New member - diabetes advice

[AlyssaP]

Hello,

I came across this forum while trying to research what I might be able to do for my kitty. She's been a diagnosed diabetic for around a year now. I'm thinking she's around 10 years old. She was a stray so I'm not 100% sure. She is currently on 8mg of prozinc twice a day. Which on reading this forum is a lot. Her vet has even said she has never seen a cat use that much insulin and her glucose be high. Her blood sugar at the last text at the vet was 311. Her blood glucose is consistently high every time I take her to the vet. She is on a strictly wet food diet. We do fancy feast grilled.

After the last vet visit they were wanting to start doing ultrasounds and urine cultures. And talking about insulin resistance.

I've seen recommendations for home testing which I plan to start doing, but I was also wondering if the dose is the issue.

She doesn't seem to be in any pain. She loves to to eat and her water consumption has gone down since I started the insulin last year. She still plays and fights with my other cats. She has lost weight but I was trying to get her to lose a little as her being overweight is what I'm thinking started the diabetes in the first place.

Just looking for any advice at all I'm afraid we're getting to the point that they're going to tell me euthanasia.

 

[Lara & Luciole (Lu)]

Welcome!

There's absolutely no reason to euthanize your kitty and with good management of diabetes you can likely have many more years together of love and good health.

Just wanted to mention that he Fancy Feast grilled, (chicken, salmon turkey) are all around 12-13% carb so that’s in the medium carb range. The FF pates are a better choice, as they have lower carbs.

You'll get a lot of good help here, and a sense of community. There's decades worth of knowledge here, and very caring folks.

 

[AlyssaP]

Thank you! I had noticed a lot of people were feeding the pate's. I'll be switching her to that, thankfully she is not a picky eater.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

8 units (not mg) is not common, but not rare. My girl got up to 8.75 units of Lantus. However, when a kitty gets up to 6 units of insulin, we recommend getting tests for some secondary condition that can cause insulin resistance. My girl had two of them, called acromegaly (caused by a benign pituitary tumour that sends out excess growth hormone) and IAA or insulin auto antibodies, which is sort of like an allergy to the injected insulin. There are treatments for acromegaly, and IAA can go away on it's own over time.

Home testing will tell you if the dose is the issue and allow you to get to a dose where she will be better regulated. Note, we've had cats with the two secondary conditions I mentioned on much higher doses or on lower doses too. Acromegaly is fairly common, a study done 10 years ago showed one in four diabetic cats has it.

Side note, I'm removing the GA prefix that is for "gone ahead" or "guardian angel".

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Save your money on the ultrasounds for the moment. Instead, get two blood tests, one for IGF-1 (indicator of acromegaly) and the other for IAA. The blood is sent to Michigan State University for testing.

A second reason for home testing, some cats test a lot higher at the vet due to stress there. I had a non diabetic who tested over 200 at the vet at 53 at home the next day. If you are going to test, I'd strongly recommend a human blood glucose kit, to save a bunch of money. In the US, a Relion brand from Walmart is commonly used here cause the test strips are cheap and it needs a fairly small drop of blood.

 

[Seth&Bell]

What is your kitty’s name? She looks like a sweetie. I love her eyes.

Wendy has helped my Bell through an IAA diagnosis. If you look at Bell’s spreadsheet attached in my signature, you’ll see she got up to 8 units of Lantus (not ProZinc) insulin on 1/18/25. We’ve been able to slowly get that amount down (and back up and then down again) over time. At her diabetes diagnosis, she was skin and bones, but now she is a normal, healthy cat. Wendy has advised me over the past few years not to stress about the amount of insulin it takes to keep a cat’s blood sugar levels in a good range. Different cat’s will need different dosages. Understanding if your kitty has one of the two conditions Wendy described will help the folks here guide your treatment.

 

[AlyssaP]

8 units (not mg) is not common, but not rare. My girl got up to 8.75 units of Lantus. However, when a kitty gets up to 6 units of insulin, we recommend getting tests for some secondary condition that can cause insulin resistance. My girl had two of them, called acromegaly (caused by a benign pituitary tumour that sends out excess growth hormone) and IAA or insulin auto antibodies, which is sort of like an allergy to the injected insulin. There are treatments for acromegaly, and IAA can go away on it's own over time.

Home testing will tell you if the dose is the issue and allow you to get to a dose where she will be better regulated. Note, we've had cats with the two secondary conditions I mentioned on much higher doses or on lower doses too. Acromegaly is fairly common, a study done 10 years ago showed one in four diabetic cats has it.

Side note, I'm removing the GA prefix that is for "gone ahead" or "guardian angel".

Sorry yeah after I posted I realized units was the correct terminology. And I thought ga was general advice. Thank you for the advice on acromegaly. I had seen it here and didn't realize it was so common.

 

[AlyssaP]

What is your kitty’s name? She looks like a sweetie. I love her eyes.

Wendy has helped my Bell through an IAA diagnosis. If you look at Bell’s spreadsheet attached in my signature, you’ll see she got up to 8 units of Lantus (not ProZinc) insulin on 1/18/25. We’ve been able to slowly get that amount down (and back up and then down again) over time. At her diabetes diagnosis, she was skin and bones, but now she is a normal, healthy cat. Wendy has advised me over the past few years not to stress about the amount of insulin it takes to keep a cat’s blood sugar levels in a good range. Different cat’s will need different dosages. Understanding if your kitty has one of the two conditions Wendy described will help the folks here guide your treatment.

Her names kitty meow meow, but I range from momma to Mama cita. I will definitely be looking into the acromegaly test and I'm going to start my own tracking at home. It's also good to know that 8 units is not a astronomical amount either.

 

[Seth&Bell]

kitty meow meow!!! Just one last thing to highlight: If you do get a test for acromegaly, make sure you also get the test done for IAA. It will be done with the same blood sample at the same lab (assuming you are in the States).

MSU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory
^ Code 20005 for Acromegaly (IGF-1)
^ Code 20031 for IAA

My vet took the sample and shipped it to the MSU VDL where they ran those tests. I think members here have shipped it themselves as well.