Jarvis

JarvisCat

JarvisCat

Member
Hello everyone!

My 13 year old guy, Jarvis, has been struggling lately with his diabetes and I am hoping to get some help.

He is currently 14 pounds and on 7 units of Prozinc twice a day. He has been struggling with loose stools and diarrhea for several months now with no resolve as I have been having to clean up him pooping outside of his litter box (on accident) almost every day. This is due to him liking to use the entrance of the litter box to pee and poo and he misses. I have recently switched him to the Fancy Feast Pate 3oz cans that he gets one can of twice a day. He also has his dry Purina DM dry food out to eat as he feels necessary. He was solely on the Purina DM at half a cup once a day until a few days ago when I read (through here and Reddit) that a lot of people had tremendous success regulating their cats when they switched to the FF Pate.

Anyways, I just received a glucometer yesterday to begin his at home testing. He seemed very perky and happy in the morning so I didn’t give him his insulin. Later that afternoon when the glucometer came in, I tested his levels and he was at 507mg around 3:30pm. Later I fed him and then gave him his 7 units around 6:00pm. At 8:00pm I tested him again and he was only down to 489.

This morning, I tested him before his food and insulin at 8:00am and he was at 572! I will be testing him every 2 hours to do a glucose curve at home today but I don’t really know where to go from here. If he doesn’t curve, is it likely because he is getting too much insulin or is it possible he still isn’t getting enough? What are the next steps I should take to regulate him? I just don’t know where to even begin and this is so overwhelming!

He is also under the care of a great vet but I do worry he is getting a ton of insulin. The last few times we have gone to the vet he has seemed to be rushed so I am worried he has maybe over looked some things which is why I decided to begin home testing to get my own numbers and do my own research. Jar will be seeing him on Wednesday when I drop him off for boarding for 48 hours while I go on a business trip. I just want to know what the next steps should be in testing or hopefully regulating or even questions to ask the vet at this point.

Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated!
 
JarvisCat said:
This morning, I tested him before his food and insulin at 8:00am and he was at 572! I will be testing him every 2 hours to do a glucose curve at home today but I don’t really know where to go from here. If he doesn’t curve, is it likely because he is getting too much insulin or is it possible he still isn’t getting enough? What are the next steps I should take to regulate him?
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Hi & welcome!

I usually can't be around much, especially during the week, but wanted to pop in to mention one thing right off the bat - please don't stop feeding him his regular dry food just yet. It's not safe, especially with that high dose - we need to see what's going on with his BG before making any significant changes to his diet and we'll need to see several days of data before determining the next steps. A 12 hour curve is a good start, but, if he's bouncing, one day of data won't tell us what's really going on.

Check out this spreadsheet to see what I mean about the importance of daily testing when doing a food transition and what can possibly happen to the BG and insulin requirements when you remove all high carb dry food: Fluffys Spreadsheet

My next request - you'll find that we're really data driven here, so, if you're looking for dosing help we'll need to see a spreadsheet with all the BG numbers you collect - instructions for setting up your signature and spreadsheet can be found here:
How You Can Help Us Help You!
 
Hello everyone,

So sorry there has been such a huge delay in response - work and life in general has been crazy!

I have tried to test him periodically as you can see in our spreadsheet and sometimes life gets in the way. Well in the past couple of weeks, I have been working to reduce his insulin level slowly as I have not seen really any changes to his numbers nor is he curving. I am even working to do a curve today as I just moved him to 4 units a couple of days ago. As you can see on 8/2, I made a note that he seemed to be doing quite a bit better. His stool was getting more solid, his energy levels seemed to be getting better, etc but just in the past 2 weeks or so I have noticed his stools are getting very runny again and his energy is back down. However, his numbers haven’t really changed and he had a higher number noted on one of the days he was acting like he was feeling better.

Today, as mentioned, I am working to do a curve to see how his numbers look. I went into the room where his cat food is and he had thrown up all of his wet food. He also had a small spot in his litter box where he pooped slightly and there was some blood in there. I do usually notice fresh blood in his runny stools when he seems to not be feeling well. I don’t know what this is contributing to or if he is getting into his sister’s dry food but it doesn’t appear so.

I feel like nothing is getting accomplished and he is insulin resistant. I am not really sure what to do next. What are your suggestions?

Also, are there any crunchy treats that are diabetic friendly? Jarvis has turned his nose up to the Tikicat sticks.
 
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