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Gracielinda Prescott
Hello, my kitty Pum'kin has been diabetic for 5 years and mostly well regulated on Lantus (Solostar pen). He just turned 12 this month and has been in good health other than diabetes. His current dose is 3 units every 12 hours. For the past month he has been eating only Soulistic canned and homemade food (no dry or treats). Prior to a month ago I kept a small bowl of grain-free kibble out throughout the day because I was paranoid of him getting too low especially if I was not home to watch him, but I have 9 other cats and some who should not have dry food whatsoever. Two years ago he got hypo 2x on the very same days I removed the dry food, so we modified the insulin and then he'd be ok. He went over 18 months without an episode until 2 weeks ago when I found him twitching 6 hours after insulin. I was not home testing at the time because I was religious about taking him to vet for tests twice a month. Emergency vet said he was 40, they administered dextrose and he went up to 300 while at the hospital for 18 hours. We brought him home the next day, without any suggested modifications to his insulin. He had really bad diarrhea and a poor appetite for a day, which I think is due to vets just giving dextrose and not offering food. I started home testing and found him to be in high 200's before insulin and 130-140 at nadir. I kept his food and insulin the same and saw no signs of hypo. Fast forward to yesterday when I found him just 3 hours after receiving 3 units at BG 19 (on my Contour meter that I hear reads low?). I applied karo to his gums, offered the gravy from his canned food (which he ate) and rushed him to emergency vet. We did see him eat before getting insulin that morning so no idea why the big crash so soon after Lantus. When he got to vet 10 mins later he was 33. They did the usual dextrose IV and he got up to 100 in 7 hours (no food given). I decided to bring him home at that time and monitored all night. When we got home he tested on my Contour at 71, then after eating a lot of Temptations, wet food gravy and Fancy Feast dry food, he was up to 100 in 2 hours. Then two hours later he tested at 261 (this was 14 hours since insulin). He ate and drank throughout the night, and was very purry and cuddly. This morning (now 24 hours since last insulin dose) he was 452. I need to know what the next step should be to get him stabilized. My vet is not available to speak to me today and her tech isn't calling back. I've lost all confidence in both the emergency and my regular vets because they just want to band-aid the hypo and not offer any help in modifying his treatment. I am thinking 1 or 2 units now, test every few hours, cut off the carbs/junk food and resume normal foods? I'm going to continue reading the threads for similar circumstances. Thank you in advance!
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