Help Getting Catee Restarted on Insulin

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As his glucose becomes more regulated, you may see less water drinking. Also, if you switch to canned food, you may see less water drinking.

See my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for additional assessments you may make to evaluate his health.
 
ECID Every Cat is Different

Where BJM's cat need all that food, mine eat only 2 cans of the Fancy Feast or Friskies pates a day, 6 ounces and maintain their weight just fine. I have my diabetic cat Wink (10 3/4 pounds) and my civie Monet (12 pounds) both only eating 6 ounces of the canned cat food. They get weigh in's twice a week and have been doing fine for a year and a half on this amount of food. My little civie Dancer (7 pounds) gets 4 ounces a day.
 
Deb & Wink said:
ECID Every Cat is Different

Where BJM's cat need all that food, mine eat only 2 cans of the Fancy Feast or Friskies pates a day, 6 ounces and maintain their weight just fine. I have my diabetic cat Wink (10 3/4 pounds) and my civie Monet (12 pounds) both only eating 6 ounces of the canned cat food. They get weigh in's twice a week and have been doing fine for a year and a half on this amount of food. My little civie Dancer (7 pounds) gets 4 ounces a day.
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I feed 1 ounce per pound divided across the day. Or to phrase it differently, that is 0.5 ounce per pound fed am and pm.
So the 12 pound cat may get 6 ounces in the morning and 6 ounces in the evening, although it is grazed on and not measured to each cat. Ant the 6 pounder is eating about 3 ounces across the day and 3 ounces across the night.

Are you feeding 0.25 ounce per pound twice a day or 0.5 ounces per pound twice a day?
 
Hi BJM. Didn't want to take over Catee's thread, so I've replied to you in a PM on the food intake for my cats.
 
Hi everyone. Well I have some good news... also a little scary as I am not sure what to do.

PMPS 323 tested at a little past +5 and he was 138, I tested again to make sure and it was 145. This is on the Alpha Trak.
Is that coming down to fast? Should I continued on the 1.25 unit or dial down to 1 unit? Again I am eyeballing the 1.25 because I have U40 shots.

Also I put out some fancy feast with the Fortia Flora on it.... he licked off the FortiaFlora and then ran away :) Kinda what I expected. He is eating the Purina DM better today and drinking his water again well.
 
It looks like a nice cycle. He should start going back up in an hour or so. Remember that unless he is in the 70-80s, he is fine. If he would go down to the 100s and it makes you a little nervous, you can give him a little of the regular food. That should bring him up a little.

I would stick with the 1.25 as long as you can keep an idea on him. If you have to leave and he is dropping faster than you like, be sure to leave out some food. If he continues to be in lower ranges (which he might over time as his body starts to work with the insulin) then you might drop the dose.
 
Thank you so much for posting. I won't be able to keep an eye on him tomorrow in the AM. So I think I will give him the 1 unit. I am also going to call the Vet to see what he thinks.
 
Well, I went ahead and gave him 1.25... I believe it is that just a dab over the 1 unit line. AMPS 367, I will check him about 2 hours.

So you are saying that his body will get use to the insulin and the BG will come down and I will have to lower the dose accordingly?
 
That is the hope - that the cat eventually starts using the insulin efficiently while his pancreas gradually improves. And at some point (different for every cat) you start seeing lower preshots and nadirs and gradually start reducing the insulin.
 
His PMPS was 269, so I gave him 1 unit instead of the 1.25. I hope that dosage was right and doesn't get him too low. I will test him at +2 to see how low he is getting.

Thank you all so much for the help.
 
Hmm, 297 at a little after +4. I will take it again at a little past +5.

Might he need to stay with the 1.25?
 
I will look for a ruler.... that making a reference gauge is a little complicated for me :)

336 AMPS, gave him 1.25 since it has went back up. Will see how he is doing today.

He has a little cold. Several years ago when he had to stay at the vet for a week he caught the herpes virus that causes them to get a cold. That is one reason I switched him to spring water. Now he is preferring tap water and as I thought he got a cold.There is something in the city water that causes him to get one. So he is not feeling too good with that.
 
324 PMPS. Gave him another 1.25.

Talk to the vet today, do not believe he liked it very much about me changing his dose. He said that you can not go on BG numbers for a few days and then go up. That their body takes time to start using the insulin and if I am changing him around all the time you can not get a accurate curve on how it is affecting his body. So he said to keep him on 1 unit for seven days and then do the curve.

Would appreciate input on what he said. I understand what he is saying but I don't know doesn't seem right for them to stay above 200 for so long.
 
There are 2 approaches - holding the dose and a sliding scale. Some cats do well with one or the other. The thing I don't like about holding the dose for a longer time is that if the cat is constantly above the renal threshold, the cat is sitting in high numbers. The other time it doesn't work well is if you get an unexpected low number; in that case, it wouldn't be safe to hold the dose.

You hold the syringe. You decide based on your data what seems to work best
 
Thank you for explaining that to me.

I suppose I will just keep him on the 1 unit. To me though he was in the middle to high 300s preshot and around mid 200s nadir. So I just felt like there is no need that he should be that high as I worry about what it could be doing to his organs.

The vet's response is that it takes time for the pancreas/body to start working with the insulin so me upping it could cause him to go low because his body will start responding and the dose should be lower. I see where he is coming from but still... don't know.
 
If your vet is used to people who don't hometest, then his approach makes sense. As you are testing and can stay on top of the numbers, you have the chance to be little more daring and hopefully keep him in good numbers more of the time. Even if he dips into lower numbers, you can steer his numbers up with food. But it is a process. The more you test and understand the numbers, the more confident you become and the more aggressive you can get with dosing. You need to be comfortable with the plan.
 
I feel that he needs to be on the 1.25... it isn't that much more and he seems to be helping. I gave him 1 unit this morning and he was at 358 at PMPS. AMPS he was at 306, yesterday's nadir 190. Which is very good. I went ahead this evening and gave him the 1.25, the vet probably will not like it but I just feel like he needs to get down sooner than later.

Couldn't he get pancreatis or develop kidney problems with it staying up like this?

Another thing to add on to this is he is slowing down on eating the Purina DM, only eating 2 ozs a day so I am feeding him Orijen dry cat food... atleast today. He will not touch the young again and runs away from the wet food. I have some EVO and will try that again. Worried his appetite is going. Not sure if it is because of the diabetes or because he has a little cold.

He acts like he just feels bad.
 
Often they get tired of the Purina DM. It is liver based. Have you tried any Fancy Feast or Friskies pates?

I think the 1.25 is a good choice. I'd just plan to stay on top of his numbers.

Can you start a new thread with your next post? Once it's two pages long, it's hard to keep track.
 
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