It'sSunshineOverHere
Member Since 2026
Hello everybody. I am Sunny, I am new to the forum, but I've been using the feline diabetes subreddit since I got my eight year old kitty Boy. I've had him for two months and am starting to feel unsure and frustrated, and I was recommended this forum as a way to hear other people's experiences. I've read the sticky and hope I've followed the rules.
I adopted him on the tenth of April, and the same day his insulin treatment started. I'm told that before I took him he had all the symptoms; rapidly losing weight, drinking entire water bowls, peeing extremely much, ravenously hungry, lethargic. His first vet visit his fructosamine was at 621. It is unknown how long he's been diabetic (his previous owner was an old lady who had to go into care, so she has not been able to care for him properly for a while) but they suspect a long time.
After I've started treatment, all these symptoms have reversed. He plays with toys, we go for walks, he pees three times a day and poops once like clockwork, he has entirely stopped drinking water from a bowl and instead gets all his water from the wet food. His fructosamine measured 420 last vet visit two weeks ago. Vet confirms he's a healthy weight and well hydrated.
This graph is his glucose readings from April; I measure before every shot. As you can see in the beginning he had a period of wildly swinging back and forth, reaching hypoglycemic levels every night. Vet said this was the Somogyi effect and to lower his dose. After lowering his dose he stabilized somewhat but his number stayed high, at an average glucose reading of 20 mmol (360mg/dl)
After that I was advised to do weekly glucose curves, and to up his dose by 0.5 if the nadir did not reach acceptable range. I wait 7 to 10 days between each curve and dose change.
This is his graph from May.
After many glucose curves he has never reached a nadir below 16 (288 mg/dl). His average reading for May is 19,6, despite having been slowly upped to 3,5 units twice daily.
These are his first few glucose curves
This is his last glucose curve, done yesterday.
I've also done spot testing on days off, and never seen him lower than 16.
What we've tried:
Can any of you lovely people spot something I should be doing that I'm not? Things I can try? Has anyone else experienced this and found a solution?
- Boy is eight years old. He is not spayed and is an inside cat.
- He is on ProZinc insulin. Shots given twice daily, food withheld three hours before.
- He gets fed Bozita wet food exclusively, smaller meals every three hours. Bozita has a 0.5% carb content. Occasional treats are freeze dried minnows or chicken hearts.
- All testing is done at home, glucose curves are done at home.
- I'm european and glucose levels are measured in mmol in this post
- His last vet visit was two weeks ago
I adopted him on the tenth of April, and the same day his insulin treatment started. I'm told that before I took him he had all the symptoms; rapidly losing weight, drinking entire water bowls, peeing extremely much, ravenously hungry, lethargic. His first vet visit his fructosamine was at 621. It is unknown how long he's been diabetic (his previous owner was an old lady who had to go into care, so she has not been able to care for him properly for a while) but they suspect a long time.
After I've started treatment, all these symptoms have reversed. He plays with toys, we go for walks, he pees three times a day and poops once like clockwork, he has entirely stopped drinking water from a bowl and instead gets all his water from the wet food. His fructosamine measured 420 last vet visit two weeks ago. Vet confirms he's a healthy weight and well hydrated.
This graph is his glucose readings from April; I measure before every shot. As you can see in the beginning he had a period of wildly swinging back and forth, reaching hypoglycemic levels every night. Vet said this was the Somogyi effect and to lower his dose. After lowering his dose he stabilized somewhat but his number stayed high, at an average glucose reading of 20 mmol (360mg/dl)
After that I was advised to do weekly glucose curves, and to up his dose by 0.5 if the nadir did not reach acceptable range. I wait 7 to 10 days between each curve and dose change.
This is his graph from May.
After many glucose curves he has never reached a nadir below 16 (288 mg/dl). His average reading for May is 19,6, despite having been slowly upped to 3,5 units twice daily.
These are his first few glucose curves
This is his last glucose curve, done yesterday.
I've also done spot testing on days off, and never seen him lower than 16.
What we've tried:
- The vet confirmed that his insulin is stored correctly in the fridge
- I sent a picture of the syringes I use and a picture of me having drawn up 3 units of insulin, to confirm I am drawing it up correctly, and I was
- I am very sure I'm not giving fur shots, I can feel both the needle going in and the needle "letting go" when I pull back. I still feel his fur after every shot to make sure it's not wet.
- I also demonstrated my shot technique to the vet last time I was there (administering just fluids in front of her) and she said it looked perfect
- To the very best of my ability I have confirmed that he isn't eating anything he shouldn't be
- Vet says it would be weird if he was insulin resistant, considering he was so sensitive to insulin at the very beginning. A shot of 1,25 units would bring him down into hypo ranges.
- I know that insulin does something, because in the early days when he was still very hungry he once broke into the bread box and ate some hamburger buns. He measured at 25 that morning, much higher than his average (that's the spike at the beginning of the May graph), but his morning insulin brought him down to "his" average
- Vet says she doesn't want to test for acromegaly unless he reaches 5 units, which I think is the standard
Can any of you lovely people spot something I should be doing that I'm not? Things I can try? Has anyone else experienced this and found a solution?
