Erratic Starting Numbers

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Marc_Z

Marc_Z

Member Since 2019
My cat was diagnosed last Thursday with 500+ numbers. I changed his diet to Fancy Feast Classics on Friday. I got an AlphaTrak Cat Glucose Monitor on Monday. I've been testing him at least twice a day before feedings. (I have a spreedsheet) I will be getting a human meter at Walmart soon, so I can follow the board here. (And its way cheaper strips) But I already spent money on this one, so I'm going to use the test strips, trying to gather as much info before putting him on Insulin. (And my vet wasn't to pumped about a human meter)

I had a recheck with my vet yesterday and he wanted me to put him on DM. I realize Fancy Feast is just as good, so I will probably stick with that. He said after 10 days, send him a glucose curve and he will give me a prescription of Insulin. He wanted him to wait so he can adjust to his diet change.

My problem is his numbers are all over the place. Yesterday he was in normal range (80-120 on Cat Glucose Meter) for both tests, today he was slightly above in the morning (170's) and in the way high (300's) for the dinner meal. Do you think his levels are going too low and he keeps bouncing with of his diet change? I just don't know how I'm going to give him insulin, when he is below 200's a lot of the time and then in the 300's-400's the other half of the time.

He use to drink a whole bowl of water during morning and then night and now he drinks basically nothing with the diet change. Hopefully he levels off after these 10 days, but who knows.

Seems strange. Just confused.
 
He also wasn't able to retract his back claws and was sticking to the carpet/bed/couch. The reason I had the vet come out and check. That has gone away almost completely.
 
Hi and welcome.
Great job starting to test the BSL and switching to low carb food. I’d stick with the fancy feast. No need for the DM which is more expensive and higher carb.
If you are not giving insulin, the numbers will not go too low. It looks like the pancreas is spluttering and trying to work at times, hence the lower numbers.
One thing I would do if you are not going to start insulin for 10 days is go out and buy a bottle of Ketostix to test the urine for ketones from Walmart or a pharmacy . Ketones can develop in FD kitties who are not getting insulin so while it is fine to swap over to low carb food first , it would be a good idea to check daily that ketones are not developing. Anything above s trace needs vet attention as ketones can develop into the much more serious DKA illness.
Has the vet said what insulin you will be using? Not sure where you live but try and get the vet to prescribe one of the longer acting insulins like Lantus, levemir or Prozinc. Much better for kitty. Post and tell us what insulin and dose when you know :)
Keep asking us lots of questions, we are happy to help.
You kitty is gorgeous by the way. What is his name?
 
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His name is Toast. If his numbers stay high by Wednesday, I’m going to do a curve Wednesday and send to Vet. I work from home Wednesday. Hopefully have his Insulin by next weekend. I will buy those strips at Walmart today. How do you check his urine?
 
Try and collect a specimen of urine when Toast goes to the litter box. If he’ll let you, slip a small container under him, or a large spoon. If he’s shy, try putting a small container into the litter box where his favourite spot is to pee. If that fails try crumpling some plastic in the litter box and hopefully he’ll pee on that. You don’t need a lot of urine. Just enough to wet a test strip. When you have the urine, dip the Ketostix strip into the urine and read exactly 15 seconds later and hold it against the colours on the bottle to compare. Check it says 15 seconds on the bottle.. . it usually is. Leaving it longer will not give a true result. Make sure you read it in a good light.

You are doing a great job getting the BSLs. If you can get a few readings 2 to 3 hours after food that might tell us if his pancreas is working at all. If it drops after food it means the pancreas is trying to work.
Let us know how you get on.
You are doing a really good job getting prepared and swapping over to low carb diet.
 
My kitty's story is identical to yours.. identical . He was diagnosed last week at 476 . Came home and changed his diet to fancy feast only . His water intake and urination went back to normal and now I've been testing him and it ranges from 140 .. highest was 290 after eating. We haven't started insulin yet either and it has me questioning it insulin is needed . I am very new to all this as well .
 
Good for both you newbies! Strong work! M'row got diagnosed four months ago; he used to fill the litter box with pee every day, and drink so much water! I may be OCD, but I track his water consumption daily; it's between one and two ounces a day. We just started up with lantus, one U twice a day. He's now down to 1/2 U twice a day; reading your stories I feel a little wistful, as maybe he could have managed without insulin. Thanks for wonderful posts!
 
My 13 year old kitty Bagheera also recently diagnosed with diabetes. . My experience very similar to yours. I have had him on a low carb, higher protein diet for 5 days before beginning insulin. He is currently on Lantus 1 unit twice a day. Before starting him on his insulin, I got BS numbers on him. For instance: At 10 pm his BS was 396. He then had a can of Fancy Feast pate. At 8 am the next morning his BS was 377. He was given his meal of FF and some tuna. At 10:30, 2 1/2 hours later, his BS was 304. At 1 pm his BS was down to 290. At 4 pm his BS going up to 378. If I am correct, these numbers may show his pancreas has some functioning in lowering his BS. I started him on insulin the next day. His morning BS was 370. I gave him 1 u of Lantus. Twelve hours later his BS was 297. The next day his morning BS was 130. I had read in numerous places that if the cats BS is less than 200 not to give insulin. So I did not. Probably a mistake but I am just trying to figure this all out. Turns out his evening BS was up to 405. The following day his morning BS was 347. I did another BS 6 hours later it it was 136. I will do another BS at 9 pm tonight. What I would like to know is in what range should my kitty spend most of his time in? And when should I not give him insulin i.e., is there a standard low BS that you do not give insulin? My kitty is not cooperative in any way at being tested. It takes two of us to get his BS. I always give him a little treat after blood draws but he continues being extremely agitated. He’s never been a cuddle cat and usually does not want to be held at all unless he chooses to honor me with a cuddle hug.
 
Hi @Donna M
If I were you I would start a new thread of your own and copy and paste what you have written here, because your post will just get lost in someone else's thread. It is good you were able to swap him over to a low carb diet before starting the insulin and he looks like he is responding to Lantus which is good.
A couple of things you can do as well as start your own thread:
When you are testing your kitty,if he is uncooperative, try giving him a small low carb treat at the same time you are testing to distract him. It can be hard in the beginning but it is great you are testing and persevering with it,,
Another thing I would do, which will make all the difference when getting help, is to set up a spreadsheet and enter all the BSLs you have taken so far and ongoing. Here is the link to it. If you have any trouble with it , ask us for help.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

With new diabetic kitties who have no data on what the BSLs are doing, we suggest a no shoot number of 200 to start with. Later as you get more numbers in the spreadsheet and we can see what your kitty is doing with the insulin, you can start to reduce the no shot number but for now 200 is the safest number. The next preshot after a skip will be higher because of the skipped shot.
If you keep having to skip the shot because of the preshot number, we would probably suggest lowering the dose by 0.25 units so that you can shoot both cycles in a day. But first, I think you need to get that spreadsheet up and running and then things will start to fall into place.
 
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