Bron and Sheba (GA)
Member Since 2015
A new member has sent me and a few others a PM asking for help. I have copied and pasted the post below for everyone to see.. please help if you can. I’m not sure when I can get back to answer it
Miss Katie Lou Furrybum
Joined:
Aug 11, 2021
New
Help, please.
I have a 17.25 year old torti-tabby. She is much loved, but is now experiencing frequent UTIs. Her second in June, one again in August, and now two weeks later yet another breakout of it.
Her problem, of course, is uncontrolled Diabetes. She was diagnosed in May 2021; came within a whisker of dying that week; and was successfully dosed to near perfect bg readings by August. Her vets were astounded (as I found out much later)—though I caught hell for changing her dosing without permission at the time, and they neglected to give me her fructosamine results for over 6 months.
In the meantime I was sole caregiver to an elderly parent with rapidly advancing dementia whose needs overtook my attention to Katie.
Now we’re in a muddle.
Katie has never been overweight, and I removed all dry food (including the $85 bag of diabetic dry food the emergency hospital fed her) as soon as I’d had a chance to read up on feline diabetes last year. (I never even knew the condition existed before her diagnosis.) She’s been on Tiki cat and human Cloverleaf Tuna mostly. The Fancy Feast seemed to elevate her sugars more, though we use it because she gets sick of tuna, and Tiki cat is over $4.80/can now. Tuna is under $1.50/can, and Fancy Feast at Walmart is $1.70 for a comparable weight.
My questions:
1. Remove all food 2 hours before first bg (am) reading/injection. Correct?
2. The 6 hour reading. Does it also require 2 hours of food abstention? (I’m thinking not.)
3. The 12 hour reading/injection. Does it also require 2 hours of food abstention?
4. The 2 hour post-pm injection. This one must be ok post-prandial. Correct?
I’ve done 8, 12, 16 hour curves before. There’s been no pattern I could see of when nadirs occurred. In fact, on once daily dosing of 1U, her sugars only rose to injectable levels between 22-23 hours. I really wish I could do a FD spreadsheet, but Google docs requires iOS 14, and this machine is not capable of installing that update.
Earlier in the week, I was giving Katie 1.25U in the morning , 1U in the evening but within two days she had a mild hypoglycaemic event. Wobbly, dilated pupils, drifting left while walking, piercing cries, etc. Voracious consumption of food I ran to get. So I reduced dosing. Her water consumption/peeing went back up. Then when she started antibiotics, she hardly ate anything for a day or so also requiring a lower dose.
Lastly, Katie hates the injections (even though I bring the syringe to body temp first—I think the glargine burns), detests the ear pricks, scratches and bites very hard frequently. She often draws my blood first when it’s ear prick time. We stopped doing ear pricks last year because it was destroying our relationship. I heat her ear with a vial of hotish water, yet can prick twice without sufficient blood, then the third will draw a geyser that takes 5 minutes to stop. It stresses both of us.
Miss
Miss Katie Lou Furrybum
Joined:
Aug 11, 2021
New
Help, please.
I have a 17.25 year old torti-tabby. She is much loved, but is now experiencing frequent UTIs. Her second in June, one again in August, and now two weeks later yet another breakout of it.
Her problem, of course, is uncontrolled Diabetes. She was diagnosed in May 2021; came within a whisker of dying that week; and was successfully dosed to near perfect bg readings by August. Her vets were astounded (as I found out much later)—though I caught hell for changing her dosing without permission at the time, and they neglected to give me her fructosamine results for over 6 months.
In the meantime I was sole caregiver to an elderly parent with rapidly advancing dementia whose needs overtook my attention to Katie.
Now we’re in a muddle.
Katie has never been overweight, and I removed all dry food (including the $85 bag of diabetic dry food the emergency hospital fed her) as soon as I’d had a chance to read up on feline diabetes last year. (I never even knew the condition existed before her diagnosis.) She’s been on Tiki cat and human Cloverleaf Tuna mostly. The Fancy Feast seemed to elevate her sugars more, though we use it because she gets sick of tuna, and Tiki cat is over $4.80/can now. Tuna is under $1.50/can, and Fancy Feast at Walmart is $1.70 for a comparable weight.
My questions:
1. Remove all food 2 hours before first bg (am) reading/injection. Correct?
2. The 6 hour reading. Does it also require 2 hours of food abstention? (I’m thinking not.)
3. The 12 hour reading/injection. Does it also require 2 hours of food abstention?
4. The 2 hour post-pm injection. This one must be ok post-prandial. Correct?
I’ve done 8, 12, 16 hour curves before. There’s been no pattern I could see of when nadirs occurred. In fact, on once daily dosing of 1U, her sugars only rose to injectable levels between 22-23 hours. I really wish I could do a FD spreadsheet, but Google docs requires iOS 14, and this machine is not capable of installing that update.
Earlier in the week, I was giving Katie 1.25U in the morning , 1U in the evening but within two days she had a mild hypoglycaemic event. Wobbly, dilated pupils, drifting left while walking, piercing cries, etc. Voracious consumption of food I ran to get. So I reduced dosing. Her water consumption/peeing went back up. Then when she started antibiotics, she hardly ate anything for a day or so also requiring a lower dose.
Lastly, Katie hates the injections (even though I bring the syringe to body temp first—I think the glargine burns), detests the ear pricks, scratches and bites very hard frequently. She often draws my blood first when it’s ear prick time. We stopped doing ear pricks last year because it was destroying our relationship. I heat her ear with a vial of hotish water, yet can prick twice without sufficient blood, then the third will draw a geyser that takes 5 minutes to stop. It stresses both of us.
Miss
