Advice needed -have until Sept 8th to get my cat's glucose down

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Giovanna1127

Giovanna1127

Member Since 2020
Hello,

I'd like thoughts/advice on ways to get glucose down in a short amount of time, before my cat needs insulin, alternatives to insulin, ideas about how much insulin and implanting a monitor cost, and just any general advice really. I just feel like i keep making the wrong decisions!

Firstly, I am so happy to have found this forum. I found out that my 14 yr old cat, George has cancer in his small intestine (we think caused by IBD) about a month ago. After much debate, I decided on a palliative care route. We started him on steroids 2 weeks ago to reduce the inflammation in his intestines to stop chronic vomiting and alleviate any pain from inflation. He was happy, playing and running around, until the steriods.

Within days of the steroid, he wasn't playing, was drinking/eating excessively etc. Turns out the steroids gave him diabetes (in under 2 weeks!!!!!!) :(. We weaned him off and tested sugar which keeps going up (480 as of Thursday). The vet gave me until Tuesday evening to get sugar down by transitioned him overnight to a high protein wet food only diet (from a hyper allergenic dry food diet) before going the insulin route. I got an array of food to try. He's still not himself, and sneezing excessively.

I just feel like I am failing here. He's over 15 lbs and based on feeding instructions requires a lot of wet food. The advice on one of the forums to freeze some of the food was really helpful and I will try that. Am WFH now until the end of the year so can monitor him a lot more closely but am so worried about what to do when I go back to work, his quality of life and the general cost as well.

Apologies for the long post but thanks to anyone that is willing to read, I'm a bit frantic and the moment. <3
 
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Welcome to FDMB. I am very sorry for the reason you are here but glad you found us. We can help but I must say regulating diabetes with food alone may not work. Once the steroids are out of his system, it could be possible but I THINK *some* insulin will be necessary
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I'm going to take off the 911 - this is not an active medical emergency.

Which steroid are you giving George? For GI issues, budesonide can help reduce inflammation with less impact on blood sugar. My girl had either small cell lymphoma or servere IBD (probably the former but we couldn't diagnose due to her heart). She was on budesonide cause her heart also could not take prednisolone which is the common treatment. Budesonide did not impact her blood sugars. And by the way SCL or small cell lymphoma is very treatable. With the right treatment protocol (daily steroid and a chemo drug every 2 weeks), the majority of cats with this condition go into remission.

I fed my girl raw food. She was almost but not quite 15 lbs - we had agreement about not going that high. :p Anyway, raw food has lots of protein options, useful if George has IBD. Here is a website on feeding raw for IBD cats. It is also low carb and quite filling. My girl only needed about 4 oz a day to fill her up. For canned food, a 5.5 oz can was enough.

Insulin is not the end of the world, and for many cats is the path to regulation and happy lives. Several of them also go into remission - a lot who started diabetes because of steroids. A lot of people here work and have diabetic cats. Home testing his blood sugars will give you peace of mind, knowing that he is at a safe dose. Another tip, buy an automated feeder for when you are away at work. The Petsafe 5 is a popular one here. Food is the tool we use to keep our sugar kitties safe.
 
Wendy - Thank you for your reply and useful information. Please excuse my ignorance on the use of the 911, still figuring the forum out.

Re Steroid - He was on predinsolone. 10 mg/day at first, then 5, then 2.5, now 0. I will talk to my vet about budesonide, thanks for the recommendation.

Re cancer- ultrasound/fine needle aspirator were inconclusive on type but narrowed down to a few. Lymphoma was one possibility.

Re raw food- Good suggestion, I have been researching this a bit. Helpful to know the serving sizes that you feed you cat, my vet told me to follow feeding instructions, which, depending on the food and his weight, could be up to and even over 3 5.5 oz cans/day in some cases, and run up to $140/month. I asked to join the FB group in the link that you shared on raw food for IBD cats, so thanks again for all of the useful info.

Do you have any specific raw food recommendations?

Re auto feeder: I got rid of my petsafe 5 about two weeks ago, so kicking myself for it now!!!!! Will consider this + raw food, after Tuesdays bloodwork comes back.

Thanks again for the very useful info.
 
Giovanna1127 said:
Do you have any specific raw food recommendations?
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I live in Canada, so my options may vary from yours. I had a good friend who worked at a local raw food manufacturer. She did the sourcing, so I knew they were using good ingredients. That was the first raw food I fed. Over time I did switch some of the protein options over to EZComplete home made. Some of the commercially available raw include ground bones for chicken, turkey, rabbit, which made them higher in phosphorus than my CKD girl could eat.
Giovanna1127 said:
Re cancer- ultrasound/fine needle aspirator were inconclusive on type but narrowed down to a few. Lymphoma was one possibility.
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A fine needle aspirate should be able to identify large cell lymphoma (masses), but not small cell. For that you need either an endoscopy or surgical biopsy.
 
From what I have read and heard budesonide is not effective for intestinal lymphoma. If it is small-cell intestinal lymphoma then the standard treatment is prednisolone and chlorambucil. Chlorambucil is an oral drug and is not that expensive if obtained from a compounding pharmacy. Leukeran is brand name chlorambucil and is very expensive. I would use chlorambucil as prescribed by a vet. My Mario had small-cell intestinal lymphoma and was treated with Chlorambucil since the oncologist did not what to add prednisolone because of his diabetes. The first oncologist had three days a weeks dosing of oncologist but after that oncologist left the frequency was changed to a larger dose every two weeks. That was much better.
 
My Neko took budesonide for her small cell lymphoma. It worked and reduced the inflammation of her bowels by 35%, back down to normal size. The small cell lymphoma group I belong to suggests budesonide for diabetic cats, or heart kitties that cannot take prednisolone. My cat's internal medicine vet also suggested budesonide, in consult with an oncologist vet. Budesonide is not first choice, as prednisolone is recommended treatment, but not all kitties can or should take prednisolone. This is a discussion best had with the vet. My other two SCL kitties are/were on prednisolone with Leukeran, which is only expensive in the US.
 
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