Big Kitty throws us a curve ball

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evakot

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Hi All,

Quick re-cap of my story. My 8 y.o. cat was diagnosed just over a week ago with BG at the vet= 400. We had some perturbations with changing vets, etc. because the first one was clearly not knowlegable (prescribed 4 units of N to start with) and the second one never heard of Lantus, but ultimately agreed to prescribe it. In the meantime, I've changed my cats' diet (have a civvie too) to low-carb all wet food a day after BK was diagnosed. I was also attempting home testing, with very poor results, as more often than not I could not get his ear to bleed. Because neither I or my husband had consistant success with testing and we are not at home during the day, we were holding off with starting Lantus until we are confident we can test.

Today, I got us a new meter- ReliOn micro, because part of the problem was we could never get big enough blood drop to fill Precision Xtra strip. And....DRUM ROLL..................I succeeded with testing him tonight on the second poke and got a BG= 137 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????? Please note- HE IS NOT ON INSULIN YET, and he just ate a snack (about a teaspoon of wet food) about 1 hour before I tested him.

Now, here are my questions:
1. Is it possible that his BG went from 400 to 137 in just over a week just due to low carb diet-?
2. Could the meter be faulty? (I tested myself right before him and got BG=110, which is normal for right after dinner)
3. If the 137 is accurate, should we hold giving him insulin?

What do you guys think of this number...? Fluke or luck?

Eva
 
Congrats on getting blood on the second poke!

I'm sure someone will be along soon to help you; I have not been at this long enough to be giving advice, but I think the rule of thumb here for beginners is no shot under 200. But listen to someone who's been here longer than me :)

My cat was reading 500+ at the vet's office, and at home, we've never gotten a reading over 200. I think that's the combo of vet stress raising bg levels and changing to a low carb diet, which we did, just like you.
 
Kira & Max said:
My cat was reading 500+ at the vet's office, and at home, we've never gotten a reading over 200. I think that's the combo of vet stress raising bg levels and changing to a low carb diet, which we did, just like you.
Click to expand...

Hi and thank you for your response.

With numbers under 200, are you giving your cat insuline or just monitoring BG values?

Edited: Oh, sorry, just saw Max's spread sheet and saw that you are not shooting him anymore. CONGRATULATIONS on having a kitty in remission!

Eva
 
Hi Eva;

Generally when a cat is at the vet, the bgl will be higher than it would be at home due to vet stress.
This is not the case in 100% of the kitties out there, but it happens in a great % of them.
Sometimes a cat's bgl is also raised because kitty might have an infection of some sort, is constipated, is dehydrated, (even a small amount), or many, many other things.

Secondly, yes, a low carb diet can absolutely reduce, and in some cases, completely eliminate the need for insulin.

The very best thing that you can do is try your best to home check your kitty and monitor him frequently before placing him on insulin - all the while keeping him on a low carb canned food diet.. If you are getting bgl numbers consistently in the normal range - then lucky you! Your kitty might not need insulin at all.

~M
 
if you aren't giving the lantus yet, then yes, hold off on giving any. while it is not uncommon to shoot lantus on numbers like that, it happens ONLY after having the data to back it up and knowing well how one's cat reacts to the insulin. given that you haven't started the insulin and you are still working on testing and that's a near normal number (in some eyes it's considered within normal ranges) there's no way you should shoot any insulin right now :-D

congratulations!!!!
 
evakot said:
Hi and thank you for your response.

With numbers under 200, are you giving your cat insuline or just monitoring BG values?

Edited: Oh, sorry, just saw Max's spread sheet and saw that you are not shooting him anymore. CONGRATULATIONS on having a kitty in remission!

Eva
Click to expand...

Cross your fingers, you may have a diet-controlled kitty too! At 4 days of no shots, I'm not calling it remission yet--will go to the vet with more #'s later this week, but I'm thinking it really, really loud!
 
Arnold was 528 I think last week when they dx him at the vet. I've never gotten anything over 340 at home so it's possible your #s weren't horrible and diet is helping a LOT! :-D
 
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