Christianna
Member Since 2014
Hi,
I hope I'm in the right place. I just was told about your wonderful forum by a volunteer at the animal shelter. My beloved 9-year old cat Noodle was diagnosed 8 weeks ago with diabetes. He lost a pound in a month and was generally acting ill. The vet ran blood work and said his ALT liver was very high, 234. She thought maybe he had a liver infection so gave a week's worth of amoxicillin, as Noodle also had a high white cell count. Noodle's sugar level on the panel was 373. The vet said she was "trying to figure out if Noodle was truly diabetic" or if the liver was goofing up his sugar (?) Noodle improved a lot on the amoxicillin (at first) but after he was off it for a week he started acting ill again, didn't want to eat and was lethargic. The first vet, who I had only seen once (we're new in the town) had left for 2 weeks' vacation so we saw another vet. Noodle had vomited up a small amount of foamy blood so we were very panic-stricken. The vet felt he should open up Noodle to see what was going on. Noodle had a stomach ulcer but also moderate pancreatitis and lots of fat globs in his liver. He thought that between the liver and the pancreatitis, that might be the reason for the high sugar. Noodle never got over about 375. After 3 weeks of home nursing for Noodle and normal ALT again, the vet decided to put him on insulin. BCP PZI, one unit once a day. We had to run Noodle down to the vet every day or every other day for a glucose check. He didn't come down in his sugar readings at all. I know Noodle was extremely stressed as he would cower and hide from us every time we took him, so at least a small part of that number might have been that. I told the vet this and the vet tech showed me how to prick Noodle's ear and test him at home. I bought a Relion meter at Walmart. The vet is confused as Noodle shows none of the "usual" signs of diabetes. No overeating, very little drinking and average peeing. (When Noodle got sick he had been eating vet-prescribed Royal Canin dry food for gastrointestinal IBD.) After researching this site I followed the advice and put him immediately on low carb canned (the safe Fancy Feast flavors and Core wellness cans). It's been 4 weeks now and Noodle shows no consistent lowering of his blood glucose. After reading this forum I discovered that PZI probably needs to be given every 12 hours, so we increased it to 1 unit twice a day. There have been the occasional readings in the 165-200 range (pretty rare) and many in the 250-290 range but for the most part they still seem to hover in the 300-330 range, even with the increased PZI. The vet is not a great believer in home testing and says I am getting too hung up on the numbers and maybe I am. Am I? Noodle acts great otherwise. Normal appetite, drinking much less water now that he's getting it from canned and peeing fine. He did show sugar in his urine when he was first taken to the vet 8 weeks ago, but no UTI. Should I be home testing for sugar in the urine ? Anyway, I get the feeling from reading that those of you on here are way more educated about feline diabetes than the vet. Can someone who's been through this tell me if I should be raising the PZI dose or is 4 weeks just not long enough to see results? Shouldn't I see some movement at all? The vet says I should be going by how Noodle is acting, eating, etc. but I know diabetes does bad damage and don't think I should just ignore numbers in the 300s. I know this is a long complicated post and I'm sorry but Noodle's a complicated boy I guess. Any thoughts and advice would be so welcome as I am frantic with not knowing the best thing to do for Noodle. Thank you all so much!
Christianna and Noodle
I hope I'm in the right place. I just was told about your wonderful forum by a volunteer at the animal shelter. My beloved 9-year old cat Noodle was diagnosed 8 weeks ago with diabetes. He lost a pound in a month and was generally acting ill. The vet ran blood work and said his ALT liver was very high, 234. She thought maybe he had a liver infection so gave a week's worth of amoxicillin, as Noodle also had a high white cell count. Noodle's sugar level on the panel was 373. The vet said she was "trying to figure out if Noodle was truly diabetic" or if the liver was goofing up his sugar (?) Noodle improved a lot on the amoxicillin (at first) but after he was off it for a week he started acting ill again, didn't want to eat and was lethargic. The first vet, who I had only seen once (we're new in the town) had left for 2 weeks' vacation so we saw another vet. Noodle had vomited up a small amount of foamy blood so we were very panic-stricken. The vet felt he should open up Noodle to see what was going on. Noodle had a stomach ulcer but also moderate pancreatitis and lots of fat globs in his liver. He thought that between the liver and the pancreatitis, that might be the reason for the high sugar. Noodle never got over about 375. After 3 weeks of home nursing for Noodle and normal ALT again, the vet decided to put him on insulin. BCP PZI, one unit once a day. We had to run Noodle down to the vet every day or every other day for a glucose check. He didn't come down in his sugar readings at all. I know Noodle was extremely stressed as he would cower and hide from us every time we took him, so at least a small part of that number might have been that. I told the vet this and the vet tech showed me how to prick Noodle's ear and test him at home. I bought a Relion meter at Walmart. The vet is confused as Noodle shows none of the "usual" signs of diabetes. No overeating, very little drinking and average peeing. (When Noodle got sick he had been eating vet-prescribed Royal Canin dry food for gastrointestinal IBD.) After researching this site I followed the advice and put him immediately on low carb canned (the safe Fancy Feast flavors and Core wellness cans). It's been 4 weeks now and Noodle shows no consistent lowering of his blood glucose. After reading this forum I discovered that PZI probably needs to be given every 12 hours, so we increased it to 1 unit twice a day. There have been the occasional readings in the 165-200 range (pretty rare) and many in the 250-290 range but for the most part they still seem to hover in the 300-330 range, even with the increased PZI. The vet is not a great believer in home testing and says I am getting too hung up on the numbers and maybe I am. Am I? Noodle acts great otherwise. Normal appetite, drinking much less water now that he's getting it from canned and peeing fine. He did show sugar in his urine when he was first taken to the vet 8 weeks ago, but no UTI. Should I be home testing for sugar in the urine ? Anyway, I get the feeling from reading that those of you on here are way more educated about feline diabetes than the vet. Can someone who's been through this tell me if I should be raising the PZI dose or is 4 weeks just not long enough to see results? Shouldn't I see some movement at all? The vet says I should be going by how Noodle is acting, eating, etc. but I know diabetes does bad damage and don't think I should just ignore numbers in the 300s. I know this is a long complicated post and I'm sorry but Noodle's a complicated boy I guess. Any thoughts and advice would be so welcome as I am frantic with not knowing the best thing to do for Noodle. Thank you all so much!
Christianna and Noodle
