Hi there,
I'm new to this forum but have had a cat with diabetes for over a year. I am looking for advice.
Background. My grandma cat is 15, almost 16 years old. (Love this cat like life itself!) We got her diabetes stabilized when she was diagnosed 1+ years ago. About 4 months ago she went hypo, meowing, throwing up, etc. I gave her Karo syrup and took her to the vet. She was relatively "ok" and I just sat with her and watched her for 24 hours. "Ok" but she hasn't stabilized since. I came to this forum because the way the vet had me monitoring her for a year seemed to no longer be working (doing a curve every once in a while to ensure she was ok). I started taking a pre-shot blood sugar reading every morning and evening before her shot about 7 weeks ago, trying to adopt some of the best practices you have established here.
She's on Lantus. Her dose has fluctuated a lot, going from 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 units. She has been at 2.5 units for 3 weeks. I feed her Purina DM dry and Purina DM wet. I free feed the dry and she gets a half a can of the wet in the morning and the rest at night. She eats a very consistent amount. (Or she and the dog might - I suspect the dog eats her food when I leave so her consumption is most likely the can of wet and about a half cup of dry give or take daily). Her weight is good for her right now. She's fluctuated as low as 8 pounds and as high as 12 through this process and is just under 10 right now. (It did take an inordinately long amount of time for them to identify diabetes in the first place so she was skin and bones before they figured it out. She also was peeing all over my house.)
Her pre-dose sugar has been an average of 275 over the last 7 weeks, trending lower since I increased her insulin dose 3 weeks ago. Her insulin has been under 100 the last two mornings. Yesterday it was in the 70's. I waited an hour and then it was in. the high 400's so I gave her 2.5 units. By +8 she was at 105. (Her low is at +8 not +6). But it dipped again to under 100 at +11. I waited and it bounced back up so I gave her +2. She is sleeping next to me and seems fine now. Haven't taken her blood sugar yet today as it's only 5 am here. She is not throwing up, not meowing, hasn't had urine accidents since we got her stabilized over a year ago. She seems ok to me behavior-wise.
Apologies for the mile-long post. Love this cat and wish this was easier!
Thanks,
Amy
PS - just read post on dry food. Maybe I should cut out the dry food completely? She doesn't eat most of it but I was feeding it because the vet said it was ok. She has been on mostly wet since diagnosis ...
I'm new to this forum but have had a cat with diabetes for over a year. I am looking for advice.
Background. My grandma cat is 15, almost 16 years old. (Love this cat like life itself!) We got her diabetes stabilized when she was diagnosed 1+ years ago. About 4 months ago she went hypo, meowing, throwing up, etc. I gave her Karo syrup and took her to the vet. She was relatively "ok" and I just sat with her and watched her for 24 hours. "Ok" but she hasn't stabilized since. I came to this forum because the way the vet had me monitoring her for a year seemed to no longer be working (doing a curve every once in a while to ensure she was ok). I started taking a pre-shot blood sugar reading every morning and evening before her shot about 7 weeks ago, trying to adopt some of the best practices you have established here.
She's on Lantus. Her dose has fluctuated a lot, going from 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 units. She has been at 2.5 units for 3 weeks. I feed her Purina DM dry and Purina DM wet. I free feed the dry and she gets a half a can of the wet in the morning and the rest at night. She eats a very consistent amount. (Or she and the dog might - I suspect the dog eats her food when I leave so her consumption is most likely the can of wet and about a half cup of dry give or take daily). Her weight is good for her right now. She's fluctuated as low as 8 pounds and as high as 12 through this process and is just under 10 right now. (It did take an inordinately long amount of time for them to identify diabetes in the first place so she was skin and bones before they figured it out. She also was peeing all over my house.)
Her pre-dose sugar has been an average of 275 over the last 7 weeks, trending lower since I increased her insulin dose 3 weeks ago. Her insulin has been under 100 the last two mornings. Yesterday it was in the 70's. I waited an hour and then it was in. the high 400's so I gave her 2.5 units. By +8 she was at 105. (Her low is at +8 not +6). But it dipped again to under 100 at +11. I waited and it bounced back up so I gave her +2. She is sleeping next to me and seems fine now. Haven't taken her blood sugar yet today as it's only 5 am here. She is not throwing up, not meowing, hasn't had urine accidents since we got her stabilized over a year ago. She seems ok to me behavior-wise.
Apologies for the mile-long post. Love this cat and wish this was easier!
Thanks,
Amy
PS - just read post on dry food. Maybe I should cut out the dry food completely? She doesn't eat most of it but I was feeding it because the vet said it was ok. She has been on mostly wet since diagnosis ...
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