Daphne and Aida
Active Member
Hi all!
I wanted to share something I figured out with the help of my *new and amazing vet!
Aida had a pancreatitis back in November, during which her BG readings were way lower than normal.
It was completely unexplained and it baffled all the vets I went to, as well as some members here. It baffled me as well. The fact is that, when sick, Aida wasn’t getting the normal reaction with higher circulating sugar.
She was at the time diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, and I started treating her with methimazole mid-December.
Her BG has sharply decreased, she’s mostly in the greens now, even when she has a bite of Feloro’s HC food. She currently gets MC food (I’m concerned with high phosphorus levels in LC foods, and as long as her diabetes is controlled I’m not sure - or rather, I haven’t yet been convinced that I should risk her kidneys’ health to get her in remission. I’m planning to talk about it with the vet on Monday, because I clearly haven’t understood something!)
We went this week to check her T4 and renal values, and I had a chance to talk to this vet. I had also read a study about the impact of thyroid on insulin uptake.
It turns out that, when sick, the T4 drops. That’s a fact. When T4 drops, the insulin gets it easier to do its job. And therefore, Aida being sick, her T4 lowered and her BG lowered as well. And because I’m only monitoring her BG, not her T4, it was impossible to have the whole picture.
So, if your cat ever gets sick - hopefully they won’t - and their BG doesn’t rise, or even drops, check the thyroid.
I wanted to share something I figured out with the help of my *new and amazing vet!
Aida had a pancreatitis back in November, during which her BG readings were way lower than normal.
It was completely unexplained and it baffled all the vets I went to, as well as some members here. It baffled me as well. The fact is that, when sick, Aida wasn’t getting the normal reaction with higher circulating sugar.
She was at the time diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, and I started treating her with methimazole mid-December.
Her BG has sharply decreased, she’s mostly in the greens now, even when she has a bite of Feloro’s HC food. She currently gets MC food (I’m concerned with high phosphorus levels in LC foods, and as long as her diabetes is controlled I’m not sure - or rather, I haven’t yet been convinced that I should risk her kidneys’ health to get her in remission. I’m planning to talk about it with the vet on Monday, because I clearly haven’t understood something!)
We went this week to check her T4 and renal values, and I had a chance to talk to this vet. I had also read a study about the impact of thyroid on insulin uptake.
It turns out that, when sick, the T4 drops. That’s a fact. When T4 drops, the insulin gets it easier to do its job. And therefore, Aida being sick, her T4 lowered and her BG lowered as well. And because I’m only monitoring her BG, not her T4, it was impossible to have the whole picture.
So, if your cat ever gets sick - hopefully they won’t - and their BG doesn’t rise, or even drops, check the thyroid.