janelle/everygody. steroids raise bg temporarily???

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Sara and Buttercup

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janelle, you said that steroids can raise bg temporarily? You mean that the increased bg levels might not last even if the steroieds are continued? i had never heard that. that is great news. is there an article or something where i can read about that? how do you know that?
i alwasy assumed that being on a steroied long term would raise the bg consistently and if anything it would just keep making it worse.
if anyuthing else is true, i would love to know all about it.
how long are we talking about when you say "temporarily"?
thank a lot.
 
Some cats become diabetic after a steroid shot. Some of these cats appear to have transient diabetes and if the steroids are stopped and a short bout of insulin therapy is given, the cat goes into remission. I doubt there are any stats but I could be wrong. Continued steroids may cause diabetes, may not. If a cat needs the steroid, then the diabetes should be an acceptable risk (in my opinion) which you deal with if it comes.
 
My cat's BG's dropped tremendously after we stopped steroids. She needed them for IBD but they pushed her into being diabetic. We never tried insulin but tried stopping the steroids first and it looks like she won't need insulin at all (yayyy!!!!).
 
When my diabetic Thunder and Bailey started prednesolone it took a couple of days for the BGs to increase. I countered the increase with increasing the insulin dose. When Thunder stopped it took a little longer for the BGs to decrease and the dose to return to "normal" for him. I also uses prednesolone on my civi Snowball who was on the oral diabetic med Glipizide before. His BG approached 200 but returned to normal after it was stopped. I have also used a steroid-containing ear med for Twigie, it took a day for the BG to increase and almost reached four or five hundred. It went back to "normal" a few days after stopping the treatment.
 
thanks but the thing is I am supposed to be giving her this steroid indefintely, i mean she is supposed to be on it all of the time with no end in sight to control the diarrhea. i want to take her off it but i am not supposed to. i don't know what to do. i don't even have insulin to give her because my vet won't prescribe it.
 
There are some members here who have had cats get transient diabetes after steriod injections. There is a diagnosis for steriod induced diabetes in humans (it is technically classified as hyperglycemia, other specified induced disorders of pancreatic internal secretion ICD-9 251.8) I know in humans the increase in BG can be temporary depending on the duration of the steriod treatment. I am not an expert in cat physiology, but I assume the same can happen in cats.

Even if it is temporary it should still be treated. At one of the skilled nursing facilities I work at, we have a woman who had high BG while she was receiving chemotherapy. Fortunately her cancer went into remission and her BG went back into the normal range when the chemo was stopped. While she had increased BG for several months she was treated with insulin.

I also read your other post. It sounds like maybe you need to get your cat's situation evaluated again by a totally different vet.

My cat Nomad has chronic skin infections and steriods had been mentioned as a treatment option. I have avoided this because I know it can raise BG and I now have him close to remission. However, if a cat has a cancer diagnosis steriods may be necessary and the diabetes has to be dealt with.

I wish we had a better answer for you. Have you already asked if other members know of any vets in your area? Your biggest problem appears to be vet idiotitis at this point.
 
PS Under the circumstances would the specialist prescribe the insulin for you? Could the specialist suggest another regular vet in your area?
 
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