Need advice on kidney crash in diabetic cat

[mziegle]

Hi all:
My beloved first cat, Sidney, was dx with diabetes about three years ago. From what I've read on this site so far, he hasn't been treated well.
The first vet gave him Humulin N, no change in food, no follow ups.
I moved, and took him to a new vet. She changed him to ProZinc. He had 6-month follow ups, no change in food.
Over a two year period of time, he increased to 7.5 u twice a day, was on a combo of regular dry and wet food. Over Memorial Day weekend, he had uncontrollable diarrhea all over the house. I brought him to a third vet, who believed his BG was low--it was. We took him off insulin for several days with rechecks. After about 4 days his BG was off the chart high. We started with 2 units of Lantus 2x/day and rechecked every three days. Over this last weekend, he stopped eating, but I noticed a URI. Since he was congested and couldn't really smell, I thought he wasn't eating because of that. I was taking his glucose readings with an AccuCheck meter. Over two or three days they went from 501 to 456 to 365 and stayed about there. He was scheduled to go back in this past Tuesday. When I got there, the vet chastised me for trying to take his BG. He did blood tests and SId's kidney values were "off the chart." He's been there since, getting IV fluids. I visit every day, and he's now eating, purring and rubbing my face. But his BG readings are going from 36 to 360 overnight. The vet keeps warning me that Sid may not survive because of his kidneys. I've treated a cat in kidney failure before, and I just don't know what to do at this point. I'm supposed to have new blood tests today, but the vet is sick.

Has anyone had super high kidney readings when the insulin is changed, or isn't working right? I am so upset at this point that no vet has mentioned home glucose checking, diabetic food, monthly blood tests. I'd do anything to prolong his life.

 

[Hillary & Maui (GA)]

I am sorry that you are having problems and that Sidney isn't doing well.

Unfortunately, it is very common for vets not to discuss home testing with patients. The reasons are varied and really don't matter. The fact is the only way to know if insulin is working properly is to home test. So good for you for getting a meter and learning how to do it. This is your cat and you can and should test!

If it were a human getting insulin, no doctor would say - don't test the human before injecting insulin

I can't speak about the kidney values. What I can tell you is that it is very important what type of food you use, not only for kidneys but for diabetes as well. The key things to focus on are feeding a low carb wet food diet that is also low in phosphorus - low carb for diabetes and low phosphorus for kidneys.

feeding dry food isn't good for either condition and isn't good in general. to better understand the reasons why dry food isn't good, please check out this website - www.catinfo.org -- Dr. Lisa explains it very well.

That being said, it isn't as difficult as you think to find low carb, low phosphorus foods. On Dr. Lisa's website she has a food comparison chart that lists the carbs and phosphorus as well as other info.

The goal is to use carb food that is 10% or less and phosphorus under 250 mg.


It isn't necessary to buy expensive prescription food, you can use these charts to find easily available food at various price ranges.

We use these charts and not the information on the food label because these charts give more accurate information with as fed values.

To give you one example of food that is ok to use Friskies Special Diet turkey & giblet pate or chicken dinner pate.

There are more options but that is one quick one to note.

You don't want to feed any food that has gravy in it as it is too high in carbs and sadly feeding Fancy Feast of any kind is too high in phosphorus.

we have more information we can share and ways to help you. Just let us know how else we can help.

 

[Wendy&Tiggy(GA)]

There is a list of foods on here that are low carb for diabetes but also have the phosphorus levels listed in them http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=94685

Also here is a website on chronic renal failure that you may find useful http://www.felinecrf.org

I hope he pulls through this - sending healing vines..

Wendy

 

[BJM]

... We started with 2 units of Lantus 2x/day and rechecked every three days. ... But his BG readings are going from 36 to 360 overnight. ...

If his glucose is going down to 36 mg/dL, the insulin dose is too high and should be trimmed back 0.25 to 0.5 units lower. Going into hypoglycemia won't help his kidneys and may kill him!