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DL and Pinky

DL and Pinky

Member Since 2022
As you can see, 10 YO Pebbles aka Pinky is a very shy gal. But if you got to know her she would charm the treats out of you! Her diagnosis came on 1/19/22. Due to a Covid Vet shut down, scrambling to find another vet and a major snowstorm delaying delivery, she has not begun insulin (Prozinc). It is supposed to arrive today. There are more details about her on the profile page.

Her second vet has set the dose at 1iu. I declined and told her I plan to follow the SLGS guidelines to start at 1/2 iu for cats on low carb diets and showed her the guidelines. And that is what I plan to do, unless experience here says otherwise.

Her spreadsheet should be available to see, it has 5 BG readings without insulin using a human meter (Relion Prime). They range from a low of 240 to a high of 265 (both fasting) . I have entered blood and urine test results from the day of diagnosis.

I am nervous about starting the insulin, but have most of the hypo kit in place, directions printed and will complete the kit today with some higher carb foods.

I cannot thank those who have put together and who contribute to this lifeline of a resource enough. May your days be graced.

If there is something I've missed, or anything I should be considering, I would really like to know about it.

Laura
(One of my other cats, Dino, is helping me type this. He can't spell good, so typos are his:cat:.)
 
Wow! I'm not a helper here yet but I love you advocating for that lower dose! Personally I think the half u is the better choice between the 2 options. I'm gonna check out your spreadsheet real quick
 
Hi, I am in the middle of switching her to a homemade diet per Lisa Pierson DVM. It is ground chicken with most bone in and some skin, liver, eggs, supplements and water. She is halfway there, with the other half being a mix of low carb canned food. FF classic pate at 5.5ish % carbs and Nature's promise grain free at 2.5% carbs if I am counting it correctly.
 
Awesome job getting started! Makes my life easier lol

Just making sure - did you see the posts about hypo kits and ketones? You'll want some medium carb (wet) foods from 10-15%, and some higher ones 16% and above. I also like to have some very very high carb in hand that's 23% or higher. Hopefully you never need it but you'll be glad to have it if you do. This list is a good reference for carbs. <I just reread and saw you mention the hypo stuff>

Double checking you have U40 syringes, it should say on the side of the barrel.

I think 0.5U is good idea. Would it be possible for you to test every other hour tomorrow? If not, what is the next day you can? Because her numbers are actually relatively low for newly diagnosed, I'd feel more comfortable if you started insulin on a day you can keep an eye.

Was she on steroids at all recently? Any infections or teeth issues? Any history of ketones or DKA that you know of? How was she diagnosed - symptoms, Fructosamine test, urine sample...?
 
Thank you for your response. Yes, I am getting the hypo kit finished today. I ordered u40 syringes but will double check them when they arrive.
I will be home tomorrow all day and if the insulin arrives on time, will administer and test as you suggest.

No recent steroids**. She appears to have resorptive teeth issue along with her brother. Vet recommended waiting on dental work until glucose is stabilized.
No signs of infection in blood or urine.**
No ketones as of 1/19/21.
Taken to vet 1/19/21 due to increases in drinking and urinating, increased appetite with weight loss, tooth loss, bothered ears**
Diagnostic blood work: glucose 401 Diagnostic urinalysis: glucose 1000

** She has/had something bothering her ears. Asked vet to please look into it as well. Vet did not make precise diagnosis, but prescribed Tresaderm (this happened the same day that the FD tests were done. She did not have Tresaderm before that day.) During the six days she received Tresaderm drops, she became increasingly ill. But she recovered. She went from barely moving or eating to now playing with toys. There is a steroid in Tresaderm but it was not in her system until after the blood and urine tests were done. The last dose of Tresaderm was given the evening of Jan. 25 in case it was the Tresaderm and not feline herpes recurrence making her ill.
 
Was that blood test just straight blood glucose or was it a fructosamine?

The reason I ask is that fructosamine is the true diagnostic. Any infection, teeth issues, etc could easily be raising her BG that high (example: my cat has been in remission for a little while, but he got very ill a few months ago and BG went up to 300+, once everything was taken care of right back down to normal range).

Its possible that the combination of teeth and whatever was bothering her ears was enough to keep BG high enough for long enough. Chances are she's still diabetic though.

I personally would not wait til BG is under control to take care of the teeth. It could take month or more for BG to regulate. @Suzanne & Darcy you're the first one that comes to mind, thoughts?
 
It was a GLU not a FRU, unfortunately. Things were a bit wild with the vet. We were not allowed in and had brief conversations in a windy, freezing cold (10 deg F) parking lot. The vet's office then shuttered due to Covid, as I was trying to follow up on my very sick cat. It is a bit of a mess. But for this forum, I would be lost at sea.
 
I definitely agree with the starting on .5 units instead of 1. The human meter readings that you have recorded so far are not really that high. It's possible that the tooth/teeth are causing the problem. How is she eating? Those resorptive lesions can be really painful. Having said that, I've had cats (recently) who just toughed it out and kept eating despite reporptive lesions and even teeth that apparently just fell out! Poor baby. We did not know that she had this going on in her mouth! Did the vet just look inside Pebble's mouth and see this?

I would not wait too long to get the teeth addressed. I understand the vet saying that (my vet said that too... I ended up waiting months to get his tooth removed because he never did get regulated until much later on in his FD journey.

If a tooth gets infected and you have an abscess (which I guess is not the case at this time) then you could have a recipe for DKA.

This is all dependent on labs for your kitty too, of course. The labs you posted on your spreadsheet look good in so far as it being safe for anesthesia. Hopefully, you can get her BG down quickly and get the teeth taken care of.
 
Thank you, that is very helpful. Before the vet visit, she ate voraciously and showed no sign of mouth pain, but lost weight. After the vet visit, she became quite anorexic for a three days and ate very little and needed lots of tempting. She lost half a pound. Now she is hungry again, but she is eating the homemade food. All the cats eat it more slowly and use their mouths differently. Not sure how to describe that...more chewing, less licking?

We asked the vet to look at her teeth because we saw a missing incisor. She is missing two teeth, says the vet. I am guessing it is resorptive, I cannot say whether the vet specifically stated that. The Vet described a lesion on one of her teeth. She did not speak about gum issues.

I will work toward getting her teeth addressed asap.

I really appreciate everyone's insight and willingness to help.
 
I won't be able to answer for a little while. I will check in later. Have to go get things for the hypo kit.
 
Just curious, but how ground up is the meat that you are feeding. I only ask because I'm getting ready to experiment with EZ Complete and ground meat for my cats.
 
Suzanne & Darcy -- Completely ground. Once with the coarse plate and once again with the fine. Weston #12 about 70% of bones included. No chunks this first batch.

Diane Tyler's Mom -- Hello. Yes, confirmed I have received U40 syringes with half unit markings.
 
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