my twins sons adopted 2 brothers. our "feline twins". Snowbell the pure white cat has never had health issues. his "twin" brother fisher the all black cat has only 6 lives left! (funny! after each "life" lost he has grown little white patches. one on the end of his tail, one on his chest and now one behind his ear!) he has had diabetes for roughly 6 years, 4 units 2x's a day. Recently his counts were into the upper 400's and even low 500's so the vet had me completely change his diet to all wet only. he has taken to it well although he always seems to be starving, going so far as hunting down his brothers dish which we now have to hide! fisher likes to eat all at one time while his brother likes to save some for later! our vet told us that many times a cat will change his diet and lose his symptoms. He seems like his old self until this afternoon. all of a sudden he is acting weird, just walking around and sniffing everything. non-stop. the walls , our clothes , practically all of our wall-to-wall carpet. my question is, if he has regulated his sugar through diet, would the insulin cause him to be acting this strange? I was always under the impression that if you give insulin to someone with normal blood sugar that the insulin would cause them to be lethargic, and unresponsive. this seems to be the opposite. One thing to note, is, I cannot remember if I gave him his injection this morning. it is such a regular part of my morning routine, and I had a tough time waking up this a.m. I just can't remember. If I didn't give him his injection would it cause him to be acting so strange? He was sleeping when I first got home this afternoon and I didn't notice anything odd til about 4 p.m. Any Ideas or comments?
hello! new to the group but not to the diabetes!
- Thread starter tesse525
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BJM
Member Since 2010
We strongly advocate home glucose testing to keep your cat safer with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart ReliOn Confirm.
Normal glucose for a non-diabetic cat, measured by a human glucometer, is between 40-120 mg/dL. For a diabetic cat on insulin, we add 10 mg/dL to have a bit of a buffer, as glucometers are allowed to read within +/- 20% of what a lab would get.
If his glucose is too high, he will start breaking down fat for energy. This produces ketones. Too many ketones may turn into diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a potentially fatal, expensive to treat, complication of diabetes.
If his glucose goes too low, he could die of hypoglycemia, very quickly.
Normal glucose for a non-diabetic cat, measured by a human glucometer, is between 40-120 mg/dL. For a diabetic cat on insulin, we add 10 mg/dL to have a bit of a buffer, as glucometers are allowed to read within +/- 20% of what a lab would get.
If his glucose is too high, he will start breaking down fat for energy. This produces ketones. Too many ketones may turn into diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a potentially fatal, expensive to treat, complication of diabetes.
If his glucose goes too low, he could die of hypoglycemia, very quickly.
Good job getting Fisher changed over to an all wet diet. Changing a cat's diet from dry to low carb wet food can greatly reduce their insulin needs. Testing at home is the only way to know for sure what the insulin is doing to their blood sugar. Testing at the vet can also increase the blood sugar numbers due to stress. My non diabetic cat tested over 200 at the vet, and 53 the next day at home. You don't want to determine what dose of insulin to give based on stress induced numbers. Can I ask what insulin you are using?
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