Need a little assistance, please.

[Eric Dennis]

Hey guys.


I have a cat that has recently been diagnosed with diabetes. I suspected it for awhile, due to leg weakness and massive weight loss.... he has been a die-hard dry kibble addict most of his life, and he's an indoor/outdoor cat.

Good news is we have finally managed to switch him to an all wet-food, low carb diet. He's eating really well and after only 4 days of treatment with insulin he's starting to look much better, gain weight, more active, etc.


The diet change had a massive impact on his blood sugar (as far as I can tell) and now I'm really unsure how to continue to treat him..... Here's his blood glucose since diagnosis...

As you can see, there's a significant improvement! The situation I'm having is it's just about time for his PM insulin dose of 2 Units... but blood glucose is reading at 204! I've done a LOT of reading and research, and it's my understanding that the true danger comes from hypoglycemia in the short term, and with his glucose only at 204, should I just skip this dose? I don't even feel comfortable giving 1 unit with it as low as it is....

If anyone has any info or tips, it would be much appreciated. Thank you

 

[Wendy&Neko]

What type of insulin are you giving? For new people on this board, we suggest skipping if the preshot test is below 200, which you are close to.

 

[Eric Dennis]

It's Vetsulin (porcine insulin zinc suspension)

That's what I was thinking, as well. It's been a whirlwind of reading, research, testing, patience... The vet that gave me the diagnosis was actually really horrible (never going back to him)... as the vet, blood test showed BG at 315 (during diagnosis)... the vet initially was wanting to start with 5!!!! units!!! I've worked in the medical field for awhile and know a bit about diabetes in humans, and immediately took out my phone and started googling. To my shock, it was almost universally recommended to start at 1u.... when he came back, I voiced my concerns. He decided that 3 units would be a good starting point, and I was still very uneasy about this, but he insisted. He showed me how to do the injection (very quickly) and sold me some insulin and syringes. He wrote on the insulin to give 3 Units twice daily. He didn't explain or warn me about hypoglycemia (thank goodness I already knew quite a bit from medical experience!), he spent literally 15 minutes from diagnosis to finished.

Once home, I decided that I'd start with 2 units instead of 3, and try to get as many readings as possible to get a feel for things. It didn't seem like the insulin was bringing down his glucose as much as it needed to initially... but then I finally managed to get him off the dry-kibble and eating high quality wet food. This made a HUGE difference in glucose levels at all points in the day...

So I'll skip this dose, and I'll get a couple extra readings tonight to see how his glucose is responding.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

My kitty started on Caninsulin (rebranded now as Vetsulin in the US). We started at 1 unit. I am glad you didn't start with 5 units!! Switching from dry to wet can make a huge difference. If you decide to look for a new vet, see if you can find one that prescribes Lantus, Levemir or Prozinc - longer lasting insulins in cats. Though some kitties do OK with Vetsulin. I am so glad you are home testing so you can see how it is working.

 

[Eric Dennis]

Well, right now I'm really funds limited. The additional costs of the insulin, strips, etc etc etc are already hard for me. The $220 or so I paid to the vet for the diagnosis and office visit was pretty much a complete waste..... but yeah I would never even think about using insulin in any kind of animal or human without proper testing.

I couldn't believe the vet wanted to give him 5 units!!! I just don't understand it. Not only that, he gave me samples of and recommended a 'weight management/metabolic' Rx food (dry kibble)... and sure enough after some research, i've come to the conclusion that it was probably the absolute worst food I could give him (low protein, high carb!!!) so I don't understand it at all.... Maybe his idea of insulin dosages and such are formed around feeding the cat this ridiculous, horrible food to him! There's no doubt in my mind if he was eating it regularly I very well might need 5 units!

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

 

[JanetNJ]

5 units would have been disastrous.

If you shoot tonight so a reduced dose. Maybe half a unit.

Good job home testing right away. Are you using a human meter or pet meter?

 

[Yong & Maury GA]

Welcome Eric and kitty (name?)!
Great that you've seen some results with diet change and are home testing! If you are interested, many of us who home test use Google sheets to track BG numbers: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

And if you could put some information in your Signature about your kitty it's super helpful and helps those of us with bad memories : http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/

Since your Vet didn't explain about hypo's, here's a link I like to give to newer members. Better to be prepared and hope you never need it: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

We would be glad to help you answer any questions you might have

 

[Lisa and Smoky]

Well, right now I'm really funds limited. The additional costs of the insulin, strips, etc etc etc are already hard for me. The $220 or so I paid to the vet for the diagnosis and office visit was pretty much a complete waste..... but yeah I would never even think about using insulin in any kind of animal or human without proper testing.

I couldn't believe the vet wanted to give him 5 units!!! I just don't understand it. Not only that, he gave me samples of and recommended a 'weight management/metabolic' Rx food (dry kibble)... and sure enough after some research, i've come to the conclusion that it was probably the absolute worst food I could give him (low protein, high carb!!!) so I don't understand it at all.... Maybe his idea of insulin dosages and such are formed around feeding the cat this ridiculous, horrible food to him! There's no doubt in my mind if he was eating it regularly I very well might need 5 units!

Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

My personal opinion is that the pet food companies push the expensive prescription food for the vets to sell. The vets get kickbacks for selling the food. The high carb food keeps the cats blood sugar up so you in turn have to keep buying insulin from then more frequently. Makes sense?