New to Feline Diabities, help pls.

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Meowsmum

Meowsmum

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I have a beautiful 5 year old Russian blue who was just dxd last month with severe Diabities and a hypothyriod. Yep, Hypothyriod. He likes to be the odd cat out apparently. He is on Eltroxin 1/2 tab 2x a day.

My vet is amazing. But we just can not get his levels down. He consistently tests with levels in the high 30's (highest was 39.2)

He is going inpatient through the weekend and our vet is changing insulin types. He is currently on canninsulin 5 IU 2x a day (10 IU total).

I have the Alphatrek moniter system.

I am really looking for sucess stories from other cat owners who have changed insuling types and had it make a difference. I feel kind of hopeless right now.
 
Welcome!

Canninsulin is a difficult insulin to regulate with. It tends to be harsh in cats, dropping them low early in the cycle and then rapidly going back up. I hope your vet will pick one of the milder, longer lasting insulins like Lantus, Levemir or Prozinc.

Are you testing at home or is the vet testing? If you test at home, it makes regulation much easier. Stress raises bg levels and most cats are stressed at the vet. Then the dose may be too high once they get home and cause constant rebound or hypos.

Let us know what kind of insulin and we can provide good information on how it is best dosed and used. If you would like to learn to hometest (which we strongly recommend) we would glad to teach you over the internet. We have taught hundreds of people.
 
I am testing at home 3-4 times a day. Once right before he gets his insulin. Once around lunch time. Once before he gets his last shot and once before I go to bed.

We are changing his insulin type over the weekend. I wasnt aware of that issue with the canninsulin. He has been on it for just over 4 weeks. It isnt making any difference. I hope the new one will.

He is on the MD (the blue can) diabitic soft food. He wont eat the red labeled (DM I think) one at all.

Thank you for your help. I am pretty new at this and I want to do it right.
 
Hi,
Let us know which insulin they want to switch him to. Starting dose for any insulin should be 1U. How is the Hyper-T being treated? You may have to get that under control first before insulin works well.
Diet makes a difference. Lo carb wet food is better than the prescription foods. Let us know what country you are in and we can help with food choices.
 
MD is higher in carbs than we like to feed. See this food chart for carb %: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html We like to stay within 8-10% carbs. If you want him to eat something lower in carbs, you might look at the charts and see if there is a lower carb food that he might be interested in.

Congrats on home testing! That should really help.

One thing I would suggest is not to start at the 5 units. It is possible that he is a higher dose cat and needs that much, but it is also possible that Canninsulin was just not working for him. Better to start with a lower dose and increase as your numbers suggest.

Here is some info on Canninsulin for your vet: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=311 It is called Vetsulin in the US and I don't think it is being prescribed here any longer.
 
Hi, and welcome to the board!
You can stop feeling helpless now, because there are lots a great people here who like nothing better than helping. :smile:

The numbers you listed were metric, so it sounds like you are not located in the US? Not a problem, we have members all over the globe, and most of us can do the math to convert "your" numbers to "ours" in our heads! Just multiply by 18, so 700ish.... on that 39.2, which is very high.

Very glad to hear that your vet is planning to switch insulin and if you believe he's amazing, that's a great thing too.

You also mentioned Hypothyroidism.. Just making sure, but that is "Hypo" rather than "Hyper", correct? Is he receiving any type of treatment for that condition right now?

Carl
 
My cat Cello was in the 30's until I switched him to all low carb food (went to fancy feast) then he was in the 20's.

Went onto caninsulin and was bouncing numbers all over the place. He would shoot way low and then by 6 hours be way high again.

Switch to BCP PZI and used this board for all advice dosage wise and he was on PZI for 19 days, we are now almost completely off insulin (fingers crossed)

Welcome,

These people are ammmmmazing. Sounds like you have a good vet too.
 
It is Hypo, not hyper. Its very unusual. Cats are usually hyper. But, he is hypo.

He is on Eltroxin for it. 1/2 tablet 2x a day of the 0.1 MG

They started him on 1 IU. Then up to 1.5, then 2.5 and then 3.5 and now 5 of the Canninsulin. The new insulin wont be started until Saturday when he goes inpatient for the weekend so they can really moniter him. They wont start with 5 IU, but with one IU. I will let you know the name of it when I find out on Saturday.

I am in Canada.

What Fancy Feast do you use? The diabetic food Meow really doesnt like very much. He wouldnt eat the red one, the blue one is Hills m/d low carb diabetic one.
 
Thank you for the clarification....definitely matters!
The Fancy Feast best for diabetics is the line of "classics". They are listed, in my sig, on the "old canned list", and most of them are in the 5% or under category on carbs.

There's probably 10-12 different flavors to choose from. In the store, it will say "classic" on the label.
Meow has "good taste". He probably realizes that the special "diabetic" food isn't really all that good for him (too high in carbs). Bob didn't like the m/d either. But I was able to return most of a case to the vet for a refund. You can tell them that he just won't eat it, and they'll give you a refund too.

We do have several other members in Canada, so someone might be close by. Can you narrow it down to a city or province?

Carl
 
I am in Southern Ontario. Close to Toronto.

Thank you for the food suggestions. I am SO happy to have found this wonderful site!!
 
oh ok! I'm originally from Newmarket, at school in Hamilton now.

If you are looking to get PZI insulin, I got it compounded at a drug company in Aurora, you need a script from your vet. Only way to get it in Ontario.

Lantus is readily available everywhere though.
 
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