BunBun said:
We arrived at 10 units by weekly blood tests and slowly increasing the amount of insulin given. She shows no signs of hypoglycemia.
I do not home test. I am away from home for work for 12 hours a day and don't have the resources to purchase the testing equipment on top of the insulin.
She is currently getting 1/3 cup of dry Rx Purina DM twice a day (so, 6:30am and 6:30pm).
She isn't currently on antibiotics, we finished a bout of antibiotics about two months ago and nothing changed so we decided to try and get the bg under control before using more antibiotics.
Well, if you are giving the cat 10units of insulin twice a day and the cat's alive, there's no way that you can blame a diet of dry food on the insulin dose. No way you will go back to 1unit and that sort of suggestion is harmful. Disregard such a suggestion because you will harm your cat.
OK testing..... yes, I think you do need to home test for a couple reasons.
1. The testing done at the vet is pretty much useless because stress alone will skew the numbers and show them higher than when your cat is at home.... the vet will base the dose you are to give on those numbers that are too high. Bad idea. One of my cats always tested at least 100+ higher at the vet office, but would drop to her normal numbers within 30min of getting home.
2. You want to know if it's safe to give your cat insulin or not. If you test the cat at shot time and get a number like 120, giving that 10unit shot could be harmful to the cat and you may end up in the ER with a hypo cat. By home testing, you know if you are OK to shoot 10u or 5u or even skip the shot. Cats' needs change and to know their real needs, you want numbers taken in their home environment.
Where are you located? You can get a very economical meter, the Relion meters are just fine and the test strips are also very low priced, if you are in the US. As for being able to test .... if you are there to give the shot, you are there and able to test just before giving the shot.
Lots of people are away from home with work or school or both so quite often during those days, they can get only 3 tests: Before the am shot, before the pm shot, and just before bed test. Many cats go low at nite, so that why the need for that bedtime test.
Then, when they have a day off, on the weekend or something, people are more able to get in a curve, testing every 2 or 3 hours between 2 shots. You don't need to do tons of testing but before shots is safer.
You are using an insulin that is likely going to cost you more because of the high dose, and it's not as long lasting as Lantus or Levemir. If you find that once you are home testing, and can safely switch the diet to a low carb wet one, you can then decide if it's more costly to stay with the current insulin or switch.
As has been said, don't make any food changes until you are testing because you may find that you have a very carb sensitive cat and that 10unit dose could drop to 5u or even 1u, but you won't know till you see at-home numbers.
While we are talking food, it may be an idea to add some wet food to the current diet.... sort of get the wet into the picture and it will make the switch easier. No diabetic cat should be fed dry food unless you truly have a diehard dry food addict.... there are some but not many.
She hasn't lost any weight and is always hungry and is at a high dose.... smells like some resistance there. Most diabetic cats lose weight along with drink alot and pee alot, so no weight loss makes me suspect resistance.
The litter box, can you say a bit more about what she does? I ask because one of my cats was very very clean and used the box all the time, until she became needing insulin. I took her to the vet because she was always urinating just outside the box, never inside it. Her poop was always in the box but not the pee. Even later on, when she was more regulated, she still stuck to peeing in front of the box, so I resorted to using puppy pads in front of the box.. it worked for us.
What has your vet done for the UTIs? What meds were you given for the cat and what were the results? What tests have been done so far and if you don't have copies of the blood results and tests, ask your vet to get copies. You paid for the tests, so you are entitled to copies of the results, including the urinalysis results.
Diabetic cats are always hungry before they are regulated. Both of my cats ate like feline garburators, eating 30oz and 24oz a day but once regulated they got down closer to 10oz and 6oz a day.
If you start on the wet food, it will supplement the dry and cut down on the hunger. You can also add a bit of water to the wet food as it will help to fill up the cat and water is needed as the vomiting is causing dehydration.
Talk to your vet about having your cat tested for acromegaly and IAA; don't bother with cushings tests because they are not firm in the results and you did not mention any signs like thin ripping skin or extreme hair loss. Cushings does not apply; not sure why it was mentioned.
If you get your vet to look into the tests and give you an estimate of the cost, it will help you to know if you can afford it or if it can wait till later. The tests are something like $49 and $18 but you would need to add on what your vet charges for a blood draw and the shipping of the draw to MSU to have the tests done.
Gayle
