Lanna_Cartier
Member Since 2023
Hi, I’m new here. My name's Alanna I'm from Toronto. My cat Penelope was diagnosed with diabetes on February 8. She is 14 years old. She had been drinking a lot, peeing a lot, and losing weight so we brought her in based off of those concerns.
The seemed confident that switching her food and waiting to see whether that had an effect on her blood sugar. So we switched from her dry food to tiki cat and then waited two weeks to see whether it had an impact. After two weeks the impact wasn’t great enough, so the vet advised that we could wait one more week before starting insulin to see if there was any change. On February 28, we returned to the vet and he advised insulin, Caninsulin, stating at 1 unit twice daily for Penelope. She weighs 5.3 kg or 11.68 lbs. After a week we brought her back to the vet for a glucose curve.
The glucose curve still came back very high, so he wanted to increase her dose to 2 units twice daily. and the vet wanted her to return the following week for another curve. However, the experience at the vet was incredibly stressful for Penelope, so we asked whether it would be possible to complete our own glucose curves at home, to get more accurate readings, and also so that she wouldn’t spend the next two days stressed out. The vet advised a human glucose monitor that we picked up the same day.
On 2 units daily she seemed more playful and like herself. On March 16, my husband and I completed a glucose curve ourselves. We started taking readings at 10:30 as the vet advised, right after she had her breakfast and insulin. Her readings started high (17.4) but decreased throughout the day to 5.9 before returning to 16.9.
We sent the results to the vet and trusted them to continue to give us accurate advice. When they responded they advised us to increase her insulin to 3 units twice daily and repeat the glucose curve again in a week.
So we did as we were told. Penelope was less active throughout the week but didn’t appear to be particularly off. My husband and I both work from home, so we keep a pretty close watch on her.
On March 24 we completed another glucose curve and the results were weird. Her blood glucose started quite high and continued to decrease over the ten-hour period:
10:27:28.9
12:26: 17.9
2:37: 10.7
4:36: 6.4
6:35: 5.4
We sent along the results and waited to hear back. Yesterday we received a call indicating that the results seemed strange and implying that the reason was that we had performed the curve wrong (even though we’d done exactly the same thing as the week before). They wanted us to bring her in for another glucose curve. My husband and I decided to discuss it and call back in the morning. This seemed like a strange response. If the readings were not taken properly I’d expect to see a speed of numbers, at random, rather than a consistent gradual curve throughout the day. So I got very serious about finding clear information to better understand Penelope’s needs.
Based on my research, according to the manufacturer directions for Caninsulin and the advice of the AAHA, the ideal curve for a cat is between 120 and 300 (or between 6.6 and 16.7), which Penelope had been within during her March 16 glucose curve. Given that, it seemed really concerning to me that the vet had advised us to increase her dose from 2 units to 3. So we called the vet this morning, and when we tried to discuss it, he seemed adamant that the increase in dosage was appropriate.
After the call, I continued to research in order to find more clear information. Which is how I found this forum. I’ve been reading through all the getting started and new diagnosis information. From what I understand: “When you get the lowest BG of the cycle down to 120-150, you have effectiveness. At this dosage, the cat is exposed to the risk of hypoglycemia if something goes wrong, so now your approach is permanently changed to one of caution -- small changes, far apart, while you seek to improve the duration of the insulin action so the BG spikes stop.”
I tend to be a bit mistrusting of healthcare professionals. I have an autoimmune disease myself, and the process of diagnosis (and ongoing monitoring) has not been confidence inspiring, to say the least. So when Penelope was diagnosed, I made an active effort to trust in what our vet was telling us, so as not to undermine her care, but I’m quite concerned.
We just took Penelope’s blood glucose at 4:20 and it was 4.3, which seems very low. I suspect that it’s also rocketing up very high because her body is correcting for the too-high dose of insulin. Our vet seemed quite dismissive when we spoke. This is all to say, I’m sorry for this huge wall of text, but I’m new to this and I am worried. Any advice you may have would be very helpful. We were thinking of dropping her insulin back down to 2 units starting tonight and taking her blood glucose more frequently for the time being.
The seemed confident that switching her food and waiting to see whether that had an effect on her blood sugar. So we switched from her dry food to tiki cat and then waited two weeks to see whether it had an impact. After two weeks the impact wasn’t great enough, so the vet advised that we could wait one more week before starting insulin to see if there was any change. On February 28, we returned to the vet and he advised insulin, Caninsulin, stating at 1 unit twice daily for Penelope. She weighs 5.3 kg or 11.68 lbs. After a week we brought her back to the vet for a glucose curve.
The glucose curve still came back very high, so he wanted to increase her dose to 2 units twice daily. and the vet wanted her to return the following week for another curve. However, the experience at the vet was incredibly stressful for Penelope, so we asked whether it would be possible to complete our own glucose curves at home, to get more accurate readings, and also so that she wouldn’t spend the next two days stressed out. The vet advised a human glucose monitor that we picked up the same day.
On 2 units daily she seemed more playful and like herself. On March 16, my husband and I completed a glucose curve ourselves. We started taking readings at 10:30 as the vet advised, right after she had her breakfast and insulin. Her readings started high (17.4) but decreased throughout the day to 5.9 before returning to 16.9.
We sent the results to the vet and trusted them to continue to give us accurate advice. When they responded they advised us to increase her insulin to 3 units twice daily and repeat the glucose curve again in a week.
So we did as we were told. Penelope was less active throughout the week but didn’t appear to be particularly off. My husband and I both work from home, so we keep a pretty close watch on her.
On March 24 we completed another glucose curve and the results were weird. Her blood glucose started quite high and continued to decrease over the ten-hour period:
10:27:28.9
12:26: 17.9
2:37: 10.7
4:36: 6.4
6:35: 5.4
We sent along the results and waited to hear back. Yesterday we received a call indicating that the results seemed strange and implying that the reason was that we had performed the curve wrong (even though we’d done exactly the same thing as the week before). They wanted us to bring her in for another glucose curve. My husband and I decided to discuss it and call back in the morning. This seemed like a strange response. If the readings were not taken properly I’d expect to see a speed of numbers, at random, rather than a consistent gradual curve throughout the day. So I got very serious about finding clear information to better understand Penelope’s needs.
Based on my research, according to the manufacturer directions for Caninsulin and the advice of the AAHA, the ideal curve for a cat is between 120 and 300 (or between 6.6 and 16.7), which Penelope had been within during her March 16 glucose curve. Given that, it seemed really concerning to me that the vet had advised us to increase her dose from 2 units to 3. So we called the vet this morning, and when we tried to discuss it, he seemed adamant that the increase in dosage was appropriate.
After the call, I continued to research in order to find more clear information. Which is how I found this forum. I’ve been reading through all the getting started and new diagnosis information. From what I understand: “When you get the lowest BG of the cycle down to 120-150, you have effectiveness. At this dosage, the cat is exposed to the risk of hypoglycemia if something goes wrong, so now your approach is permanently changed to one of caution -- small changes, far apart, while you seek to improve the duration of the insulin action so the BG spikes stop.”
I tend to be a bit mistrusting of healthcare professionals. I have an autoimmune disease myself, and the process of diagnosis (and ongoing monitoring) has not been confidence inspiring, to say the least. So when Penelope was diagnosed, I made an active effort to trust in what our vet was telling us, so as not to undermine her care, but I’m quite concerned.
We just took Penelope’s blood glucose at 4:20 and it was 4.3, which seems very low. I suspect that it’s also rocketing up very high because her body is correcting for the too-high dose of insulin. Our vet seemed quite dismissive when we spoke. This is all to say, I’m sorry for this huge wall of text, but I’m new to this and I am worried. Any advice you may have would be very helpful. We were thinking of dropping her insulin back down to 2 units starting tonight and taking her blood glucose more frequently for the time being.
Welcome to the FDMB, your kitty has no idea how lucky they are you found us! I myself owe a debt I can never repay to the kind people here. Oh shoot here come the waterworks, lol. Dammit where's that tissue box
