New Member, Little Bear

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beetime

Member Since 2022
Hello! My car Little Bear was diagnosed about a month ago. Her diabetes was brought on by a depomedrol steroid shot, though she was likely prediabetic before. We're having a hard time dialing in her insulin dose. With the depomedrol wearing off it seems like she needs less and less insulin.

She's a lot more sensitive at night and her 1.5 unit dose was sending her glucose below 70 6 hours after the shot. I went down to 1 unit but it is still sending her low at night. Before shot, both AM and PM, her levels are out of range. Now her AM shot, 1.5, is also making her low. I'm thinking to go to 1 unit in the morning and .5 at night.

She's on glargine right now. Another concern is how quickly her glucose rises and falls. It's less a curve and more straight up and down. She has a freestyle libre 2 monitor and it seems to be working well.

Thank you!!!
 
Hi and welcome!!

We’d really need to see those numbers in a spreadsheet to better advise on dosage. What are you feeding her right now? Below 70 typically indicates a decrease is needed so you were probably right to lower the dose. What do you mean by her preshot numbers being “out of range”? She could be going into remission if the steroid is what caused the diabetes. Did the vet run a fructosamine test to diagnose the diabetes? Apologies for all the questions, but all those details are important :cat:
 
Thanks for the reply! She is esty fancy feast turkey 12 hrs apart. By out of range I mean over 500. Sorry I don't have a spreadsheet but here is her report that does have her glucose readings. I'm not sure if the vet tested her fructosamine we haven't had labs since her diagnosis but her glucose was over 400 when I first took her in. Here's a link to her report

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:9cd79d54-5080-318a-905a-310947a59ad6

Ale & Minnie (GA) said:
Hi and welcome!!

We’d really need to see those numbers in a spreadsheet to better advise on dosage. What are you feeding her right now? Below 70 typically indicates a decrease is needed so you were probably right to lower the dose. What do you mean by her preshot numbers being “out of range”? She could be going into remission if the steroid is what caused the diabetes. Did the vet run a fructosamine test to diagnose the diabetes? Apologies for all the questions, but all those details are important :cat:
Click to expand...
 
You don’t need to feed her only twice a day. Cats have higher metabolisms than dogs so they are grazers and most do better having smaller meals throughout the day. It’s also easier on their pancreas. Has she lost weight or has she been acting hungry in between the 2 meals? You can also give her low carb treats, any freeze dried ones are good.

we have members who can help you setup a spreadsheet and also instructions on that and setting up your signature too so we can see the most important info right away like you can see mine below my posts @Diane Tyler's Mom can share those here with you
 
Copying from another post, please see below:

To set up your signature which you will see is at the end of everyone's post in gray, click on your name up top and then tap on the word signature and add this information
  • Add info we need to help you:
    • Caregiver & kitty's name
    • DX: Date
    • Name of Insulin (do not include dose or frequency)
    • Name of your meter
    • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
    • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
    • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
    • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
    • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
    • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.
Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’twant to waste valuable time finding out information.


We also use a spreadsheet to track our cat's BG numbers to see how the insulin is working and how low it's dropping and in case you need any advice , if you are interested in setting one up just ask , we have a member who will be happy to do it for you


The spreadsheet is easier than it looks
Just some info about it look at mine at the end of my signature to get a look at it, you can look at anyone's spreadsheet

About the spreadsheet
AMPS - means AM Pre Shot the first test you take in the AM ,you need to withhold food 2 hours beforetesting so it's not food influenced

Units is where you would put how much insulin you gave
+1 is one hour after giving insulin if you were to test then that's where you enter his _BG number
+2 two hours after giving insulin. ditto
+3 and so on until you get to PMPS - PM pre shot withhold food 2 hours before testing

+1 same as you do for AM cycle

We don't give times because we are all in different time zones that's why we use the + numbers


If you want to try and set it up here the link, if you need help just ask we have a member who will be glad to set it up for you
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
this post on helping us to help you. The post is considerably more concise and has everything in one place making it a bit easier if you need to bookmark the information.
 
Thank you! She has gained some weight. She eats about half her food and then the other half in the next 2 hours. Unfortunately I'm not able to give her mid day snack as I work long hours. I do give her a snack before bed sometimes. She was quite overweight before her dx so I am trying to keep her at her current weight, which is ideal for her. I will add my details shortly. There is a link in an above reply to a report that has her glucose numbers and trends from the past week if you would like to look at it.

Ale & Minnie (GA) said:
You don’t need to feed her only twice a day. Cats have higher metabolisms than dogs so they are grazers and most do better having smaller meals throughout the day. It’s also easier on their pancreas. Has she lost weight or has she been acting hungry in between the 2 meals? You can also give her low carb treats, any freeze dried ones are good.

we have members who can help you setup a spreadsheet and also instructions on that and setting up your signature too so we can see the most important info right away like you can see mine below my posts @Diane Tyler's Mom can share those here with you
Click to expand...
 
Like you, I was working long hours when Gabby was around. You might want to consider a timed feeder. It's a way to be sure there's food around especially if your cat's numbers tend to drop.

If you can get a spreadsheet set up, we'll have a much better sense of what your cat's numbers look like. We tend to be rather numbers driven and I know I would not be comfortable offering any suggestions without benefit of knowing what the numbers look like.
 
Thank you! Right now she is only eating wet food. She has allergies to all proteins except for turkey, and I haven't been able to find a dry food that's mostly turkey that meets the requirements. The format is
different, but this does have her readings.

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:9cd79d54-5080-318a-905a-310947a59ad6

Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Like you, I was working long hours when Gabby was around. You might want to consider a timed feeder. It's a way to be sure there's food around especially if your cat's numbers tend to drop.

If you can get a spreadsheet set up, we'll have a much better sense of what your cat's numbers look like. We tend to be rather numbers driven and I know I would not be comfortable offering any suggestions without benefit of knowing what the numbers look like.
Click to expand...
 
beetime said:
Thank you! Right now she is only eating wet food. She has allergies to all proteins except for turkey, and I haven't been able to find a dry food that's mostly turkey that meets the requirements. The format is
different, but this does have her readings.

https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:9cd79d54-5080-318a-905a-310947a59ad6
Click to expand...
It’s a lot harder for our members to interpret that. We have a standard format that everyone uses and it’s easy to review. Let us know if you’d like someone to help transfer the numbers over to our ss template. If you click on mine you’ll see what’s suppose to look like.
 
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