INCONSISTENT BG NUMBERS / Help!!

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Justyn

Justyn

Member Since 2016
Hi! First time posting! My 5 year old, male cat, Socks, was diagnosed with DM (and DKA) in early June, so has been on insulin for 3 months now. He was hospitalized for the DKA for 2 days and bounced back well. It was recommended by my vet after diagnosis to start him on the prescription hills M/D canned diet, but after weeks of high BG readings (using home tester), and a large insulin dose (Prozinc) at 5u BID, I went against vet orders and switched him to Merrick's canned Pate (2 cans/day - 1 can every 12 hrs w/ shot)

He has been doing OK (not well regulated) with the merrick food, and has been on 3u BID for a few weeks now. The issue is, we will check his lowest point, and it could be around 100, and 6 hours later check his highest point (before shot and food) - and it can be as high as 500... so within 6 hours, his BG's shoot up like crazy (sometimes!)

The reason for my post is last night, his highest point was 250 (awesome), but about 6 hours after his 3u shot, he was only at 175, which is ok - but just last week, we've seen dramatic drops in his insulin, as he went from 450 to 150 in that 6 hour mark. I was terrified to give him his 3u at 250 as I know he had a 300 point drop from the same dose days prior, but I checked his BG 6 hours in, and he was ok.... but it doesnt make any sense!

Has anyone had a problem regulating their cat using Merrick canned food? The only thing I can pinpoint is the consistency in carbs, or how they are breaking down... I have crossed everything else off the list such as injection location, the insulin is fine, etc. I just cannot seem to get him to be around the same levels even day-to-day.

He was technically regulated on the hills m/d, as his highs were only around 300/400, BUT lows would ONLY ever get to around 200 so I was not happy with that.. But after this switch to Merrick, his high numbers have just been ALL over the place - but his lowest BG numbers (6 hours in) are consistently good, around 100...

The vet reccomended he may need to have shots 3 times/day, so every 8 hours, but there is no way I could ever do that as my work day is 8 hours long, taking 1 hour each way for travel.

ANY help or suggestions would be so appreciated...
 
I will be making a spreadsheet as soon as I can! And yes exactly 1 can every 12 hours... Same flavor - chicken - as I'm just trying to get his levels consistent so trying to eliminate any factors. Luckily he's not a picky eater! But that may be a good idea to look into.. thanks!
 
Oh goodness, I am definitely getting ready to try a different low carb food but have heard inconsistency can happen with any brand - so not sure what to try next .... But thank you..
 
Some of us find that by feeding several smaller meals/day, the numbers level out. If you're not home to do that an auto feeder can help.
 
Interestingly enough, I was actually getting the HIGHEST of high points when I was feeding him 4 times/day... I completely HATE feeding him these 2 big meals, but it seemed like giving him the snacks mid-cycle without insulin was making his numbers go up to the extreme (600s). I used to give him 3/4 can 2x/day with his shot - and then around 12pm and 12am, I'd give him the other 1/4 can - so he was still at 2 cans/day. When he was getting a 1/4 can snack 2x/day, his highest point one day was 650+. Ever since cutting down to just the two meals, it hasn't been much above 500 .
 
Thanks again for the tag @Erica & Carter

Hi Justyn, welcome!
So your little friend is a bit of a bouncer? ;)
The spreadsheet indeed will help us figure out what's going on because it's way more easy to look at the numbers and see (maybe) a pattern so I will just wait with giving advise on that untill you've got that spreadsheet up.
@Marje and Gracie can help you set it up if you want ?

Where do you live Justyn? I'm asking because then people can help you with maybe different types of low carb foods..
 
If you would like me to do the spreadsheet for you, please send me a private message by clicking on "Marje and Gracie" to the left and then clicking on "start a conversation". I'd be happy to do it quickly for you.
 
Thank you all! I know my food is around 2% nfe, so it should be very low as it is but may be inconsistent as to why the BG highest point levels are high some days and low some other days. And I surely will set up the spreadsheet as soon as I get a chance - hope it helps clarify what I'm going through! Luckily he has been gaining weight and looking like he feels good (grooming, playing, running around, etc) but once a day theres a large volume clump of pee in the box, which makes me know he was very high at some point - but the rest of the pee clumps are all very small and similar in size. I live in Colorado, about an hour north of Denver
 
Thank you Marje, I will let you know if I need help. I unfortunately just don't have the data with me right now but will when I get home later tonight.
 
I hope you will take up Marje up on getting your spreadsheet going. Even seeing a few numbers - especially those midcycle numbers - can help us see what might be going on. The encouraging thing is that he does go lower; we just need to figure out how to use the insulin effectively so he is on a more even keel.

The food sounds like a good choice. How much does he get? One idea is to add some warm water to the food so it seems like more for him to eat. You can give him food more often if you think it will work better - often people divide the amount of food up into 4 meals per cycle. It may also be that he is not yet in regulated numbers and so his body doesn't use the food effectively - that can make him hungry more often.
 
Yes, working on the spreadsheet tonight. I do only test occasionally rather than with every shot, etc. Probably have tested him about 40 times in the 3 months of diagnosis, and the numbers are really all-over-the-place but I hope someone can make some sense of it.. He gets 1 can in the a.m. & 1 can in the p.m. (2 cans total) - each can with his 3u shot. and I had explained earlier how I would prefer to have him on 4 meals/day. I had it so i was giving him:

3/4 can of food with a.m. shot at 7am
1/4 can at 1pm
3/4 can of food with p.m. shot at 7pm
1/4 can at 1am

And with this schedule, his high point at 7pm before his 3/4 can was close to 700 (670 i think).. So i'm not tempted to go back to that as his sugars have been more normal since I've switched to two/day. It seems like a good amount of food, he finishes the whole thing and is pretty content until about 10 hours later. But he has been on this food/dose for over 3 weeks, so I'm not sure what I can do to alleviate these sporadic high numbers....especially when the next day his highest point could be only 200....
 
One problem with you feeding schedule may be that you're giving the second smaller meal at or after nadir. At that time the insulin has peaked and his numbers would be on the rise anyway. By adding food at that time it spikes higher. You may want to play with the timing once you get more tests in and we know when his nadir is.
 
Ive uploaded sock's spreadsheet. Wish i had more numbers, but originally my vet said home testing was only neccesary about once/week but after learning so much on this site, ive been trying to check him as much as possible. Ive recently started feeding him all of his food with each shot, rather than originally feeding 3/4 can with shot, then 1/4 can 6 hours after, but his highest numbers were going up higher than ever before. Since the switch (only about a week ago), his highest numbers have been getting a lot more normal - so ill be keeping a close watch this next week. Hoping this helps him stay in the normal range more.. If not, i will have to try another type of food...
 
Congrats on the spreadsheet! It really helps. I see some very nice mid cycle numbers. Some of your higher pre shots could be bounces from those lows.

I'd get a pre shot number each time so we can see whether he is bouncing. (bouncing is when they drop lower than their body is used to and it releases extra glucose, resulting in a higher number than normal)

If you can continue to get data, I think we can solve this puzzle of Socks.
 
So far, Sock's numbers have already started to improve since switching from feeding 4x/day to only 2x/day. Yesterday, he even had a NADIR of 69, so I've reduced his insulin from 3u to 2.5u to avoid a hypo incident as I work through the day but was luckily home with him yesterday! Does anyone know how long before he will adjust to the new insulin dose of 2.5u?
 
Update with Socks... another high pre-shot BG reading... Anyone have an idea of how long he would take to adjust to his new dose of 2.5u (from 3u)... His BG was 200 points higher than what it has been since Ive switched him to eating 2x/day.. I just read up about how low blood sugar can cause high spikes around the time the insulin is wearing off, up to a few days AFTER the hypo-incident, so I'm thinking that's my next thing to cross off the list. Hoping to get a curve this weekend at 6+, 8+, and +10... Leaving his insulin at 2.5u for now as it's only been 4 days..
 
Without knowing what his amps is, it is hard to know what is going on. Can you adjust your schedule so you can get a test every morning? It could be he is lower at amps and then dropping and bouncing for pmps. More data - especially a amps every day - will help.
 
I definitely understand but am just limited on tester strips as they're so very expensive for the Alphatrak... I will get an AM number on saturday when I do his curve so we can see where he was starting at and let you know when I've updated the spread sheet.
 
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