new to diabetic kitty - BG 351 and not time for next shot

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s.sallaz87

s.sallaz87

Member Since 2015
Hi there.
I'm in the first coupe of days of caring for a diabetic kitty - so please bear with me if my questions seem uneducated.
The shelter I got snuggy from says he usually runs in the 300's for BG. I just did a random test (so I could get used to doing it) and his number was 351. Its still about 3 1/2 hours till his nightly injection is due, and I'm wondering if I should do anything in the meantime or if this level is ok. I'm aware of the symptoms of low BG, but not for too high. Help!
:)
 
Numbers in the 300s aren't great, but they certainly aren't the worst they could be! It's normal on Lantus for there to be a gradual drop from shot time to nadir (the lowest point the cat gets to in the cycle...generally between +5 and +7 hours after the shot but it can, and does, vary) then a gradual rise back to the next shot time. It's likely (though not guaranteed) that you missed the lowest point in Snuggy's cycle and that he's heading back up towards his next shot time now.

You don't need to do anything special between now and his next shot - we do recommend testing BG before every shot to make sure it's safe to give the full dose but you don't want to move the shot time forward or give extra insulin in between his regular shot times. We do recommend not feeding in the last 2 hours before a shot so that when you test his BG pre-shot you're getting a number that isn't influenced by food.

If Snuggy keeps running in the 300s, then he will need a dose increase but you really want to try and get 2-3 days' worth of data before you increase his dose so that you know that the reading you got wasn't unusual for him. :)

Oh, and congratulations on your first successful BG test!! :)
 
Stress from moving to a new home may elevate his glucose some.
OR
His dose may have taken him lower than he is used to and he bounced. A bounce is when the glucose drops to an unfamiliar number or drops very rapidly. This triggers compensatory hormones which release glucose which bumps the glucose way up for up to 3 days.
OR
His dose may need adjustment.
Home glucose testing will help you figure it out.
 
Thank you SO much for the info. As I said, I'm new to this and so have LOTS of questions that are popping up. At about 6 I will take up his food so he can go without until 8 when I will retest and give his injection.
His vet records show that he WAS on 3units twice per day back in February, but the shelter has had him on only 1unit twice a day for the month or so he was with them and seemed to be doing well (aside from running in the 300's).
I'm hoping to eventually get him diet controlled, and have read that for this to be the slightest bit possible, his diabetes needs to be regulated ASAP after diagnosis (which was February 2015).
I plan to test him once before his AM shot, once mid day, and once before his PM shot so as to get a better idea of his levels throughout the day. It was 277 when he was tested at noon.
Thanks again for all the help!
 
Random question- snuggy just threw up. Is acting the same as usual, it was mostly food colored liquid. And it wasn't the hairball gagging type of throw up. He just kind of turned his head and out it came. Should I worry, or is this no big deal, like when my non diabetic cat does it?
Thanks in advance.
 
Chances are it's just a one-off as it would be for any other cat, but we do all worry more about our diabetic kitties throwing up than our non diabetics. It's worth keeping an eye on him to make sure it doesn't happen again and that he seems happy enough in himself - just occasionally it can be a symptom of something being a little "off" so it's always worth being a bit more aware of the rest of his behavior for a little while. :)
 
Thanks :)
He is acting fine. And you're right - if it were my other cat, I wouldn't think twice. But given that snuggy IS diabetic (and that I'm still learning the dance of having a diabetic kitty) I was a bit more worried.
He is due for a BG test and injection in an hour and a half, so that's good.

I'm thinking of doing a curve on Tuesday - anyone have any tips?
 
Oh, I had a major freak out the day Rosa threw up once and then wouldn't eat for most of the day....I finished up doing a trip to the store to buy baby food for her to persuade her to eat something...anything at all! It's natural to worry more about a cat that seems a little more fragile, so please do just keep asking if you're not sure he's OK. :) And if you have any concerns about his reading pre-shot and his next shot, please do just ask. :)

The only tips I've got really is to have plenty of low carb treats on hand (freeze dried chicken or similar is good) so that he learns to associate curve days with extra treats...nothing wrong with a bit of bribery to get his co-operation. ;) And a little Neosporin with pain relief (the ointment, not the cream) for his ears after testing really helps too. :)
 
Actually, you'll be better off just getting random tests instead of doing rigid "curves", but of course there's no such thing as too much data! If you'll look at our spreadsheet program (most of us have the links to ours in our signatures) you'll see that most of us don't do "curves" as much as we just test at random times

Think of the spreadsheet as a puzzle....if the only pieces you fill in are the edges or down the middle, you can't tell what the picture is...but if you sprinkle pieces throughout, the picture becomes much clearer.

You want to always get a test before each shot just to make sure they're high enough to shoot. At first, we'll tell you to stall, don't feed and post for help if you get a Pre-shot test under 200....as you get more data on how Snuggy reacts, that level will drop until you're shooting lower and lower numbers.

Then on the AM cycle, get at least 1 test somewhere between +5 and +7...we're watching to see where Snuggy's nadir is (the point in the cycle where he's the lowest) and that's usually somewhere in that area

On the PM cycle, get at least a "before bed" test....that can tell you if you might need to set an alarm to get up later to get more tests in. Most cats go lower at night, so it's important to get those PM tests in too

If the 8/8 shooting schedule works best for you, that's fine, but if you should decide that another schedule works better, you can gradually change your shot times...work your way to your chosen time in 15 minute per cycle increments until you're on the schedule that works best for you
 
that does make sense... being so new to this, i was just going on what my vet suggested and figured id try doing a curve as he doesn't really mind being tested. but i can see how doing a structured curve would only show a small piece of the big picture. Im just wondering if he is on the correct dose. it seems odd to me that he was on 3units twice a day from diagnosis to surrender, and then only on 1unit two times a day from surrender until now. there is no documentation of a curve being done in the records i have, so I'm curious as to why the change in dose was made, and if it is an accurate one. I just want what is best for Snuggy.

I'm setting up a spreadsheet now, and will continue to add to it with each test.

The 8/8 schedule works well for us right now as it fits with my work schedule.
 
From what I've heard, most shelters seem to only want their cats on 1U doses.....I guess they figure something is better than nothing

@Melanie and Smokey I think are fostering Sly and I think she's mentioned several times that she wants to get him stable on 1U or less before he goes back

As for Snuggy, 1 unit is probably a good place to start and as you get more data on him, we'll see how low that dose takes him and if it's not enough, we increase in .25U increments until we find the best dose for him!
 
Thanks! I'm working on the spreadsheet now (or trying too - snuggy INSISTS on laying on my keyboard). Do you guys have a template to use or just create one based on what most people use?
 
Just checked snuggy's BG pre pm shot and it was 493! I almost cried! But the shelter told me they were considering uping his dose from one to two units and if his BG was in the high 400's that I should give two units. I did, and am Now watching him to be sure he is OK.
 
It's important that you don't increase based on the Pre-shot numbers. Lantus doesn't work like that. The dose is based on how low it takes them and the only way to know is to hold the dose and get some tests in to see what's going on.

Depending on which protocol you use, you either hold the dose for at least 3 days (6 cycles) or for 1 week and then re-evaluate

Increases should only be done in .25 unit increments, never whole units. Just a tiny amount of insulin can make a huge difference in the numbers.

Do you have syringes with half unit markings? It'll be important for you to get those if you don't have them. Nobody makes a syringe with .25 unit markings, so the half unit ones are the best we can do.

High blood glucose numbers are upsetting, but they take a long time to do damage...Low numbers kill quickly
 
I don't know a lot about living with diabetes. I am confident in giving shots and testing blood sugar but as far as following protocols or anything like that - i am totally inexperienced. I unfortunately have been given little to no training when i adopted snuggy. Basically, i was told to test before a shot. if its in the high 400's, then give him two units. if its not, then stick with the 1 unit. It didn't seems right, but since i have no experience, i went with it.

with the high numbers, he acts completely normal. and i assume that last night (before i had the meter) he was probably just as high prior to me giving him his shot... i just didn't know it.

from what i understand, snuggy has been on 3units since diagnosis in February and only switched to 1unit when arriving at the shelter (early april). I doubt the gradually decreased his dose, more likely just cold turkey. The poor little guy! he must be all out of whack! but, if he was on 3 units (based on his diagnosis and assumed testing to get a dose), he must be able to handle 3 units... I'm sorry - trying to comfort myself over having just given him twice the dose without slowly increasing! i didnt know :(

"ok sarah, its done. he had 2units at 8pm and i can't undo that. Now you need to work with the situation you're in"

1)aside from making sure there is food available if he gets hungry during the night, should i be doing anything else special to counteract the double dose?
2)would it be wise to continue with the 2units now that its been done- if his numbers are equally high in the morning?
3) since i have no record of how he arrived at his original dose of 3units, OR a record of why they went down to 1unit, would it be wise for me to treat this as a new diagnosis and bring him to the vet for THEM to do testing and determine a dose?

this little guy has only been with me for two days and already he has stolen my heart. I want to give him the very best of care and I'm starting to think i need A LOT more help to get there.

i really appreciate all the help you guys are giving - you have no idea :)

P.S. the needles i have are only marked in full units.

P.P.S. the shelter told me that his numbers are ALWAYS in the 300's - am i right to assume that he should be 200 or below and so clearly the 1unit dose wasn't enough?
 
s.sallaz87 said:
1)aside from making sure there is food available if he gets hungry during the night, should i be doing anything else special to counteract the double dose?
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If you can get a test in at +2 (2 hours after the shot) it'll help to determine where he might be going. As long as you have some high carb food in the house (like Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers) and testing supplies, you're in control of his BG! Karo, honey or syrup are important things to have in the house at all times too in case you need them.

s.sallaz87 said:
2)would it be wise to continue with the 2units now that its been done- if his numbers are equally high in the morning?
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I think I'd go back to the 1 unit until we know for sure he needs more and get those tests in as often as you can. We can always go up safely...once it's in, we can't take it out again

s.sallaz87 said:
3) since i have no record of how he arrived at his original dose of 3units, OR a record of why they went down to 1unit, would it be wise for me to treat this as a new diagnosis and bring him to the vet for THEM to do testing and determine a dose?
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I think it's totally unnecessary to take him to a vet. For one thing, the stress of being dragged to the vet is going to inflate his numbers anyway, so any tests they might do are "stress-influenced" and won't be very accurate. Going to the vet can raise the BG up to 200 points....Vet see's the BG is high, tells you to increase, you go home and Snuggy relaxes again and you can be in big trouble.

s.sallaz87 said:
P.S. the needles i have are only marked in full units.
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WalMart's Relion syringes ($12.58 for a box of 100) come with half unit markings. You'll need the 3/10cc, 30 or 31 gauge insulin syringes. As you can tell, there's a lot of stuff we really like WalMart for due to prices and the fact that they work well in our sugarcats. Their meters are great and affordable too

s.sallaz87 said:
P.P.S. the shelter told me that his numbers are ALWAYS in the 300's - am i right to assume that he should be 200 or below and so clearly the 1unit dose wasn't enough?
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Since I seriously doubt if the shelter did any testing mid-cycle, they're probably saying he was ALWAYS in the 300's at Pre-shot times (if they tested before each shot which would be a miracle if they did) Since Lantus dosing isn't based on the pre-shot number, the information you got from them is pretty useless so we're pretty much starting over


Read over the 2 different protocols we use here for Lantus... The Tight Regulation Protocol is a proven protocol that's been published in veterinary journals and gives Snuggy the best chance of remission, but you'll need to be able to get mid-cycle tests in to keep him safe. It's an aggressive protocol but the one most of us here use due to wanting our cats to have the best chance at remission, and failing that, keeping their BG in the best possible numbers as much as possible

The Start Low, Go Slow method was developed here and is better for people who are nervous about more frequent dose changes, can't get mid-cycle tests in very often or just aren't ready for the TR Protocol for whatever reason

Keep asking questions!! That's how you learn and the people here are happy to answer them!!
 
Don't beat yourself up over it - you didn't know and you did what you thought was right. :bighug: With some other insulins, you would change the dose based on the pre-shot number but Lantus works differently and needs time to build up in the system.

s.sallaz87 said:
"ok sarah, its done. he had 2units at 8pm and i can't undo that. Now you need to work with the situation you're in"
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That's exactly the attitude to take - you can't change what happened today. What you can do is control it and go back to the lower dose tomorrow (I think at this point you do need to start from 1 unit and adjust his dose from there) and tomorrow is a whole new day.

What you will need to do is test him at +2 and then again at least once more before bed. If you post up the numbers you're getting we'll make sure that he's safe before you leave him for the night - or that if he might not be you know when you need to test next.

It sounds to me as though the shelter might have reduced his insulin without advice. Maybe if they have a lot of cats they can't monitor as closely as they might need to with a higher dose, or maybe it's just standard procedure for them so that if they have more than one diabetic cat, and a number of carers for their cats, there's no chance of a dose mistake happening. However, you shouldn't need to take him to a vet - as you can monitor his levels at home (and that's more accurate than a reading at the vet where he's likely to be stressed) and you'll get plenty of help here, you should be able to get him to his ideal dose without having to spend a lot on testing with the vet.

ETA: Cross-posted with @Chris & China - oh well, double information is better than your question being missed. That happens quite a lot here!!
 
I just tested again (a bit late since I just got your replies) and he was at 292 (+3 from shot time). What does this tell you guys? I just want to know that I haven't killed him :(
 
OK...that's a pretty significant drop in 3 hours if he started out at 493, but he's still totally safe. We don't start to break out the high carb food until they drop below 50, so you have a long way to go.

Dropping that much that quickly does tell me that you should probably plan on getting at least one more test in tonight....maybe about +5 and then we can re-access whether you need to get more tests in overnight.

Since we don't have any data on Snuggy yet, we just don't have any way to know when his usual nadir is, so we're still in the "information gathering" stage.

Don't worry! You certainly haven't killed him!! The really great thing about home testing is that it means YOU are in control of his blood glucose numbers! If they go too low, you just feed the appropriate food and keep testing until he's safe again!

Great that you've got the spreadsheet up too!! That'll really help going forward!!
 
OK. I'll set an alarm and check again at 1am.
With this much testing, is it OK to test on the same spots on his ears? I'm starting to have trouble near the tips...
 
Yes, it's fine. His ears will heal really quickly anyway and the more testing you do, the more they'll "learn" to bleed (they actually grow more capillaries) so it will get easier after the first couple of weeks. :) For now, wherever on his ear you can get a big enough blood drop to test is fine. :)
 
Anywhere in the "sweet spot" is the best, but you can actually poke anywhere you can get blood from. Using some Neosporin with Pain Relief ointment will also help his ears heal quicker
sweet spot diagram.jpg
 
See my signature link Glucometer Notes for feline-specific reference ranges on a human glucometer.
See my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools to add to your arsenal of assessment tools to see how he is doing.
As a precaution, read over How to Handle A Hypo so you know what to watch for and what to do.
 
sorry bout not posting last night. I was unable to get a +5 shot on snuggy last night. he was actually behaving like a Normal kitten and was rambunctious and playful (but also wouldn't let me near his ears to test). I set an alarm and got up every hour to check on him to be sure i didn't see any hypo symptoms since couldn't go on a BG level.

this morning i was FINALLY able to get a BG on him about a half hour ago (+11 after the "double dose" shot) and his level was 334 - significantly lower than the pre shot BG last night. ill do my best to get some more testing in today to get a better idea of how his levels fluctuate through the day.
 
Small moves! Treating hyperglycemia with lantus is like trying to turn an aircraft carrier. I've been going up 0.25 units every day and a half, and even that's pretty ballsy. With lantus, you need to live with high numbers for a while unless you have days at home dedicated only to collecting data... and maybe even then.

That's just life with this drug. It is what it is. It has advantages as well, like a proven history in getting cats to remission with TR. I switched to it from prozinc when things were heading the wrong direction.
 
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Chris & China said:
From what I've heard, most shelters seem to only want their cats on 1U doses.....I guess they figure something is better than nothing

@Melanie and Smokey I think are fostering Sly and I think she's mentioned several times that she wants to get him stable on 1U or less before he goes back
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My goal is actually a full unit or no units. Since 1U is too much, I really want to see him handling nothing because that is what they will give him. My shelter (and most I think) only do full unit dosing just because staff and volunteers attempting to dose at partial units consistently will be difficult. Shelters sometimes also just do lower doses and let them stay higher because they don't test, they aren't there enough to monitor, and they are working with a variety of staff and volunteers doing the shots so consistency is an issue. Better safe than sorry.

For Snuggy - thanks for getting a diabetic out of a shelter!!!! All 3 of the guys we've gotten out of the shelter have come down quite a bit in the first week or two by just getting out of the shelter stress and getting on a low carb wet food diet. I think the suggestions on keeping his dose down a bit at first is a good one. We raised Sly dose at first 'cause he'd been on Lantus for a while and wasn't responding to the food change very quickly; and when everything caught up in his system we did not get much sleep for weeks! :coffee:

Sly was also diagnosed in February like Snuggy. We brought him into foster the 1st of April. You can look at his spreadsheet and see how well he has done from those icky 300s in the beginning. You will also see the value of +2 or +3 testing when they start to move :D Hopefully we will see Snuggy in the blues and greens soon!

Welcome!
 
Good morning and some good news!
I've been noticing that snuggy's pre shot BG has been going down each time! I think it may have to do with the way I've been feeding him AND how happy he is at home now!
My question is this: his BG this morning was 110. With lantus - do I still give the shot or skip his am dose? I don't want to skip it and have him in high BG crisis later, but don't want to shoot and send him into a hypo situation while I'm at work this morning...advise?
 
I looked at his spreadsheet (good job!). Maybe skip this morning and see what you get at 6 hours past when you fed him to see how he is doing without the insulin. He may need it, but possibly at the 0.5 unit level. We generally suggest new insulin users not shoot below 200 mg/dL.
You are using Lantus. It is a depot insulin and builds up its effects over 5-7 days when starting out, then dose changes take about 3-5 days to stabilize. The key factor in adjusting the dose is the nadir, or lowest glucose post-shot.
 
While waiting for response here I called the vet and she advised the same: to skip the am dose and retest later. Tomorrow I am doing a curve at home and reporting the numbers to the very to be sure his dose is correct. I would rather do it at home than at the vet so that I actually get accurate numbers for how he runs at home. I went out today and bought some freeze dried chicken And free dried white fish so that I could make tomorrow (curve day) less upsetting for him.

The vet said NOT to dose until night time even if his BG is high mid day. Is that OK?

Seeing his numbers going down is amazing to me - proves that being "home" is a real game changer for him!
 
Wow - look at how much his numbers have improved in such a short time! And on the same dose of insulin he was on in the shelter too. He must be feeling so more relaxed now he's home with you. :) And of course the extra attention he'll get from you is no doubt encouraging him to be more active - that helps a lot. :)

You definitely don't want to give him his dose until tonight unless you're OK with moving his shot times by that much - Lantus shouldn't be dosed closer than 12 hours apart for shots and his shot time can only be moved forwards by 15 minutes per shot (or 30 minutes per day). If you dose at mid day then you'd have to either skip tonight or dose at midnight. Even if he's high later on today, he'll come back down once he's back on schedule - I think this morning has proved that already! :)
 
That really is amazing progress. :) You're very obviously giving him everything he needs to relax, keep his numbers down and feel better. :D Depending on what his number is tonight, as BJM said you might need to reduce his dose to give you numbers you can shoot twice a day.
 
Feeding mini-meals will help spread out the load on his pancreas, plus work better with the insulin.
 
I'm gonna say kudos to the shelter for even giving him a chance! I suspect a lot of places would have considered him unadoptable and euthanized him. And double kudos to you for being willing to take on the challenge. You are certainly in the right place for good advice.
 
thanks for the support! when i saw snuggy on the site (and even more so when i went to meet him in person) it was love at first sight. The diabetes was just a fact of who he was, and I had to have him regardless.

Today was my first attempt at a glucose curve. I only did 12 hours, and he handled it pretty well. (the numbers are on his spreadsheet if anyone wants to venture a look and make comments). Tomorrow ill be reporting the numbers to my vet who is wonderful and is working with me to get snuggy as close to diet controlled as possible.

one thing i have noticed - and i don't know if it is particular to snuggy or if its a diabetic cat thing - Snuggy goes CRAZY for carbs. I don't give them to him, but he hunts them down and defies nature and physics to get them. Today, i was out at my car for 5 minutes and when i returned inside, found that he had somehow opened the cabinet, removed two loaves of bread, chewed through the plastic and eating the equivalent of 1/4 slice. (just what we needed on a curve day!)

so far, he has attempted to chew through a potato chip bag (as i was eating them), stolen a waffle from my 5yo son (we got it away before he ate any), attempted to eat my husbands chicken sandwich, and tried to eat his way into a plastic box containing donuts. it is insane! (but a little cute, i must admit).

these past 5 days with snuggy have been eye opening and amazing. Im getting to know his personality and habits throughout the course of a day, so i don't panic so much when he sleeps for prolonged periods or when he is VERY vocal. I fancy myself an information geek and LOVE having facts and data to rely on, which is good and oh-so-bad. Good in the way that i find comfort in his BG numbers, in the support i find online, and enjoy doing research on how to handle things like a hypo situation. It is bad in the sense that information on the web on this subject matter is so diverse. Some focus on the strict, stressful, and scary aspects of the condition, while others focus more on enjoying your cat while maintaining a healthy BG level - it can drive someone crazy trying to decipher what is accurate and what isn't...

I'll admit, the thought of a hypo situation is still akin to a thing of nightmares for me, but hopefully we never come across that situation.
 
That's a nice looking curve Snuggy had today - a nice gentle slide down and then a gradual rise back up. :) It doesn't even look as though the bread he ate had much of an effect on his numbers!! I'm so happy to hear you've got a vet who is going to work with you and shares your aim of getting Snuggy diet controlled if possible.

Most of our cats won't bother with bread, but all of them will try to steal chips if they can (and dry roasted peanuts but that's a whole other story)! ;) And we have two who will eat the plastic off things just for the sake of eating plastic. Some diabetic cats do seem to crave carbs and I think some just have food preferences that lead them to like high carb food. I have to say it does sound as though his attempts to steal forbidden food must be very cute to watch! :)

Like you, I prefer to have as much data as possible when dealing with just about anything at all. It can get confusing at times especially with something like this where there can be more than one opinion on certain things. But, like you, I find it comforting to have those numbers known and logged so that I have as much information as I can when making decisions. What I've found is that, while you're going to worry sometimes, having the numbers also means that you're able to know the days when you really don't have to worry too much which does at least give you a few hours off from worrying here and there. :)

And the great thing about home testing is that you can see the numbers dropping towards and even into the top end of the potential hypo range before Snuggy gets to the point of being obviously in crisis from a hypo. That gives you time to bring him back up into the safe range without any harm coming to him. I won't lie to you - the first time the meter shows a number under 50 is a very scary moment, and no matter how many times it happens it will be something you'll probably always react to with a bit of adrenalin because you know you have to act now to keep him safe. But because you know what his number is, and you can get more readings when you need them, you can control the situation instead of just having to sit and worry about it - in this situation, knowledge really is power. :)
 
So, because I am an information gatherer of sorts, does anyone have a step by step guide for a hypo? For instance, if I get a reading below 50, what do I give him, how much, and then how frequently do I retest?
I know with MY hypo situations, I eat/drink something high in sugar (oj, candy, or even honey) then follow it as soon as I am able to eat without vomiting with high protein, low carb foods like chicken or cheese. I've had some BAD hypos myself (lost consciousness, one seizure) and I think that is perhaps why the potential for one in snuggy scares me so much - I know how scary it feels being in it and how quickly and close to death it can bring you.
I do best with direct instructions. If I have a plan (yes, Im a bit OCD) then I am prepared and things aren't so scary. :)
 
I had 4 or 5 copies of it in the end...one in every room I might even in the most unusual circumstances have needed it. It really does help, especially the first couple of times. :)
 
Are hypos bound to happen spontaneously? I mean, if the cat is regulated on a dose of insulin, and you check numbers prior to giving any shots, can it happen anyway? What would cause this?
(My info geek is showing :) )
 
Symptomatic hypos, or anything requiring emergency treatment are less likely to happen as long as you're on top of testing and catch the number soon after it goes under 50. But for a lot of cats, they get to a certain dose that starts bringing them back down the dosing scale. That's when you'll see numbers under 50 showing up - and those under 50 numbers do get the cat a dose reduction from the next dose onwards too. Because even a non-diabetic cat can run as low as 40, we use 50 as the lowest point we want kitties with injected insulin in their system to go - we really don't want them going under 40 into the "below normal" range for a cat as they've still got injected insulin pushing their number down further. So the 50 we use already has a built-in safety margin to give you a chance to catch the hypo before it becomes a problem. :) It's actually a good sign when a cat dips under 50 on the meter because it means their insulin needs are reducing but yes, it's likely (almost certain really) to happen from time to time.
 
The other thing which can happen is vomiting and/or diarrhea. Those can drop the glucose considerably.
 
OK friends, I need some input. o_O
The past two nights (somewhere in the wee morning hours) snuggy has been vomiting. I get up in the morning and there is a HUGE spill of liguid vomit (mostly solid colored but trails off into almost watery looking). He is acting fine during the day and doesn't vomit in daytime hours, but I HAVE noticed he is being VERY difficult at testing time. Usually, when he sees me take out the little black kit, he is excited and complies easily because he knows it means food is coming, but yesterday and today, he has not allowed me to do it with ease and its ended up a bloddy battle. His numbers have been in the mid 300's when I finally get it.
I'll update his ss from the past records I have in minute...
Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Hi Sarah

Is there any way you can get a few mid cycle tests on Snuggy? I know it's difficult when they're fighting being tested, but we really need to be able to see how low this dose is taking him. It may be that he needs a dose adjustment, but without knowing how far this dose drops him, there's no real way of knowing.

While his numbers are in the 300s, especially if he's vomiting, ketone testing would be a good idea too - that way if he's starting to get ketones you would know sooner rather than later. You can get Ketostix from Walmart or any pharmacy.

Has he had a change in food since you brought him home? I'm wondering if he might have a food allergy going on.
 
Hi Sarah,

Snuggy was NOT on 3u BID from the time of diagnosis. I am not sure where that number came from. He was prescribed 1u BID and his owner was only able to give insulin about once per day because of her work schedule. He is easy to test. I went over to her place to teach testing and he was an absolute doll for testing (and I also gave him a pedicure). If you have any questions about Snuggy, please let me know or message me at jenna@dcin.info

I am so glad that he was adopted so quickly by someone so willing to learn his care.
 
Hi there! And thanks for the reply! I'm SO happy to hear from someone who knew snuggy (carmello) in the beginning! He is a WONDERFUL little guy and has become an instant part of our little family - even our other cat loves him!
There wasn't a lot of information given to me about his past, and the info I was given was a bit distorted (apparently).
I would love for his original mommy to know that he is safe and happy and getting the care he needs. And that I would be more than willing to send updates or photos if she (or anyone) desires. It must have been heart breaking to surrender him, and I am grateful to her because now we get to have him as a part of our lives. Truly grateful for her sacrifice.
Today snuggy went to the vet for an ultrasound. He had begun vomiting in the night and I was unsure as to why. Blood work revealed that he has an EXTREMELY high white count (50,000) as well as markers for pancreatitis and slightly elevated liver levels. The ultrasound showed that his kidneys were a bit "light" and his intestines are rather thickened - possibly indicating inflammatory bowel as well as the diabetes. I've heard it is not uncommon for the two conditions to coexist in felines.
We are now back home (having left some fur at the vet ;)) and awaiting the call regarding the interpretation of the ultrasound. I will then meet with the vet to come up with a plan of action to get him feeling his best again.
In regard to testing, snuggy is pretty amazing. He doesn't like it, and so squirms a bit, but he isn't violent or aggressive. And if I give him some treats, he barely notices me and we have no trouble. Injections are super easy as well as long as he is eating.
 
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