Evie Corso
Member Since 2017
One of our cats has kidney disease and went through a bout of diabetes last Fall, which incuded jaundice and fatty lipidosis. She was not eating. I brought her home from hospital, got her on a schedule of Humulin N, force fed and gave subQ fluids and mirtazapine. After weeks she started eating again. I switched her food to Nulo, which appeared to have more protein and she started improving. After a couple of months I was able to reduce her insulin every few days until she was weaned off and maintained a normal lood glucose level on her own. I checked her blood glucose every so often and it was always normal. I kept up with the subQ fluids once a week, down from twice a week.
Flash forward to July 15th. I had been lax about the subQ fluids and checking blood glucose, since she seemed normal and passed inspection at her annual in March. July15th she started acting wobbly, and could not balance, with nystagmus. She had thrown up, trying to cough up a fur ball, I thought. I checked her blood glucose fearing her diabetes had returned and caused neurological damage. The symptoms abated within minutes, but her BG was high. It was Sunday evening and I had no insulin, so we treked to the ER. She didn’t have ketones, thankfully and her kidneys were not worse either. She appeared to have a UTI and was dehydrated. She got a shot of Convenia. They wanted to keep her for at least a week and the estimate was in the thousands. Since it was only a few hours before daybreak, I requested a new bag of fluids to go and an insulin shot, so I could get get her started on fluids and stable to transport her to my regular vet which would be open within a couple of hours. They were very amenable and helpful. She got 6 units of Vetsulin and I took the bottle to go. I got her home and fed her canned food and gave her fluids and then took her to my vet. She spent Monday - Wednesday at the vet. They sent out a urine culture, looked at the bloodwork I’d brought from ER and kept her on an IV. She would not eat for them so they force fed her. They could not get her BG where they wanted. By Wednesday the urine culture came back and she needed a different med than the Convenia. I brought her home Wednesday and she started eating right away. They had me put her on Royal Canin Glycobalance. She would only lick the canned food, since it was not a pate, but she ate the dry food for me. They wanted me feeding her twice a day with injections 12 hours apart. She doesn’t eat enough in one sitting for twice a day feeding. Trying to do it twice a day meant she was never getting down to a normal BG. I started increasing her Vetsulin by 1/2 unit at a time and got up to 5 units and she was still staying too high. Any more insulin and I was afraid she’d dive too low. I tried to find a better cat food, looked for higher protein and lower carbs and not too much fat. Tried going back to Nulo since it was better than the RC Glucobalance and only saw mild improvement, still hi readings 4 times a day. Tried other RX diets. She would only lick at the non-pate canned food, so she got even higher carbs. I had to start giving insulin 4 times a day with meals instead of twice just to stay out of the “hi” reading. Anything over 6 hours and her BG is high. I switched to Novolin N a couple of days ago since Humulin N put her in remission last time. No difference. Saw a formula online of how to calculate carbs and it made Hill’s rx food look low carb, so I ordered it. She won’t touch the canned, but likes the dry ok.
I am giving subQ fluids once a week. I made up charts on graph paper to record BG, Insulin & food. I check BG throughout the day and into the night, (every hour if close to low), except for 4-6 hours when I sleep through the alarm. I finally went back to insulin several times a day, 3-4 units, to even get between 188-500 most of the day. It still goes up to Hi if I sleep 8 hours. I have tried higher doses twice a day, but it just swings from Hi to 70-150 and back to hi in less than 8 hour, so that leaves her in the hi, (above 600), for lots of hours.
Something has to change. SOS
Flash forward to July 15th. I had been lax about the subQ fluids and checking blood glucose, since she seemed normal and passed inspection at her annual in March. July15th she started acting wobbly, and could not balance, with nystagmus. She had thrown up, trying to cough up a fur ball, I thought. I checked her blood glucose fearing her diabetes had returned and caused neurological damage. The symptoms abated within minutes, but her BG was high. It was Sunday evening and I had no insulin, so we treked to the ER. She didn’t have ketones, thankfully and her kidneys were not worse either. She appeared to have a UTI and was dehydrated. She got a shot of Convenia. They wanted to keep her for at least a week and the estimate was in the thousands. Since it was only a few hours before daybreak, I requested a new bag of fluids to go and an insulin shot, so I could get get her started on fluids and stable to transport her to my regular vet which would be open within a couple of hours. They were very amenable and helpful. She got 6 units of Vetsulin and I took the bottle to go. I got her home and fed her canned food and gave her fluids and then took her to my vet. She spent Monday - Wednesday at the vet. They sent out a urine culture, looked at the bloodwork I’d brought from ER and kept her on an IV. She would not eat for them so they force fed her. They could not get her BG where they wanted. By Wednesday the urine culture came back and she needed a different med than the Convenia. I brought her home Wednesday and she started eating right away. They had me put her on Royal Canin Glycobalance. She would only lick the canned food, since it was not a pate, but she ate the dry food for me. They wanted me feeding her twice a day with injections 12 hours apart. She doesn’t eat enough in one sitting for twice a day feeding. Trying to do it twice a day meant she was never getting down to a normal BG. I started increasing her Vetsulin by 1/2 unit at a time and got up to 5 units and she was still staying too high. Any more insulin and I was afraid she’d dive too low. I tried to find a better cat food, looked for higher protein and lower carbs and not too much fat. Tried going back to Nulo since it was better than the RC Glucobalance and only saw mild improvement, still hi readings 4 times a day. Tried other RX diets. She would only lick at the non-pate canned food, so she got even higher carbs. I had to start giving insulin 4 times a day with meals instead of twice just to stay out of the “hi” reading. Anything over 6 hours and her BG is high. I switched to Novolin N a couple of days ago since Humulin N put her in remission last time. No difference. Saw a formula online of how to calculate carbs and it made Hill’s rx food look low carb, so I ordered it. She won’t touch the canned, but likes the dry ok.
I am giving subQ fluids once a week. I made up charts on graph paper to record BG, Insulin & food. I check BG throughout the day and into the night, (every hour if close to low), except for 4-6 hours when I sleep through the alarm. I finally went back to insulin several times a day, 3-4 units, to even get between 188-500 most of the day. It still goes up to Hi if I sleep 8 hours. I have tried higher doses twice a day, but it just swings from Hi to 70-150 and back to hi in less than 8 hour, so that leaves her in the hi, (above 600), for lots of hours.
Something has to change. SOS
