Cats insulin levels are not going down

Mewmewkit

Mewmewkit

Member Since 2021
I posted this on the main forum but then I figured it would probably be better to post it here instead...
So my cat was diagnosed with diabetes almost two weeks ago. Her first reading was 400 at the vet, then a few days later 450. During this time she was not being given insulin yet and was on constant wet food throughout the day as she was extremely hungry.
So the vet diagnosed her with diabetes. She told us to give one unit of lantis twice a day 12 hours apart and to feed her 80% of hills science diet glucosupport m/d dry food....which baffled me. So I said what about wet food. The vet tech who was giving us the demonstration and food and insulin didn't seem to have the answers and acted like the glucosupport wet food didn't exist. So I found it on the internet and she said ok we will write a script for the glucosupport wet food but the vet wants her to be on 80% dry. Is this some kind of control experiment for the vet? I just don't get it.
Anyways, I've been testing the cats blood sugar and it seems her glucose levels are even higher. We upped the insulin slowly to two units twice a day on our own and she's been given that for the past two days. Her level last night was 572 before eating 12 hrs after her last dose of insulin. Her level was 486 this morning 4 hours after being given insulin and after eating her wet food and grazing on the dry.
What is going on? It seems the insulin isn't touching her. The best reading we have had was 396 that was yesterday 3.5 hrs after her shot of insulin and eating. How can I get her sugar down?
Thank you
 
Welcome. We can help you. The dry food you were given is high carb and not recommended here. Does your cat have other medical issues that require that food? In order to help you we need you to start a spreadsheet and add a signature. I am going to look for your post on main and link it here.
 
Hi! Welcome to the forum. the diabetes diagnosis is quite a lot to take in at once, so things might take a while to sort everything out. Don't worry just take one day at a time, and likely things will look better soon.

Lantus is a depot insulin, and what that means is that the correct dose depend on how low does a given dose take the kitty. Also, to keep the depot constant is importanty to change the dose slowly to give time to see how the depot changes kitty response. So, the first and best thing you can do at the moment is to meassure blood glucose at least 4 times a day, particularly around 6 hours after giving insulin so you can have an idea how low kitty is going. If you set-up a spread sheet, people here can help you figure out the right dose and adjust as needed. You can see at the bottom of all of our posts our spreadsheets. Fell free to have a nosy and read people's note to get a feeling how things go.

To give you an optimistic outlook, look at how chico https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...7Cr_Xq64uZxfLNJvOfFAxEcqmVyqgVI9heGbA/pubhtml
and Brian https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...kiHQt1AZ2og5eReejQFiqMTBVYc/edit?usp=drivesdk
went from very high numbers to beautiful number with the help of folks here.

Hopefully your kitty will not be like my hercules that is difficult to regulate (you can see my SS below), but I think is fair to warn you that not every kit behaves as they should....
 
What were you feeding before diagnosis? Often a switch to all wet makes a huge difference. I don’t understand why your vet wants mostly dry. If you follow one of our methods you will follow SLGS unless you switch to all wet food so read that one first. A food switch can sometimes lead to a dramatic decrease in insulin needs so if you do switch ask about dosing advice. Some cats go off insulin quickly when fed all wet food. Others don’t and take time to get regulated. My cat had chronic pancreatitis and it took nearly a year to get him tightly controlled.
 
Generally we ask that people not post over on the insulin specific forums until they have their spreadsheets up and running. They can help with that on the Feline Heath forum, as well as coach you through proper food for a diabetic - which does not include "diabetic" or "prescription" food food from a vet, much less the dry version of it.

Details on setting up the spreadsheet are in this post: New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
 
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