My cat still not stabilized after 6 months off treatment

[londonguy]

My 6 yr old male cat named Pepper was diagnosed at xmas time with diabetes. For the 1st 5 months he has been on a once a day slow release insulin. However as there seemed to be no improvement in his condition I took him back to the vets and suggested whether a twice a day dosage might be better. Pepper weighs around 5 kilos and the vet advised me to give him 4 iu of CANINSULIN twice a day. I have been doing this for a week now and still I don't seem much improvement in his condition e.g skinny, cant jump.weakness in back legs etc.. I am am wary of the advice I am getting from my Vet. I have been feeding Pepper 3 cans of Hill"s m/d (156g) a day. I want to learn to take glucose tests at home so I can take personal responsibility over his health although my Vet always recommends that I take Pepper into see him for his glucose tests.
What I really want to know is am I feeding him the right quantity of this food or should I change his diet. Should I be doing more for him at home, and can I feed him whiskas jelly cat food as he seems to really love it.
I just want help as to make Peppers life more comfortable. So if anyone can help I would be very grateful..thanks!

 

[Jean and Megan]

What insulin were you on before Caninsulin? And what dose? Twice a day is far better than once a day, but 4u of Caninsulin sounds like a very large dose to me. I don't know your history, though, so I may be completely wrong.

I have heard that Whiskas in jelly is fine. I'm in the US, and that isn't one of the brands we have here, but others have talked about that one as good. As far as I know, it is decidedly better than W/D.

I'm glad you want to learn to hometest. That will be a great help and will give you a vastly better picture of what is going on.

Welcome to FDMB!

 

[Iorwen & Tray]

I can tell you only my experience. My cat was diagnosed a year ago and was put on caninsulin and a prescription diet and we had lots of problems with him, first with regulation then with a hypo incident. I finally took matters into my own hands and had a serious talk with my vet. He suggested low calorie wet food from our local supermarket (certain Fancy Feasts, mixed with raw diet) and we also switched to twice a day dose of Lantus. That's when I discovered this board and have had wonderful results and experiences.

You should talk to your vet about options. Good luck.

 

[Ronnie & Luna]

Hi there

welcome to the FDMB!

Sounds like you are in the UK?
You should be wary of the vet advice, 4u without home testing can get scary for your kitty...others will be a long for feedback and you'll prob hear it again - start home testing - get rid of the vet dry food (known as kitty crack) you dont need the vets permission to home test, besides that - its only money in their pocket for you to bring in your kitty weekly for something that you can easily do at home.

The FDMB Health Links: viewforum.php?f=14
you'll find lots of info here on proper nutrition, home testing etc...do have a look thru and be prepared to research, unfortunately, many vets are not up to speed on how to treat diabetes, and unfortuneatly some are still giving out Caninsulin (known as Vetsulin in the U.S)
You may want to ask your vet for a different insulin, such as Lantus(Glargine) or Levemir, or PZI

Please read this link on the recall for Vetsulin/Caninsulin : viewtopic.php?f=19&t=311

Is there any history of ketones? Has your vet tested for that?
We do have a few members in Europe, hopefully they will be a long to assist you in finding a food replacement and other supplies.

 

[Deanie and Boo (GA) and Scout]

My 6 yr old male cat named Pepper was diagnosed at xmas time with diabetes. For the 1st 5 months he has been on a once a day slow release insulin. Pepper weighs around 5 kilos and the vet advised me to give him 4 iu of CANINSULIN twice a day.

Caninsulin is not a once a day slow release insulin. I'm betting that's where your problem lies. He's only getting insulin coverage for about half the day. (or less)

 

[kate and lucky]

Hi and welcome to FDMB :mrgreen:

I'm a UK bean.

Whiskas in jelly is a good start. Think it's around 8-10% carbs.
Think they have stopped doing Whiskas MMM -That was really good as only 1% carbs.

The trick (if you haven't sussed this) is low carb wet food. 4u twice a day is way too high. However. First, you need to go to Boots/Llloyds and get some ketodiastix.
These are test strips for something called keytones. Cats can suffer from these (life threateneing) if their not getting enough insulin, so if your looking at cutting dose (which right now in my view you should) you need to be testing for them so you can catch if it happens. You just stick the strip under kitty's pee stream.

What was the other insulin you were on? Could be that the dosing was wrong and hence not very good results.
The weakness in back legs is probably neuropathy-caused by high glucose levels.

Must let kitty eat all he wants. Whislt BG's are so high, his body can not process the food so despite eating shed loads he is literally starving. This evens out once you get bg's regulated.

The fructosamine tests your vet is doing are a waste of time really. Al they tell you is what the avearge glucose concentration has been over the previous 1-3 weeks. Well if it says 400-could have been as low as 50 at other times!
I got glucometer and test strips off ebay-generally pretty cheap.
One touch ultra was the main one I used but accu check also good. Depends how long you have to wait for glucometer. I bought our first one from pharmacy (but lot more expensive). I then bought a back up off ebay.


Drop the Hils-not only is it expensive, it's pretty rubbish (something like 16% carbs I think).You want under 10% carbs. I went with Felix 'as good as it looks' as this is 3.4%.Under 5% is my preference as that is what % carbs are from a mouse-natural food source.
I'll dig out my list of other UK wet foods. There are quite a few UK beans here, but most are American/Canadian.


Just keep asking questions.
One thing I would do-before swapping food, start hometesting. Lower carb food automatically equates to cat having lower bg/ That dose your giving-the food your giving may be what's keeping him up.

Ethos here is start low (1u) go slow. So you hold dose for 3-7 days (depends which insulin your on and what numbers you get)and then increase in small amounts (usually .25u)

I'm assuming right now your using u40 syringes?
Please keep asking questions-always someone around to help.

 

[Sheila & Beau GA & Jeddie GA]

Just chiming in to add my voice to what others have said about the dose bing too high. Even with dry food, I think that is too much. And since Canninsulin has had severe problems with it's formula (inconsistent dilution/strength) it is unpredictable and should not be used at all.

I would recommend Levemir (Detemir) or Lantus (Glargine) insulins as a better insulin choice.

My vet discouraged home testing as well and I took Beau in for weekly tests for 6 months. What a waste of time and money. Most cats get so stressed at the vet that their blood glucose level rises so it is unreliable as an indicator of how they are at home. Beau was unregulated until I started home testing (and lowered his vetsulin (same as Caninsulin) dose and got rid of dry food). Home tests are very reliable and will tell you how well the dose is working.

There is tons of great information on this site - linked through the Health Links page - and many, many people that can answer questions and give you tips on how to manage Pepper's diabetes at home.

Welcome.