5/17 Jubalee AMBG 214=149/+3 (OTJ Officially 5/14) Feeling Discouraged

[Kadie (Juba's Mom)]

Good day everyone,

Well...it may be looking like Juba's OTJ days have been numbered. This morning she was 214.
I have absolutely no reasoning why she is this high, the highest she's been since starting her new life without insulin.
I decided to take away the beef flavors of Fancy Feast, since I heard that could be a culprit and only give her the poultry varieties. We bought the automatic feeders, increased her feed times to every 4 hours (now started every 3 hours even smaller meals) and are giving her something to eat at night. I'm so crazy anal with her glucose that I still check it 4x/day just to be on the safe side.
When I saw that 200 number this morning I freaked.
At +3 she was 149, which I was glad she was going down, so she got fed again because she would not leave me alone begging for food.
I'm contemplating making an appointment tomorrow to see if the vet can get her in this week.
Should I get her teeth cleaned?
My husband and I can't go through another DKA episode (both mentally/emotionally and financially) again.
Advice?

 

[manxcat419]

Hi Kadie

Is there any way at all Juba could have got into some high carb food - not necessarily cat food...some kitties will steal bread or other human food if they can? A food allergy is always possible - you might want to see if you can get some novel protein food to see if that makes a difference to her numbers (some cats can be allergic to chicken rather than beef).

If she hasn't had a dental check recently, that would be worth getting done in case there are any underlying problems that might have caused her BG to spike.

Oh, and if you have any Ketostix, a quick home check for ketones certainly wouldn't hurt at this point.

If you can't find any obvious cause for her numbers being higher and she doesn't come back down, then it might be that she needs a tiny dose of insulin for support for a little longer, but you want to see if she can bring that number back down on her own first. And it makes sense to make sure that she isn't in pain from a tooth problem or similar too.

I really hope Juba comes back down into better numbers for you later today.

 

[Kadie (Juba's Mom)]

Hi Kadie

Is there any way at all Juba could have got into some high carb food - not necessarily cat food...some kitties will steal bread or other human food if they can? A food allergy is always possible - you might want to see if you can get some novel protein food to see if that makes a difference to her numbers (some cats can be allergic to chicken rather than beef).

If she hasn't had a dental check recently, that would be worth getting done in case there are any underlying problems that might have caused her BG to spike.

Oh, and if you have any Ketostix, a quick home check for ketones certainly wouldn't hurt at this point.

If you can't find any obvious cause for her numbers being higher and she doesn't come back down, then it might be that she needs a tiny dose of insulin for support for a little longer, but you want to see if she can bring that number back down on her own first. And it makes sense to make sure that she isn't in pain from a tooth problem or similar too.

I really hope Juba comes back down into better numbers for you later today.

Thanks Manxcat April!
What type of novel protein should I possibly try? Juba loves all her Fancy Feast flavors, but I slowly eased her off of the seafood ones since they are high in phosphorus.

While Juba was being seen in the ER, the vets did say she had a tooth that was possible inflamed, but they were terribly concerned with it. I will check out her mouth to see if there's any teeth looking suspicious.

We don't have ketone strips, but that would be a good idea to get since she was over 200 this morning.

I think if her number at +5 hasn't dropped from 149, then I'm going to call the vet tomorrow and hopefully we can get Juba in the next day and run a full blood panel on her. She hasn't had a full panel done since she was in the ER.

 

[manxcat419]

I know some people have been able to find food with duck, kangaroo or other similar meats in that a cat with allergies likely won't have eaten before. I think you might have to order online to get anything like that though - I don't think I've seen anything like that in stores. From the cat food chart at catinfo.org, it looks as though Hounds & Gatos do a Rabbit and Duck Liver flavor and some of the Nature's Variety Instinct, Max Cat and Ziwipeak look as though they might be worth trying too.

If she has an inflamed tooth, that could cause her levels to be higher if she's in any pain from it at all.

And yes, I agree - if she stays in the sort of numbers she's been in today, a vet visit to check blood work would be a good idea - if there's anything else going on that's causing her BG to spike, you really need to know about it sooner rather than later.

 

[Kadie (Juba's Mom)]

Alright, well I just tested Juba's urine with a ketone strip at +7 and it came out negative!! I held it right in her urine stream, making sure it was evenly coated, lol.
That made me feel much better knowing she didn't test for ketones as least.
I unfortunately was running errands and wasn't able to get a +5, and Juba just ate her 3rd meal today, so I'll trst her again at +8.5 to see how she's doing.
If she is high(er) again I will call the vet tomorrow. She is acting completely and totally normal, and had been super lovey today and eating all her meals.
Thank you so much for the alternative meat suggestions!! I'm going to do some experimenting tonight (because she hasn't eaten beef yet today) and see if it's the beef. Tomorrow I will experiment if it's the chicken/poultry.
All I know is she loved the Fancy Feast seafood flavors, but I was too concerned with the high phosphorus numbers they contained.

 

[manxcat419]

Great news on the negative ketones! That's one thing you don't have to worry about for now at least.

I think it's got to be worth a try with different food combinations to see if something in one of her usual foods might be causing the spikes in BG. But I agree, contacting your vet if her numbers don't improve is a good idea. A quick check up to identify any possible dental problems has to be worthwhile at this point.

All the cats here love anything with fish in it too - I do make sure they don't get it too often, but of course I allow it sometimes...I want them to be healthy so they have a good qol, but not at the expense of making them unhappy because they never get the things they really love either...it's all a balancing act and all any of us can do is our best! As an interim measure, you could try letting her have some seafood cat food for a day or so to replace her usual flavors just to see if that makes a difference too - you probably wouldn't want her on just those long term as too much seafood isn't the best thing for cats, but it does give you another option to try that you know she would eat. If she doesn't actively need low phosphorus food I don't think a day or so would do any harm.