New Member Introduction: Sammy and Beans

[msamara3]

A little nervous because we just had a low blood sugar incident and I'm just starting to calm down, I apologize if I'm all over the place.
Beans is a fixed male American short haired cat, 15 or 16 yo, had him for 14 years, good health up until Aug/Sep 2024, when he got sick and signs led to cancer, the kind in the intestines that makes them skinny etc, and the imaging and cancer treatment was too expensive and the vet wouldn't do chemo for me there.

I asked for steroids which helped another cat in this same situation that we had and might help keep him comfy. We thought that was the end of the line for him. We started giving him an appetite med and steroids every day and he began to perk up and act like his normal self. We kept on with the steroids because he was doing well and after a few months we returned to the vet who was shocked Beans was not only still alive but thriving. Gained weight, etc. The only thing was, he was walking on his haunches which could be diabetes, a risk I knew we took with the roids but we didn't care at the time because we didn't think he was going to make it more than a month or two at first, and also diabetes isn't the end of the world so if he did get it, we'd be more than fine and capable handling it. At that vet visit, his BG was like 400ish. So we were trying a diet but the next time we went to the vet he was still super high. We were unable to control with diet. Also have 4 other cats so it's hard to control food.

We began insulin at 1 unit every 12 hours but he still wasn't coming down, and we were going to the vet to do BG testing, too much money. Told vey i wanted to try testing at home. She was like ok, and I went with Alpha Trak which I know is more expensive etc but i wanted to get the vet on my side and not argue, etc. So we started trying to test, it wasn't great at first. But now we are great at it and my cat is soooo cool about it. The vet was scared we'd try adjusting insulin at home and I get that, but I wanted to be able to control his sugar more than the vet thought might be possible. Anyway, today he had a blood sugar crash down into the 30s and I had to give him syrup for pancakes and then it went even lower in the 30s and then finally it started coming up to 71. This is the second time this happened since we started testing a few months ago. The first time it was because we saw what the hard treats did to his numbers so we cut back without reducing the insulin. His numbers were consistently high, like 250 high or 300s. Same deal with syrup at that time.

I hope this isn't scattered too much. I hope I did this intro correctly.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Welcome to FDMB -- and you did great!!

A few questions.... Which insulin are you using? There are only 2 insulins that the American Animal Hospital Assn recommends for treating feline diabetes -- Lantus (glargine is the generic/biosimilar) and Prozinc. What are you feeding your kitty?

As far as the glucometer, just because your vet thinks you should use the Alpha Track, doesn't mean you have to. The vet isn't sitting in your living room watching which meter you're using. When you have to test like crazy if numbers are low, it gets expensive. All of the dosing protocols we use (and several that are published) are based on human meter data.

While the vet may be "scared" that you are adjusting your cat's numbers on your own, I managed my cat's diabetes for over 6 years and only saw the vet for Gabby's annual check up or if there was something else I needed. My vet did have some initial reservations about my managing my cat's diabetes but I pointed out that unless she was willing to give me her personal phone number, the likelihood that I would be able to reach her in the middle of the night was zero. I had FDMB members who could help. Once she realized I knew what I was doing, she backed off. When I moved several states away, my new vet took one look at Gabby's spreadsheet and commented that I didn't need her to tell me how to manage my cat's diabetes. I wonder if your vet thinks that humans go running to their doctor every time they need to adjust their insulin dose. Most do not.

We encourage all of our members to take a look at this post on helping us to help you. It contains instructions for setting up a spreadsheet and your signature as well as other information. The spreadsheet will give you a place to keep track of your cat's blood glucose test data and will allow us to follow along and provide input. Your signature contains basic information about your cat so we don't keep asking you the same questions (e.g., diet, insulin, etc.).

Please let us know how we can help.

 

[squeem3]

You don't really adjust insulin doses on your own. You always want to keep your vet informed of everything Keep track of your cat's daily blood glucose levels on a Google spreadsheet (instructions here) and share it with your vet. Call your vet regularly to discuss any issues or concerns. Post on this board too.

Leroy and I might be an oddball here on FDMB. The vet just lets me do whatever is best for Leroy because he trusts my judgement. He's been my vet for nearly 20 years now and treated my first diabetic. I call his secretary daily because Leroy is a hot mess with all his issues. Leroy only needs to go to the vet if absolutely needed, like a trip to the ER for something I can't treat at home or the annual check up.

Many people who have multiple cats just feed everyone the same food: low carb canned food. A microchip feeder can be used to keep the diabetic cat's food from being by greedy others. Or to keep the diabetic out of dry food if you have dry food addicts.