Miss Maggi Pie's Mom here

[Pamiam]

We discovered Maggi had diabetes about two months before we moved, vet started her on 3 units twice daily Vestulin, did a fructosimine curve and began Royal Canine dry food. Got to new home in OR, took her to a new vet who said nuts to Vestulin, started her on one unit of Lantus twice daily, all seemed confusing but behavior was still fairly normal. Then she wanted Maggi in for a glucose curve which turned into the day from hell. When we picked Maggi up, she was listless, looked shell-shocked, vet tech said she had been aggressive and they tried to sedate her with a pill, basically said my sweet cat was at fault for being upset being in a cage in a strange place and getting her ears pricked and a pill crammed down her mouth. When I got her home, she was wet, not damp, from her tail to her hind legs, obviously had been washed or hosed, took her in to towel dry and then she drank water for about five minutes. I was livid.
Changed vets, again one unit of Lantus twice daily, their normal procedure, but resisted bringing her in for another round of what she'd just experienced. We're now talking another two months...not good...but about three weeks ago vet inserted a glucose monitor in neck/back and I have a scanner that checks her glucose with a wave of the hand. Amazing. (Same monitor and scanner humans use.)
I had no idea glucose would vary so wildly throughout the day! Crazy. Starts out near 500 and stays in 400s, dipped into 300s twice yesterday. I feel terrible that it seems we are just now getting into the meat of the problem. Hind legs are compromised, front legs seem weak. Vet suggested we move dosage to 4.5 twice daily and surely glucose will drop at last.
Vet also recommended B12300 and a few other things I will try.
Curious to hear other stories about weakened legs. Can they recover strength once glucose is regulated? My sweet girl no longer jumps on bed, so sad for her but she still is sweet. I wonder if her legs are painful? I wonder how long it will take to get this glucose in an acceptable range. If we hadn't moved, seems Miss Maggi might not have suffered as much but it is what it is. I hate watching her decline.......

 

[Idjit's mom]

Hi and welcome to FDMB. Unfortunately you found a couple of vets that I wouldn't want to take Idjit to. Poor Miss Maggi Pie!

Most of us test blood sugar manually with either a human or pet glucometer, but some recently have also tried the Freestyle Libre, like you.

Diet is a very important component of effective feline diabetic treatment, just like with humans. What is Maggi eating now?
So that we can see kitty's pertinent info would you take a few minutes and create a signature? This will display whenever you post and we won't have to keep asking for the same info over and over.

Setting up your signature (light grey text under a post). Here's how:
click on your name in the upper right corner of this page
click on "signature" in the menu that drops down
type the following in the box that opens: kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using and dosage amount /glucose meter you're using/what (s)he eats/any other meds or health issues (s)he has. You can add your name, and a geographic location (sometimes the country/time zone matters) Be sure to SAVE when you are finished.

Lantus is a good insulin for our sugar cats and with the information and support here, I believe you have a good opportunity to help Maggi to better blood sugar regulation.

Going forward, please start posting in the Main Health forum HERE so that more members can read and respond. This Intro forum is more like a welcome mat and we would like to help you work to get Maggi to better blood sugar levels. If needed we can make some diet recommendations and provide some information about the neuropathy (weak back legs).

 

[Sarah&Soph]

Welcome to you and Maggi! Unfortunately many vets are horribly behind on managing and treating diabetes. Glucose curves done at the vet are almost always useless because the cat is so stressed out. I stopped taking my girl in for them after I picked her up and she was completely feral and traumatized.

I recommend posting to the main health forum or the lantus forum so that you can get plenty of advice! But I definitely would NOT recommend raising from 1 unit to 4.5 - that’s way too big of an increase! It’s normally recommended to only increase 0.25 units at a time. Weakness in the legs (neuropathy) happens to many cats with unregulated diabetes and there are supplements that can help with that

 

[Idjit's mom]

I second Sarah&Soph's recommendation not to raise the insulin dose. Sometimes too much insulin can look like not enough because a kitty can get a hefty dose, the blood sugar drops and the body tries to protect itself by releasing stored glycogen, forcing the blood sugar right up again. They get used to the higher numbers, even though it's not where they should be.

Some vets only advise to keep raising the dose too fast, and usually in one Unit increments. It's a matter of taking it slow and seeing how the kitty reacts to a dose for a period of time, and if doses need to be raised or lowered - then in smaller increments, so you don't bypass the best dose.

The dose Maggi is on right now might be too high and when you post in the Main Health forum we can get some more detailed information on her daily blood sugar readings.