High BG all the time

Hello! My name is Scott and my cat's name is Cali. She is a rescue kitty and we have had here for seven years. She is a one cat family. She is small and weighs in at about 9 pounds. Last year in August she took a trip to the ER and was diagnosed with a UTI, diabetes and a heart murmur. At that time her blood glucose was 573. She was panting and just out of sorts.

After that visit, we addressed the UTI in short order and started regular vet visits. We then looked at the situation in retrospect and she was filling up the litter box on a daily basis, drinking a ton of water, seemed to be hungry all the time and was not as social with us as a family. I am sorry it took a vet visit for us to "notice". The rest of the year was spent attempting to get her blood glucose regulated. The vet recommended Hills m/d wet, so we went with that and started slow on ProZinc, 1 unit twice daily. We were going to the vet every other week for blood readings. Over the months we ended up (presently) at 7.5 units twice daily!

Three week ago I stumbled upon this site. I bought a blood glucose meter and have been monitoring at home since then. Additionally started using Special Kitty canned food noting from the food table that it can be the best value for low carb canned food. We are still at 7.5 units twice daily and have seen an improvement over these three weeks. I have noticed reduced usage of the litter box (emptying about every 3-4 days), less drinking of water and modest weight gain, but she still seems to seek food most of the time. Her blood glucose has trended down from before we switched food, but still very high from what I read on the forum. In the morning BG is about 450-550, mid-day 380-450 and endo of day can be 300-380.

To be honest I am calloused to the BG numbers as Cali seems to be putting on weight and also becoming more social with us. Is there anything else I should be looking at with or doing for Cali or is patience in order?

 

Hello and welcome Scott to you and super sweet Cali. I too am a strong believer in kitty rescues.

I am glad you now are using a blood glucose meter. Can you tell me the brand? Testing at home is both much cheaper, and easier on the cat, who often have higher readings at the vet due to stress. Also good that you changed from the m/d wet, which is nothing special.

7.5 units is a fairly high dose for a kitty that is on low carb food, unless there is a secondary condition present that means the kitty needs a larger dose of insulin to battle extra insulin resistance. My girl Neko had two such conditions, one called acromegaly (a benign tumour on the pituitary sending out extra growth hormone) and IAA or insulin auto antibodies, sort of like an allergic reaction to the injected insulin.

If you are up for it, we would be able to help guide you through dosing if you put your test data in a spreadsheet. Details on how to do that and to set up your signature are in this post:
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

 

Which canned variety by Special Kitty are you feeding, specifically? Also, what is your budget like for cat food? Do you need to stick to a tight budget or are you open to other options?

 

The brand of meter is ReliOn Prime.

I am up for any/all guidance. I will look through the how to create a spreadsheet and set up my signature.

Thank you for the quick reply!

 

Primarily two varieties: Mixed Grill Dinner and Ocean Whitefish Dinner

As far as budget I would like to keep it low but would consider other options if the cost can be reasonably near to SK

I failed to mention that Cali wolfs down her food in record time, and quantity doesn't matter, she will eat it ALL...if she over-eats she ends up regurgitating it up.

 

The Prime is a meter a lot of people here use, so good choice.

How are you feeding her now? We find it better to feed several small meals throughout the day/evening. I had one of those girls who was always hungry too. The multiple meals seemed to help the savage hunger, as did getting her into better blood sugar numbers. Hopefully we can help you with that. You can also get slow feeder bowls that slow down how fast they eat. Many of us end up getting automatic feeders (the Petsafe 5 is popular), for feeding while we are away or asleep. I liked that Neko's attention moved from bugging me to food, to the autofeeder.

 

I feed Cali three times a day presently and in total give her 2x 5.5 oz cans per day OR 1x 13oz can per day. The vet thought feeding her these amounts wouldn't hurt since she had lost weight prior to our ER episode. Is this too much food?

 

Use your scale and an idea of where you want her weight to be to decide whether you are feeding the right amount. Maybe weigh her weekly and see how she's doing. Unregulated cats will need more food as they can't absorb all the nutrients from the food. You also have to look at calories in the can, not the quantity. Some cans are a lot less calories than others.

Good job getting the spreadsheet set up! Under the "current insulin" put Prozinc.

 

I have been updating the spreadsheet throughout the day. Is there a timing on how many readings I should be taking? Is it just as I can or should I be filling in all data points (11 readings between am and pm feedings)?

 

You do want to get preshot tests every time. After that, you want to try to spot how low the dose is taking the cat. If you haven't already, you might want to visit the Prozinc forum on here: Prozinc / PZI The yellow starred Sticky Notes are full of useful information. The New to the Group Sticky Note addresses the question on how often to test.

Doing an all day curve, every 2 hours test, is useful every once in a while to try to get an idea of how low Cali is going on the dose. But you don't need that many readings every day. I tried to get 2-3 per cycle, and I could time when to test based on when Neko's low points were. I'd test more if she was going lower. There is also a post on Dosing in the Prozinc forum that guides you on when and how often to change the dose.