help please

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

karentigger

Member
my cat tigger was diagonised with diabetes march 2011. for 4 months now she is still not under control very well. she is 11 years old & the only food i feed her is the wet canned fancy feast classic chicken, classic salmon, classic turkey giblets. i also have been mixing in prescription canned dietetic management. she is on 2 1/2 units of lantus twice a day. she started out on 2 units but we had to increase her. i have tested her at homes & numbers are still high between 260-280 i am not able to test her as much as i should she is difficult & impossible for me to get it without somebody helping. i live alone so tough at times. i do take her to vet & she is usually about the same. her long term sugar has been 577 & last time about 2 weeks ago 566. that is when vet raised her lantus to now 2 1/2 units 2x a day. i do check her urine with the strips & sugar is still higher then i like. i really thought by dumping all her dry food & that her sugar would have been better by now. on positive note she is eating good actaully always looking for food. the couple of pounds that she lost she did put back on & is alery & playful. just sad to keep giving her insulin & knowing her sugar is still high can't be good. any advice on different foods. i have checked the charts for food but have found that they all have wheat gluten, corn etc don't believe that's good for her. the classic fancy feast is the only ones that i found without it. any advice on what to do would greatly be appreciated. i am beyond frustrated would love nothing more but to get her off insulin all together but at this point not sure if that's ever going to happen. i feed her wet food in the morning then give her insulin, and wet again in pm then insulin and she always wakes me during the night for wet food. she always has so this is nothing unusual for her. any advice, suggestions greatly appreciated. thanks for any help.
 
Ms Karentigger- from what i understand, the prescription is high in carbs..... might want to double check with all of the folks here, but that is what I understand.
mom to sugar bean, civvie slappy, heart patient/crf gumpy
 
really the prescription wet food is high in carbs? i know the presciption dry is not good but i thought the wet food was ok. am i better off just feeding her the fancy feast classic? what is strange is that past weekend i have been warming the presciption food up for her & she is eating more if it. i thought this was a good thing but did notice she is drinking more water. please anybody advice on dm canned wet food. thanks
 
yes it is higher than the fancy feast you are using. So you may want to start by cutting out the prescription and only feeding fancy feast. See if that helps.

also, can you tell us how you got to 2.5 units. that may also tell us something, such as going to high too fast and skipping over the best dose. For example did you increase in 1/2 unit increments or by 1 unit at a time. how long have you held the dose before increasing? I know you said it's challenging to test, but do you have a spreadsheet or numbers you can provide so we can see what's going on.

can you try some techniques to maybe fool her into coming to you, such as offering her treats, playing with her, offering to brush etc and while engaged in this activity, you could test her. Some folks who have challenging cats, wrap the kitty in a towel (like a burrito) and this way they keep kitty confined while testing.

I worked with a cat that was a challenge to test and I found that putting petroleum jelly on the ear and then testing from behind where he couldn't see me approach worked. I would put the jelly on ear, poke pull back and before he could flick would get the meter to the ear where the jelly let it pool up before soaking into fur.

Maybe this technique will work for you?
 
Per the following, canned Purina DM is 7% carbs.
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodOld.html
I would just fee the FF since it is less expensive and just as good.

Regarding the high BGs, some cats are just high-dose kitties. My Tones does god on 5.5 units of Levemir twice daily. I started on Lantus, but when I go to 4 units BID, I changed to Levemir but that really di not improve the BGs until I raised the dose.
 
Thanks I will go back to only fancy feast classic. She eats that no problem. My vet told me if I gave her only dm prescription she had a 50 percent chance of getting off insulin. I thought the presciption food might work better but after this weekend I learned different. Testing is a challenge I had a friend help me when she was in town and she had a diabetic cat and she told me tigger is not a good bleeder. Tigger is very easy and sweet to handle just when I poke her ear she runs fast and always need 2 pricks to maybe make her bleed. I have tried a sock to warm it with rice ad well and vaseline. Just gets frustrating and I don't want to hurt her either. My vet started her once a day on 1 and half units then we went to 2x a day. It was always increased half unit at time. I even took her to another vet for second opinion. Last 2 weeks she wad doing better. I going back to fancy feast in the morning and gonna try to test her in a towel. Thanks
 
It helps a lot if you warm the ear first.

Put about 1/4 cup of plain white un-cooked rice in the toe of a thin-ish sock.
(do not use brown rice or 'instant' rice).

Knot or sew off the sock and cut off the excess.



How to use a rice sock:

Heat the rice sock in the microwave for approximately 20 seconds total. This is an estimate for a
1000 watt microwave oven. You should heat for 1/2 the time, moosh it around in your hand, then heat for
the remaining time. Adjust total time according to your microwave oven.

It should be very warm. Hold it to your own cheek....you should be able to comfortably keep it there
for several seconds.

Warm kitty's ear by holding the warm rice sock first on one side, then the other side. Alternate
inside and outside the ear every few seconds. A total ob about 30 seconds is usually enough to warm
the ear sufficiently. Test ear warmness by putting your own cheek against his/her ear or kiss the ear
(my favorite test method).

Use something other than the rice sock as a backer when pricking for blood. Use a folded tissue, or folded
cosmetic square, for example. The backer should be disposable, since they sometimes get soiled with blood.
After getting the test blood, you can fold this same tissue over the edge of the ear and apply gentle pressure to stop
bleeding and prevent bruising at the site.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top