Bouncing blood sugar levels

[Skye6262]

Hi, I am brand new to this. My cat Ragnar was hit by a car in early January 2023 and brought to the shelter with a broken pelvis. I fostered to adopt him 6 weeks later. Another 3 weeks later his right hind leg had to be amputated at which time he was suspected to be diabetic. He came home 3 weeks after the amputation - it was all delayed due to barely any communication from the shelter vet - I wasn't even told about his diabetes until one week after the amputation, then no messages from her again for a whole week, then I got upset and she got rude with me saying she didn't owe me any updates. She then said she was planning to get Bexacat for him. I pulled him three days later after reading about that medication and put him on insulin.
Problem is his blood sugar is not coming down. He had once a reading of 113 after a week of 2 U twice a day so my vet said let's do 1 U twice a day and ever since it's been messed up. His pre shot level on 1 U went up to 660 so vet said back to 2 U twice a day. Then next check up 5 days later by one of his other vets in the 500s she said she is concerned about the somogyi effect and said only one shot 1 U once a day in the morning. My vet 5 days later said no back to 2 U twice a day. I am so frustrated. He does not support home testing he wants a more hands off approach. Money is not the reason as he charges me way less than. He usually does. I have Meniere's and CJ stant balance dysfunction and am stressed to the max. Please help.

 

[tiffmaxee]

Welcome. I can’t believe all you have been through since finding Ragnar and thank you for saving his life. You need to start on the main/health forum to get set up. We are extremely data oriented and need a spreadsheet set up to give any type of dosing advice. I can’t tell you how many vets tell their clients not to test at home and it’s a huge mistake shooting blind. The best thing you can do for your cat is get a human glucose meter and start testing at minimum of before every injection and do a curve testing every 2 hours fir 12 hours. I thought my cat would hide and didn’t test fir the first month. I bought the Relion meter in case of an emergency. My vet was totally in favor of home testing but at first I brought Max for a mid cycle test a couple times a week. When the bg read 60 I started home testing. Max was a willing participant and I became a testaholic.

We also need a signature and the directions will be given by someone on the main forum. Copy your original post and start one on main. I’ll have one of the moderators move this there if you don’t see this.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Hello and welcome. A first post for you to read: New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

Thank you for saving Ragnar. Reminds me of a kitty with broken pelvis when I last worked at our local shelter. We thought he was feral, until he healed.

Regarding Symogyi - unfortunately it's something that's not real, but many vets were taught that it is. There is a phenomenon we call "bouncing", and that may be what you are seeing. If you can make your blood sugar test values viewable in something like the spreadsheet we use, we'll be able to help you with dosing. Bouncing is very common, but annoying to us:
Bouncing is simply a natural reaction to what the cat's system perceives as a BG value that is "too low". "Too low" is relative. If a cat is used to BGs in the 200's, 300's, or higher for a long time, then even a BG that drops to 150 can trigger a "bounce". Bouncing can also be triggered if the blood glucose drops too low and/or too fast.The pancreas, then the liver, release glucogon, glycogen and counter-regulatory hormones. The end result is a dumping of "sugar" into the bloodstream to save the cat from going hypoglycemic from a perceived low. The action is often referred to as "liver panic" or "panicky liver". *Usually*, a bounce will clear kitty's system within 3 days (6 cycles).https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/