Help For New Diabetic Jack

[Maryannb3]

Hello everyone,

I am so excited to be here. My name is Mary Ann and I have a 9 year old male cat Jack. He was 16 lbs in June (same weight as previous summer) and now weighs 13 lbs as of 12/22. I noticed he was drinking more water than usual and urinating a lot more so I took him to the vet and he was confirmed with diabetes by blood and urine test on 12/22. His glucose at the vet was 350. She advised me to start him on 2 units of Lantus twice a day and said it was a low dose for his weight. The next day he got a Libre 3 plus sensor placed by the vet. His diet before all of this is Purina One high protein + ideal weight chicken dry food. I immediately bought some Tiki dry food which he ate one bowl of happily and then decided to not touch it again. So I bought fancy feast classic pate wet food and have been trying to incorporate more of that into his diet. He seems to enjoy it but will not eat more than 1/2 can of it. The libre sensor stopped working today and then I noticed it was because it was halfway off of Jack. I tried removing it completely with adhesive remover wipes but unfortunately the vet used glue and it is still halfway stuck to him. Any advice on how to get it off?

So his blood sugars on the libre- I got about 3 days of consistent data on it. He ranged 200-300s mostly but had some ranges of high 100s. Last night I gave him only wet food for dinner but then his glucose went to 110 and I thought I probably didn’t feed him enough with his dose and gave him some purina dry food. He then ran high all night.

I’m going to start home testing tomorrow with an alpha trak 3 monitor. I’m just looking for any advice on getting his libre off, switching his diet, and checking his glucose at home.

Thank you everyone!

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Hello and welcome. First, a link to a post that you should read and help you get set up here: New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

Regarding switching foods, going from dry to wet is a common issue, and there is more information in this post: ransitioning your cat from dry to wet food. Food transitions should be done slowly and you should be monitoring his blood sugars closely when you do it, as his insulin needs can come down. Monitoring will help you avoid a hypo.

2 unit is not a low dose. For a cat eating dry food, we would start a cat on 1 unit. If 16 lbs was his ideal weight and he was eating a wet food diet only, we might go as high as 1.75 units. Are you using U-100 syringes to give the Lantus?

Some information about the Libres in this post: Getting Started With Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) for Diabetic Cats

And finally, it's fine to use a human blood glucose meter and the test strips are much more affordable.

 

[Staci & Ivy]

Hello everyone,

I am so excited to be here. My name is Mary Ann and I have a 9 year old male cat Jack. He was 16 lbs in June (same weight as previous summer) and now weighs 13 lbs as of 12/22. I noticed he was drinking more water than usual and urinating a lot more so I took him to the vet and he was confirmed with diabetes by blood and urine test on 12/22. His glucose at the vet was 350. She advised me to start him on 2 units of Lantus twice a day and said it was a low dose for his weight. The next day he got a Libre 3 plus sensor placed by the vet. His diet before all of this is Purina One high protein + ideal weight chicken dry food. I immediately bought some Tiki dry food which he ate one bowl of happily and then decided to not touch it again. So I bought fancy feast classic pate wet food and have been trying to incorporate more of that into his diet. He seems to enjoy it but will not eat more than 1/2 can of it. The libre sensor stopped working today and then I noticed it was because it was halfway off of Jack. I tried removing it completely with adhesive remover wipes but unfortunately the vet used glue and it is still halfway stuck to him. Any advice on how to get it off?

So his blood sugars on the libre- I got about 3 days of consistent data on it. He ranged 200-300s mostly but had some ranges of high 100s. Last night I gave him only wet food for dinner but then his glucose went to 110 and I thought I probably didn’t feed him enough with his dose and gave him some purina dry food. He then ran high all night.

I’m going to start home testing tomorrow with an alpha trak 3 monitor. I’m just looking for any advice on getting his libre off, switching his diet, and checking his glucose at home.

Thank you everyone!

Hi Mary Ann, welcome to you and Jack.
Please read the information Wendy posted above about using a Libre when you can. Lots of good information there if you will be using a Libre.
If you can do ear pricks with a hand held glucometer, that’s awesome!

As far as the Libre falling off or Jack trying to pull it off, it’s very common. It’s a foreign object they aren’t used to having on them.

And yes, vets use glue to attach the sensors, which is absolutely the opposite of what is advised.
The glue can damage their fragile skin and it can also flood the sensor and it stops it from working.

I have been applying them for three years to my cat and have never used glue and they stay on for the two weeks they are supposed to last. I do cover the sensor with a Tegaderm covering which is a thin adhesive bandage and I do have a tube top on my cat.
Many people use a small T-shirt or something like that, again all this is explained in the document linked above.

As for getting the sensor off, you can try to use coconut oil, olive oil on a cotton swab or something called Brava spray, which you can order from Amazon.

If you have any questions, please let us know!

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

You mentioned that Jack won't eat more than 1/2 of a can of Fancy Feast. Is that at shot time? If so, you don't have to give him all of his food at each shot time. Most of us feed our cats several smaller meals during the first half of the insulin cycle (i.e., the 6 hours after their shot). Many vets tell you that you should only feed twice a day. Feeding twice a day puts a fair amount of stress on a pancreas that's trying to heal. If Jack was used to grazing before the diabetes diagnosis, he may be missing being able to eat when he's in the mood!

It's best to feed a diabetic cat a low carbohydrate canned food diet. There are very few dry foods that are low in carbs. This is also true for many of the so-called prescription diabetic foods. We consider low carb as under 10% although most members feed their cats a food that's around 5% carbs. Fancy Feast Classics is popular. This is a chart that contains nutrition information for most of the canned cat foods available in the US. You have lots of choices!!