Karen & Biscuits
Member Since 2021
Hello everyone, I've been a member here for a long time now but absent from the board for quite awhile due to some major life changes and making a big move with all of my cats. I'm finally getting settled into my new home and have a bit more time to devote to this group and update you on what's happening with Biscuits and Skittles, my sugar babies.
Back in October, I was forced to move from Georgia to Kentucky and it's been a nightmare to say the least. I did not want to move but had no choice. Suffice it to say, it has been hard on the cats. I took 36 cats with me, all of my strays and ferals (minus one that got left behind and that's another awful story), and once we got here, 2 went missing. One returned after 3 weeks and the other is still gone.
I am in a much better frame of mind, to some degree, after getting out of a toxic situation that was getting dangerous and I can focus on my cats now without issues.
Biscuits is still seriously out of whack with her sugar. Some of you may recall, last October, she had gone to the vet to have her feet cleaned (she gets litter stuck in her feet due to neuropathy and having less sensation). She had an infection in her feet and she got antibiotics at the vet and they sent her home. That night she had significant pain and I called the vet and they suggested 1/2 a cc of gabapentin to help her with the pain. I gave her that and almost lost her the next morning when she was barely breathing. We found out her sugar had dropped to 28 and it was very scary. I immediately gave her sugar water, one drop at a time, because she was almost unconscious, and as her sugar came back up, she went into a grand mal seizure when it got to around 66 or so. We rushed her to the vet and it took them over 90 minutes to bring her out of the seizure. She continued to have seizures throughout the day and night but the next morning a different vet examined her and started her on midazolam 5 mg and the seizures stopped instantly. She has not had another one since then, but I do believe that big one did some brain damage. She's not the same cat now. She no longer wants to be held, she bites, something she never did before, she has bowel accidents and no longer covers her litter when she does use the litter box. Her sugar is all over the place.
Someone here recommended Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein Chicken for diabetic cats who like kibble. She and her brothers love it but her sugar easily shoots up to 300-500 no matter what I do. She eats Weruva Cats in the Kitchen wet food in the morning, 1/3 of a can because I split it between her and the 2 boys. She sometimes cleans up what they don't eat but generally, they all eat their own portions completely. I have tried not feeding her kibble but it makes no difference. Her sugar is still high, which makes me believe she's either in pain somewhere or we're on the wrong insulin. She is currently on Levemir but with her sugar so unstable, I honestly don't know what dose to give her because sometimes it dips below 100 and other times it's 500 and higher and after that incident with the seizure, I am terrified of giving her insulin when she goes below 100 for obvious reasons. I had her on 3 units twice a day for a long time, then the vet suggested 3.5 units, but nothing seems to work. Prior to Levemir, she was on Vetsulin and that didn't work either.
Her brother, Skittles is on Vetsulin and he does well on that. He stays between 120-250, depending on his food intake. He saw a new vet here recently, so we could continue with the Vetsulin in KY, and he upped it to 5 units twice a day and so far his sugar is stable at about 130-150, still not where I'd like it to be but much better than it was. The rest of his bloodwork looked really good for his age so the vet said just to keep doing what we're doing. He's eating the exact same diet as Biscuits and their brother Purrcey, all 3 are on Dr. Elsey's dry food and the Weruva CIK wet food. Purrcey is not diabetic thankfully. All 3 are littermates though.
I did have a spreadsheet some time ago for Biscuits, but it hasn't been updated in a very long time. I may just delete what was there and start over - or would that be a bad idea?
What would you recommend for her at this point to bring her sugar down? I'm really at a loss.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I wish you a blessed weekend.
Karen, Biscuits and Skittles
Back in October, I was forced to move from Georgia to Kentucky and it's been a nightmare to say the least. I did not want to move but had no choice. Suffice it to say, it has been hard on the cats. I took 36 cats with me, all of my strays and ferals (minus one that got left behind and that's another awful story), and once we got here, 2 went missing. One returned after 3 weeks and the other is still gone.
I am in a much better frame of mind, to some degree, after getting out of a toxic situation that was getting dangerous and I can focus on my cats now without issues.
Biscuits is still seriously out of whack with her sugar. Some of you may recall, last October, she had gone to the vet to have her feet cleaned (she gets litter stuck in her feet due to neuropathy and having less sensation). She had an infection in her feet and she got antibiotics at the vet and they sent her home. That night she had significant pain and I called the vet and they suggested 1/2 a cc of gabapentin to help her with the pain. I gave her that and almost lost her the next morning when she was barely breathing. We found out her sugar had dropped to 28 and it was very scary. I immediately gave her sugar water, one drop at a time, because she was almost unconscious, and as her sugar came back up, she went into a grand mal seizure when it got to around 66 or so. We rushed her to the vet and it took them over 90 minutes to bring her out of the seizure. She continued to have seizures throughout the day and night but the next morning a different vet examined her and started her on midazolam 5 mg and the seizures stopped instantly. She has not had another one since then, but I do believe that big one did some brain damage. She's not the same cat now. She no longer wants to be held, she bites, something she never did before, she has bowel accidents and no longer covers her litter when she does use the litter box. Her sugar is all over the place.
Someone here recommended Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein Chicken for diabetic cats who like kibble. She and her brothers love it but her sugar easily shoots up to 300-500 no matter what I do. She eats Weruva Cats in the Kitchen wet food in the morning, 1/3 of a can because I split it between her and the 2 boys. She sometimes cleans up what they don't eat but generally, they all eat their own portions completely. I have tried not feeding her kibble but it makes no difference. Her sugar is still high, which makes me believe she's either in pain somewhere or we're on the wrong insulin. She is currently on Levemir but with her sugar so unstable, I honestly don't know what dose to give her because sometimes it dips below 100 and other times it's 500 and higher and after that incident with the seizure, I am terrified of giving her insulin when she goes below 100 for obvious reasons. I had her on 3 units twice a day for a long time, then the vet suggested 3.5 units, but nothing seems to work. Prior to Levemir, she was on Vetsulin and that didn't work either.
Her brother, Skittles is on Vetsulin and he does well on that. He stays between 120-250, depending on his food intake. He saw a new vet here recently, so we could continue with the Vetsulin in KY, and he upped it to 5 units twice a day and so far his sugar is stable at about 130-150, still not where I'd like it to be but much better than it was. The rest of his bloodwork looked really good for his age so the vet said just to keep doing what we're doing. He's eating the exact same diet as Biscuits and their brother Purrcey, all 3 are on Dr. Elsey's dry food and the Weruva CIK wet food. Purrcey is not diabetic thankfully. All 3 are littermates though.
I did have a spreadsheet some time ago for Biscuits, but it hasn't been updated in a very long time. I may just delete what was there and start over - or would that be a bad idea?
What would you recommend for her at this point to bring her sugar down? I'm really at a loss.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I wish you a blessed weekend.
Karen, Biscuits and Skittles
