Diagnostic Glucose?

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

momosmama

Member
Hello. My cat is 2 1/2 years old and was diagnosed today after some routine bloodwork when the vet noticed she looked slightly anemic. She had no obvious diabetes symptoms and was being seen for a mild digestive virus that went through the pet population this past week.

Her glucose is 330, which is quite high. I'm wondering what some of your pets' glucose was at diagnosis, because I am somewhat surprised she showed no symptoms of diabetes. I am very experienced in caring for PEOPLE with diabetes so I know to look for weight loss, excessive thirst/urination etc, and also know this cat very well.. I'm just wondering because I am trying to make a plan to get her safely through til Thursday morning when I can get her started on insulin.
 
You could purchase a ReliOn meter from Walmart and some test strips and start hometesting her blood glucose at home. Also, purchase some Diastix (glucose only) or KetoDiastix ( ketones and glucose) urine test strips and test her urine several times and see if there is any glucose showing in the urine. There is also a test called a Fructosamine that the vet can run and it would show and average glucose from the past two weeks. Diagnosing just from blood isn't enough......the urine should also show lots of glucose. Stress can raise bg numbers by quite a bit plus she is very young. You are correct in wanting to double check and make sure she is diabetic before giving her insulin.
 
Hobbs was 487 at dx and I had NO CLUE he was diabetic. Looking back there were things I could have noticed (peeing more for one) but he had been dx with kidney disease a few months prior, and I just chalked his peeing more up to his kidneys working better. He had lost weight but again, I thought that was a change in food due to the kidney issue.
 
Thanks both of you. I'll try to get a test from her again, to make sure, but her glucose was 330 (she also had a virus which is why she was at the vet -- the diabetes diagnosis was a chance thing because he drew blood). I'm waiting on a call back from the vet about some details of what I should do between now and Thursday.
 
momosmama said:
Thanks both of you. I'll try to get a test from her again, to make sure, but her glucose was 330 (she also had a virus which is why she was at the vet -- the diabetes diagnosis was a chance thing because he drew blood). I'm waiting on a call back from the vet about some details of what I should do between now and Thursday.
Click to expand...

Illness and stress can be factors which raise a cat's blood glucose to diabetic levels.

There is a blood test called fructosamine which should be used to confirm the diabetes diagnosis. Also, check urine for sugars.
 
I don't recall the exact blood glucose numbers at diagnosis, but my guy (who is ~13 years old) were between 324 and 360 on both the vets AlphaTrak and the lab results (blood drawn during a home visit, so stress wasn't an issue). Fructosamine was 504, and urine glucose was 3+. With my human meter (bayer contour) he tested from 270-342 on 6 tests on different days before starting insulin treatment (we had the meter before the insulin and wanted/needed practice). He showed no signs at all, like your cat. We went over a week between getting the vets lab results back and starting insulin. We began the transition from dry food to low carb high protein wet food immediately though.
 
between the illness, the vet stress, and the dry food (from your other post on lauramarie's post) i would really encourage you to make the switch to canned low carb food (i posted more on that other post) before you do anything else.

one blood test isn't enough to make a diagnosis on, but i imagine your vet was intending to check again this week.

keep asking questions and we'll do our best to help you.
 
She's going to the vet tomorrow to get retested and he'll do fructosamine if that is still high.

After the vet tomorrow we'll be headed to Petsmart to get a canned low carb food anyway, diabetic or not, I want her to have the very best for her and if that means she will now do better on something else I will do that. Ironically I put her on royalcanin awhile back because she wasn't doing well on another food and I read that was a great one, and until now, she thrived. But if she needs something different now I'll do that.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top