Sera and Ivy
Member Since 2024
Hello everyone!
(This is going to be a long post, thank you everyone who reads it)
My 9 year old cat Ivy was diagnosed with diabetes 2nd of Feb 2024. I took her to the vet because she suddenly didn't eat her morning food and was hiding under the bed. She had also lost weight, but I thought that was because of a diet food I had been giving her. Ivy is an extremely fear aggressive cat at the vet, the only was she can be examined there is by putting her in a cage and giving her a sedative shot (even giving that then is hard).
At the vet they checked her blood values, took a urine sample and did an ultrasound. Her blood glucose was 21.7 mmol/l=390.9949 mg/dl. They confirmed diabetes with fructosamine test: 587,5. There was 4+ glucose and 4+ ketones in her urine.
Vet prescribed Lantus for her, dose being 3 units twice a day 12 hours apart. Ivy was weakened when i took her home, and would not eat or drink. Starting the insulin shots was a struggle. But getting her to eat was priority at that point. During the second day I was able to get her to eat some cod, as that is her favorite food, a special treat as I usually just feed her commercial cat wet food like animonda or cosma. (I live in Europe, and order her food from Zooplus). Ivy only ate it a little bit though and was very weak and lethargic. I was already thinking that maybe she needs to be euthanized. But then I guess Lantus started kicking in after like a week, as she strarted to gradually get better. The first weeks she was fighting back every insulin-shot. I live alone, and have nobody to help me. Restraining her in any way makes her fight back more. She is a large cat too. I had my hands shaking after every shot i gave her. And before every shot, I was wondering if the shot would even be successful. I want to thank this forum for saving my cat's life at that point, as I read a post here about the alternate way to inject my cat vs. the tenting method. Ivy hated when i lifted her from her skin. But I read from these forums, how one can also lift from the cat's fur to inject. Ivy tolerated that way better.
In the beginning I tried home testing with an Alpha Track 2-meter that the vet borrowed me. But that was a terrible experience for both my cat and myself. My priority in the beginning was to give her insulin shots, and also home testing the glucose would have surely made the insulin shots fail even worse. So I bought urine dipsticks to test glucose from Ivy's urine instead.
Ivy started to let me inject her without struggling! (I'm so proud of her) I watched the dipsticks go from +4 glucose at first to gradually only trace and then negative! (no ketones at any point when I started the dipsticks after a month from diagnosis) As I kept getting only negative glucose from the tests for a few weeks, I was thinking the dose needs to be lowered based on everything I had read. I am using a Lantus pen with pen needles, so i reduced to dose to 2 units. (I know that everyone here recommends decreasing at most 1/2 unit at a time, but with the pen I could only reduce a full unit. I was not ready at that point to try syringes, as I would fear Ivy would object to them. Ivy's pen-needles are 32g 6mm) After giving Ivy 2 units twice per day for 3 days, the urine glucose stayed negative.
I then called my vet, telling her about the dipstick results and how i decreased the dose to 2 units. She was kinda angry, and told me to change the dose back to 3 units. (Ivy had been on the same dose for 2 months at that time) She also told me not to read stuff from the internet. Ivy's next vet appointment was scheduled be in a month from that call. She told me that if I changed her dose now, the lab test values and fructosamine test wouldn't be reliable.
I was hesitant, but followed my vet's advice anyway and have been giving Ivy 3 units. Her dipstick results got worse though, and for 3 weeks have now showed +1 or +2 glucose values constantly.
Yesterday I borrowed the Alpha Track from my vet again, and managed to get 3 values. Ivy was fighting and very stressed though. Ivy hates being held still so i could not warm up the ears properly, because she would run away after that and if I then tried to poke her ear, she would get aggressive. The first time I poked the ear, I failed to get blood. I gave her food and insulin shot, she objected to insulin shot a bit as she was agitated from the ear poke, but I believe I got most insulin in. After 15 mins I got a sample, but had to use the big vein from her ear, and I felt terrible. Ivy's result was 23.1 mmol/l=415.8 mg/dl. +2.5 hours from the first test it was 21.7 mmol/l=390.6 mg/dl. +5.5 hours after the first test it was 24.4 mmol/l=439.2 mg/dl.
I had to use the big vein to get blood every time and Ivy was stressed, so the values are probably higher due to stress. Either way, the curve is terrible. Looks like maybe insulin resistance? I probably have missed the nadir of the curve too. But the value started to go back up so soon... I plan to buy a libre 2 and just hope it will stay some days and not drop off right away. I simply can't do the ear pokes as Ivy is too aggressive or scared for that so values are going to be affected anyway. And the testing affects my own quality of life very negatively too.
I am now at a loss. My theory is, that Ivy had insulin bounces due to too high insulin dose. But as I was giving her the same high dose for so long, is it possible that Ivy developed insulin resistance due to too high amounts of insulin for prolonged period? And now her values are high all the time despite insulin. I am angry at myself for not taking Ivy to the vet when her values were good for few weeks. If the vet did fructosamine test then, she would have surely told me to decrease the dose. But now that I have a vet appointment soon, the fructosamine is going to be terrible. But is it because of too little or too much insulin? I have a feeling my vet will tell me to increase the dose and maybe it's not a good decision. I am so lost and feel terrible...
(This is going to be a long post, thank you everyone who reads it)
My 9 year old cat Ivy was diagnosed with diabetes 2nd of Feb 2024. I took her to the vet because she suddenly didn't eat her morning food and was hiding under the bed. She had also lost weight, but I thought that was because of a diet food I had been giving her. Ivy is an extremely fear aggressive cat at the vet, the only was she can be examined there is by putting her in a cage and giving her a sedative shot (even giving that then is hard).
At the vet they checked her blood values, took a urine sample and did an ultrasound. Her blood glucose was 21.7 mmol/l=390.9949 mg/dl. They confirmed diabetes with fructosamine test: 587,5. There was 4+ glucose and 4+ ketones in her urine.
Vet prescribed Lantus for her, dose being 3 units twice a day 12 hours apart. Ivy was weakened when i took her home, and would not eat or drink. Starting the insulin shots was a struggle. But getting her to eat was priority at that point. During the second day I was able to get her to eat some cod, as that is her favorite food, a special treat as I usually just feed her commercial cat wet food like animonda or cosma. (I live in Europe, and order her food from Zooplus). Ivy only ate it a little bit though and was very weak and lethargic. I was already thinking that maybe she needs to be euthanized. But then I guess Lantus started kicking in after like a week, as she strarted to gradually get better. The first weeks she was fighting back every insulin-shot. I live alone, and have nobody to help me. Restraining her in any way makes her fight back more. She is a large cat too. I had my hands shaking after every shot i gave her. And before every shot, I was wondering if the shot would even be successful. I want to thank this forum for saving my cat's life at that point, as I read a post here about the alternate way to inject my cat vs. the tenting method. Ivy hated when i lifted her from her skin. But I read from these forums, how one can also lift from the cat's fur to inject. Ivy tolerated that way better.
In the beginning I tried home testing with an Alpha Track 2-meter that the vet borrowed me. But that was a terrible experience for both my cat and myself. My priority in the beginning was to give her insulin shots, and also home testing the glucose would have surely made the insulin shots fail even worse. So I bought urine dipsticks to test glucose from Ivy's urine instead.
Ivy started to let me inject her without struggling! (I'm so proud of her) I watched the dipsticks go from +4 glucose at first to gradually only trace and then negative! (no ketones at any point when I started the dipsticks after a month from diagnosis) As I kept getting only negative glucose from the tests for a few weeks, I was thinking the dose needs to be lowered based on everything I had read. I am using a Lantus pen with pen needles, so i reduced to dose to 2 units. (I know that everyone here recommends decreasing at most 1/2 unit at a time, but with the pen I could only reduce a full unit. I was not ready at that point to try syringes, as I would fear Ivy would object to them. Ivy's pen-needles are 32g 6mm) After giving Ivy 2 units twice per day for 3 days, the urine glucose stayed negative.
I then called my vet, telling her about the dipstick results and how i decreased the dose to 2 units. She was kinda angry, and told me to change the dose back to 3 units. (Ivy had been on the same dose for 2 months at that time) She also told me not to read stuff from the internet. Ivy's next vet appointment was scheduled be in a month from that call. She told me that if I changed her dose now, the lab test values and fructosamine test wouldn't be reliable.
I was hesitant, but followed my vet's advice anyway and have been giving Ivy 3 units. Her dipstick results got worse though, and for 3 weeks have now showed +1 or +2 glucose values constantly.
Yesterday I borrowed the Alpha Track from my vet again, and managed to get 3 values. Ivy was fighting and very stressed though. Ivy hates being held still so i could not warm up the ears properly, because she would run away after that and if I then tried to poke her ear, she would get aggressive. The first time I poked the ear, I failed to get blood. I gave her food and insulin shot, she objected to insulin shot a bit as she was agitated from the ear poke, but I believe I got most insulin in. After 15 mins I got a sample, but had to use the big vein from her ear, and I felt terrible. Ivy's result was 23.1 mmol/l=415.8 mg/dl. +2.5 hours from the first test it was 21.7 mmol/l=390.6 mg/dl. +5.5 hours after the first test it was 24.4 mmol/l=439.2 mg/dl.
I had to use the big vein to get blood every time and Ivy was stressed, so the values are probably higher due to stress. Either way, the curve is terrible. Looks like maybe insulin resistance? I probably have missed the nadir of the curve too. But the value started to go back up so soon... I plan to buy a libre 2 and just hope it will stay some days and not drop off right away. I simply can't do the ear pokes as Ivy is too aggressive or scared for that so values are going to be affected anyway. And the testing affects my own quality of life very negatively too.
I am now at a loss. My theory is, that Ivy had insulin bounces due to too high insulin dose. But as I was giving her the same high dose for so long, is it possible that Ivy developed insulin resistance due to too high amounts of insulin for prolonged period? And now her values are high all the time despite insulin. I am angry at myself for not taking Ivy to the vet when her values were good for few weeks. If the vet did fructosamine test then, she would have surely told me to decrease the dose. But now that I have a vet appointment soon, the fructosamine is going to be terrible. But is it because of too little or too much insulin? I have a feeling my vet will tell me to increase the dose and maybe it's not a good decision. I am so lost and feel terrible...
