Curious re: impact of snacks + meals on glucose readings

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NicoleRadziwill

NicoleRadziwill

Member Since 2024
Over the past 48 hours I've had the "wake up call" on JUST how bad most of the foods are out there for our diabetic cats... and cut out all "prescription dry" and trying to ease off of high-carb Royal Canin Glycobalance wet. My cat is definitely a "grazer" so I'm looking for a pattern where there's most food at shot time & snacks 2-3 times during the day/night.

I have Tiki on order (which seems to be the tastiest zero-carb) but until it arrives, I'm trying out other options and monitoring the impact on the Libre 3 (we've got 13 days left on this meter, thankfully). I just fed her half a can of of Reveal (https://www.catfoodadvisor.com/reviews/reveal-broth-can/) which shows up as zero carb in several searches (not the main Food Chart, unfortunately; this was before my Tiki order) and she jumped from 271 mg/dl to 351 mg/dl in minutes. Oops. 20 minutes later it's down to upper 330s.

My question is: Do diabetic cats ALWAYS have a glucose spike any time ANY food is eaten? I thought that a zero-carb food would have negligible impact on blood glucose, and now wondering whether the "diabetic cat test" is the real way to find out if there are carbs in something.

What are your thoughts and experiences?
 
Zero carbs is not always the way to go. Most feed around 5-7 %. A working pancreas causes the bg to go down about 2-4 hours after eating. So even for those not diabetic food can cause a spike.
 
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One aspect of looking at your cat's glucose curve that I suspect you're unaware of is how to factor in the insulin you're using. Lantus is different. One of the reasons it's a preferred insulin is that it has a long duration. Coupled with the longer duration is that it has a very gradual onset. For most cats, you don't see it starting to work (i.e. "onset") for about 2 hours after an injection.. What that translates to is that by shot time, most of the effects of insulin from the previous shot have largely worn off. Then, at shot time, you test, feed, and shoot. It takes roughly 2 hours for that dose to kick in and prior to onset, you've fed your cat. As a result, food is having an effect.

In looking at your cat's spreadsheet, you're seeing numbers coming down as early at +2 but more often closer to the middle of the cycle. That's a normal curve. Keep in mind, though, that the lowest point of the cycle (the nadir) can and does move around. In addition, there are times when your cat drops into lower numbers and those lower numbers trigger what we refer to as a "bounce." Your cat isn't used to lower numbers and as a result, the liver and pancreas release a stored form of glucose and counterregulatory hormones that cause numbers to spike upward.
 
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