Re: 9/7 ELIAN - ambg 116; 80 +3 Day 7 OTJ trial
I've been thinking about what you wrote this morning about Elian starting out in the low 100's, then eating food and later going green. It sounds like you finally stopped worrying about those 100+ morning numbers, which is great! Elian is doing so well!!
But in case you are ever concerned again about Elian's pancreas in the early morning, it may actually his healthy, normal liver that's causing those early morning 100+ numbers. I read a great article about cat livers the other day (only fellow geeks on this forum will appreciate the fact that I
enjoyed reading about cat livers!). Apparently, a healthy cat's liver recognizes when the BG gets too low and immediately converts protein to glycogen. The glycogen becomes glucose and enters the blood stream to prevent a cat from having low blood sugar when a cat hasn't eaten in a while. If a wild cat hasn't found prey for a day or so, the liver says, "Hey, you haven't eaten and your blood sugar is too low to chase prey. I'll take some protein (from the muscles if there is no food) and turn it into sugar so you have the energy to chase down that delicious rabbit" (OK, the liver doesn't actually say that, but you get the idea).
Anyway, Elian's liver could be giving him a little extra blood sugar in the morning so he can go hunting! Urban hunting, that is, which in this case is "Meow, Mom. I'm hungry!"
P.S. I would like to add for the newbies reading this that when a cat is on insulin, sometimes the BG dives too quickly for the liver to handle it, so a cat can become hypoglycemic and will need food right away. The article I referenced above is for normal, healthy cats (though I have had great success raising Mr.Cat's BG with pure protein and no carbs when Lantus sent his BG into the 40-70 range). Pure protein can work very well to raise the BG if a cat's insulin has been fairly well-regulated for several weeks. A healthy cat has no trouble converting protein to sugar within 15 minutes or so. Humans can't do that, but apparently cats can!