Hypercalcemia AND diabetes

Status
Not open for further replies.
Kerrie & Winnie

Kerrie & Winnie

Member Since 2015
Winnie had idiopathic hypercalcemia in the summer, then was diagnosed with diabetes in Sept. Vet had suggested high fibre food for the hypercalcemia and this seems to have controlled it but the high fibre food I can get her to eat (it's dry) is 45% carbs (by calorie content)! I also feed her low-carb wet food twice a day, just before her Lantus injections. I don't home test (still too intimidated) but last fructosamine test showed her diabetes was in good control. I'm sure it would be in better control - maybe even in remission - if I stopped feeding her the high fbre food. Has anyone had experience with controlling hypercalcemia AND diabetes??
 
Did the vet give you a cause for the hypercalcemia? Have you had his thyroid levels checked? That's the most common reason for hypercalcemia. The next one would be high levels of Vit D but I doubt that's it. Hypercalcemia affects the bone strength as well as kidney functions - it can cause calcium stones in the urinary tract.

Different insulins - Lantus is a good insulin for cats. Larry has adopted cats that are already on insulin so has kept them on the same - yep, he's pretty amazing! Levemir and ProZinc are also good insulins.

Welcome!
 
They checked everything and couldn't find a cause so deemed the hypercalcemia idiopathic. Given that it's been under control for 5 months, do you know if I can assume it was a one-off?
 
Were his thyroid tests within range? Am I understanding correctly that the hypercalcemia has not shown up on later bloodwork? I don't want to get confused when discussing this... :) Hypercalcemia can contribute to many other things including brittle bones, general weakness, kidney stones, urethea blockage and even eventual kidney failure. The cause can usually be treated. Did he give you an explanation of how a high fiber diet would help? The normal approach is to remove anything with Vit D such as dairy products and seafoods, especially shrimp, salmon and cod from the diet.

Could he have said hyperglycemia instead of hypercalcemia? That's 'high blood sugar' which is what diabetes causes.
 
kerriehale said:
You've had 15 diabetic cats?!!! I see you've used different insulins - what do you think of Lantus?
Click to expand...
I myself prefer Levemir over Lantus since it stings less in large doses. I am changing Badger from ProZinc to Levemir when his ProZinc runs out. Until Badger had his ear polyps removed in August his BG was very variable and I tried different insulins. Although I am not getting very good BG I want to switch to Levemir to avoid having another insulin around.
 
Check my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for some other assessments you may find helpful.
I'd strongly encourage using KetoDiaStix as ketones suggest the glucose may not be well controlled and a severe problem could be developing. Glucose in the urine means that the renal threshold was exceeded at some time since the previous void.
 
Squeaky and KT said:
Were his thyroid tests within range? Am I understanding correctly that the hypercalcemia has not shown up on later bloodwork? I don't want to get confused when discussing this... :) Hypercalcemia can contribute to many other things including brittle bones, general weakness, kidney stones, urethea blockage and even eventual kidney failure. The cause can usually be treated. Did he give you an explanation of how a high fiber diet would help? The normal approach is to remove anything with Vit D such as dairy products and seafoods, especially shrimp, salmon and cod from the diet.

Could he have said hyperglycemia instead of hypercalcemia? That's 'high blood sugar' which is what diabetes causes.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for your interest! I really appreciate it. It was hypercalcemia - calcium level was 3.21 vs normal of 2.7 and ionized calcium was up too (1.67). After being on IV fluids for 2 days her calcium dropped to 2.72. Parathyroid function was 0 (which I was told was low but not worrisome) and Vit D levels were normal. Four days later calcium and ionized calcium were within normal ranges and when rechecked a few weeks later, calcium was still normal. I think the vet thought high fibre food would help because it would give the calcium less time in the bowel and therefore less likely to be absorbed - ? (It wasn't my usual vet - I had taken her to a vet hospital because, of course, all this arose on the weekend!) It was while getting the calcium rechecked that my usual vet noticed high blood sugar. I would LOVE to get her off the high fibre food but the hypercalcemia was really scary for the 3 or 4 days it lasted.
 
I wonder whether it would be worth asking your vet about whether you could add fibre (pumpkin, psyllium husk?) to a commercial low carb food? No experience with hypercalcaemia - just brainstorming here.


Mogs
.
 
That's actually a really good idea. I was thinking of switching her to Young Again Zero and I could add it to that. IF she'd eat it. She's really picky. Do you have any experience with Young Again? Some recent posts suggest the formula has changed recently so now I'm confused. I'm actually just generally confused!
Thanks for your help!
 
Was the hypercalcemia based on the blood serum level or was an Ionized Calcium Test run? The only way to know if the elevated calcium is a pressing issue is to have an iCA test run. The blood serum calcium can reflect an elevation while the iCA could still be within normal range. Just as an example, a year ago, Squeaker's blood serum CA was 15, I thought it best to run an iCA which returned a value of 1.67 which was above range. The first avenue of change was to simply change the food he was on (from Hill's d/d back to Little Friskies) simply with that change his CA level dropped.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top