Hi all,
I haven't posted in a while, so a quick re-intro here.
My 15 year old cat Lexi was diagnosed with Diabetes back in mid December. She was on insulin for a little over a month, but with a switch from dry food to canned food went OTJ by the end of January, and has retained good numbers. Good thing for her, bad thing for me. I had sort of gotten out of the habit of checking her BG regularly since the numbers were always so good, and am kicking myself for that right now. She had a uti in april, and at that time the vet as also concerned about her weight loss (she is over weight, and does need to loose weight, but the vet thought she was loosing it too fast), and so I switched her back to part dry/part canned food.
Anyway, on July 2nd I noticed an increase in water consumption, and caught Lexi in an extended pee break. Ah... she doesn't use her litter box anymore, but a couple spots I've set up for her with towels that I change regularly. Anyway, I noticed the increase, and so checked her BG then. The number had skyrocketed. I made an appointment for the 10th for the vet to see her, and in the mean time she went back on insulin, and back to regular monitoring. I also switched her back to only canned food. Her numbers slowly decreased back down to the normal range, so that by the time the vet saw her on the 10th, she was off insulin again, and still is now. She had her urine checked at this time, and no sign of infection was found.
I had another appointment with her today to run some bloodwork. Everything came out normal, except her amylase (sp?) was very high. The vet said this might point to some pancreas or kidney issues, but because her behavior is normal (she eats well, is well hydrated, no decrease in activity level) and the numbers for the rest of her bloodwork are all within normal ranges, we are taking a wait and see approach. She has a follow-up appointment in a month, and I'm to keep monitoring her here at home.
The vet was also concerned because she dropped more weight between the 10th and today. She was 17 pounds on the 10th, and was 16 1/2 today. We're both guessing it's the change back to all wet food. So, assuming her BG went up because she was back on dry food, how to I keep her off of dry food but get enough food in her so that she isn't loosing too much weight? And does anyone have an info on the possible pancreas/kidney issue? I've dealt with a CRF kitty before, and it wasn't good. I'm sort of scared about that right now, though her values don't seem to be pointing in that direction.
I haven't posted in a while, so a quick re-intro here.
My 15 year old cat Lexi was diagnosed with Diabetes back in mid December. She was on insulin for a little over a month, but with a switch from dry food to canned food went OTJ by the end of January, and has retained good numbers. Good thing for her, bad thing for me. I had sort of gotten out of the habit of checking her BG regularly since the numbers were always so good, and am kicking myself for that right now. She had a uti in april, and at that time the vet as also concerned about her weight loss (she is over weight, and does need to loose weight, but the vet thought she was loosing it too fast), and so I switched her back to part dry/part canned food.
Anyway, on July 2nd I noticed an increase in water consumption, and caught Lexi in an extended pee break. Ah... she doesn't use her litter box anymore, but a couple spots I've set up for her with towels that I change regularly. Anyway, I noticed the increase, and so checked her BG then. The number had skyrocketed. I made an appointment for the 10th for the vet to see her, and in the mean time she went back on insulin, and back to regular monitoring. I also switched her back to only canned food. Her numbers slowly decreased back down to the normal range, so that by the time the vet saw her on the 10th, she was off insulin again, and still is now. She had her urine checked at this time, and no sign of infection was found.
I had another appointment with her today to run some bloodwork. Everything came out normal, except her amylase (sp?) was very high. The vet said this might point to some pancreas or kidney issues, but because her behavior is normal (she eats well, is well hydrated, no decrease in activity level) and the numbers for the rest of her bloodwork are all within normal ranges, we are taking a wait and see approach. She has a follow-up appointment in a month, and I'm to keep monitoring her here at home.
The vet was also concerned because she dropped more weight between the 10th and today. She was 17 pounds on the 10th, and was 16 1/2 today. We're both guessing it's the change back to all wet food. So, assuming her BG went up because she was back on dry food, how to I keep her off of dry food but get enough food in her so that she isn't loosing too much weight? And does anyone have an info on the possible pancreas/kidney issue? I've dealt with a CRF kitty before, and it wasn't good. I'm sort of scared about that right now, though her values don't seem to be pointing in that direction.
