General diabetic health question

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smilelari

smilelari

Member Since 2016
Since our diagnosis, it's seemed like our previously healthy cat has had a lot of heath issues. We caught the diabetes pretty much immediately as he was already being watched carefully due to weight issues. After diagnosis we dealt with an infected tooth spreading to an eye infection. Took quite a bit to get that all cleared up. Got him healthy again and now I've been trying to get up to speed on the diabetes and get him on track. We had him on 3u of Lantus, but his insulin levels were lower than I'm comfortable with at this point at a pre injection check. Did some more reading and thought maybe we'd give the low and slow or even tight regulation a shot and now we're holding at 1.5u of Lantus while we go back and forth with our vet a bit before proceeding. Now, I'm doubting going so low with the dosage. Noticing that some of Turner's hair is missing and he has some skin scabs. Not sure what's going on, we'll call the vet in the morning, but I'm sure it has something to do with his immune system being compromised with the diabetes.

Kind of rambling. Just kind of wondering if it's worth whatever may happen health wise while he's on, probably, too low of a dose of insulin
 
The last entry in your spreadsheet is 2/18 and with those values a slight increase in does would be in order.I not that dose is not listed in the SS.
 
We dropped down after I had a reading of 96 before giving the cat any insulin. I will update the spreadsheet with that information
 
New Human Meter spreadsheet in siggy.

I guess I'm not really sure what to do with the cat at this point. Had some readings that were "good" but made me nervous given that we didn't really have any data on how the cat was handling insulin. I'd kind of like to go ahead and start in with the tight regulation protocol, but I'm trying to get my vet on board first and at this point she isn't really even on board with switching foods yet (we're currently on M/D but I'd like to switch to one of the lower carb foods that I've seen recommended)

In the meantime, we're kind of in a holding pattern, I guess. And not sure what to do.
 
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Ok. I'll do that in a minute

We're in the money with the vet though! Just need to figure out what to do next

Email from her this morning :

Low carb is definitely the way to go. Canned or pouches would be better. I've seen a ton of recalls and renal failure on cats with Wellness, so I would avoid that one. Fancy Feast is the diet most commonly associated with bladder stones, so I would avoid this one.

I am familiar with the tight regulation, but have never had a client be able to stick with it because of how much testing is involved and most cats hate it. I do have one client doing it and she sends me a curve each week. She uses a human glucometer and we try to extrapolate the values based on some curves we did in the hospital initially to discover the variation in the human glucometer. The glucose values varied by as much as 120 mg/dl glucose and as low as 10 mg/dl glucose. We can show you some tricks to get the Alpha Trak working better for you.

Dr. C
 
smilelari said:
After diagnosis we dealt with an infected tooth spreading to an eye infection.
Click to expand...
Infection raises glucose levels, so I'm not surprised that Turner needs less insulin since the infected tooth has been treated. And you are right, diabetics can have more help problems, particularly infections like UTIs.

You are lucky to have a vet who seems knowledgable and will work with you on Turner's treatment! Did you ask her about the scabs? Could it be fleas? Or maybe an allergic reaction to a new food?
 
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smilelari said:
Ok. I'll do that in a minute

We're in the money with the vet though! Just need to figure out what to do next

Email from her this morning :

Low carb is definitely the way to go. Canned or pouches would be better. I've seen a ton of recalls and renal failure on cats with Wellness, so I would avoid that one. Fancy Feast is the diet most commonly associated with bladder stones, so I would avoid this one.

I am familiar with the tight regulation, but have never had a client be able to stick with it because of how much testing is involved and most cats hate it. I do have one client doing it and she sends me a curve each week. She uses a human glucometer and we try to extrapolate the values based on some curves we did in the hospital initially to discover the variation in the human glucometer. The glucose values varied by as much as 120 mg/dl glucose and as low as 10 mg/dl glucose. We can show you some tricks to get the Alpha Trak working better for you.

Dr. C
Click to expand...
Very nice to have your vet working with you.... I use alpha track and test often... not a problem at all and I suspect you will do just fine as well.
Many people here do use fancy feast classic variety only-it is low carb and affordable . I have not heard of the bladder stone issue with ff maybe others here have I am sure more will respond.
There is a ton of knowledge in the forum here and I am sure you will get some of the expert eyes on you very soon. We have been at this about 6 months and this forum has saved us!
Welcome aboard!!
 
I also wonder whether the hair loss and scabs might be manifestation of an allergy to something in the new food or possibly flea allergy dermatitis and overgrooming. Whereabouts on the body is the hair loss?


Mogs
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Hello, I hope you can figure out Turners skin problem.
It's great that you are home testing, and that your vet is supporting you. I use a human meter and though it does not correlate directly with feline blood we have ways of adjusting for it, in fact the TR protocol and SLGS guidelines were written with human meters in mind (make sure you make note of the conversions given in the stickies for those folk using pet meters) under 50 is too low for a human meter, 68 for a pet meter. As we are looking for trends it sort of doesn't matter about the difference and the values we regularly use have been adjusted. The main reason for using the human meter is the cost of strips, some folk use both because their vets want to see pet meter numbers, so they will save the more expensive strips for days the vet wants a curve done.

Although Turners numbers are high at preshot, you should be aware that it is entirely possible that he is dropping low midcycle and then bouncing high by preshot, some kitties do that. Before making any decisions in changing dose I would start getting some midcycle readings, I don't know how able you are to test during the day, but I would suggest, getting a +3 +6 an +9 to start with varying it from day to day helps so that you don't have any gaps in the data.

When you get yourself up and running if you want advice on dosing you might want to post on the insulin support group, it's a very active group with a lot of experienced users of Lantus, they have offered George and I tremendous help.

I have posted a daily thread there (condo) and have had my hand held while we made dosing decisions and dealt with him going too low and too high. He is now on just 0.5u he got up to 3u and was diagnosed end of october 2015. Hang in there there is light at the end of the tunnel
:bighug::bighug::bighug:

Hope to see you there soon
Gill
 
Can you post a picture of the skin issues? Are the areas red or flakey, or are they just missing fur but have clear white skin?
 
hmmm
I had a cat that had scabs like this (sorry I am of no help here) we never found the cause-
She had rounds of AB when needed usually 2x a month-
we tested for everything including fungal-
neither the vet or myself know why AB worked because her blood was normal-
I hope you have better luck!!
 
An update on the skin issue. Vet wasn't really sure what it is, but it's in the general proximity of where they had done some things for pre surgery when he had his dental, so she thought it might be some kind of weird reaction to that. Some of the tissue was looking like it might die, so she was pretty concerned about that. We started antibiotics and laser treatments. She thinks that 6-9 laser treatments will stimulate healthy tissue growth an have it looking a lot better.
 
Thank you for updating us with developments. Fingers and paws crossed for the laser treatment to work its magic for Turner. :bighug:


Mogs
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Turner is looking pretty good! We've been so busy I haven't posted much over here, but we did the 6 laser treatments and it scabbed nicely and is looking a lot better. I'll post picture
 
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