High BG

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Techchallenged

Techchallenged

Member Since 2014
Hello Everyone,

My cat Taz was diagnosed last week, 12/11, as diabetic with BG of 500. My vet has put her on a diabetic diet (purina) and I have a return appt in 2 weeks for follow-up. He will check BG and we will go from there. He sounds certain that insulin is in Taz s future. I have a lot of anxiety about this whole process. I see a lot of info on cats with low BG, but not too much on cats with high BG. I take it high is a lot less dangerous in terms of other health issues?? pancreas, dangerous lows,
urinary?? What can I expect with high BG in terms of behavior or health. I want to be able to recongnize any changes in my cat. This 2 week wait for our next vet appt is going to be filled with anxiety. Any info would be appreciated.

Dawn and Taz
Taz is 11yr old
also diagnosed with tyroid cancer
tyroid levels are barely above normal range
 
This 2 week wait for our next vet appt is going to be filled with anxiety. Any info would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome! you need not be stressed for the next two weeks. Mosof us test our cats at one (just like we would our 2 legged children) to be sure it is safe to give the shot and then mid way through the cycle to see how low the insulin takes the cat. We have taught hundreds of people how to test and do it inexpensively and would be glad to teach you, if you want. An added benefit is that most cats are stressed at the vet and we know stress raises blood glucose levels. We think home testing is more accurate, less stressful for the cat and much less expensive. Often doses prescribed at the vet are too high once the cat gets home and relaxes.
 
Thanks everyone for the valuable info. Taz is on a prescription Purina wet. Will check out the food list provided.I will do my best to quiet my mind and not let the craziness take over.
 
Welcome! The beginning of this can be stressful and not knowing what is going on while we are shooting insulin in cat be extremely so. As Sue mentions, most of us test at home. Doing that took a lot of the stress out of it for us because we knew what was going on with Smokey at any time we felt we needed to. Smokey ate the Purina DM for a while, would knock the other cats down to get to it. But after a week or two she got tired of the liver flavor and we switched her to just basic over-the-counter pates off the list and she did great with them.

We have a Taz at home too :smile: Raised as sisters with Smokey, our first diabetic kitty, from a couple months old along with another girl we found in the streets a year later. Our Taz is now 17! Thankfully she was not the one who turned out to be diabetic because she earned her name as the Tazmianian Devil :lol: Best of luck to you and your Taz. Hope your food change brings some good results already!
 
So, the vet is concerned your cat is diabetic and is having you change the diet first. Good idea, it need not be prescription food though. I feed all of the household Friskies pates.

By changing the food to low carb canned, the glucose may drop by about 100 mg/dL.
By testing the glucose at home, the levels can be from 100 to 180 mg/dL lower than those taken at the vet office.

We highly encourage testing the blood glucose at home with an inexpensive human glucometer. See my signature link Glucometer Notes for some reference numbers and what they may mean.

See also Secondary Monitoring Tools for some additional assessments you can make. Your cat is more than a glucose level! ;-)
 
Techchallenged said:
Thanks, will check out all info.
Click to expand...
Hi Everyone,

Taz had here vet appointment last night. Dr started her on Lantus and will check her in 2 weeks. I would like to monitor her BG at home as well but am having problems getting any blood from her ear. I will practice more to try to master this. I bought the walmart Relion blood meter but have a question about the readings....is there a conversion chart for feline readings?? The reading on the meter isn't the same for people and feline, is it??

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Dawn and Taz
 
Not a conversion chart, but feline reference numbers when using a human glucometer; see my signature link Glucometer Notes.
Also, depending on the insulin, we have protocols written up in each forum for a systematic method of using the insulin.

It'll help us give you feedback and ensure you get notified of responses (if desired) if you adjust your Signature and User Profile as follows:

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There is the Lantus Savings Card that worked once upon a time until they stopped allowing it to be used for pets, but you still might be able to get away with it (at the time I was using Lantus, I lucked out because my pharmacist was allowed to use a generic NPI number). As BJ said, your best bet is ordering from Canada. A lot of people around here use Marks Marine Pharmacy.
 
Thank you all. Will look into website and do some more research.

On another note. Taz had a visit with our vet on Monday 12/29. He checked her BG and it was 485. He put her on Lantus 1.5 units 2 times a day and we will have another visit in 2 weeks for recheck. He was not going to rely on my home BG checks for the next 2 weeks but I told him I wanted to learn and would use the time to practice and would log all info until then. He was happy to hear that.

I am having difficulty getting any blood from Taz but am not giving up. Good thing Dr is not relying on me.lol
I have gotten blood from Taz twice.
I am using the are Relion meter and both times the meter read 31 and 38. Even with the adjustments for feline readings it would put Taz in the 50's??

I know This is a meter or operator issue and not my cat. 1.5 units for the past 3 days is not going to affect her this drastically and she is showing no ill effects or changes in her behavior or appetite.

Any help with my meter issues would be greatly appreciated.

Dawn and Taz
 
While you are working on blood glucose testing, take a look at my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for additional assessments you may find useful in evaluating how Taz is doing.
 
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31 and 38 are dangerous low levels. I wouldn't rely on the idea that the meter isn't working right.

To help get blood, warming the ear can be very important at first. Put raw rice in a thinnish sock, tie it and heat in microwave until very warm. Hold it next to his ear for a minute or so. The capillaries have to fill with blood (frequent testing helps this) and until they do, heating increases the blood flow. Also, if you are using the human lancet size (30-31 gauge) you can get 25-27 gauge. They make a bigger hole and can be very helpful in the beginning.

I'd urge you to work on the testing and get some numbers. If those numbers were accurate, he could be going very low. We generally urge new diabetics to start low, at one unit. He may be getting too much insulin.
 
It actually sounds like you have your meter set to give readings in mmol/l and not in mg/dl. I don't have the booklet for that meter, but it should say how to change it.
 
Can someone tell me the normal Bg range for cats?? Taz is bouncing all over the place and I need to know when to worry.

Thanks much
Dawn and Taz
 
Generally we say a cat is regulated if they are in the low 200s at preshot and double digits at nadir, but not below 50. A cat in remission runs 40-120 WITHOUT insulin.
 
I think Taz is going into remission. (fingers crossed) Her BG s have been in the 70-100 range for 5 days now and she has had no insulin at all
for the past 5 days. We have a vet appointment tonite, hope the news is good.
Is this unusual?? She has only started the insulin 2 weeks ago and I hate to have false hope. Her appetite has slowed down, but she still needs to gain a little weight.
 
That's fantastic! We consider a cat OTJ (Off The Juice) if their numbers stay within that range for 2 weeks/14 days. After that, they're still considered diabetic, just diet-controlled, which means you'll want to continue testing her for the rest of her life. What most people do will be twice daily checks for a few weeks, then daily checks, then weekly, etc.... If she falls out of remission, the faster you catch it, the better chance you have of getting her back into remission.
 
Techchallenged said:
I think Taz is going into remission. (fingers crossed) Her BG s have been in the 70-100 range for 5 days now and she has had no insulin at all
for the past 5 days. We have a vet appointment tonite, hope the news is good.
Is this unusual?? She has only started the insulin 2 weeks ago and I hate to have false hope. Her appetite has slowed down, but she still needs to gain a little weight.
Click to expand...

That's awesome! My Henry responded similarly to Lantus. He started Dec 5 and had his last dose Dec 31. He's now on Day 12 of his OTJ Trial and doing great! Now if he could just donate a bit of his extra weight to your girl, it'd be a win-win for both of us. :D
 
Go Taz Go! Go all the way to OTJ!

A food change to a low carb food can make a dramatic difference in BG levels.

It took my Wink a bit longer to go OTJ (off-the-juice), but that was mainly because he's a lifelong member of DFAA (Dry Food Addicts Anonymous) and it took time to convince him that low carb wet food was yummy.
 
Our vet agrees....Taz is on her way to remission!! Yay!! Still have to check her BG every couple of days and keep her on DM diet. Thanks to everyone
on this message board for the help and valuable information. Taz and my journey is not over but I feel very fortunate that she had responded so well
to treatment. Our thoughts go out to everyone who has not had it so easy. I will not take this remission for granted.
Dawn and Taz:cat:
 
To help keep Taz in those normal BG ranges (40- 120 mg/dL on a human meter) as long as possible now that she is off insulin, we recommend the following.

Here are some tips to stay OTJ (off-the-juice, insulin being the juice)

1. Never feed dry - not even treats. If you change wet food types, be 100% sure the new food is also low carb and same low carb % as your current food. Some cats are very carb sensitive and an increase from 3-6% to 8-10% can spike the BG’s. Don’t feed if you aren’t sure!
2. Weigh every 2 weeks to 1 month to watch for weight changes. Too much of a weight gain can cause loss of remission.
3. Measure blood once a week, indefinitely. You want to catch a relapse quickly. Some people only do checks every 2 weeks to a month.
4. No steroids or oral meds with sugar - remind your vet whenever giving you any medication. Always double check.
5. Monitor food intake, peeing and drinking. If increasing, a sign of losing remission.
6. Regular vet checks for infection such as dental , ear or UTI. And get them treated quick!

If your cat does fall out of remission you need to be more aggressive and resolve issues/ back on insulin as soon as possible as the window for a second remission is tight if any. Pancreatitis, hyperthyroid, dental issues are the most common reasons cats fall out of remission.

Her's hoping Taz gets declared OTJ by your vet soon. These are the criteria we use when following an OTJ Trial.

Here are the instructions for an OTJ trial:
  1. Test at your normal AMPS and PMPS times. Feed multiple small meals throughout the day as much as possible (smal meals are less likely to overwhelm a newly functioning pancreas). The morning test is now called the AMBG. The evening test is now called the PMBG.
  2. If your cat is green (0-99 mg/L human meter, 0-130 mg/L pet meter, 0-5.5 mmoL) at your normal test times, no need to test further until the next "PS" time, just feed small meals and go about your day. If the numbers are blue (100-199 human meter, 130-230 pet meter, 5.5-11 mmoL), feed a small meal and test again after about 3 hours. Food raises BG's. So if the number is lower 3-4 hours after a meal, then the pancreas is working!
  3. After 2 weeks, if everything is looking good, we have a party! And boy, do we party hearty.:cool:
Sometimes, the trial doesn't work the first time and we have to give a little more support by starting the cat with a tiny dose of insulin again. I had to do that with Wink. We simply start the cat back on a tiny dose of insulin to support the pancreas with healing for a bit longer. Our goal is a strong remission and it's better to be safe now then sorry later that you rushed it. With just a little more time we will probably get that strong remission we are looking for.
 
That's great news. I will keep my fingers crossed for Taz. As someone who has also had a cat recently become diet controlled my aim is not to become complacent in the future. From what I have read it is important stick with the low carb wet food, feed mini meals if possible and not allow the weight to creep up.
 
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