11/11 Mary Grace AMPS 384 +2 275 PMPS 295 +2.5 218

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marygracemom

marygracemom

Member Since 2013
Happy Monday LL!
Yesterday: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=107870
Mary Grace had her dose increase this am. I am still worrying about her insatiable hunger (read the pizza story from Sat) and weight loss. She also has had diarrhea for 2 days. her food hasn't changed and I am pretty sure she didn't get to swallow any pizza bites! She is still purring and preening, playing, peeing not so bad but still "not normal" (a pond instead of a lake)
I wonder about the curve and with her numbers averaging still high, she would be considered in poor control? So the high numbers are effecting her organs, etc? How long does the "average" (as if---none of them are average!!) cat take to "stabilize"?
Thanks and I hope everyone is off to a great start! Back to work..
 
Re: 11/10 Mary Grace AMPS 384 +2 275

OOPS! I was replying to yesterday's condo while you were posting this.

I forget what Mary Grace weighs. If you are feeding her 2 cans of FF pate a day, that's about 180 calories. Tess is only about 8.5 pounds and not very active, she gets 170 calories a day. i think an extra half can just before you leave for work and before bed may be a good idea depending on how much she weighs, especially if you are trying to get her to gain a little weight back. If she is weighs much more than Tess she would be a hungry little girl.
 
Re: 11/11 Mary Grace AMPS 384 +2 275

Ann-
Thanks for the reply. I will feed her 1/2 can or 1/3 can ff pate (which do you think) before I walk out the door for work and before bedtime. I am unsure of how much she weighs. I think she was around 12lbs when the vet saw her last, but she has lost some since then. Quite a bit. I think we have an old mail scale here at work that might do the trick.
 
Re: 11/11 Mary Grace AMPS 384 +2 275

you want her weight to stabilize. cats can get very sick quickly if they lose weight too quickly. fat will literally clog her liver. i'd feed her as much as she wants in order to get it stable. not to make her gain weight, but just to stop the losing or return her to her pre-diabetes weight if she wasn't overweight then. as her BGs get stabilized her hunger will come down. as long as you're feeding her low carb, it doesn't matter much between fancy feast and friskies. i think ff is slightly more muscle meat and less by-products, but as far as getting her weight stable, you'll know you're giving her enough when she stops losing weight.

punkin weighed about 12ish pounds and we fed him a total of 3 cans of fancy feast every day + boiled chicken treats. he wasn't very active.

when a cat's BGs are high, it means that the carbs are floating in their bloodstream (what we measure) and not getting into the cells. the role of insulin is to allow the sugar (fuel) into the cells. so the unregulated cat is eating and eating, and all the sugar is floating around in the body but not getting into the cells. so the cat is starving and losing weight. this is nicknamed the starving disease. when the BGs are in normal ranges, under 120, most of the nutrients from the food are actually getting into the cells so the cat is getting the benefit of what it's eating. then their hunger returns to normal.

there is a list of foods with calories and carb information on http://www.catinfo.org - you can do the math to figure out how many calories she needs at her normal (good) weight (not a weight loss plan at this time) and give her that many calories. there is a calculator for all of that on the New to the Group Sticky, near the bottom the "feed kitty all he wants?" link.

Ann posted some suggestions on your condo from yesterday on how to check her weight.

overall, though, as far as numbers go, you can't hurry the process. while it's not good to have them high, the protocol is designed to get them into lower numbers as quickly as is safe. so we just march on. since you increased her dose this morning, you'll now hold it for 6-10 cycles depending on what the low points of the cycle are. if she goes below 50, you'll reduce the dose by .25u. after 6 days if she still hasn't gone below 50 we will look at the range of her nadirs and decide if she should hold the dose longer or increase. it's spelled out in the protocol but everyone new needs help with figuring it out for a while til you get the hang of it. when you're posting every day we're keeping an eye on you. ;-)
 
Re: 11/11 Mary Grace AMPS 384 +2 275

Thanks Julie,
I am worried about the rapid weight loss and the fatty liver disease Ann mentioned.
As for feeding her more, I know when my blood sugar is high (I am a type one diabetic wearing an insulin pump) I am very hungry too but if I eat on top of the number being high it just gets higher. I have to keep bolusing more insulin to bring the numbers down. Being a type 1 and having my brain already trained a certain way is hard to grasp the differences and parallels that feline diabetics have!!
 
Re: 11/11 Mary Grace AMPS 384 +2 275

yes, you're absolutely right: her eating more might require more insulin. but cats can take high numbers for a while. their livers are very sensitive to weight loss, so in weighing the balance, i would lean towards getting her weight stable and then we can increase the insulin to compensate for the additional food if it's needed.

we've seen cats in high numbers for weeks on end. it's not good, but as long as they don't develop other problems along with it, they'l tolerate it.

it's a balancing act.
 
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