Help. Cannot get diabetes under control

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Tanya & Wilson

Tanya & Wilson

Member Since 2018
My 15 yr old cat Wilson was diagnosed with diabetes 6 months ago and he is getting worse. I was advised to feed him Science Diet MD so changed his diet around 3 months ago. Since then his BG levels increased. As I expected they would. This went against everything I have read as most advise to stay away from dry food. He was very skinny so the diet change was also suggested for him to gain weight. He started at 3.8kg and is now 4.6kg so that part has worked.
Now I am worried he is suffering from neuropathy as his walking is getting worse by the day. He is on lantus and currently on 3 units in the morning and 2 at night. I use a all star pro insulin pen.
He has other underlining issues such as glaucoma in one eye which was damaged from a kitten and has been blind in that eye all his life. We are discussing having it removed but worried he's not stable enough due to his diabetes. He is on Cospot for his eye, 3 drops daily. Also a small dose od Meloxicam every morning in case he is in pain with his eye. He also has high blood pressure and is on Norvasc for that. Now they tell me his potassium is getting low and we have started Hypokal at 1 tab twicw daily. I am worried that the medications are all becoming too much. I test his BG and urine at home. His BG averages are around 25 - 30 mmol/L. Urine shows no ketones but high glucose. I regularly see my vet and have also seen an animal diabetes specialist but still don't feel like I am getting anywhere. Should I change his diet back to wet food? Which food is best? I am at my wits end as this has gone on too long. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.
 
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Yes you should absolutely change back to a low carb wet food. The science diet MD is 15% carb. You want foods under 10 percent carb. (Under 7 is usually best.). What country are you in? Most of us feed fancy feast classic or Friskies pate foods.... If you say where you are people can sugest foods by you.
 
I am in Australia. I was feeding Fancy Feast classic and he still gets a couple of cans a day in between the dry food. Should I be using the pen or syringes? What do you use?
 
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Welcome to the forum. I also use U100 syringes to extract insulin from Levemir pens.

And I also primarily feed our cats Fancy Feast Classics, always mixed with extra water.
 
Welcome, Tanya and Wilson.

Tanya Hill said:
I test his BG and urine at home. His BG averages are around 25 - 30 mmol/L. Urine shows no ketones but high glucose.
Click to expand...
We have a very active Lantus insulin support group at FDMB. Here's a link to their board:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-glargine-levemir-detemir.9/
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-glargine-levemir-detemir.9/
There are also a lot of very informative 'sticky' posts at the top of the Lantus board.

As you can see from most members' signatures we use spreadsheets to record BG results. If you could set one up for Wilson it would help you to better understand his response to Lantus and also enable experienced FDMB members to give you better suggestions on how to improve his regulation. Here are the links you'll need:

FDMB spreadsheet setup instructions

Understanding the FDMB spreadsheet grid

If you'd like some assistance with spreadsheet setup just give a shout and we'll find someone to help you.


Mogs
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Hi @Tanya Hill
I am sorry I did not reply sooner. I have only just seen the tag. I haven't been online for a while.
I live in Australia too. In Sydney. where about do you live?

I agree with the others. You should ditch the dry food. It is too high in carbs and has too low a water content ( 7% as against 75%.

Here are a couple of Australian food links that can be found in the Think Tank forum
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...k5NN-xwH54OsF0NqZZfnrtuI/htmlview?pli=1#gid=0

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...anned-food-suitable-for-diabetic-cats.134090/

I found the Weruva brand which can be found at Petbarn to be really good. The 'cats in the kitchen' canned ones are all low in carbs. The pouches are higher in carbs but are good if you need to bring the BSL up higher if your cat drops down low.

The neuropathy is due to the continually high BSL and will resolve once the BSL is brought under control. You can give
VitaminB 12 methylcobalamin tablets but make sure they have no additives and are the B12 methyl ones NOT the b12 injections the vets sometimes give.

It is great you are testing at home. Well done.

When you give the lower carb food you need to test frequently while you are swapping over to ensure your cat doesn't drop too low, as Lisa said.

Here is a really good link to everything
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/where-can-i-find-________.127890/

Ask lots of questions. We are here to help.
Bron
 
Hi @Bron and Sheba.
Thanks for your reply. I have changed his diet as of yesterday. No more dry food. I found a frozen raw food at Petstock. Its made from human grade meat with all the vitamins he needs. Its called Prime 100 spd. It is a single protein diet. It also stayes its good for blood pressure as Wilson's is high. I had a reading of 20mmol/L today at +10. First time he's been that low for 4 months. He's usually around 30. I saw the Weruva you mentioned. I will try it if the current food doesn't work out. I am feeling positive about this food as the results seemed to show immediately although I am slightly disappointed to get 27 +1 & 29 +2 this evening. Hopefully he just needs to adjust to the new diet. It's only been 1 day. He did get into the dog food I didn't know the dog left so this wouldn't help.
 
@Tanya Hill
In respect to going back up to 27 and 29.....If he is dropping lower than he has been for a while, he could be bouncing from the lower numbers....even though they are still high numbers. His body has got used to the high numbers and thinks the lower numbers are something to worry about so his body is dumping glucose raising hormones into his system. He will get over this , it just takes time. Bouncing is normal with a FD cat. Not every cat does it but a lot do it.

I haven't heard of the raw Prime food but it sounds good.
I feed my cat a raw home prepared diet so I never go to buy cat food any more. I am glad you have swapped over to a low carb food. That is great for him.
If you want to ask me any more questions PM me as I am not often on the forum at the moment but a PM comes through to my email box.

This page is just a welcome page. We have an excellent forum page that just has cats on it that use Lantus or levemir insulin and if you post there you will get excellent advise and support. It is called the Lantus and Levemir page.. most of us post a daily post with a progress report. I would highly recommend you give it a go. Here is the link....I look forward to seeing you there!:)
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-glargine-levemir-detemir.9/
You are doing a great job getting him sorted out.

Bron
 
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