artrageous
Member
My cat, Riley, probably developed diabetes as a result of being on steroids to treat caudal stomatitis. I've posted before so some of you might know his (long) story, but to briefly recap, last spring he developed FHL and had 3 esophageal feeding tubes put in between early May and the end of July. I would have happily continued to tube-feed him but he had other plans and managed to remove all of them. He's been without a feeding tube since early August.
He started on 1 Unit of Lantus 2x a day on October 20th after being diagnosed with diabetes. I didn't have success early on with testing, but I've gradually gotten better. I don't test every day or several times a day, but when I took him back to the vet a week ago to check his BG, weight, etc. we agreed to increase the dosage to 1.5 U 2x a day. Since then I've been testing more often:
11/21: 372, +9
11/22: 391 AMPS
11/23: 319 +6
11/24: no test
11/25: 314 AMPS
11/26: 364 AMPS
11/27: 344 AMPS
He's eating very little dry food now, probably due to another flare-up with his throat and the stomatitis. If this gets bad again I'm not sure how we'll treat it, since I don't want him on steroids. Extractions of all teeth is something I'll consider--I already have three toothless cats due to stomatitis!--but the absolute soonest that could happen would be in about a month. I'd have to arrange to take him to a clinic that's a little over an hour away as I simply don't have the $$ to have it done locally (since it's well over $1000.... Been there, done that--repeatedly.)
I have 7 indoor cats and while they aren't too wild about it, I've switched everyone to EVO dry, since it's much lower in carbs. I'm feeding more canned to everyone, but some just won't eat it--or much of it.
ANYhow, I know that Riley isn't eating much dry food now, though I'll occasionally see him nibble some of the EVO. After trying a variety of canned foods, he's settled on Fancy Feast Kitten Tender Turkey. He eats a can of it in the morning (then I give him his shot) but over the course of the day, he'll usually eat a total of 4 cans. He was close to 14 lbs before he got sick--not overweight, he's just a big cat--and while he's been back and forth with his weight since he got sick, he was still just under 12 lbs last Saturday.
I've only done one mid-cycle (+6) test since I've been testing at home, but I realize that any test other than a "fasting" one could be skewed simply because he's eating several times a day. I don't want to try to get him to eat less often because with his history, it's really important for him to eat and to "feel good" about eating. (We went through all sorts of food aversion and everything else a few months ago.)
My vet said that we'll probably need to increase his dosage again to try to get his sugar levels under control--and I'm open to that--but I'd like to give her a decent picture of how he's doing before making another change. I'd hoped that the numbers would come down once he only had access to low carb food, but that doesn't seem to be happening. So what other test times would be good, +6 or something else? Testing still isn't all that easy and my schedule doesn't help.
Thanks for your help!
He started on 1 Unit of Lantus 2x a day on October 20th after being diagnosed with diabetes. I didn't have success early on with testing, but I've gradually gotten better. I don't test every day or several times a day, but when I took him back to the vet a week ago to check his BG, weight, etc. we agreed to increase the dosage to 1.5 U 2x a day. Since then I've been testing more often:
11/21: 372, +9
11/22: 391 AMPS
11/23: 319 +6
11/24: no test
11/25: 314 AMPS
11/26: 364 AMPS
11/27: 344 AMPS
He's eating very little dry food now, probably due to another flare-up with his throat and the stomatitis. If this gets bad again I'm not sure how we'll treat it, since I don't want him on steroids. Extractions of all teeth is something I'll consider--I already have three toothless cats due to stomatitis!--but the absolute soonest that could happen would be in about a month. I'd have to arrange to take him to a clinic that's a little over an hour away as I simply don't have the $$ to have it done locally (since it's well over $1000.... Been there, done that--repeatedly.)
I have 7 indoor cats and while they aren't too wild about it, I've switched everyone to EVO dry, since it's much lower in carbs. I'm feeding more canned to everyone, but some just won't eat it--or much of it.
ANYhow, I know that Riley isn't eating much dry food now, though I'll occasionally see him nibble some of the EVO. After trying a variety of canned foods, he's settled on Fancy Feast Kitten Tender Turkey. He eats a can of it in the morning (then I give him his shot) but over the course of the day, he'll usually eat a total of 4 cans. He was close to 14 lbs before he got sick--not overweight, he's just a big cat--and while he's been back and forth with his weight since he got sick, he was still just under 12 lbs last Saturday.
I've only done one mid-cycle (+6) test since I've been testing at home, but I realize that any test other than a "fasting" one could be skewed simply because he's eating several times a day. I don't want to try to get him to eat less often because with his history, it's really important for him to eat and to "feel good" about eating. (We went through all sorts of food aversion and everything else a few months ago.)
My vet said that we'll probably need to increase his dosage again to try to get his sugar levels under control--and I'm open to that--but I'd like to give her a decent picture of how he's doing before making another change. I'd hoped that the numbers would come down once he only had access to low carb food, but that doesn't seem to be happening. So what other test times would be good, +6 or something else? Testing still isn't all that easy and my schedule doesn't help.
Thanks for your help!
