9/19/23 New Member

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Crystal & SirLoki

Crystal & SirLoki

Member Since 2023
Hello everyone! I was happy to find this forum as my husband and I have been struggling with our boy Loki. He was suddenly diagnosed with feline diabetes in March of this year. He is 9 year old Devon Rex. In March, he suddenly, over the course of about a week, developed symptoms and stopped eating. Over the course of about 3 days in kitty ICU, we discovered he had severe pancreatitis and diabetic ketosis. He went into remission for about a month, but then had to require insulin again regularly. He is now on 2 units of Lantis twice daily with each meal, and eats Hills d/m wet food.

We think he may have IBS on top of his diabetes, and as a result it has been challenging to prevent dehydration. This past weekend he had to stay overnight at the ER vet for dehydration and ketosis again. We have been using Libre continuous monitors, but just obtained an AlphaTrak3 to home test more regularly for monitoring.
 
Welcome to FDMB!

I'm glad to see you have a spreadsheet set up and it looks like you've been testing Loki's blood glucose. That's a great start! One observation.... You will want to get at least one test during the PM cycle. Many cats experience lower numbers at night.You don't want to miss numbers that would indicate a dose reduction. In addition, if you don't test at night, you're missing half of your data.

I'd encourage you to also test for ketones. You can purchase Ketostix at most pharmacies. These are strips that will test a cat's urine and let you know if ketones are present. For any cat that is a (relatively) recent ketone survivor, it's a great bit of prevention to test for ketones. There are also blood ketone meters is you prefer to not stalk your cat to the litter box.

The AlphaTrak is a good meter. The downside is that the strips are very expensive. They cost about $1.00 each. A great many people here use a human meter to test and many use the Walmart Relion brand. The strips for the Relion meters are about $0.17 each.

With regard to IBS, many cats with IBS can be managed on diet of novel proteins. Depending on what you've been feeding Loki, you would eliminate any types of protein that were a part of his diet and switch to proteins he has has no experience with. The more common novel proteins are venison, rabbit, kangaroo, and likely others that I'm not thinking of. A number of members have also switched their IBS cats to a raw diet. This website is a great source of information about raw feeding for IBD cats. Even if you don't opt for a raw diet, their information on managing symptoms is wonderful.
 
Hi and welcome. I’m sorry I did not see this tag earlier.
To prevent DKA and ketones again I would recommend the following:
  • you need to give one and a half times as many calories as he/she normally eats. Offer snacks every couple of hours during the day and evening as well as the 2 main meals. Food is like a medicine and helps keep ketones away. If your kitty won’t eat the low carb food, feed him whatever he will eat as eating any food is better than not eating. It can be challenging if you think he has IBD but Sienne has given you some advice with that.
  • Don’t skip any doses of insulin as insulin helps keep ketones away. If the BG is not high enough to give the dose…stall, dont feed and test again in 20 minutes and post and ask for help.
  • Test daily for ketones. This is very important. Put the results of the tests into the remarks column of the SS so we can see. Please report any trace ketones at all. You will need to buy a bottle of Ketostix from Walmart or a pharmacy and follow the directions on the bottle.
  • Give antinausea medication if needed such as ondansetron or cerenia.
  • Give appetite stimulant if needed after the antinausea medication
  • Give extra fluids. If kitty will tolerate warm water in the food, put a teaspoon into each snack… this will help stop dehydration.
  • Ask the vet about subQ fluids if dehydration is an ongoing problem.
  • Try and get some tests in during the cycles as well s the preshot BGs.
  • Have a look at our two dosing methods and choose one to follow. I would recommend you look at the tight regulation method as that is a better one if ketones or DKA have been a problem. DOSING METHODS
  • Post daily with updates and ask for help as often as needed.
 
Hi!
Thank you so much for all the advice recommended here! I am working on getting some glucose tests done during the day and evening in between the preshot tests. During the day can be difficult for me, as I am in grad school so sometimes I am not home during the day to get the test done. My husband and I have found it difficult to test his glucose with just one person, Loki is a wild man and gives us a VERY hard time trying to prick his ears. I think he is still getting used to the daily testings, so hopefully it improves over time. Last night was a bit of a disaster as he flinched when we were pricking his ear and so instead of a small poke, the lancet left a larger hole that bled more and left more bruising. I felt very bad at how it went and went to bed feeling so guilty that his poor ear got so mangled. This morning went much better, but still trying to get better at using the lancet with him.

We are also working on getting some ketone tests in. We have the strips but need to find a way to test when he urinates. (We have a litter robot so it can be difficult to get the test strip in there under him). I will try and figure out a way to get that done more regularly. I think we are using the more tight regulated system. (we are following what our internist vet has suggested, so insulin with food twice daily and wants testing before each shot and then at least once in between during the day and evening). She had us bump up Loki's insulin to 2.5 units just yesterday so I am intending to test at least 4 times a day. We are also going to attach a Libre to him next week for continuous monitoring numbers with the 2.5 units dose. Unfortunately they do not last very long, but at least 48 hours of data is useful and gives his ears a break. I also appreciate the suggestion to give snacks through the day. We typically give Loki Churus as a little snack or treat after getting his ears pricked for testing, but that might also serve as a snack during the day too.

Thankfully, our internist also just gave us a bag of fluids that we can hold onto to give subq fluids when needed, as well as needles to set up the drip. So hopefully, this will avoid any dehydration ER visits for now.

We have been using the AlphaTrak, but are looking into a cheaper human meter to lower costs. Is the Walmart Relion brand a human meter? We are probably going to switch to that within at least the next week or so to help with the costs of the testing supplies.

Thank you again for all the information and suggestions! I really appreciate any and all input to help care for my Loki!
 
Hi and welcome to the group. A lot of members use the Relion meters with good results.

I had good success using a blood ketone meter, the strips are expensive but it was worth it to me. We used the Nova Max Plus.

My boy Hendrick also went through diabetic keto-acidosis (DKA) and was hospitalized. So scary. This group is amazing though they saved me, my sanity, and my boy. The members here have vast combined experience with feline diabetes, far more than any vet.
 
Another quick question, what would be a recommendation on lancets? Loki has been fighting and absolutely hating the ear pokes and I am wondering if we can find a smaller or better lancet to use which he might find less painful and stressful? We are using the ones included in the AlphaTrak kit right now. I have no idea what gauge they are.
 
So sorry in the response delay, have been super busy with school.
Loki has been doing okay. We had difficulty getting a libre attached to him this weekend because his fur is so very fine and the sensor does not apply very well to him as a result. We have been doing a glucose curve for this new insulin dose (2.5 units). I think he will definitely need to be bumped up to 3 units but our internist said she wanted to see a second day of data before we fully decide on that. He has been handling the ear pricks a little better. (My husband is his favorite person, so he tolerates the ear pricks much better when my husband does them).
We also tried the Hydracare packets to keep him from getting dehydrated and it turns out he loves those, so that has also helped a lot. I am a bit behind in filling in the spreadsheet with numbers from our glucose meter, but haven't had any low numbers. He is ranging in the 300s-400s mostly. We will likely increase his insulin sometime in this next week. We also haven't had any ketones on the urine dipstick so that is also good!
 
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