My Other Cat Uses Diesel
Member Since 2023
Sorry for the wall of text below, but I'm torn on how to best proceed during the immediacy of my cat's diagnosis: should I keep her on the diet of current food that requires insulin and I currently have data to show her BG is managed well, or should I move quickly to a the low carb pate-only diet. Since my cats love pate already, the transition of removing kibbles has been easy (they both really like the Fancy Feast Naturals), but I'm worried about making any serious changes while I'm flying in the dark without her BG readings. And I'm thinking that since she is on such a low dosage, moving to a diet that has significantly less carbs might be enough to manage her glucose.
To make things a little bit easier to read, I bolded the parts I think most pertinent.
Event: On May 12th one of my two cats, Tiki who is ~10-11 years old, was laying by her water bowl when I was leaving to go to work around noon. I figured maybe she's got a urinary tract infection or an upset stomach and to give some time. I get home, she's moved a little bit, but still laying around. She will walk, but only a few steps and then lays down. Not eating. Not drinking. I sleep by her side Friday night, wake up at 6am Saturday and call around to emergency vets and finally found one to take her in.
Emergency vet found interstitial fluid buildup around her lungs, behind her heart, some fluid buildup in her lungs and a glucose level a bit over 500. Initial worry was ketoacidosis and CHF. Bunch of tests later and no DKA (thankfully, if it had been DKA w/ CHF I would have had to euthanize), heart actually looks good and fluid buildup in lungs is gone, most has been flushed out around her lungs and heart via furosemide. Cardiologist says her heart looks really good and if he saw the imagery without knowing the patient had been in an emergency hospital, he would say that he doesn't see any notable issues.
Discharge: Tiki was diagnosed with untreated feline diabetes mellitus and prescribed glargine (Lantus) at 3 units bid, 1/2 pill of furosemide qd. She is scheduled for a kidney panel on the 23rd r/t her furosemide treatment.
Prior diet: Before, I would feed 1 can of Friskies pate various flavors in two servings and then leave Purina Beyond Chicken & Egg kibbles out to graze. Both cats have been good about not getting obese, but both are in the overweight category.
Post-diagnosis diet (PDD): The meals I have been feeding Tiki since her diagnosis are about 60g-80g of Friskies pate with 1/8 cup of dry Purina Beyond Chicken & Egg kibbles.
Problem: After getting a Freestyle Libre put on Tiki (which was a huge ordeal in itself due to scheduling and a defective sensor) I was only able to get about 48 hours of data, from May 11th 08:00 to May 13th 01:30. But what I found was that giving her 3 units (actual injection scaled to 2 units since she ate 2/3 of her meal) on May 7th at 07:00 dropped her glucose way too low (I got a reading in the high 70's but the graphing for the sensor showed it dipped just slightly below 60 for 15 minutes, was below 80 for about 45 minutes), resulting in what looked like a Symogyi effect.
After me being an idiot and wanting to see what happened if she ate her PDD and missed an insulin dose (May 11th, 19:00) I waited out a prolonged period of time (17 hours) before feeding her next meal, although I did give her a few tablespoons of pate to keep her sane, IIRC. Her glucose came down within range, managed the spike well and 1.5 units seemed to be that perfect sweet spot for her PDD. Unfortunately, the FS Libre sensor broke ~5 hours after this 1.5 unit dose, so I didn't get a wider picture of how well this works over as a routine.
When eating a full meal on May 13 07:00, she responded well to 2 units, but seemed slightly lethargic and tired during that nadir period 4-6 hours later. The big tell was that I noticed when I came home and woke her up from her catnap, she was yawning repeatedly, one after another, and it is something I have never seen her do before.
On May 13 19:00 I switched over 1.5 units with her PPD.
On May 15th 07:00 I fed her 1 can of Fancy Feast Classics with 1/8 cup kibbles and 1.5 units glargine. She once again seemed lethargic like when I had applied the 3 unit dosage scale.
May 15th 20:00 I fed 1 can of Fancy Feast Naturals White Meat Chicken in Gravy and no insulin. I have not observed any signs/symptoms of hyperglycemia, but also have not been able to confirm her BG levels.
My issue is that if I can, I would prefer to move Tiki to a low carb/no carb diet. She and the other cat are fine with pate and will do fine with eating nothing but pate. What I'm concerned about is that moving from a high-carb diet with such a low insulin dosage to a low/no carb diet with insulin could be harmful at best, fatal at worst. Obviously, I don't want to give her something like Fancy Feast Naturals, which has anywhere from 1%-3% carbs (from my rough estimate) with no kibbles and give an insulin dosage for a meal that is easily 5x-10x more carbs.
Yes, a diet of Fancy Feast Naturals/Classics is a bit more expensive than what I was spending, but folding in older food costs and possibly the savings from buying insulin, all the associated supplies and frequent vet visits, tests, future health problems, etc, etc, etc, quadrupling my current cat food budget is still one heck of a bargain. Presuming, of course, that I can keep Tiki's glucose under control with a low carb diet.
I was able to get some Ketodiastix from Amazon and they arrived yesterday evening. I haven't used one yet, but I will either tonight or during my day off tomorrow. I haven't bought a glucometer yet, as I wanted to ask you all on here what brand would you recommend for both meter and lancet pen.
Just based on observation of signs, over the past 24 hours Tiki is not frequently urinating like she did when she had that observed time period where her BG was in the 350s and definitely not like before she was diagnosed and began treatment. She is urinating similarly to how it was once she was released and on her insulin regimen. Last night I fed her Fancy Feast Naturals ONLY, no insulin, and she has been acting great so far this morning. I am interested to see what the Ketodiastix will report when I test her urine later this evening and/or tomorrow.
The Libre View PDF report for Tiki is on my OneDrive account and can be viewed here: https://1drv.ms/b/s!Aqd3WvdrAYEKhItgEOGkRRd6pl4O8A?e=m8wsac. Notice that the last insulin dosage is recorded as 2 units. THIS IS INCORRECT. The Libre app only allows whole units, so I put 2 units in the log.
BTW, thank you all for this website. I was a wreck when they thought my cat had DKA and CHF, basically a death sentence, and I was worried about Tiki taking insulin because she is a PSYCHO at the vet. Fortunately, giving her insulin injections has been easier than putting her collar for when she goes outside. much easier than giving her ear drops. This website has given me a massive wealth of information and hope for being able to treat my cat and have her live a long and happy life.
To make things a little bit easier to read, I bolded the parts I think most pertinent.
Event: On May 12th one of my two cats, Tiki who is ~10-11 years old, was laying by her water bowl when I was leaving to go to work around noon. I figured maybe she's got a urinary tract infection or an upset stomach and to give some time. I get home, she's moved a little bit, but still laying around. She will walk, but only a few steps and then lays down. Not eating. Not drinking. I sleep by her side Friday night, wake up at 6am Saturday and call around to emergency vets and finally found one to take her in.
Emergency vet found interstitial fluid buildup around her lungs, behind her heart, some fluid buildup in her lungs and a glucose level a bit over 500. Initial worry was ketoacidosis and CHF. Bunch of tests later and no DKA (thankfully, if it had been DKA w/ CHF I would have had to euthanize), heart actually looks good and fluid buildup in lungs is gone, most has been flushed out around her lungs and heart via furosemide. Cardiologist says her heart looks really good and if he saw the imagery without knowing the patient had been in an emergency hospital, he would say that he doesn't see any notable issues.
Discharge: Tiki was diagnosed with untreated feline diabetes mellitus and prescribed glargine (Lantus) at 3 units bid, 1/2 pill of furosemide qd. She is scheduled for a kidney panel on the 23rd r/t her furosemide treatment.
Prior diet: Before, I would feed 1 can of Friskies pate various flavors in two servings and then leave Purina Beyond Chicken & Egg kibbles out to graze. Both cats have been good about not getting obese, but both are in the overweight category.
Post-diagnosis diet (PDD): The meals I have been feeding Tiki since her diagnosis are about 60g-80g of Friskies pate with 1/8 cup of dry Purina Beyond Chicken & Egg kibbles.
Problem: After getting a Freestyle Libre put on Tiki (which was a huge ordeal in itself due to scheduling and a defective sensor) I was only able to get about 48 hours of data, from May 11th 08:00 to May 13th 01:30. But what I found was that giving her 3 units (actual injection scaled to 2 units since she ate 2/3 of her meal) on May 7th at 07:00 dropped her glucose way too low (I got a reading in the high 70's but the graphing for the sensor showed it dipped just slightly below 60 for 15 minutes, was below 80 for about 45 minutes), resulting in what looked like a Symogyi effect.
After me being an idiot and wanting to see what happened if she ate her PDD and missed an insulin dose (May 11th, 19:00) I waited out a prolonged period of time (17 hours) before feeding her next meal, although I did give her a few tablespoons of pate to keep her sane, IIRC. Her glucose came down within range, managed the spike well and 1.5 units seemed to be that perfect sweet spot for her PDD. Unfortunately, the FS Libre sensor broke ~5 hours after this 1.5 unit dose, so I didn't get a wider picture of how well this works over as a routine.
When eating a full meal on May 13 07:00, she responded well to 2 units, but seemed slightly lethargic and tired during that nadir period 4-6 hours later. The big tell was that I noticed when I came home and woke her up from her catnap, she was yawning repeatedly, one after another, and it is something I have never seen her do before.
On May 13 19:00 I switched over 1.5 units with her PPD.
On May 15th 07:00 I fed her 1 can of Fancy Feast Classics with 1/8 cup kibbles and 1.5 units glargine. She once again seemed lethargic like when I had applied the 3 unit dosage scale.
May 15th 20:00 I fed 1 can of Fancy Feast Naturals White Meat Chicken in Gravy and no insulin. I have not observed any signs/symptoms of hyperglycemia, but also have not been able to confirm her BG levels.
My issue is that if I can, I would prefer to move Tiki to a low carb/no carb diet. She and the other cat are fine with pate and will do fine with eating nothing but pate. What I'm concerned about is that moving from a high-carb diet with such a low insulin dosage to a low/no carb diet with insulin could be harmful at best, fatal at worst. Obviously, I don't want to give her something like Fancy Feast Naturals, which has anywhere from 1%-3% carbs (from my rough estimate) with no kibbles and give an insulin dosage for a meal that is easily 5x-10x more carbs.
Yes, a diet of Fancy Feast Naturals/Classics is a bit more expensive than what I was spending, but folding in older food costs and possibly the savings from buying insulin, all the associated supplies and frequent vet visits, tests, future health problems, etc, etc, etc, quadrupling my current cat food budget is still one heck of a bargain. Presuming, of course, that I can keep Tiki's glucose under control with a low carb diet.
I was able to get some Ketodiastix from Amazon and they arrived yesterday evening. I haven't used one yet, but I will either tonight or during my day off tomorrow. I haven't bought a glucometer yet, as I wanted to ask you all on here what brand would you recommend for both meter and lancet pen.
Just based on observation of signs, over the past 24 hours Tiki is not frequently urinating like she did when she had that observed time period where her BG was in the 350s and definitely not like before she was diagnosed and began treatment. She is urinating similarly to how it was once she was released and on her insulin regimen. Last night I fed her Fancy Feast Naturals ONLY, no insulin, and she has been acting great so far this morning. I am interested to see what the Ketodiastix will report when I test her urine later this evening and/or tomorrow.
The Libre View PDF report for Tiki is on my OneDrive account and can be viewed here: https://1drv.ms/b/s!Aqd3WvdrAYEKhItgEOGkRRd6pl4O8A?e=m8wsac. Notice that the last insulin dosage is recorded as 2 units. THIS IS INCORRECT. The Libre app only allows whole units, so I put 2 units in the log.
BTW, thank you all for this website. I was a wreck when they thought my cat had DKA and CHF, basically a death sentence, and I was worried about Tiki taking insulin because she is a PSYCHO at the vet. Fortunately, giving her insulin injections has been easier than putting her collar for when she goes outside. much easier than giving her ear drops. This website has given me a massive wealth of information and hope for being able to treat my cat and have her live a long and happy life.
