? New member- Mack and Bill

[Mack&Bill]

Hey everyone! I have a wonderful cat Bill who was originally diagnosed with diabetes in October and went into remission in February. His diabetes was caused by eating kibble for urinary crystals and blockages. He was started on lantus, changed his food to friskies pate only. He went hypo on 4 units of lantus and went into remission. I have been working on weight management… he is currently 7.4kg down from 8.2kg when he was first diagnosed.

In July, he started exhibiting signs of diabetes again (he got into some kibble) and started on lantus again. He had some vomiting (bile and blood) and the vet recommended Purina DM both kibble and wet food… his sugars increased on it obviously so the dry was phased out… He has another bout of vomiting and peeing outside the litter box so another vet visit (thought it was from the consistent high sugars). His insulin was increased to 3 units BID and got a bolus. He had an accident again outside of the litter box again. His sugars started trending up consistently- no yellows so I decided something needed to change. I did some research into raw food and decided to make the change- half friskies pate and half raw (Big country raw). He was on full wet diet prior to switching so I did not decrease his insulin. He loves the food and is thriving. He is urinating normally, he has energy, he play and his coat has improved since I made the switch Friday. He also started developing a skin rash which is completely gone now. His sugars started to trend up so I increased his insulin to 4 units BID. Now is sugars are continually high. Yesterday morning he was 29.5 but came down to 17.7 and the night prior he was 19.4-12.1-29.5. I am guessing he is bouncing due to the new diet and insulin changes as he was probably resistant before. I would like to keep him on his current raw and friskies diet because he is thriving but I am worried his blood sugars are too high in the morning.

I would love any input in managing his blood sugars on his current diet and navigating his bounces… How long do I ride this out? I am concerned about him going into DKA if his sugars don’t come down.

Thanks!
Mack & Bill

Bill (Mackenzie BD) 's Sugar Sheet

 

[Tim & Pookey]

Hi Mack & Bill, and welcome. That's great news that the raw diet is helping him!

Couple house keeping things, and you might want to talk to @Marje and Gracie if you're going to stick around here. We need to get your spreadsheet set up to automatically convert to US numbers. The majority of folks here deal in those. There is also some information here about setting up a signature. It's the text below the message that at a glance, other caregivers can see some basic information about you and Bill.

How are you making dosing decisions? On the FDMB we deal with two dosing methods, Start Low Go Slow (SLGS) and Tight Regulation (TR). You can read more about them here. TR is a little more fast-paced but from what I've seen does seem to give the cats the best chance at getting into lower numbers. For your questions about how long to ride this out, here's the section from TR about when to increase the dose:

Increasing the dose:

• Hold the dose for 3 - 5 days (6 - 10 consecutive cycles) if nadirs are less than 200 before increasing the dose by 0.25 unit.
  • if your cat is new to numbers under 200, it is recommended to hold the dose for at least 8-10 cycles before increasing.
  • when your cat starts to see nadirs under 100, hold the dose for at least 10 cycles before increasing.
• Increase by 0.25 unit after 3 days (6 consecutive cycles) if nadirs are greater than 200, but less than 300.
• Increase by 0.5 unit after 3 days (6 consecutive cycles) if nadirs are greater than 300.

The last thing I'd say is to make sure you're getting those pre-shot tests and ideally at least one more test during each cycle, day and night, if you can.

I don't want to overwhelm you with information so that's good to start. I'm sure the others will be by with some thoughts for you. Let me know if you have any questions and welcome again

 

[Marje and Gracie]

Hey everyone! I have a wonderful cat Bill who was originally diagnosed with diabetes in October and went into remission in February. His diabetes was caused by eating kibble for urinary crystals and blockages. He was started on lantus, changed his food to friskies pate only. He went hypo on 4 units of lantus and went into remission. I have been working on weight management… he is currently 7.4kg down from 8.2kg when he was first diagnosed.

In July, he started exhibiting signs of diabetes again (he got into some kibble) and started on lantus again. He had some vomiting (bile and blood) and the vet recommended Purina DM both kibble and wet food… his sugars increased on it obviously so the dry was phased out… He has another bout of vomiting and peeing outside the litter box so another vet visit (thought it was from the consistent high sugars). His insulin was increased to 3 units BID and got a bolus. He had an accident again outside of the litter box again. His sugars started trending up consistently- no yellows so I decided something needed to change. I did some research into raw food and decided to make the change- half friskies pate and half raw (Big country raw). He was on full wet diet prior to switching so I did not decrease his insulin. He loves the food and is thriving. He is urinating normally, he has energy, he play and his coat has improved since I made the switch Friday. He also started developing a skin rash which is completely gone now. His sugars started to trend up so I increased his insulin to 4 units BID. Now is sugars are continually high. Yesterday morning he was 29.5 but came down to 17.7 and the night prior he was 19.4-12.1-29.5. I am guessing he is bouncing due to the new diet and insulin changes as he was probably resistant before. I would like to keep him on his current raw and friskies diet because he is thriving but I am worried his blood sugars are too high in the morning.

I would love any input in managing his blood sugars on his current diet and navigating his bounces… How long do I ride this out? I am concerned about him going into DKA if his sugars don’t come down.

Thanks!
Mack & Bill

Bill (Mackenzie BD) 's Sugar Sheet

Hi Mack

Welcome to you and Bill. You are very dedicated to his care and we are glad you found us.

First, in addition to what Tim said, it’s important to have some PM cycle tests as cats often go low at night. That way we can tell if he’s bouncing from lower nighttime numbers. A +2 test is always very valuable as it is when most cats onset on Lantus so if it’s similar to or lower than the preshot (PS), we have an idea the cycle will be more active.

The spreadsheet you linked looks like one from a FB group who pirated ours and it can get glitchy here. I can transfer the data directly from it to ours which also converts the mmol/L numbers directly to mg/dL which is what we use in this forum.

Can you please send me a private message so I can get some info from you and set it up for you? Just click on my user name under Gracie’s photo and then click on “send direct message”.

I’m around today to set it up but out all day tomorrow.

Thanks and welcome!