Diet or Insulin?

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Girly

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We did our first curve today and being new to kitty diabetes, I was hoping to get some input as to what to think.

For starters, I just started our girl on Fancy Feast 3 days ago, but she hasn't been eating more than a few bites, until tonight (after the curve was done she ate about half a can at one sitting). She has also had a bladder infection and has been on antibotics, and unfortunately, she has started sneezing today so I think she might have picked up something while we were at the vet over the past week.

We go back tomorrow to turn in the curve, and to see about her sneezing.

My question is the results of the curve. Her readings are these - 5 readings 3 hours apart.

Number Time Reading Notes
1. 8:19 AM Reading 236 Taken Before Eating
** ** ** Ate a few bites at 8:20 AM
2. 11:23 AM Reading 180
** ** ** Ate a few bites at 12:30 PM
3. 2:13 PM Reading 223
4. 5:19 PM Reading 200
** ** ** Ate a few bites of food at 5:20 PM
5. 8:15 PM Reading 199 She ate a little bit of food just a minute before the test

With the readings that we have, would it be wise to see what the new diet will do, before moving to insulin?
Or are these readings an indication that she needs to be on insulin.

I'm having trouble finding information on guidelines to follow about the reading numbers, other than a reading of 70 - 150 is normal range.

I really don't want the Vet to say - "insulin", as I don't want her to be on insulin if she really doesn't need it.

I'm just wondering, with her readings, if her diet change should be given a chance before going the insulin route. What are good numbers on readings to consider trying to see if diet alone will do it?
 
With those low readings I would wait a few days to see how the diet alone does for her and make sure her infection has cleared up before deciding to start insulin. Since we usually advise not shooting if you have a reading below 200 anyhow. Of course part of those reading could also be from her not eating much as well it is really kind of hard to tell with her not eating well and possibly still having a little bit of an infection going on...Infection alone can raise BGs.

Also are you using a pet meter or a human meter?...that does make a difference. Since with a human meter normal for a non-diabetic cat is between 40-120 while a pet meter normal is between 70-150.

Just my personal take on it since I have one diabetic cat that went from 485 to remission with only a diet change and about 2 weeks of insulin.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
I'm using a pet meter, the Alphatrack.

My husband and I have been mulling over this most of the evening as to whether we should give her new diet a chance first. She has lost a lot of weight and is weak. I am sure that the infection took a toll, but her eating half a can tonight was exciting to say the least. I think the antibotics has finally kicked in as she seemed more like herself tonight then she has all week. Then of course, there is the sneezing that just started today. I'm hoping we can nip that in the bud quickly.

Thanks for the information. It will all be helpful when we talk with the Vet tomorrow. Your advice will give us some things to discuss before making decisions. We were basically to do the curve today and then go in tomorrow for him to tell us how much insulin she needs. With doing the curve, when he sees her readings, he may even say to just watch with her diet for a while, himself.

It is really nice to be able to go in with some knowledge, so you can ask the right questions.

Thanks!
 
Girly said:
I'm using a pet meter, the Alphatrack.

My husband and I have been mulling over this most of the evening as to whether we should give her new diet a chance first. She has lost a lot of weight and is weak. I am sure that the infection took a toll, but her eating half a can tonight was exciting to say the least. I think the antibotics has finally kicked in as she seemed more like herself tonight then she has all week. Then of course, there is the sneezing that just started today. I'm hoping we can nip that in the bud quickly.

Thanks for the information. It will all be helpful when we talk with the Vet tomorrow. Your advice will give us some things to discuss before making decisions. We were basically to do the curve today and then go in tomorrow for him to tell us how much insulin she needs. With doing the curve, when he sees her readings, he may even say to just watch with her diet for a while, himself.

It is really nice to be able to go in with some knowledge, so you can ask the right questions.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I know that you may not want to give her insulin but then again, what if her pancreas just needs a bit of a help for a short time. Your test numbers will tell you if she still needs the insulin or is starting to manage on her own.

Some cats often have higher numbers when they are ill but then lower ones once they are better and off their meds. This issue could also be contributing to her higher numbers.

Since you have not yet started insulin, it may be an idea to give the diet a chance to settle.
For the sneezing, you can add Lysine to her foods and it will help.

Hopefully, if advised to give Lantus or Levemir, their starting dose is more around 1uBID .
Good luck at the vet tomorrow.
 
I too was fortuntate to get the food change advise before starting the insulin. I am convinced it made a difference. Unfortunately, Grayson was reluctant to eat the canned food (although some of the others would've given their right paw for canned!). He seemed like he was always hungry, so I started letting him have part of the can every 4-6 hours. He has now concluded that canned food is yummy and he doesn't delay in eating it. He still likes food throughout the cycle.

Transition of food is usually done gradually, but in his case, we went cold turkey. If I was to do it over, I'd probably have taken more time and done it slowly, but hindsight being what it is... it was probably better for him in the long run to get off the high carb dry sooner rather than later.

When we started insulin, 1.5 weeks after initiating the food change, we started with a lower dose than the vet was originally suggesting. My boy tends to have long cycles, so had we started higher, and had I not been testing, we would've run into many more problems. Taking it slow as a really good move for us!

Good luck and be sure to check in regularly.

Lu-Ann
 
I really had no problems at all switching Shadoe to all wet LC food after eating only dry food for 7yrs. She liked the wet, but look out.... she is a carb addict and if any of the dry was left where she could get it, she would and then her numbers would sky rocket.

In many cases, you can switch to to wet, but that temptation, that addiction to carbs may still stay strong.

I have one civvie who would rather die than eat her 2 fave dry foods, so she has to jump really high up to a shelf to get her dry food in order to keep it from the diabetics.

You will definitely see better numbers and possibly not need any insulin once the switch is done.
 
We just got back from the Vet.

We are going to continue with just the diet, holding off on the insulin for now.

She lost more weight, but that isn't surprising since she is just starting to eat more than a few bites. She was at 15 lbs, now down to 12.1 pounds.
So we are going to keep an eye on her weight (watching that she isn't dropping a lot) and do another BG Curve at home on Wednesday and call it into the Vet. Giving her more time for time for the new diet and more time to recover from her infection. She was a little more herself today, so that is promising.
 
I hope the diet does the trick. Some ideas to get her to eat:

Warm the wet food in the microwave until nice and stinky
Put Parmesan cheese or tuna juice on top
Top with a favorite treat- bonito flakes or dried meat like Purebites
Chop it up and add a little warm water to make it like gravy
For some cats, FortiFlora is magic. For others, not so much. It is a probiotic that contains the animal digest that makes dry food so irrestible. You can sometimes get it from the vet or online.
 
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