Blood glucose levels in cats

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SimonKat

SimonKat

Member Since 2020
Hello all,
I wonder if you could please help me understand something. My kitty, Simon, has what I think are high blood glucose levels, running around 180-200 mg/dl, but his doctors don't want to treat him unless they get over 300. This makes no sense to me!

Some background info on Simon: he is 16, and has been on prednisolone for years for IBD, at a relatively low dose of 2.5mg every other day. He has now been diagnosed with lymphoma (), and his pred dose has been increased to 5mg/day. I noticed him drinking and urinating a lot, and since I know steroids can cause hypercalcemia, I checked his BG, and it was 187. It has continued to be around that level for a while now. Talked to his doctors, but as I said, they don't want to take action unless it goes over 300.

I just don't understand this... He can't be feeling too good, and I would think it's not good for him to be consistently hyperglycemic. Can anyone tell me what the thinking is behind this?

Many thanks!!

Kat
 
Cat so steroids can become diabetic. You might be able to control his bg with food. Is he on a low carb wet food diet? Does he have small cell? Are you giving any other drug to control it? Prednisolone will not do enough by itself.
 
Hello, thank you for your replies. Yes, Simon is on a low carb food. He was just diagnosed with lymphoma (large cell) on 12/2. He has an oncology consult scheduled for 12/10, unfortunately the earliest I could get.

I would just like to know how worried I should be about his high blood glucose readings, and if I should make the case for them being addressed sooner rather than later. I don't understand the thinking in waiting for them to go above 300. Is this common practice??

Thanks so much!

Kat
 
SimonKat said:
I don't understand the thinking in waiting for them to go above 300. Is this common practice??
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Vets are usually more concerned with the low numbers so they hesitate to use insulin unless they're higher. Cat's can tolerate high numbers better than people can.

The important thing to consider is your cat's renal threshold. That's the point in the blood glucose that his kidneys are no longer able to filter it out and it spills into the urine. Depending on where you look, that can be anywhere from about 240-280 but we know from our own experience that it can be as low as 150 and a lot higher. It's one of those "Every Cat is Different" (ECID) things.

Vet's also don't usually realize (or accept) that caretakers like us are dedicated to our cats and will do whatever we have to so they live as long as possible and are as healthy as they can be. That means being willing to home test (which most vets don't ever talk about or even actively discourage).

You might want to get some urine glucose testing strips and see if there's any glucose spilling over into his urine. If there is, that might help you convince them to start treatment.

I also second the idea of asking about trying Budesonide instead of the prednisilone. It usually doesn't effect the blood glucose as much because it's action is supposed to be mainly concentrated on the intestinal tract.
 
Make sure you are feeding only low carb wet food, not dry. What specifically are you feeding?

The numbers are slightly elevated. Normal on a human meter is 50-120 and on a pet meter it's 68-150
 
Those numbers are not awful -- they are outside of normal range but not awful. Most cats do experience "vet stress" and there blood glucose will be higher at the vet's office than at home. That may also be why the vet doesn't want to suggest insulin. Have you been testing your cat's numbers at home? If not, you may want to start home testing and see if you're getting elevated numbers when Simon hasn't been subjected to a car ride and all of the strangeness of being at the vet's office.

Janet's suggestion about low carb food is also a thought. Most of us feed our cats food that is less than 10% carbohydrate -- and many people here use food that's closer to 5%. I suspect you're also giving your cat food that is novel proteins if you've been treating the IBD. This is a chart with nutritional information for most of the canned foods that are available in the US. I have an IBD kitty and use ZiwiPeak food.

You might also want to talk to your vet about budesonide rather than prednisolone. It has less of an effect on numbers. I'm also tagging one of our members who ks knowledgeable about IBD. @Wendy&Neko
 
Right now, the large cell lymphoma is the greater of your worries compared to slightly higher blood sugar numbers. Unless the lymphoma is in the GI system, I would stick to prednisolone which is a broader based steroid than budesonide. Budesonide only impacts the GI system. Plus Simon's pred dose is actually relatively small unless he's a tiny cat. How much does he weigh?

What type of blood glucose meter are you using? If it's a pet meter, those numbers aren't much off at all. Or if you are using a human meter and the vets are thinking pet meter numbers, that may explain the difference.

I will pile onto what the others also say here. It's key to get your cat onto a low carb wet food diet if not there already. Not only will it impact his blood sugars, it'll also give less for any lymphoma to feed on.
 
Thank you for all the replies!

I agree that Simon's lymphoma is the greater worry, by far, it's just that his oncology consult isn't until the 10th, so I'm trying to help him in any way I can right now. And I agree, he has to stay on Pred for his lymphoma, which is in his middle ear of all places.

The BG monitor is a pet monitor, the Alpha Trak 2. Could someone please explain how this makes a difference?

Thanks,
Kat
PS He is eating Ziwi Peak food, which is very low carb.
 
I haven't used the AT, but I think the upper end of normal is closer to 160 on the AT, whereas 120 on the human meter. If you are only seeing numbers 20-30 points above, I wouldn't worry for now. Depending on what you are feeding now, a food change can drop his numbers too.
 
Also, the online Merck Veterinary Manual gives 250-290mg/dL as the renal threshold (point at where glucose spills over into the urine, varies from cat to cat).


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