Hello again

J

Jelltex

Member
I am part owner of a 15 year old cat, Scully, who was diagnosed with insulin in December 2025.

Since then, our vet has not taken the issue seriously. Dose in original insulin, Caninsulin, over a period of four months from 2.0 to 2.5 units day and night, before increasing the morning dose to 3.0.

We administer insulin at 07:00 and 19:00.

Our vet strongly advised us against withdrawing the slow-release dried food.

Her last check up, 29th August 2025, showed Scull losing 100g in body weight per week. The vet was not concerned, but I was.

With help from a member of this group, we were able to challenge the vet and treatment policy, which I think was down to ignorance, but seemed unaware of the correct insulin for cats.

Initially, the Pro-Zinc worked very well in bringing her readings down, but this week, and today when we did hourly checks, readings varied, but did not drop down to levels seen last week:

13.6 / 15.2

I know we have not been as diligent as we should have, but advice sought as to dosage going forwards.
 
Hello and welcome! I will try to help you. There’s not much data on your spreadsheet. Are you using a pet meter? Would it be possible for you to look on your meter and put any more data on the spreadsheet? I don’t have much to compare the last three days with to see what you mean by her getting better numbers last week. Your current dose is 1.5 units correct? The numbers I see are very high. Do you test for ketones? Any history of DKA or ketones? I will come back later to try to help. I am dealing with a very sick cat right now and he’s going to the vet.

As for feeding, it’s better to spread the food out into smaller meals throughout the cycle. She should get food at breakfast, +2, +4 and +6 and then not much after that, but if she’s famished and underweight, you probably should go ahead and feed her small amount as long as you keep it low carb. As she gets better and into better numbers, she should not be as hungry because she will be able to put her food to use providing energy for her cells. Just don’t feed her for the two hours prior to the morning and evening preshot tests (AMPS and PMPS). The reason for this is so that your BG test will be accurate and not inflated by food. Don’t try to be too stingy with the food right now if she’s extremely hungry.
 
Hi Suzanne & Darcy.

We have not been as diligent with testing as we should have been, as we were getting contradictory advice from the vet and our friend on here. The vet stated after testing for nadir at +5, +6 and =7 hours were in acceptable limits, she did not think we needed to do them every day. A mistake I now admit, sadly.

I will populate the sheet with data what I have.
 
Hi Suzanne & Darcy.

Thanks for your reply.

When you say low carb do you mean wet food? The vet is concerned that there were high proteins in her blood.

Thanks in advance.
 
Jelltex said:
Hi Suzanne & Darcy.

Thanks for your reply.

When you say low carb do you mean wet food? The vet is concerned that there were high proteins in her blood.

Thanks in advance.
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Low carb food for a diabetic cat should be wet food with less than ten percent carbohydrates on a dry matter basis. If you are feeding high carbohydrate food then it will make it very difficult to get her blood glucose numbers down because carbohydrates raise blood glucose. What are you currently feeding her?
 
We are feeding her a suite of various high protein low carb wet foods. We also have Royal Canin Diabetic dry food which the vet recommended, and advised us not to stop giving Scully
 
Jelltex said:
Our vet strongly advised us against withdrawing the slow-release dried food.
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So this is what she’s eating. What is the name of this food? I will find the carbs for you. Most dry food is very high in carbs and will significantly raise the numbers. That is a good part of why you aren’t making progress and seeing better BG numbers.
 
Is this it?
1757010130364.png
 
Jelltex said:
We are feeding her a suite of various high protein low carb wet foods. We also have Royal Canin Diabetic dry food which the vet recommended, and advised us not to stop giving Scully
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Please add whatever food you are feeding her to your signature. This way we won’t have to keep asking you 🙂
 
Jelltex said:
Her last check up, 29th August 2025, showed Scull losing 100g in body weight per week. The vet was not concerned, but I was.
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How many total ounces (sorry grams for you) did she lose since her previous vet visit. I would be concerned too. It’s always best to get a handle on weight loss as soon as you can.
 
I’m very glad you got off of the Caninsulin. It’s not a good insulin for cats at all and isn’t very long lasting in cats. You did well to challenge the vet on this and to get a better insulin for your Scully.
 
Anyway, I am glad you posted here. I know we can get Scully into better numbers. I did see your post over on the other forum (.org) from before we moved back over here. Did she have an ultrasound done on her abdomen to check for inflammatory bowel disease?
Does Scully have any other health conditions? If so please list them in your signature as well as any medications she takes.
 
Did she have an ultrasound done on her abdomen to check for inflammatory bowel disease?
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The vet says Scully is too weak to have an ultrasound done! She has loose motions on about two out of seven days. We have been advised to give here Protexin Pro-Kolin Enterogenic probiotic, which we started on Wednesday.
 
Our testing equipment has been giving highly variable results when the same sample has been retested. The first reading was high, then dropping down ten points in three tests. We have no idea what the true reading is, so are sourcing a new testing machine ASAP
 
Jelltex said:
Our testing equipment has been giving highly variable results when the same sample has been retested. The first reading was high, then dropping down ten points in three tests. We have no idea what the true reading is, so are sourcing a new testing machine ASAP
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Hello! Can you give me specific numbers? Has anyone ever talked to you about what is called meter variance? The glucose meters are permitted to have a variance of about 20 percent— meaning that you could test the same drop of blood and get a reading +/- 20 percent. So a reading of 200, for example, could be 240 or 160. In actual practice, I rarely see variations that great, but it can happen. This is why we are looking for patterns and trends in BG more than individual numbers— or perhaps I should say we look at the big picture as well as individual numbers.

In your case, I am not sure what the actual difference is yet. I do hope you can get a glucometer that you feel you can trust.
 
Jelltex said:
The vet says Scully is too weak to have an ultrasound done! She has loose motions on about two out of seven days. We have been advised to give here Protexin Pro-Kolin Enterogenic probiotic, which we started on Wednesday.
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That is odd because an ultrasound doesn’t even require sedation (unless the cat is extremely fractious) and, even then, some Gabapentin given the evening before and two hours prior to the ultrasound would relax her enough so that an ultrasound could be done. But anyway, do you feel she is weak? Is she lethargic? What is her activity level? Keep up the feeding (although I strongly urge you to slowly reduce and then eliminate the dry food while simultaneously increasing the low carb wet food - under ten percent carbs.)
 
Jelltex said:
These were the readings at 12:00 today

17.4
14.5
11.0
10.6
11.3

We thought we were doing the best for her: please read the reviews at the bottom of the Amazon page:

CERA-PET VET Blood Glucose Meter for Cats & Dogs - Pet Supplies - Cat & Dog Essentials : Amazon.co.uk: Health & Personal Care
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313
261
198
191
203
Were all those from one drop of blood? That seems like too many readings from one drop. I may be misunderstanding you. Sorry. Those last three numbers are very close together and it would not surprise me at all if those three came from one blood drop. The others do make me wonder.
 
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Jelltex said:
These were the readings at 12:00 today

17.4
14.5
11.0
10.6
11.3

We thought we were doing the best for her: please read the reviews at the bottom of the Amazon page:

CERA-PET VET Blood Glucose Meter for Cats & Dogs - Pet Supplies - Cat & Dog Essentials : Amazon.co.uk: Health & Personal Care
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I see it gets some very negative reviews. I would go to the chemist and purchase a human glucometer. Our dosing protocols are based on human meters. Until a few years ago when per meters were developed (probably to get more money from pet owners— sorry to be so jaded) vets always used human meters and many still do (mine included.) Many times vets are now recommending the use of the Freestyle Libre sensors on cats. Libre sensors are made for humans.
 
Were all those from one drop of blood
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I did a retest with the 09:00 test as the first one seemed high. Each retest was carried out within seconds of the previous. The second test was lower, the third lower still.

So with subsequent tests I did the same, and the machine provided a high reading first, then lower readings with each retest.

I can accept that a machine is inaccurate, but it should be consistently inaccurate, not produce very different readings each time.

A replacement machine is being shipped, but might not get here until after the weekend now.
 
Jelltex said:
I did a retest with the 09:00 test as the first one seemed high. Each retest was carried out within seconds of the previous. The second test was lower, the third lower still.

So with subsequent tests I did the same, and the machine provided a high reading first, then lower readings with each retest.

I can accept that a machine is inaccurate, but it should be consistently inaccurate, not produce very different readings each time.

A replacement machine is being shipped, but might not get here until after the weekend now.
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Well, keep up the testing anyway. It still has value. Sorry for your difficulties.
 
Jelltex said:
I can accept that a machine is inaccurate, but it should be consistently inaccurate, not produce very different readings each time.
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I don’t know that this is true in the real world — and when dealing with living beings. We would hope that if something is inaccurate it would be consistently inaccurate so that we could develop a sort of scale to determine the exact level of inaccuracy. The meters don’t work like that unfortunately in the real world. Most of the time they are pretty accurate but sometimes they are off. That’s why we always tell members to retest any time they get a value they think is wonky (either too high or— most definitely when it seems unexpectedly low.)
 
I see you increased the dose and got some better numbers. That’s good. Hold this dose for 7 days if you intend to follow SLGS. If you wish to follow MPM, I can help you with that as well. Now that your nadirs are under 300, future dose increases should be made in increments of .25 units.

Even better for your Scully would be to hold this current dose and gradually reduce and eliminate the dry high carb food. That food is not helping her and your vet is woefully misinformed if he/she thinks it is good for Scully. Why don’t you try it and see how her numbers improve over time as you gradually reduce the dry. OBTW, in addition to being high in carbohydrates and inappropriate for a diabetic cat, dry food impacts the BG differently than wet food. It tends to increase the BG more slowly and yet “hangs around” for a longer period of time— so keeping the BG elevated for a longer period of time. If you are just leaving it out all the time for her to graze on then it’s probably just raising her BG consistently all day/night. If you eliminate it, her dose will very likely need to be reduced since the insulin will not have to combat those carbs.
 
I see you increased the dose and got some better numbers. That’s good. Hold this dose for 7 days if you intend to follow SLGS. If you wish to follow MPM, I can help you with that as well. Now that your nadirs are under 300, future dose increases should be made in increments of .25 units.
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But the issue is we don't trust those readings. I am not populating the spreadsheet for now as we can't be sure if the first high reading is correct or subsequent lower ones are. The 19:00 reading had 29.8 for the first reading, then half that seconds later, and down to 10.7 on the 4th test. We have no idea which one to trust, if any. We will monitor Scully's activity closely to ensure what we do give her is not dangerous.
 
Very good. I see you are using an Alpha Trak meter now. I think that will be reliable. Does it come with the control solution to test it?

Well done getting all of those tests! I hope we will soon see her out of the 400s (red numbers.) I hope she’s feeling well. Be sure to test her again for ketones if you can manage it.
 
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