Nicole O'Brien
Member Since 2021
Hello! My name is Nicole and I'm a cat mom to three, dog mom to one, and human mom to one. Jasmine is my 15 year old diabetic who has been receiving lantus insulin for five years now. Bear with me as I discuss what's going on and please share any info/advice you may have.
I brought Jasmine to the vet about three weeks ago after she had bad diarrhea in the litter box and on a carpet. She was also hiding under the bed and wouldn't eat which is not like her. Bloodwork turned out normal but they noticed a mass in her abdomen. The vet suspected lymphoma and aspirated the mass. No cancer was found and he said it was Irritable Bowel Disease. Since the suggested treatment for that was steroids, which can negatively affect diabetes, he referred me to an Internal Medicine Specialist.
We visited the specialist on Tuesday. She completed another ultrasound to see what was going on. Her plan was to aspirate the mass since she was not confident with the original vet's findings. She found no mass but noticed a thickened gallbladder and thickening in the GI tract. She said this could either be cancer or IBD. She also suspected an infection due to inflammation A biopsy would be the only way to tell for sure but we've already spent $1000 and this would cost thousands that we just can't afford right now. Anyways, she gave us an antibiotic to start with and I began that Tuesday. We were waiting to get the steroid mailed to me and that should be here today. She wanted to start the antibiotic before starting the steroid anyways. I'm supposed to bring Jasmine back for a GI panel in three weeks and the specialist wanted me to do a glucose curve before coming in to make sure the steroid isn't messing with her blood sugar.
Here is my problem (and I did call her yesterday but the office is closed until Monday): I usually check Jasmine's blood sugar before and/or after meals. It's gotten increasingly higher each day. First, I bought new insulin to make sure it was potent. I normally give her about .75 units every 12 hours. I upped it to 1 unit yesterday after her morning reading was 525. I am starting a glucose curve today but it already does not look good. It was 373 at 5:30am, I gave her a unit at 6am, and it was 411 at 8:30am. I think I am going to hold off on even starting the steroids until I hear back from the vet but if anyone has any advice or ideas of what could be going on, that would be super helpful. She's eating fine (she's actually hungrier than usual, and she's usually hungry). I'm not sure what could be causing this resistance to treatment but I'm extremely worried and hoping someone can help!
Thanks,
Nicole
I brought Jasmine to the vet about three weeks ago after she had bad diarrhea in the litter box and on a carpet. She was also hiding under the bed and wouldn't eat which is not like her. Bloodwork turned out normal but they noticed a mass in her abdomen. The vet suspected lymphoma and aspirated the mass. No cancer was found and he said it was Irritable Bowel Disease. Since the suggested treatment for that was steroids, which can negatively affect diabetes, he referred me to an Internal Medicine Specialist.
We visited the specialist on Tuesday. She completed another ultrasound to see what was going on. Her plan was to aspirate the mass since she was not confident with the original vet's findings. She found no mass but noticed a thickened gallbladder and thickening in the GI tract. She said this could either be cancer or IBD. She also suspected an infection due to inflammation A biopsy would be the only way to tell for sure but we've already spent $1000 and this would cost thousands that we just can't afford right now. Anyways, she gave us an antibiotic to start with and I began that Tuesday. We were waiting to get the steroid mailed to me and that should be here today. She wanted to start the antibiotic before starting the steroid anyways. I'm supposed to bring Jasmine back for a GI panel in three weeks and the specialist wanted me to do a glucose curve before coming in to make sure the steroid isn't messing with her blood sugar.
Here is my problem (and I did call her yesterday but the office is closed until Monday): I usually check Jasmine's blood sugar before and/or after meals. It's gotten increasingly higher each day. First, I bought new insulin to make sure it was potent. I normally give her about .75 units every 12 hours. I upped it to 1 unit yesterday after her morning reading was 525. I am starting a glucose curve today but it already does not look good. It was 373 at 5:30am, I gave her a unit at 6am, and it was 411 at 8:30am. I think I am going to hold off on even starting the steroids until I hear back from the vet but if anyone has any advice or ideas of what could be going on, that would be super helpful. She's eating fine (she's actually hungrier than usual, and she's usually hungry). I'm not sure what could be causing this resistance to treatment but I'm extremely worried and hoping someone can help!
Thanks,
Nicole
