Bob's glucose curve

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Lkldcatlady

Lkldcatlady

Member Since 2013
I'm doing a curve on Bob today, but I haven't done any changes with his food yet, he's still eating the dry DM. I kind of just wanted to see what was happening at this point....we went to the vet yesterday and she said the fact that he is in the mid 300's (fasting) in the am is not a horrible thing. She would like to see him a little lower, but she said it could be much worse. She increased him to 5 in the am and kept him at 5 in the pm. His +6 number was 150!!! :o Although I'm happy to see that the insulin is actually working, I'm feeling a little nervous - this is the lowest I've seen since he was diagnosed. I wonder how low it would go if he wasn't eating regularly (scary!)??? I am noticing he seems to be evening out a little - mid 300's in the am and 400's in the pm right before his shot. I'm not seeing the 500's and 600's lately. I am only feeding him the 1/3 cup in the am and the pm right at his shot time. Any thoughts? Does this mean the insulin is working? Is this normal?
 
It means the insulin is working and trying to "battle" the high carb food. (like a human diabetic eating doughnuts and taking insulin to bring down his numbers)

How about telling us everything you have done to get Bob to eat wet? Maybe we'll have more ideas. Are you trying the Young Again? If not, how about a lower carb dry?
 
Yes, the insulin is having some effect.

The dry food is probably too high carb and keeping him elevated. There are very few dry foods that are low carb - Evo Cat and Kitten, Young Again Zero Carb, and Wellness Core Original formula. We encourage feeding wet foods because may not get enough moisture in their diets when fed only dry foods, stressing the kidneys.

Its good you are testing, as you can be sure it is safe to give insulin before injecting.

If you switch to low carb canned or raw, his levels may drop 100 points, and need less insulin. This will save you money in the long run.
 
Lkldcatlady said:
I'm doing a curve on Bob today, but I haven't done any changes with his food yet, he's still eating the dry DM. I kind of just wanted to see what was happening at this point....we went to the vet yesterday and she said the fact that he is in the mid 300's (fasting) in the am is not a horrible thing. She would like to see him a little lower, but she said it could be much worse. She increased him to 5 in the am and kept him at 5 in the pm. His +6 number was 150!!! :o Although I'm happy to see that the insulin is actually working, I'm feeling a little nervous - this is the lowest I've seen since he was diagnosed. I wonder how low it would go if he wasn't eating regularly (scary!)??? I am noticing he seems to be evening out a little - mid 300's in the am and 400's in the pm right before his shot. I'm not seeing the 500's and 600's lately. I am only feeding him the 1/3 cup in the am and the pm right at his shot time. Any thoughts? Does this mean the insulin is working? Is this normal?
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What's your feeding schedule - how much of what food and when? You mention the canned in your signature but no mention above how much and when Bob gets the wet food.

That dose is too high. If it will make you feel better, you can drop back to 4u am and pm and slowly start to drop the dry and increase the wet. If Bob is eating fancy feast canned well, forget about wasting your time with any Young Again dry food. Dry food is not good for diabetics, so suggestions to switch from one lousy dry food to a less lousy dry food is not a good idea.

If he were not eating the dry, you could be in big trouble and sitting at the ER while they try to bring up his numbers.

If you can do a full curve, testing every 2 hours from shot to the next shot, and posting the numbers along with the food fed and when, it will give people an idea how to proceed with Bob's dosing and diet changes.

Gayle
 
Bob only gets canned when he wants to eat it (and its not that often and the only one he will eat is the fish) Right now all 3 cats are eating 1/3 cup dry in the morning right after Bob's shot and in the evening right after his shot - the food is usually completely gone by 3-4 hours later. I haven't really tried everything on the food yet. It just makes me nervous because I know changing his food causes him to be stubborn and not eat and with giving him the insulin, I want to make sure he's eating. I have bought the young again and was planning on starting to switch him this weekend. I also looked into the EVO dry. I want to do what's best for my cat, but to be honest, I haven't had good experience with the wet food. I have 3 cats in a small apartment and the other two love the canned food but it gives them stomach issues. Also, Bob won't eat his and they eat it before he does. I don't want to stress him out by locking him up with his food (that he may or may not eat). If I lock the other two up, they kill each other. Honestly, I think having cats is more stressful that kids! My head is just spinning - before Hector (crystals in the urine) came along, I fed natural dry foods to my all of cats and I've never had any problem. All of my cats passed away from either cancer or kidney failure (diabetes is new!). Then Hector came along and had urinary issues and everyone needed to switch to the Purina UR. I HATE the garbage in all commercial pet foods (including Purina - I just didn't have a choice in that matter). The Young Again freaks me out a little because it's dry and has no carbs (weird). The Evo sounds like a quality food, but P&G owns them now and they just had that recall. It's just going to be a process before I figure out exactly how I want to handle the food issue, but I will do what is best for all 3 cats. As long as I don't die from stress first!
 
Dara, just do the best you can and keep monitoring Bob's BG. It seems like you are getting some response from the insulin now although I agree that 5 U is a lot of insulin. I wrote a post about my cat Simon's experience with switching over to canned food from dry only and the immense positive impact that it had on him physically. I always thought that expensive Hills SD or other pricey dry foods were really good for our furry friends, but it seems that cheap old FF classics has been just what my Simon needed all along. Shocked me to be honest with you. I was feeding him Hills SD DD for cats with skin issues and it just made them stick around although they were less awful with that than when the shelter was feeding him Meow Mix or some such. BUT, within 12 days of switching to the FF classics, his skin issues that he had for years are gone! Plus, he is slowly losing weight and his BG numbers are falling as well.

Although it might be a big hassle to get Bob and your other cats eating only wet food, from where I sit, it will save you a lot of heartache and financial strain down the road if you can find a way to do it. My understanding is that the tummy issues do correct themselves in a short time if you stick it out so you won't have to deal with that too long. I guess it is like if we go to a different country and eat food that we are not used to and get toilet issues! Of course, if there is another medical reason not to feed canned, you should of course do what your Vet says in that regard.

Just wanted to share my experience with you. I feel strongly that the switch to canned food has made such a HUGE difference in my Simon's health, I had to share it with you. :!:
 
It reduces GI issues to slowly shift from one food to another.
You might make a 25% change per day
Day 1 - 25%
Day 2 - 50%
Day 3 - 75%
Day 4 - done!

Or you might go really slowly and only change 10% per day.

It may help to use FortiFlora - beneficial bacteria - while you transition as an additional preventative against GI upset.
 
Well, I bought a new kind of ff - it's tender beef & chicken feast (I will refrain from looking at the ingredients) and I'll give it a try tonight....maybe I'll do the 25%.
 
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