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cayennepepper

cayennepepper

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Hello all!
Kitty Cat Sadie was diagnosed 3 weeks ago. There has been a lot of confusion between the vet office we chose and myself. They first tried Hills diet food which I have read up on that its horrible. The first vet I worked with wasn't very interested in home testing and told me that what I was learning wasn't true and to let her handle the welfare of my cat. This didn't settle well with me so I started home testing. Sadies numbers were in the 400's. I was so thankful to stumble on this web site. I have been doing a lot of digging around. I took Sadie back to the vet and they were suppose to do a curve but some how she got over looked a full day. I really was getting angry and annoyed but they wanted to keep her over the weekend and test her themselves for free so I agreed. I got a different vet this Monday. He seems ok with home testing and even possible with doing home curves. Sadies numbers have been all over the place this week and she is now on 1 unit of Lantis. However 3 hours after giving her shot she is going down to low numbers between 35-67. I've been giving Karo and rechecking her. The vet says not to giver her insulin this weekend and bring her in on Monday and to keep monitoring her numbers. Before giving her insul this morning her number was 230. Really seems like she is all over the place. If anyone has some advice for me I'd really appreciate it!
 
Good for home testing. I would not give insulin tonight. Maybe a little tomorrow depending upon the BG that you measure before shot time. Maybe give 1/4 unit. It all depends upon the BG value tonight and tomorrow.
BGs taken at the vet are typically elevated by stress and it best to take them at home, including curves.
 
First off congrats on learning to test!!! That is absolutely your best tool in getting Ms. Sadie back to tip top shape. Lantus is an excellent insulin but if you are getting numbers below 50 at anytime in a cycle (the 12 hours between shots) then the dose is too high and needs to be reduced. A lot of cats don't need a full unit at a time, some do just fine with .5u or less per shot and some even go completely off insulin and become diet controlled.

Testing is the only way you will know that for sure, and testing at home will give you the most accurate numbers. If you have recently changed her diet that could be the reason she is needing less insulin. My own Maxwell was only on insulin for 2 weeks before becoming diet controlled, for him the magic bullet was getting him off high carb dry food and onto low carb canned food. It doesn't always work that way, but some cats are very lucky that way.

As far as her numbers being all over the place right now, if she is dipping really low, then her body tries to save itself by releasing stored sugars and hormones to prevent her from going into hypo and that will cause a rebound where her numbers will shoot back up again. So if she hits say 36 at +6 (6 hours after her shot) then her body sends out the signal that she is going into hypo and her liver sends out stored sugar to restore what it feels she needs to prevent that from happening and she soars back into the 300-400s.

What you may want to do is withhold insulin for a few days while testing not only her bloodsugar but also her urine for keytones. I might be even tempted to run a curve on her without insulin just to see what her 'normal' daily bloodsugar is, and that would give you a great set of data to base what her insulin dose should be, and you might even get a surprise that she doesn't need insulin at all, but just a low carb diet.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Ty for your reply the vet said no insulin this weekend which makes me worried because her morning numbers shoot up to the high 300's -535 when she was diagnosed. Finally got 81 so will leave her to sleep and recheck her again in a few hours and will watch her.
 
One thing to remember as long as she isn't on insulin she can't go into hypo. :-D It is much better for her to be a little high for a day or two that too low for a moment.

Also just in case your vet didn't tell you the normal range for a cat when using a human meter is between 40-120 while on a pet only meter normal is between 70-150 just an FYI.

So that 81 you just got is a perfectly normal in fact a darn right beautiful number. My guy that is in remission typically runs between 60-90. And he was 485 when he was first diagnoised so it is very possible that you maybe well on your way to a diet controlled diabetic.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Did you change to a low carb, canned diet? What is she eating now? If you did change the diet, that's likely why the insulin need dropped. Cats will see a drop in blood glucose from 100-300 points just by removing the high carb/dry food. If you haven't changed the diet, then if you do you'll likely have a cat in remission.

If she does end up needing a bit more insulin (many cats do when going into remission), reduce the dose to .5u or .25u and see how she does. I even had Bandit on .1u for a little while to wean him off when he went into remission. Here's a great link that shows you what those super small doses look like: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=18139. Scroll down to the bottom of the post until you see the pictures of the syringes with the marked micro-doses.
 
Thank you for the support links and info. We now have Sadie on a low carb rx diet. We are hoping to change that over to another brand since we have 6 other non sugar cats and trying to keep her separate from them has been fun. I guess the next thing to do is a non insulin curve to bring the info to the vets on Monday. I know this has been an extremely short ride so far and many of you have been doing this for years but it feels like a roller-coaster.

~Pepper n Sadie
 
cayennepepper said:
Thank you for the support links and info. We now have Sadie on a low carb rx diet. We are hoping to change that over to another brand since we have 6 other non sugar cats and trying to keep her separate from them has been fun.
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What is the RX diet? Is it canned or dry? The only prescription diet that is low enough in carbs for a diabetic cat is Purina DM canned. However, it's pretty much the same thing as the lower carb grocery brands like Fancy feast, Special Kitty, or Sophistacat, so all you're paying for is the label.
 
squeem3 said:
Besides Binky's food charts, there is also the Pet Food Nutritional Values list, Dr. Lynne's Wet Food list, and the list of low carb gluten free Fancy Feast.
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I am so thankful for all the research people have done on this! Yes she was is currently on the purina DM and once we finish her case I'll move her to the fancy feast classics. Someone spent a lot of time and put together a page with the names highlighted of the SAFE brands so I will be putting that to good use. I'm moving the rest of my pride over to wet and might get adventurous enough to do home made once Sadie is out of the woods. Just taking all these changes slowly for everyone except Sadie she is completely off dry. The others are having withdraws so letting them get weaned off the corn chow (hides head in shame for feeding cats that cruddy food)
 
cayennepepper said:
Yes she was is currently on the purina DM and once we finish her case I'll move her to the fancy feast classics.
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You can return the unopened cans to the vet and get a refund :smile: Just say that your cat won't eat it anymore.

Here's a good web site to learn about cat nutrition: http://www.catinfo.org There's a section there on how to make homemade raw food if you want to do that when your cat's diabetes is better managed.

Don't feel bad about feeding your cats dry food for years :YMHUG: None of us knew until we found FelineDiabetes.com and started getting help on how to manage our newly diagnosed diabetic cats.
 
squeem3 said:
cayennepepper said:
Yes she was is currently on the purina DM and once we finish her case I'll move her to the fancy feast classics.
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You can return the unopened cans to the vet and get a refund :smile: Just say that your cat won't eat it anymore.

AWESOME didn't know they would take them back. I think its Petco said they did not take back the food

Here's a good web site to learn about cat nutrition: http://www.catinfo.org There's a section there on how to make homemade raw food if you want to do that when your cat's diabetes is better managed.
Cool Beans this is the web I had found for making my own cat food. Seems like a lot to do all at once! However Rome wasn't built in a day so I'm gathering up bits n pieces putting down a little bit of raw food to see who will eat what /grin

Don't feel bad about feeding your cats dry food for years :YMHUG: None of us knew until we found FelineDiabetes.com and started getting help on how to manage our newly diagnosed diabetic cats.
Click to expand...
I know its not completly fair to blame my old vet but he said that he fed his cat dry food and she lived 18 years and that it was the as good as anything. After reading here about food and diabetes I'm actually HORRIFIED. First ingredient is CORN! Oh well you all know the rant. We are taking baby steps and getting on the right track know this can be done!
 
Yep it can be done...I have 14 non-diabetics here eating the same thing my two diabetics are eating...just good old fashioned pate style Friskies (just not opening that many 3oz cans in a day. :lol:) And it was that diet that got my one diabetic into remission after 2 weeks on insulin. :-D

And I can tell you, you won't believe how stunning your non-diabetics will get on an all wet diet. Everyone of mine is sleek, shiney and oh so soft to the touch, as well has more active.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
I have to agree with Mommaof Muse. When Cedric was dx'd almost a year ago, I changed him to canned & dry grainfree low carb high protein. His numbers improved but remained in the 200s until I took the dry food away. Now he's in remission (which started for him 2 days after I dumped the dry). He's on canned only now and his coat is like silk. He LOVES having his coast brushed, so that helps some as well.

I rescued a neighborhood stray last year with some helpful advice and assistance from some of the gang here and Dallas' coat was a bit rough when he came to live with us in September. He's filled out a bit and the condition of his coat has really inproved. The top of his head and his tail are still a little rough, but when he wants to snuggle, he's a softie!

Glad you are home testing and hopefully have a found a vet who is willing to learn. As far as the food goes, I have a feeling you bought it at the old vet? I have never returned food bought from the vet (my last cat eat W/D dry), but how about donating it to a rescue?
 
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