New Member - struggling to get back under control

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Amanda and Noob

Amanda and Noob

Member Since 2022
Hello all!
I'm looking for advice. My kitty and I are living in Spain, we've been here a year and will be back in the USA in a few weeks. We had a wonderful vet in Madrid who took great care of Noob when he was first diagnosed with diabetes after needing a colon surgery last fall - long story. We had him well under control and he was thriving. My job moved me to Sevilla and I took him to a vet here for a testing check up and to establish care. At his testing his diabetes appeared controlled but his kidneys are very bad, so this vet took him off diabetic treatment and put him on a renal plan. His blood sugar sky rocketed! It was over 450. We've put him back on the diabetic plan, he eats canned food twice per day and gets a small handful of Royal Canin diabetic dry food to munch, and he's on 2 units of ProZinc 40 in a U-100 needle. This is what was working before but now it is having no effect and his blood sugar will not come down. He's not feeling great and I'm struggling to keep him hydrated and concerned about his organs etc, but I am worried about taking him to the vets here now. He has a vet back in the US we'll be seeing as soon as we're home, but does anyone have advice for getting him under control? I've upped his dose to 3 units and am a little scared to go higher?
Thanks for the help!
 
Welcome. Waving from Canada. I'm tagging @Gill & George who lives in Spain. I'm not sure exactly where in Spain she is, but maybe she'll know someone who knows someone in Saville who has a good vet.

If you can fill in your spreadsheet, we can be of better help.
 
If you have recently introduced the Royal Canin dry food, that could very well be contributing to higher BG levels, since that food is quite high in carbs. Most diabetic kitties do much better with a lower carb canned food, under 10% so if you can ditch the dry, that could help quite a bit to get the BG levels back down.

Without seeing test data in a spreadsheet it would be hard for members to offer dosing advice. As Kel said, if you can add some BG tests to the spreadsheet, even the last week or two, that can help determine next steps. I will say, if you are using the U-100 insulin syringes to dose Prozinc that would mean that your 2u of Prozinc on the U-100 measure is only 0.8u of Prozinc. 3u on the U-100 would be only 1.2u of Prozinc which is a U-40 insulin.

We have some great information on Prozinc and dosing methods followed on this forum: Prozinc Dosing Methods
 
Thank you both! I will input some of his info on the spreadsheet today. I didn't realize the difference there of the dosing on the needle! That makes me feel a little better to know I'm not giving him too much.
 

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Did they do a phosphorus level as well?

Also were these done when he was sick or dehydrated, because sometimes they can improve in those cases once the cat is better.
I’ll tag @Suzanne & Darcy as she may have some ideas. She will be around d in an hour it two
 
Amanda and Noob said:
This is great, thank you so much. We don't have the same brands as elsewhere, but I will look to find comparable nutrition and ingredients.
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Just be aware that if you take away the diabetic dry which is high carb, the BGs will drop and you may have to deuce the dose. So make sure you are monitoring closely!
 
It is interesting, since creatinine is within normal range, but the SDMA would indicate more advanced kidney disease, but IDEXX recommends that the SDMA should not be read independently; there are other aspects that need to be evaluated in conjuction with this measure to determine whether there are kidney issues. Creatinine is one as well as urinalysis - if the urine specific gravity is dilute (below 1.035), that can indicate the kidneys are having trouble. It’s best to take in the first urine of the day and let them run a USG to see if the urine is concentrated. There are other issues which can cause the SDMA to be elevated, which need to be ruled out - dehydration, infection, heart issues, acute kidney issues, etc. which can result in reduced blood flow through the kidneys.
 
Update! I cut out the dry diabetic food and he's just been on wet and the BG is coming down quickly! So I'm reducing his insulin dose as it comes down.
Thank you for the kidney conversation. When we get to the vet in about a week and a half, are there specific questions I should ask him about this?
 
Amanda and Noob said:
My kitty and I are living in Spain, we've been here a year and will be back in the USA in a few weeks.
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When you get back to the US you can look for low carb/low phosphorus foods if you kitty has kidney issues

Weruva foods
With weruva foods
You want the metabolizable energy profile percentage of carbs to be less than 10%, and the phosphorus which Weruva lists in Minerals to be less than 250 mg per 100 cals. So you have to look at two different places in the Weruva charts.
https://weruva.com


When you go to the weruva site and click on one of the pic of the food , click on Detailed Nutrition information that is under guaranteed analysis to the left Detailed Nutrition Information Tap on that
YOU WANT CARBS UNDER 10% AND PHOSPHORUS IDEALLY LOW 200's OR LESS

Go to this thread , there are a lot of weruva foods listed here in post #3 , post numbers are to the left
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/kidney-disease.262271/#post-2940026
 
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