 92. So we fed him. I then fed him at midnight and headed to bed. I tested him this morning after about 10 hours of fasting and he came back as 103.

Now I got home from work and tested him again. (His last meal was at 2pm) He came up as 117 in the ear I’ve been testing him. I decided to test his other ear and got 99. Question is, should I be worried? He has Chronic Kidney Disease. He has not changed medications. He gets fluids every other day. He is on Royal Canin renal support food and the last month we have started a small meal of his old food he enjoys. Which is Purina Beyond Grain Free Pate in a few different flavors. I checked him once or twice while he was eating the old food and didn’t notice much of a spike. But now as he’s eating less, we wanted him to have a meal he enjoyed. So some of his renal food meals have his favorite food mixed in. Otherwise not much has changed that I can think of. Vet told me in April he had a tooth that was starting to go bad and it needed to be watched, but didn’t seem to think it would need to be removed any time soon. I also did pick up a can of his other Renal food he was eating months ago, and gave him some of that. (We’re dealing with a food shortage at the vet.) but he only had that once & hasn’t since last night. Some days he is very hungry and then some days he kinda picks at his food. Not noticing a huge change in him, except some days he seems hungrier. Should I start daily testing again? Or is that not much of a difference in numbers to be worried, if not much has changed? I’d love any advice, thanks! I’d hate to go through Diabetes again with him.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Do you know what level CKD he has? Just wondering why the renal support food? The Royal Canin ones are HC, so that is a significant change. I'd note food changes like that on the Remarks column, to see if there is any correlation with his numbers.

To test if his pancreas is working, you feed then test 3 hours later to see if the numbers are coming down. As long as he's generally below 120, I wouldn't be testing as much as you have lately.

 

[Amanda Comet’s Mom]

Do you know what level CKD he has? Just wondering why the renal support food? The Royal Canin ones are HC, so that is a significant change. I'd note food changes like that on the Remarks column, to see if there is any correlation with his numbers.

To test if his pancreas is working, you feed then test 3 hours later to see if the numbers are coming down. As long as he's generally below 120, I wouldn't be testing as much as you have lately.

Hi so when we first found out Comet was Diabetic he was actually on the Renal support food & he went from Stage 3 to Stage 2 diet change alone. We maintained him at level 2 until we found out he was Diabetic. We then weaned him off his Renal & switched to Weruva slide n serves LC wet food. Not sure if it was food change or getting off the Prednisone that caused his remission. But after we found out he was in remission we also found out he was end Stage 3 almost 4 CKD. So after the Diabetes was treated, now we worked really hard to get the CKD under control. Note he also has IBS, so there are a lot of things at play. We slowly reintroduced his HC Renal food back in and tested glucose daily. No change really that we noted. We then went back to 3 out of 4 meals is Renal and 1 his old somewhat lower carb food he was originally on before any diagnosis’. We also incorporated fluids, Renal treats and Azodyl (a kidney supplement) and we now are hovering around middle to end stage 2. At this point, besides only renal food we could only up his fluids to daily instead of every other day. We are doing everything we can for his CKD. So that means keeping the regimen with Renal food. BUT, up until now he has not tested in the 100’s since April. It has always been a pretty even number.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Thanks for the backgrounder. Maybe update the food in your signature, amongst other things - like no longer on a drop dose.

et told me in April he had a tooth that was starting to go bad and it needed to be watched, but didn’t seem to think it would need to be removed any time soon.

Did the vet say what "starting to go bad" means? Infection/inflammation and dental issues are probably the number one reason cats fall out of remission.

 

[Amanda Comet’s Mom]

Thanks for the backgrounder. Maybe update the food in your signature, amongst other things - like no longer on a drop dose.

Did the vet say what "starting to go bad" means? Infection/inflammation and dental issues are probably the number one reason cats fall out of remission.

Ah, shoot! Good call. I totally forgot, it has been too long. Thank you.

 

[Amanda Comet’s Mom]

Thanks for the backgrounder. Maybe update the food in your signature, amongst other things - like no longer on a drop dose.

Did the vet say what "starting to go bad" means? Infection/inflammation and dental issues are probably the number one reason cats fall out of remission.

She had stated that it was an abscess that was starting in the root, but very minimal. She told me it could be years if at all. The biggest issue is checking means sedation, and sedation is bad for him with his sensitivity/age and CKD. So any dental procedures are rough & extra fluids.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

I've seen some CKD cats who cannot have sedation go on pulse dosing of antibiotics, meaning something like periodic couple weeks of antibiotics, to try to keep it in check. Abscess does not sound good and sounds painful. Did the vet say lesions or resorption?

 

[Amanda Comet’s Mom]

I've seen some CKD cats who cannot have sedation go on pulse dosing of antibiotics, meaning something like periodic couple weeks of antibiotics, to try to keep it in check. Abscess does not sound good and sounds painful. Did the vet say lesions or resorption?

Sorry, yes it was the start of a resorptive lesion in the root. She said it can tend to take awhile before it would move up affecting the tooth to the point of extraction. For some reason he has had these all his life. I remember since he started getting his adult teeth, some would fall out. I never knew until about
6 years ago when they explained it more. He has about 3 molar teeth left and then all of the front teeth including fang teeth. She said the one that’s starting is his upper left fang tooth.