Eddie newly diagnosed...BG keeps going higher?

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Jen&Eddie

Jen&Eddie

Member Since 2013
Hi!

My name is Jen and one of our kitties, Eddie, was diagnosed with diabetes about two weeks ago. He's been on Prozinc since that time. His initial reading at the vet's office at the time of his diagnosis was just over 400. He was started on one unit twice a day. We have been back to the vet for testing three more times since then, and his BG continues to go up. Yesterday, it was over 500 :( Each time, we've been instructed to increase his insulin dose by a unit per dose, so we're giving three units twice a day currently.

It is our intention to do home monitoring, but I initially assumed that home testing would wait until Eddie was better regulated. I'm now thinking that it would probably be helpful if we had a better idea what his levels were throughout the day. Each time he's been tested at the vet's, it's been a couple hours before his scheduled injection.

He doesn't have any symptoms of any infections going on, but in case there is an infection, he was given an antibiotic yesterday, too, just in case he has an infection causing problems with his BG. They also did a fructose test yesterday, and I don't know the exact values, but the vet said it was consistent with the high BG levels. He goes back in Friday to get his levels checked again.

In terms of diet, for the past several years Eddie was fed a mixed diet of canned food for his morning meal and what we assumed was quality dry food for his evening meal. Since his diagnosis, we've eliminated the dry food, and have upgraded the canned food to low carb/high protein (thanks to the amazing spreadsheets with nutritional values floating around). He has a great (ravenous) appetite, and has not been picky in the least about the food.

Eddie seemed to feel a bit better initially after starting the insulin and gained about a 1/2 pound, but seemed to backslide some in terms of how he is feeling, which is presumably because his numbers remain so high :(

Thoughts? Is it normal for BG to continue to rise after starting insulin?

Thank you!!!
Jen (Eddie's Mom)
 
Welcome Jen and Eddie! You've found the perfect place for help.

I'm still learning my way around the sugar dance. I can tell you that home testing gives great info on how to help your kitty. BG levels are raised at the vet due to stress. They may be lower at home. You can also get mid cycle tests at home which help us figure out dosing. You can use a human glucometer to test. Lots of us use relion brand from Walmart. It's fairly cheap and works well. We can help you learn home testing. Saves money on bringing him to the vet and is more accurate.

You've made a great start! Low carb wet food is excellent and you're here! There's plenty of people more experienced than me around. Everyone is super friendly and helpful. The main advice I have is remember that this disease can be controlled! Ask all you want...we all want to help! I get daily help dosing my girl...all based on her daily readings. You'll be fine!
 
Rachel said:
Welcome Jen and Eddie! You've found the perfect place for help.

I'm still learning my way around the sugar dance. I can tell you that home testing gives great info on how to help your kitty. BG levels are raised at the vet due to stress. They may be lower at home. You can also get mid cycle tests at home which help us figure out dosing. You can use a human glucometer to test. Lots of us use relion brand from Walmart. It's fairly cheap and works well. We can help you learn home testing. Saves money on bringing him to the vet and is more accurate.

You've made a great start! Low carb wet food is excellent and you're here! There's plenty of people more experienced than me around. Everyone is super friendly and helpful. The main advice I have is remember that this disease can be controlled! Ask all you want...we all want to help! I get daily help dosing my girl...all based on her daily readings. You'll be fine!
Click to expand...


Welcome To FDMB Jen and Eddie! Nice to have another sugar-cat that runs on ProZinc in our group. Rachel did a perfect introduction for you. I couldn't of said it better myself. :smile:

Here is a link to our ProZinc protocol http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=109077

We use a spreadsheet here to enter test/dose/misc. info every day. Once the link is in your "signature" we can all see how Eddie's insulin is working and provide dosing suggestions. Here is the link on how to set it up. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18207 If you have any questions, please post them so we can help you.

Here is a getting started shopping list <<<<< I borrowed list from another members post ;-) >>>>>
1. Meter ie Walmart Relion Confirm or Micro.
2. Matching strips
3. Lancets - little sticks to poke the ear to get blood . new members usually start with a larger gauge lancet such as 28g or 29g until the ear learns to bleed. Optional - lancing tool.
4. Cotton balls to stem the blood
5. Neosporin or Polysporin ointment with pain relief to heal the wound
6. Mini flashlight (optional) - useful to help see the ear veins in dark cats, and to press against
7. Ketone urine test strips ie ketodiastix - Important to check ketones when blood is high
8. Sharps container - to dispose of waste syringes and lancets.
9. Treats for the cat - like freeze dried chicken
10. Karo syrup/corn syrup or honey if you dont have it at home - for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast
11. A couple of cans of fancy feast gravy lovers or other high carb gravy food- for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast

Please tell us where you are from. Nice to see if any of our sugar-cats are 'neighbors' so to speak. :lol:

If you have questions about anything, feel free to post them. We are all here to help you help Eddie.
I am sure other members will chime in later...it is still early for beans (our term for humans) to be getting up on New Years Day! ;-)
 
Vet stress can raise the glucose level from 100 to 180 mg/dL, according to one study a member found. This is just one reason why home testing is important. If you increase the dose based on stress raised glucose tests, you'll exceed the correct dose for your cat. Compensatory hormones will kick in to handle this, but they only work for a while. Eventually, the stored glucose (glycogen) is exhausted and your cat may hypo and die.

Home blood glucose testing also let's you determine if it is safe to give insulin. You cannot tell by looking what the glucose level is. if you give insulin when the cat is at an unsafely low level, you could overdose it on insulin, again, potentially resulting in death, or an extremely expensive vet bill. I had a friend give insulin to my Spitzer and he misread the syringe, giving 10 times the dose; the final vet bill was over 2 grand!

Finally, there are guidelines for dose adjustment based on how low the glucose level gets between shoots (the nadir). If you test at home, you can save yourself the money of fructosamine tests and vet done curves. Most folks find that helpful to their wallets, plus the numbers are not affected by vet stress.
 
Notes:
Some cats, upon dropping to a much lower glucose level and/or dropping very rapidly may have compensatory hormones kick in to elevate the glucose. We call this a bounce. It takes about 3 days or so for this to settle out.

Dose increases should be made in smaller amounts than 1 unit or you may skip over an ideal dose. We suggest 0.25 increments which are eyeballed as most syringes don't measure that precisely.

With ProZinc, a U-40 insulin, you can use a conversion chart and U-100 syringes with half unit markings to dose in 0.2 unit increments.
 
Thank you so much for the warm welcome and the information! I've studied a quite a bit of the information available here, but there's obviously so much more yet to read and learn!

We're picking up a meter and the other supplies today so I can start home testing. I'm hoping to at least get a couple readings today since I have the day off to see if his numbers are in fact going down substantially and if he's bouncing back up. That way we can go armed with a little bit better info to the Vet when we go in on Friday before changing his dose. I will also start a spreadsheet for Eddie. I've looked at a couple from other posters' signatures, and they look like a great way to see exactly what the insulin is doing.

Thanks again!
Jen and Eddie

*Edited to add: We're from Eden Prairie in the Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota.
 
Looks like Eddie is is good hands with you Jen. cat_pet_icon

Looking forward to your ss data. Let us know if you have questions. :smile:
 
Testing supplies purchased - check
Tested on self - check
Multiple attempts on Eddie with no carb treats and love - check
Getting enough blood for a test - no go :(
Will keep trying...
 
Don't get discouraged. You need to find the right rountine that works for you and Eddie. We poked poor Oliver for a whole weekend before getting a drop. The two things that were the most important for us were a warm enough ear (rice sack is wonderful) and a big enough lancet. (25 - 27 gauge work best at first rather than the small 31 gauge humans use. )

Be sure to stop after three tries with a treat for you both. You'll get it before long.
 
First successful home test tonight prior to Eddie's shot tonight! 300 down from 500 when we were at the vet's office on Monday. Assuming this successful test wasn't just a fluke, we're going to try to get a couple more tests tonight to see how low he's going.

I'm probably missing it, but can someone direct me to where/how I can get the spreadsheet and get it started for Eddie?

Thanks!
Jen and Eddie
 
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