Diagnosed diabetic cat

Brenna Mercier

Brenna Mercier

Member
Hi everyone I am new to the Forum I have never been on a forum before so hopefully I am doing this correctly. I have an 11 year old name cat Duster he was previously diagnosed with diabetes about 6 years ago I started giving insulin treatments but within a month it went again no more injections the last few weeks he seemed a bit more hungry than normal. Took him into the vet in the morning fasted and his glucose was 17mmol which I was told could have elevated form stress also he hates hates very trips get very aggressive. So we started him on 1 unit 2 times a day. I was told to pick up a glove reader form the pharmacy so I have the first injection in the morning read his glucose in evening before supper and it was 5.5mmol so skipped insulin, checked it again in the morning before food it read 9.5mmol so also skipped, I wasn’t able to get another glucose reading from him at supper so I just gave him.5 dose can he go into remission on that low of dose and levels? I have no clue what I am doing help he is also on a wet food only diet well we compete health he a bit over weight but not bad around 7kg, I really want him to go into remission again
 
Hi everyone I am new to the Forum I have never been on a forum before so hopefully I am doing this correctly. I have an 11 year old male cat Duster he was previously diagnosed with diabetes about 6 years ago. I had started giving insulin treatments but within a month he went into remission so no more injections. He had been goo ever since so symptoms took for odd glucose check was all good. Then the last few weeks he seemed a bit more hungry than normal. Took him into the vet in the morning fasted and his glucose was 17mmol which I was told could have elevated form stress also he hates vey trips gets very aggressive. So we started him on 1 unit Lantau insulin again 2 times a day. I was told to pick up a glucose reader form the pharmacy so I gave the first injection in the evening 1 unit then again 1 unit in the morning. Then the next evening I attempted to read his glucose before supper and it was 5.5mmol so skipped insulin, checked it again in the morning before food it read 9.5mmol so also skipped insulin. I wasn’t able to get another glucose reading from him at supper so I just gave him.5 dose can he go into remission on that low of dose and levels? My vet recommended i only give .5 dose 2 times a day and not to read glucose unless he shows symptoms of being pathetic. He said I would go crazy testing so much. That do a curve test after about a week of treatment. I am just worried it will get to low and I have to work so can’t watch him 24/7 I have no clue what I am doing help he is also on a wet food only diet well we compete health he a bit over weight but not bad around 7kg, I really want him to go into remission again
 
Hi and welcome to the forum.
It sounds as if you got him into remission but it wasn’t a strong remission and he has fallen out of remission.
What is a glove reader? I have not heard of that. Do you mean a freestyle libre that is put onto their body and reads the blood glucose?
What food are you feeding him? Is the wet food a low carb one?
What type of insulin are you using?
If his blood glucose (BG) has been low after a dose of insulin, I would not blindly give him more insulin without making sure of the BG before you give a dose.
Are you giving a good meal before the insulin and then some snacks during the cycles?
If you can answer our questions, we should be able to help you.
 
Welcome to FDMB.

It is certainly possible that Duster's blood glucose level was elevated due to the stress of travel and being at the vet's office. Unlike your vet, I would strongly encourage you to test your cat if you are going to give him insulin. It's the only way that you will know if he's in safe numbers. We encourage a minimum of 4 tests per day -- a test before your morning and evening shot and one test during both the AM and PM cycle.

You will not go crazy testing and your cat will still like you even if you're testing. If you look at my spreadsheet (it's in my signature), I tested a lot and I didn't go crazy. What would have made me crazy is if I was giving an injection of a drug that could cause hypoglycemia and I had no idea what was going on.

While Duster may be on a canned food diet, do you know whether it's a low carbohydrate food?

Cat's go into remission regardless of what the dose is. Each cat's insulin needs are different. It's very important that you keep track of what you're dosing and your cat's response especially if what you saw at the vet's office was a result of stress. It would have been better if the vet did a blood test to test for fructosamine level which would have been a better way to confirm a diagnosis of diabetes.

If you want to get started here, we'd ask you to set up a spreadsheet and to create a signature. The information is in this post on helping us to help you. The spreadsheet will allow you to track your cat's progress. Your signature will contain some basic information so we don't keep asking you the same questions repeatedly.

Please let us know if you have more questions.
 
Hi thank you so much for the response so I wasn’t able to get a reading for his glucose this morning. I am new to it and having trouble and scared when poking his ear me and duster were frustrated so I gave him a .5 dose this morning at 6am then at about 2:30 pm this afternoon I was able to get a test from his paw pad and it was 10.4mmol. He is currently on just wet food wellness complete health and iv read some place it’s pretty low in carbs. I had done a urine test at home before I took him into the vet and the glucose was elevated he just started on insulin on Friday Dec 27 but insulin injections have been on and off
 
Hi thank you for the response I am sorry it a contour next one glucose reader just a regular human one he has been on a wet food diet ever since he had diabetes some years ago then he went into remission and now it’s come back. He’s been eating wellness complete health line which I think it’s pretty low in carbs. They started him on lantus insulin just this last Friday I took him into the vet. I only feed him morning and night try not do do any snacks. I was able to get a glucose reading around 2:30pm today and it was 10.4 I’m still having hard time getting the glucose readings I get stressed to scared to poke his ear to much
 
Don’t be concerned about poking his ear too much. He will be fine. Make sure you give him a treat after every attempted test.
And please do give him snacks inbetween the main meals. It is much better for the pancreas to get snacks as well as the 2 main meals. Just feeding at shot time is old thinking.
I’m going to ask @Sienne and Gabby (GA) or @Wendy&Neko if they could join your two thread so it is not so confusing.
 
Thank you. Okay I just thought if they had a snack between meals it would raise the blood sugar and hoping he would lose a little weight what kind of snacks do you give for your diabetic cat? What do you do if you work full time I won’t be home to give snack and check his glucose during the day
 
Any extra tips to help get into remission. He was just diagnosed last Friday and want to get a good handle on it right away. So stressful and over whelming also does anyone know what a really low carb food that would be good?
 
Brenna Mercier said:
Thank you. Okay I just thought if they had a snack between meals it would raise the blood sugar and hoping he would lose a little weight what kind of snacks do you give for your diabetic cat? What do you do if you work full time I won’t be home to give snack and check his glucose during the day
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Snacks should be low carb wet food that you are already feeding Duster. A teaspoon or two is a snack. I would suggest a couple of snacks during the first half of each cycle…both am and pm. You could give a snack at +3 and +6. That is 3 and 6 hours after the dose of insulin.
To feed when you are not at home, we recommend looking at getting an automatic timed feeder which will open when you set the timer. You can also use it at night. A lot of us use them with our diabetic cats.
Brenna Mercier said:
Any extra tips to help get into remission. He was just diagnosed last Friday and want to get a good handle on it right away. So stressful and over whelming also does anyone know what a really low carb food that would be good?
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The first thing I would do is set up our spreadsheet and signature which will allow us to be able to help you. Without those two things it is much harder and we don’t really give dosing advice unless we can see a spreadsheet with data added. To do otherwise would not be safe. And the signature has all the information we need about Duster so we don’t have to scroll back through posts to find out information.
HELP US HELP YOU has the links to the spreadsheet and the signature as well as the hypo kit which you will need to set up.
And here is a link to our FOOD CHART. Look for foods that are 10% or less carbs. Most of us feed carbs around 4-7%. A lot of people feed fancy feast pates. Thee are other brands to choose from as well in the chart.

The best way to try and get your kitty into remission is to get him regulated first. That is the first step. And that could take months so don’t get dispirited. And the best way to get your kitty regulated is to be testing the blood glucose and entering the data into the spreadsheet and following one of our dosing methods. Here are the two dosing methods for Lantus.
LANTUS DOSING METHODS
If you are feeding any dry food at all you can’t do the Tight regulation protocol.
Keep asking questions,
 
Thank you everyone for the help I am slowly getting thing things figured out still having a bit of hard time testing the blood sugar but it’s working my poor cats ears are all poked up so sad. His glucose levels have been between 8.3-8.6 mmol before insulin In the morning and evening is that a good glucose level? It has gotten better it was previously in the 10’s
 
He’s also on a 4% carb diet. But im slowly changing him to tiki cat which it 0.36% are carbs based of the as fed basis for dry matter?
 
The 4% carb diet is fine. We consider low carb below 10% although most members here feed their cat foods that are in the 5% neighborhood.
 
Thank you for the help I am slowly getting thing things figured out still having a bit of hard time testing the blood sugar but it’s working my poor cats ears are all poked up so sad. His glucose levels have been between 8.3-8.6 mmol before insulin In the morning and evening is that a good glucose level? It has gotten better it was previously in the 10’s
 
What is the ideal glucose level? He’s currently on .5 dose he was on 1 unit but changed to .5 thinking 1 unit was to much. I was lucky to catch it early so I’m hoping and praying he will go into remission
 
Brenna Mercier said:
What is the ideal glucose level? He’s currently on .5 dose he was on 1 unit but changed to .5 thinking 1 unit was to much. I was lucky to catch it early so I’m hoping and praying he will go into remission
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Normal non-diabetic blood glucose levels are roughly 60 to 150 mg/dl (3 to 8 mmol). A diabetic should ideally stay in this range with insulin and / or diet.
 
How close is the reading of a human glucose meter to an actual pet one do I have to go up or down I’m currently using a contour next one
 
Thank you, want to get a spreadsheet going but need a computer, I believe his glucose levels have been high then he’s been from 6.6 up to 14.8 on .5 unit Lantau. I have a long on the app for the glucose meter can I share that somehow?
 
Hi everyone, Dusters glucose has been around 9.9mmol pre insulin and sometimes it can be as low as 6.8 mmol pre insulin. Today he was at 6am 9.4 pre insulin 6 hours later I tested at 12pm he was 3.9 then tested again at 3:15pm he was at 4.6. My vet has change his dose from .5 unit insulin from twice a day to once a day. I’m really trying for remission was it a good choice to go from twice a day to one a day? pre insulin he’s usually around the 9 mark but seems like with the half dose he does go a bit lower than wanting
 
squeem3 said:
Lantus only works if given twice a day. 0.25 units twice a day would be ideal. It's hard to eyeball such a tiny dose but it can be done. There's a picture of how to measure 0.25 units in this sticky: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...info-proper-handling-drawing-fine-dosing.151/
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Thank you! I will try that his glucose levels are low but they are high enough that he needs insulin I just wish he would go into remission so he didn’t need any at all he’s on a 0% carb diet it’s been about 1.5 months since started insulin would think he would have went into remission by now fingers crossed he still will
 
Brenna --

1.5 months of treating your cat's diabetes is a very short time to anticipate remission. The typical response to expecting such a quick turn around is that this is a marathon, not a sprint. That said, your cat is doing great.

We generally try to keep a cat that's in good numbers on insulin for as long as possible in order to support the healing of the cat's pancreas. As a result, you would want to keep lowering the dose or in the case of your kitty, micro-dosing. Moving from 0.5u to 0.25u twice a day is the first step. Ultimately, you'll drop the dose to 0.1u and then a "drop." We then have an "off the juice" (OTJ) set of guidelines to ensure that you have a strong remission.

I also want to underscore what Squee noted. Lantus needs twice a day dosing. Once a day means that you will have limited insulin in your cat's system for half the day and as a result, you'll deplete the depot and have zero insulin in your cat's system. I suspect that the once a day dosing approach will interfere with a strong remission. Vets tend to not think in terms of reducing the dose and will tell caregivers that they can't measure in such small amounts. We've had good results with micro-dosing.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Brenna --

1.5 months of treating your cat's diabetes is a very short time to anticipate remission. The typical response to expecting such a quick turn around is that this is a marathon, not a sprint. That said, your cat is doing great.

We generally try to keep a cat that's in good numbers on insulin for as long as possible in order to support the healing of the cat's pancreas. As a result, you would want to keep lowering the dose or in the case of your kitty, micro-dosing. Moving from 0.5u to 0.25u twice a day is the first step. Ultimately, you'll drop the dose to 0.1u and then a "drop." We then have an "off the juice" (OTJ) set of guidelines to ensure that you have a strong remission.

I also want to underscore what Squee noted. Lantus needs twice a day dosing. Once a day means that you will have limited insulin in your cat's system for half the day and as a result, you'll deplete the depot and have zero insulin in your cat's system. I suspect that the once a day dosing approach will interfere with a strong remission. Vets tend to not think in terms of reducing the dose and will tell caregivers that they can't measure in such small amounts. We've had good results with micro-dosing.
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Thank you so much for the info. I have changed his dose to .25 twice a day this morning his glucose read 6.1mmol so I didn’t give any insulin. I will be gone to work all day so was scared he would get to low. What do I do in this case?
 
We post the guidelines to your thread if the cat is ready for a trial. Without a spreadsheet, we haven't a clue if your kitty is ready to stop insulin.
 
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