High BG Before Feeding - Newly diagnosed cat

Status
Not open for further replies.
lmkitties

lmkitties

Member
Our newly adopted cat was found to have very high BG at the last doctor visit. Beau had been literally living in front of the water fountain for the past week after having received steroid injections. I immediately began researching on this site and this message board for solutions. We switched him straightaway to a low carb diet, alternating between grain free Wellness (6% carbs) and Hills SO (4% carbs). No dry. We bought a glucometer. His BG on Thursday at the vet was 441. Friday night after a dinner of tuna it was 391. Saturday morning, 2 hours after breakfast, it 323. Saturday night 2 hours after dinner it was 327. Sunday 2 hours after breakfast is was 295. Sunday night, though, 3 hours after dinner, it was 363. Today, 30 mins after breakfast it was 401 but down to 283 2 hours later. Today before dinner it is 400 again. Is it normal for the BG to be high before or immediately after mealtime and then go down a few hours later? How do I know if we're making progress when it seesaws like this? Are we killing our cat by not getting him on insulin immediately? Can this be managed by diet since we caught it so soon after it was induced? So many questions. Thank God for this board.
 
Hi we will do what we can to help you and answers your questions.

You are doing great with diet change and already home testing. Are you on insulin yet? With these bgs you need to start insulin to help jump st art the pancreas.

So the question is which insulin.

Answer. Either lantus or levemir or prozinc. The two L's work in similar fashion and each insulin has a priotocol to follow. You can read up on all three insulins on the insulin support group pages.

Let us knoiw the plan for insulin and also start a spreadhseet tracking his bgs. :iw ti di that is on the tech forum of the board index.

My apologies for typos. I am on a blackberry and its very small.
 
Hi lmkitties, and, of course, you too, sweet Beau,

Sometimes cats become diabetic because of steroids -- whatever form given. As a result of steroids, some cats become transient diabetics -- meaning temporary. Generally and humbly speaking, they might/will need insulin for a little while (or possibly longer) to give their pancreas a rest until it can do its job again.

You're certainly doing your proactive job by home testing and changing his diet! I'm just humbly suggesting that, given your readings, Beau needs insulin. It may not be forever. He's a cat. It's pretty much up to him and his pancreas. But, with the readings you have now, Beau is diabetic and needs insulin.

Welcome to the place you never wanted to be; but, will be blessed for having found.

Love and hugs,
Deb and Nikki -- and, Giz, forever dancing in my heart...
 
It looks like his pancreas is trying, but is not healthy enough to do the full job. With a little help from some added insulin (injected), his pancreas may well recover to the point that it no longer needs help. The longer it is left to struggle on its own, the less it is able to heal. If you start with Lantus or Levemir and only buy one cartridge rather than a whole vial, it might be all he needs. If you decide (with your vet) to do this, other members can advise where they have bought single cartridges.

PS If you post your general location, it helps with giving information. For example, in Canada we do not need prescriptions for insulin or needles. However Walmart doesn't carry diabetic supplies in most Canadian stores. These things are different in the US and Europe.

Edit - oops - I see that you are in the US.
 
He was losing the fur around his neck and upper chest and around his ears. He was also scratching a lot. When the first steroid didn't do the trick, the itching was actually worse, I brought him back. At that time they, for some reason, gave him another shot (both Depo Medrol). They also gave him Depo-Provera on the same visit to help calm his aggressive behavior. We'd just adopted him and he was being a menace to our five other cats. Then they decided that the itching may not be allergy related and said he needed lime sulphur baths to rid of him of some kind of mite. The baths did stop the itching and the fur loss. But after the second shot of DM and the first DP shot, he started living in front of the fountain.
 
Gawd I wish that they hadn't done that! Did they even tell you that the steroids could cause diabetes? Steroids treat the symptoms, not the issue :( Not blaming you, you aren't the expert. There are many possible causes for what was happening and there should be a process of elimination followed FIRST and steroids only used as a last resort.

The 'good' news is that the diabetes MAY be transitory so hopefully between your quick action and our help you can get this sorted out.

Jen
 
No, I was not aware at that time that steroids had that side effect. This vet uses Depo regularly w/all my cats... that is he used to. Never again. And I'm not sure that he had a the gatoi mite or ringworm necessitating the lime baths. For these and several other reasons I'm very disappointed with this vet and we are considering making a change. Husband is at vet now with Beau to get him set up on insulin. Hopefully this is a temporary situation.
 
Serious? oh boy. Do you have other vet options?

Please let us know what insulin and what dose, as I'm a tad worried about what this vet will suggest. There are good ways and not so good ways to go about treating diabetes...

Meanwhile, have you read the FDMB FAQ yet?

Jen
 
Vet recommended no insulin for ten days. Diet change only. He recommended Hills MD and Purina DM. I don't like the carb count on those foods compared with the ones that I've been using (Wellness Ckn & Herring & Hills SO) but it does have more protein. Am going to call Hills to see if there has been any change in their formula since 2006, which is the date on Jan & Binky's list.
 
I doubt that there's been any appreciable change, PLUS the fact that the ingredients in those products are definitely sub par.

If you are waiting 10 days, please pick up ketostix from your local pharmacy so you can do daily urine tests for ketones...nasty biproducts of a poorly regulated diabetic...they can be deadly. If you find ketones or a decrease in appetite or an increase in other symptoms, do not delay insulin any further. The body would really benefit from food change AND insulin, with proper blood glucose monitoring.

Let us know how things go, and if you have any further questions, and please, make sure to read the faq :)
 
Honestly, with the numbers you are getting, I wouldn't wait 10 days. IF you click here:

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=42632

contact Venita and ask for a pen, she has lantus and lev available and can get you started. I actually just donated a supply of lantus pens to DCIN, so you can certainly ask for a pen to get you started. Hopefully, like Jen said this is a transient issue and one pen will be enough to go into remission.

I was just in NC, Triad area, are you anywhere near there?
 
I'm on the coast, near Nags Head and Kitty Hawk.

I called Hills to get current nutrition information. Carbs for MD are 15.6% and protein is 52.8% and fat is 31.5%. That's a lot more protein that Jan & Binky have on their chart from 2006. Hills stressed that there are ingredients in their product that help the pancreas like L-carnitine, too. The 15.% is a lot higher % carbs than a lot of the tuna only foods like Nine Lives. But I've had my cats off of the low cost food for years now and will not go back. I thought the Wellness Grain-Free would be good but that has fruit and vegs in it that cats don't really metabolize well. So if the MD doesn't work after ten days, I'll have to explore other options.
 
There are lots of quality low carb options avaialble. Are you feeding wet or dry? If dry, please take a look at dr lisa's site. www.catinfo.org about what she says regarding dry.

If wet, you can try evo 95 percent. No fruit, veggies or grains.
 
Janet's numbers are as fed, whereas usually you guaranteed max/min from the companies. Please compare ingredients because the hills and purina products tend to have pretty low quality protein sources.
 
lmkitties said:
I thought the Wellness Grain-Free would be good but that has fruit and vegs in it that cats don't really metabolize well. So if the MD doesn't work after ten days, I'll have to explore other options.
Click to expand...

The MD dry is made with corn and rice, which cats metabolize far worse than the few carrots in Wellness. So if you can't get your hands on some 95% Evo (Blue Buffalo makes a 95% food, too), the wellness is still far better than the MD. A diabetic cat needs less than 10% carbs--this is the important thing to look at when considering their diet. Bandit is so carb sensitive I had to limit to foods with less than 5% carbs before he went into remission.

You also have to consider the protein source, not just the percentage. A good percentage of that protein in the MD is from grains, which is not a beneficial protein source for the cat. Even if a wet food shows a lower overall percentage of protein, it's going to have more beneficial protein, because it's all coming from a meat source. Even a super cheap wet food is going to have more beneficial protein (and lower carbs) than the most expensive dry food you can buy. Dry food has to use a large amount of corn and grain (or potatoes with some dry food) as a binder, which holds it together like cement.
 
I'm not using the dry MD, only the wet. The figures I gave are for the canned food. The protein source includes pork by products and pork liver and soy protein isolates. The only grain that I see is corn starch. But still it is 15% carbs. I may go back to Hills SO or the the Wellness now that I'm out of the MD.
 
why don't you try EVO 95% it ranges from 0-3 carbs, depending on "flavor" and it's everything you are looking for. See if your cat likes this before spending the $$$$ for prescription food that honestly is not high quality and is higher carb than what ought to be fed.
 
Hi lmkitties, and, of course, you too, sweet Beau,

Just checking in and sending you both hugs!

Love and apparently even more hugs,
Deb and Nikki -- and, Giz, forever dancing in my heart...

PS: I think the Outer Banks is pretty much heaven on earth. I bet you just smile every time you walk outside...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top