? I need advice with my diabetic cat

[Jmo1033]

Hi I need some advice with my diabetic cat Harley Quinn. I noticed about 6 months ago she was gaining a lot of weight, eating too much and had an extremely large amount of urine in the littler box. I took her to the vet and they did blood work and it came back that her blood sugar was over 500. He put her on insulin prozinc 2 units twice a day, after a week she stopped eating and I brought her back to the vet and she was jaundice and her liver enzymes went through the roof she was hypoglycemic, I helped her through eating again so her liver functions went back to normal and I stopped the insulin for about a month. When I brought her back she was still urinating a lot he did a test to see if she had a UTI and it was negative but gave her antibiotics anyway and her sugar was a little high so I was told to give he 1 unit daily, I brought her in every week to the vet, which she is terrified and screams the whole time we are there. Her urine or diabetes never got better. Today she is taking 2 units twice a day, still eating a lot which I give her 3/4 cup of Purina pro life diabetic hard food and a spoon full of fancy feast pate as a snack a day. Last week her blood sugar was 320 with giving her 1 1/2 units twice a day for about 2 weeks. Im not sure what else to do I don't have a job at the moment and all of these medications, food, and bringing her back and fourth to the vet it getting really expensive. Any advice would be very appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Welcome to FDMB!

I can't tell from your note whether you're relying on getting your cat tested only at the the vet's office or if you're also home testing. We are huge fans of the latter. We also don't rely on the vet to help with dose changes. Part of the reason is what you've been experiencing. Many cats do not travel well and their blood glucose (BG) levels are much higher at the vet's office than at home. As a result, the suggestions about dose that are made at the vet's office aren't consistent with what happens when your cat is home and comfortable in her environment. If you're not home testing, we'd encourage you to do so and can provide resources to help you learn how.

A cat's insulin needs can vary. It's not like an antibiotic where the dose is typically very consistent. Stress, health issues, a change in environment, etc. can have an effect on your cat's BG level and insulin needs. We try to get cats in close to a normal range. I'm linking the Prozinc page from our website. I'd encourage you to read the sticky notes at the top of the page. There's information about Prozinc as well as information about dosing methods.

Second, the Purina dry food is exceptionally high in carbohydrates. Most dry foods are. Also, take a close look at the label. It's not "diabetic" food. It's "dietetic" food. There is nothing in the food that requires a prescription and the fact that it's very high in carbs makes it completely inappropriate for a diabetic cat. You are doing far better with the Fancy Feast. This is a link to a food chart that contains nutrition information on most of the canned foods available in the US. We consider low carb as under 10% although most people feed their cat in the 5% range which is about where the Fancy Feast is.

Finally, if you want to take full advantage of FDMB, this is a link to a post on helping us to help you. There are instructions on how to set up your signature so it contains basic information about your cat so we don't keep asking you for that info, as well as how to set up a spreadsheet. We're very numbers driven. The best way we can help is to see your cat's progress and the spreadsheet lets us do that.

The members here are very generous with their time and knowledge. Let us know how we can help.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome to the forum.