Insulin not working

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

kshort

Member Since 2014
Hi everyone,

My mom's cat "Bob" lives with us (well, mom does too!) and he's been diagnosed in the last few months with diabetes. We started out slowly (1 unit/twice per day) with Vetsulin, and then in 2 week increments increased to 2u/day, 3u/day, 4u/day.

At this point, we did a blood glucose curve and his readings didn't hardly move at all - a flat line all day long.

My vet then switched him to Novalin N, starting at 2 units/day, then 3, then 4 (all increases again done every two weeks).

Took him for retesting last Thursday - no change. We're now using Lantus and will go back this week for a one week check.

If this doesn't work, he's going to refer me to a specialist.

My mom had Bob for 7 years before moving in with us. She fed him cat food, but I think probably more people food than anything (she lived out of state). At his peak, he weighed 23 pounds. I have 4 other cats, so have been struggling for some time to get weight off of him. He got down to 12 pounds, but is now up to 14 lbs. He's a huge cat and my vet is not concerned about his weight, but doesn't want him to gain any more.

My cats (total of 5, with Bob) do eat Fancy Feast classics, but also Evo dry (high protein, low carb).

He shows no symptoms at all, other than the weight loss and he pees a lot. He's as ornery as ever and very social, loving - I would have never known there was a thing wrong with him until he started losing the weight.

Any ideas, suggestions, help is greatly appreciated!
 
Vetsulin may last only 8-10 hours in the cat and Novalin only 6-8 hours. A work around for that is dosing every 8 hours. Better choices for a diabetic cat are BCP PZI, ProZinc, or budget permitting, Lantus or Levemir.

We avoid dry food in cats, as even the higher protein ones such as Evo Cat and Kitten. Dry foods increase the risk of bladder infections and kidney stones, plus long term renal damage as cats drink much less water than needed when eating dry. See

Stress at the vet may elevate a cat's glucose level from 100 to 180 mg/dL. For more representative results, we advocate home glucose testing using an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart ReliOn Confirm, Confirm Micro, or Prime.
 
We were feeding Cobb Evo "diabetic" dry as well. It was still way too high in carb for him. Once we switched him to low carb wet food only, his numbers started improving a big. The dry food was keeping his BG 500+.
 
Thank you both for your replies! Suzanne, Bob looks exactly like Cobb!

All of my cats do primarily eat the Fancy Feast wet, and not a lot of the EVO, but they do eat some.

We are using the Lantus, so I'm hoping that when we go for the re-test this week, it will have made a difference. It's not possible for me to dose every 8 hours because I work full time, so the 12 hrs. is the only practical solution. I will get a glucose meter though - thanks for the reminder. He hates being crated and cries the whole way to the vet's office. I know that doesn't help his levels...
 
Don't you love orange tabbys?

Vet stress can raise a cat's BG by 100 points as well. Are they doing a fructosamine test?

Once you start home testing, you won't need to take Bob in. You'll be able to monitor him just fine from home. He'll be relaxed, comfortable and the readings will be much more accurate. It's also much safer for Bob if you're home testing.

For carb sensitive cats, even a few pieces of kibble can throw their BG's out of whack. Cobb is like that. I could tell when he got a hold of some straggler pieces of dry food. His numbers skyrocketed. It was just too much for him. Bob may be the same way.
 
Which Fancy Feast? Only the classic pates are below 10% calories from carbohydrates.
There's a great food list at here at Cat Info.
 
BJM - thanks, I did see the list when I first signed up for the forum. I've cut the gravy, sliced and grilled out and now everyone just eats the classic pates - 72 cans every 2weeks between the 5 of them!

Suzanne - Bob is my first orange tabby and I'm crazy about him. He was my foster before mom adopted him. He was semi-feral but I was also fostering a litter of 5 week old kittens at that time. They got him totally turned around. He was with mom until she moved in with us. She has very advanced dementia so it's hard telling what horrible stuff she fed him before he came back to me. Tonight she was eating ice cream and got mad at me because I wouldn't give him any. That's a pretty good indicator of what the poor guy was eating. He's the biggest lover boy. You pick him up and he just goes limp and wraps his paws around my neck. Very sweet!

I don't know what to do about the dry... I have two 19 year olds who do eat the EVO. It's actually the reason my IBD cat is doing so well. Kind of hard to control when one needs it and Bob doesn't...
 
I think the key thing here is home testing. Once a week at the vet isn't enough to get a good picture of whats going on - and vet stress inflates blood sugar. If you test at home we can help you look at the numbers to see whats really going on.

Getting started shopping list
1. Meter ie Walmart Relion Confirm or Micro.
2. Matching strips
3. Lancets - little sticks to poke the ear to get blood . new members usually start with a larger gauge lancet such as 28g or 29g until the ear learns to bleed. Optional - lancing tool.
4. Cotton balls to stem the blood
5. Neosporin or Polysporin ointment with pain relief to heal the wound
6. Mini flashlight (optional) - useful to help see the ear veins in dark cats, and to press against
7. Ketone urine test strips ie ketodiastix - Important to check ketones when blood is high
8. Sharps container - to dispose of waste syringes and lancets.
9. Treats for the cat - like freeze dried chicken
10. Karo syrup/corn syrup or honey if you dont have it at home - for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast
11. A couple of cans of fancy feast gravy lovers or other high carb gravy food- for hypo emergencies to bring blood sugar up fast

Wendy
 
Just wanted to clarify that the Lantus insulin you are now using is dosed every 12 hours.

It's only the other short acting insulins like NPH (Humulin, Novolin) and Vetsulin that might require more frequent dosing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top