3 months newly diagnosed

[Kenai_21]

Hello,
I am a 8yr old male cat. I have been recently diagnosed as a diabetic. I have been struggling some. I've lost weight. I went feom 16 pounds to 13. I don't eat much. My mom has tried all kinds of different wet, raw, boili g chicken adding baby food. My sugars are all over the place. I was fasting to have oral surgery for a mass in my mouth. After further examination my vet said she didn't think the mass was the culprit. So she did blood work. Asked if i have seen him drink more and urinate more frequently. I said yes. Well needless to say his blood sugar was 428. I have had him back and forth to the vet every week, then 2 weeks then once a month. His sugars are still high. I've been takin his sugars at home. I bought the AlphaTrak2 kit. He's ranged from lows of 64 held his insulin. He's even been as high as 646. He goes back to the vet if he's still high he is going to get difderent insulin. He went from 2 units to 5 units every 12 hrs. He takes Novolin.

 

[Yong & Maury GA]

Welcome Rupert and his Mum!
Glad you are already home testing, it's the best tool in our FD kitty tool belts. 2.0U is a higher starting dose but would also be good to know when and how much his doses were increased to get him at 5.0U now. Novolin N is kind of a faster acting insulin and can cause big drops. All those trips to and from the Vet probably aren't fun for him or your wallet, does the Vet know you are home testing?

Would you mind setting up your Signature with some information about Rupert? http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/
Will also give you the Spreadsheet instructions if you want to fill in your data. Might help us see a pattern: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
I will also leave this with you, since he has hit 64 on AT2 meter but hope you won't need it: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

It is possible Novolin N is too harsh on him and he may need a gentler insulin like Lantus/Levemir, or Prozinc. Regardless, we will try to help you and Rupert as best we can

PS. He reminds me of my boy

 

[AlphaCat]

Hi Rupert and Mom! Welcome to the world of diabetes and all the good people here that help us through this life change. I'm only one month in, and not really making headway on the glucose numbers.
So while we work on the glucose, our progress is better measured in behaviors. My Fabby went from 18 lbs to 12 lbs in four months when we took her in for diagnosis. She was very food aggressive and starving. She would stay hovered over the food bowl and only leave to go to the litter box with increased urine because of all the water she was drinking.

Since starting insulin she's stopped losing weight. She doesn't hover over the water, and she's not always food aggressive. Usually She has a glucose spike and she will have some food aggression issues. We were pretty regular in the 500's for glucose. We're also on one of the fast acting insulins. You can open up my spreadsheet to see how it looks. When I got here I was determined to use an app on my phone to track Fabby. Turns out these cat people here know a thing or two or five.... hundred. Their spreadsheet tracker is the best. If you can get yours set up it will help all the folks way more knowledgeable than me, to be able to better help get Rupert managed.

I get you on getting food into Rupert! I worry Fabby is still not eating enough to maintain the 12 lbs I usually have to chase her around with her food to get even half a can in her. Did Rupert have food issues before diabetes? Fabby didn't. She was always my good eater, and she would eat anything. Now, she has turned her nose up at chicken. The treats that keep her coming back for testing are Fancy Feast one ingredient Salmon. They are individually wrapped so I keep a few in her testing kit, so when I grab the kit she comes running. Maybe those will work for Rupert too! I just picked up some cans of tuna so I can pour a bit of tuna juice over her Friskies low carb so maybe I don't have to spend 30 minutes chasing her and even spoon feeding her. Yup... I've resorted to spoon feeding just so she'll eat enough so she can get her shot.

So, you are not alone! Welcome to the club. Nose around in the info page, there is a lot of knowledge in here, and it helps!

 

[JanetNJ]

If your cat is hitting 64 then the dose is too high! How was the dose raised? If it was raised in whole units that could be the problem... the ideal dose may have been skipped. sometimes too much insulin can look like not enough because the cat is bouncing. When the bg numbers fall more than 50 percent in a day their bodies think they are heading for hypo and over compensate causing the numbers to skyrocket back up. If you could fill out the spreadsheet suggested above we can help you with dosing.

 

[JanetNJ]

I've learned the hard way to always have a backup bottle of strips. haha If I open one and have none left I immediately buy another to have on hand.

 

[Mandy & Rex (GA)]

Welcome to the board! I'm happy to see you here. You will get a lot of information that you may not get from the vet. You may want to edit your user name to include your name to avoid any confusion. I thought you were Floyd!