Cat diabetes

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Sara K

Sara K

Member Since 2022
My cat was recently diagnosed with diabetes. He started 1 unit of insulin twice a day March 9th. On Monday March 14, he had his first low of 60 so they dropped him to half a unit twice a day. I did that and he's still having lows. Now the doctor is out of town and they are telling me to keep him on the same half a unit and to bring him to the emergency room when he gets a low. I gave him 1/4 a unit today and he still had a low. Before food and insulin he's around 275-300 for blood sugar. Anyway, for food I'm mixing him one pack of weruva b.f.f chicken and turkey, 1 container of tiki cat compliments chicken recipe in chicken broth and 21 grams of ziwi peak chicken recipe. I also add a teaspoon of pumpkin. I mix it up really well and measure it out. Basically, I'm curious if people would continue giving insulin or maybe he doesn't need it anymore being on a low carb diet??
 
Hi Sara first thing we need to find out what insulin he's on. I assume you are home testing
Can you please click on the blue link I'll give you and give us the information we need.
Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help.

Can you set up our spreadsheet , we use this to track our cats BG to see how the insulin is working and how low they are dropping and when. You can take a look at anyone's spreadsheet to get an idea . If you have trouble setting it up just ask and we can have a member set it up for you. We need to see his BG numbers before anyone can give you some advice

This link will also explain how the spreadsheet works
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
 
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Welcome to the club Sara, you found the right place for answers

sometimes cats get diabetes from being on prednisone, were there any other health concerns with your cat prior to the diabetes diagnosis?
 
He has a freestyle Libra installed so is there an easy way to upload that data here?
 
Thanks for adding your signature, you can still set up the spreadsheet and put those numbers in, would you like me to tag someone to set it up for you
 
What was the lowest BG you got today on the 0.25 unit
Was he on any kibble before feeding LC wet
Bhooma lives in India and it's 7:30 AM there right now, she should be on a little later
 
It was 91 on a downward trend so it would've gotten lower, but I gave him a wet food snack and it went up slowly. He got to 60 on half a unit. His lowest number is usually around 6 hours after his insulin shot. I'm going to actually try to work on that spreadsheet when my daughter goes to bed here in 20 minutes.
 
Sara K said:
It was 91 on a downward trend so it would've gotten lower, but I gave him a wet food snack and it went up slowly. He got to 60 on half a unit. His lowest number is usually around 6 hours after his insulin shot. I'm going to actually try to work on that spreadsheet when my daughter goes to bed here in 20 minutes.
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I found this posted by one of our members
Here's my handy dandy cheat sheet for feeding the curve and testing during low numbers:
60 or higher: LC (0-10% carb) + test in an hour
50-59 : MC (11-15% carb) + test every 30 minutes
49 or below: HC (>16% carb) + test every 15-20 minutes and then for two hours after the lowest number appeared until they start going up
 
Actually, I looked more at the spreadsheet and it's kind of confusing so I would like help.
 
Just to explain the SS to you
First is the column for the date
AMPS means AM Pre Shot first test in the morning
U column. How many units you gave
+1 means 1 hour after you gave the insulin the BG would go there
+2. 2 hours after giving insulin ditto
+3. 3 hours. ditto as so on until you get to
PMPS. PM Pre Shot. then you would do the same thing as the AMPS
 
He's been fully switched off the dry food since March 9th. Oh ya... when he first was diagnosed his numbers stayed in the 400s. I noticed the more LC wet food he ate the lower his number got even without insulin. Before he started insulin his blood glucose went down after eating LC wet food sometimes even down in the 100s. I always thought blood glucose went up after eating, but I've never really dealt with diabetes before.
 
Sara K said:
He's been fully switched off the dry food since March 9th. Oh ya... when he first was diagnosed his numbers stayed in the 400s. I noticed the more LC wet food he ate the lower his number got even without insulin. Before he started insulin his blood glucose went down after eating LC wet food sometimes even down in the 100s. I always thought blood glucose went up after eating, but I've never really dealt with diabetes before.
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It usually will go up around 1 or 2 hours after feeding ( a food bump)
Once we get you set up with the SS and see his numbers who knows switching him over to all LC might have gotten him into remission , he will still be diabetic but diet controlled

We withhold food 2 hours before the first test in the morning and at night

Normal on a human meter is 50-100 with some low 100’s.
 
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As I was making Brady's food tonight, I realized that I said he's all LC wet when he actually has 21 grams of air dried ziwi peak in there.
 
Sara K said:
As I was making Brady's food tonight, I realized that I said he's all LC wet when he actually has 21 grams of air dried ziwi peak in there.
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I'm sorry I have never used air dried ziwi peak as long as it's low carb that's fine
To tell you the truth I don't even know what that is lol
 
I tried all LC wet, but I couldn't get him to eat enough. Ziwi peak is very high in calories (so I could use very little) and low in carbs so I tried adding that in and now he can eat his whole meal.
 
One thing the vet told me is that I shouldn't be mixing food like I am and that she doesn't think it'll work as well. What are your thoughts on that? She said I should be consistently be using one food like hills diabetic diet.
 
Sara K said:
I tried all LC wet, but I couldn't get him to eat enough. Ziwi peak is very high in calories (so I could use very little) and low in carbs so I tried adding that in and now he can eat his whole meal.
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Perfect , I just did a search on our site and yes it's low carb, these fussy cats
 
Sara K said:
One thing the vet told me is that I shouldn't be mixing food like I am and that she doesn't think it'll work as well. What are your thoughts on that? She said I should be consistently be using one food like hills diabetic diet.
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There is nothing special about the Hills Diabetic Food at all. I'll tell you one thing the members here are so experienced , In my opinion they know more than most vets do, some are here 25 yes or more. If it wasn't for the members here Tyler wouldn't be in remission now . What was it the wet Hills D/M?
 
I found this posted by one of our members
ZiwiPeak has an air dried raw line of food. It looks like a small, jerky-style treat. My cats love the stuff. It's low carb and a little bit goes a long way. There are no grains, additives, gums, or carageenan in the food.
 
Agreed! When I did some research on the diabetic cat foods out there they are like 26% carbs and the ingredients are pretty sad. They wanted me to do only dry food...
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
I found this posted by one of our members
ZiwiPeak has an air dried raw line of food. It looks like a small, jerky-style treat. My cats love the stuff. It's low carb and a little bit goes a long way. There are no grains, additives, gums, or carageenan in the food.
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Yep that's exactly what I'm using. I hardly have to use any to get the extra calories in there for him. He won't eat it in his wet food unless I chop it up into like dust though.... Once again... These fussy cats! Lol
 
Hi @Diane Tyler's Mom! Am a little late getting online this morning :-)

@Sara K Welcome to FDMB! It looks like Brady had a great response to the change in diet to low carb. Some cats are able to become diet controlled with just a food change and don't need insulin. Some go into remission after a food change and insulin for a few days.

If we can see some data, we would be able to help you better. I can set up the spreadsheet for you. Will send you a PM with the details I need. Look for it in the Inbox at the top right corner of this page.
 
Great job filling in the SS
I'm going to give you a link for the 2 dosing methods for lantus for you to read and pick on to follow. They will tell you when to increase or decrease when needed, you can always post for help
Can you tell me why you reduced the dose to 0.25 on 3-18?
The green numbers you got during some of the cycles were not bad
We adjust the doses on how low the kitty is dropping , not the Pre Shots


I will tag some members for you about what dose you should start shooting now

Dosing methods
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-low-go-slow-slgs-tight-regulation-tr.210110/

Tagging
@Bron and Sheba (GA)

@tiffmaxee

@Wendy&Neko

@Suzanne & Darcy

@Sienne and Gabby (GA)

@Bandit's Mom

Hi Ladies Brady has been of all dry since 3-9-22
Can you please read her post to see what's been going on
Thanks so much
 
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Just a quick explanation about the dosing methods but read them anywsy
SLGS: You hold a dose for 7 days (unless a reduction is earned). You decrease the dose when the BG falls below 90. The aim of this protocol is to keep the cat in the 90-150 range. This is more suited for caregivers who can't test as much as TR requires. You do a weekly curve with SLGS.

TR is a more aggressive protocol with increases as often as every 3-5 days. Reductions are earned when the BG falls below 50 for nearly diagnosed kitties)
After a year after being diagnosed he is considered a long term diabetic
. The aim is to keep the cat in the range of 50-100 (which is the normal BG range for cats). To follow TR, you would need to get at least one more test per cycle in addition to the pre-shot one i.e. 2 tests per cycle or 4 tests per day. You would also need to be feeding only LC canned food and no dry food.

You could try TR if you are feeding LC wet (and no dry) and if you think that's more testing than you can manage, you can switch to SLGS.
 
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
Great job filling in the SS
I'm going to give you a link for the 2 dosing methods for lantus for you to read and pick on to follow. They will tell you when to increase or decrease when needed, you can always post for help
Can you tell me why you reduced the dose to 0.25 on 3-18?
The green numbers you got during some of the cycles were not bad
We adjust the doses on how low the kitty is dropping , not the Pre Shots


I will tag some members for you about the dose

Dosing methods
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-low-go-slow-slgs-tight-regulation-tr.210110/

Tagging
@Bron and Sheba (GA)

@tiffmaxee

@Wendy&Neko

@Suzanne & Darcy

@Sienne and Gabby (GA)

@Bandit's Mom

Hi Ladies Brady has been of all dry since 3-9-22
Can you please read her post to see what went on
Thanks so much
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I reduced it to .25 because I thought those numbers were low and when I called my vet they keep telling me to bring Brady to the emergency vet so I thought maybe his insulin dose was too high. I guess they weren't low though? My vet isn't very helpful.
 
Sara K said:
I reduced it to .25 because I thought those numbers were low and when I called my vet they keep telling me to bring Brady to the emergency vet so I thought maybe his insulin dose was too high. I guess they weren't low though? My vet isn't very helpful.
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They were not low at all, the members here will get you in the right track
 
Also, I didn't give any insulin this morning because it was my daughter's birthday party at 10 and he wouldn't eat his food so I couldn't give his insulin. Is it ever possible to feed a diabetic cat three times a day instead of twice? I usually have to sit with him for like 30 minutes day and night to get him to eat his whole meal.
 
Sara K said:
Also, I didn't give any insulin this morning because it was my daughter's birthday party at 10 and he wouldn't eat his food so I couldn't give his insulin. Is it ever possible to feed a diabetic cat three times a day instead of twice? I usually have to sit with him for like 30 minutes day and night to get him to eat his whole meal.
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We always feed our cats more than just twice a day it's easier on the pancreas
After feeding them first thing in the morning we feed our cats at least 2 more small meals during the morning cycle maybe around +3 and plus 5 about a tablespoon of LC wet , same with the night cycle
Lantus usually doesn't take affect after 2 hours giving insulin
The only time you would withhold food is 2 hours before AMPS and PMPS so his BG is not food influenced
 
I fed Max 3-4 times in the morning and the same at night. When I stopped depended on his bg but I tried to feed most if not all of his food by +6-7.

Have you read our dosing methods sticky? If not feeding any dry food you could follow TR as long as you can get an amps/pmps and at least one other test each cycle. When the bg is low you will need more tests. You will also need occasional test to find out how low a dose takes Brady. You test enough for TR.
With TR reductions are taken under 50.
 
So if I wanted to feed
Diane Tyler's Mom said:
We always feed our cats more than just twice a day it's easier on the pancreas
After feeding them first thing in the morning we feed our cats at least 2 more small meals during the morning cycle maybe around +3 and plus 5 about a tablespoon of LC wet , same with the night cycle
Lantus usually doesn't take affect after 2 hours giving insulin
The only time you would withhold food is 2 hours before AMPS and PMPS so his BG is not food influenced
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So do you wake up at night to feed him a couple small meals?
 
tiffmaxee said:
I fed Max 3-4 times in the morning and the same at night. When I stopped depended on his bg but I tried to feed most if not all of his food by +6-7.

Have you read our dosing methods sticky? If not feeding any dry food you could follow TR as long as you can get an amps/pmps and at least one other test each cycle. When the bg is low you will need more tests. You will also need occasional test to find out how low a dose takes Brady. You test enough for TR.
With TR reductions are taken under 50.
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What is TR again?
 
I could do TR since he has the freestyle Libra installed. Does the air dried ziwi peak count as not dry food?
 
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