sofietca
Member
Hello,
Sorry, I don't have all my readings in a spreadsheet yet, but I will as soon as I have a chance! I do have everything entered into a diabetes application though so I am attaching a graph of her readings.
My kitty Trouble, who is about 10 years old, was diagnosed with diabetes about mid-April of this year and I have been having trouble getting her blood sugar regulated. Her bg was around 350 when she was diagnosed and the vet started her on 1 unit of ProZinc twice a day and Hill's W/D. It took me a while to get a glucometer with reliable readings (my first one gave wildly different readings than the one at the vet's office), but after a couple weeks with that treatment regimen she was still mostly in the 300s and was even getting readings in the low 400s. Gradually the vet moved her dose up to 2 units twice a day, but it honestly didn't seem to have much effect. I think her lows dipped into the mid-200s but she still had highs in the 400s. I switched her food to canned Evo 95% chicken about a month ago, which she devours, and she actually did get some lows in the mid-100 range, but still had highs in the 400s.
For the past week or so she was getting 1.5 units twice a day, and for a couple days she seemed to be doing better with her highs being right around 300 and her lows being about 180. Suddenly though she started having spikes where the high was up at 420+, and then when I gave her 1.5 unit shot she would tumble down to 180 again in a matter of hours. And then after 12 hours when it was time for her next shot, she'd still be hovering around 200 and I would be afraid to give 1.5 units again. I gave a smaller dose then, and at her next shot time she was again over 400. I don't understand what was happening (and you can see from the graph that her glucose has been so erratic). The huge spikes and falls worried me and I assume they can't be good for her. I did some reading and saw that some people had better luck when the shots are given more often so that they overlap more, so I tried dividing her doses up and have been giving at about 6 hour intervals. Starting on July 1, she's been getting .5 units (or thereabouts since my u-40 needles don't have increments like that) 4 times a day. That has seemed to help with the spikes and falls because she's been generally between 350 and 220 for the past 2.5 days, but I'm still not sure if I'm getting good results and whether I should keep going with this or not. I feel like I should maybe keep going with this and let her get used to it for a week maybe, and then increase each shot slightly so that I can bring this range down so her highs are closer to 200 rather than 300. But everytime I see a reading near 300 I get so upset and I feel like everything I'm doing must be wrong and I panic and want to try something different. I think I am mostly worried that I am somehow overdosing her and that she is having a rebound - does it look like that at all? The fear of that is making me so hesitant and worried and all I want to do is make her better. It's really wearing me down!
My cat has a 9 year old son who was diagnosed right after she was, and he had glucose highs close to 600 and had stopped eating and was having some liver failure... that kitty also switched to Evo (and Fancy Feast) canned food and his owner also did the 4 times a day shots, though I think she was more aggressive in the dosage than I am being, and he went into remission after a couple weeks of that and has stayed that way for over a week now. I just wish that the same treatment would work for his mother!
I almost forgot - I took her to the vet on Friday because she had soft stool with bright red blood in it and now she's on Metronidazole. I wasn't sure if whatever was causing the intestinal problems could have affected her blood sugar or not but thought it could be relevant.
I'd appreciate any advice or (gentle please!) criticism if I'm doing something wrong. Thank you!
Sarah
p.s. the high (358) reading in the middle of July 2 was right after a trip to the vet...
Sorry, I don't have all my readings in a spreadsheet yet, but I will as soon as I have a chance! I do have everything entered into a diabetes application though so I am attaching a graph of her readings.
My kitty Trouble, who is about 10 years old, was diagnosed with diabetes about mid-April of this year and I have been having trouble getting her blood sugar regulated. Her bg was around 350 when she was diagnosed and the vet started her on 1 unit of ProZinc twice a day and Hill's W/D. It took me a while to get a glucometer with reliable readings (my first one gave wildly different readings than the one at the vet's office), but after a couple weeks with that treatment regimen she was still mostly in the 300s and was even getting readings in the low 400s. Gradually the vet moved her dose up to 2 units twice a day, but it honestly didn't seem to have much effect. I think her lows dipped into the mid-200s but she still had highs in the 400s. I switched her food to canned Evo 95% chicken about a month ago, which she devours, and she actually did get some lows in the mid-100 range, but still had highs in the 400s.
For the past week or so she was getting 1.5 units twice a day, and for a couple days she seemed to be doing better with her highs being right around 300 and her lows being about 180. Suddenly though she started having spikes where the high was up at 420+, and then when I gave her 1.5 unit shot she would tumble down to 180 again in a matter of hours. And then after 12 hours when it was time for her next shot, she'd still be hovering around 200 and I would be afraid to give 1.5 units again. I gave a smaller dose then, and at her next shot time she was again over 400. I don't understand what was happening (and you can see from the graph that her glucose has been so erratic). The huge spikes and falls worried me and I assume they can't be good for her. I did some reading and saw that some people had better luck when the shots are given more often so that they overlap more, so I tried dividing her doses up and have been giving at about 6 hour intervals. Starting on July 1, she's been getting .5 units (or thereabouts since my u-40 needles don't have increments like that) 4 times a day. That has seemed to help with the spikes and falls because she's been generally between 350 and 220 for the past 2.5 days, but I'm still not sure if I'm getting good results and whether I should keep going with this or not. I feel like I should maybe keep going with this and let her get used to it for a week maybe, and then increase each shot slightly so that I can bring this range down so her highs are closer to 200 rather than 300. But everytime I see a reading near 300 I get so upset and I feel like everything I'm doing must be wrong and I panic and want to try something different. I think I am mostly worried that I am somehow overdosing her and that she is having a rebound - does it look like that at all? The fear of that is making me so hesitant and worried and all I want to do is make her better. It's really wearing me down!
My cat has a 9 year old son who was diagnosed right after she was, and he had glucose highs close to 600 and had stopped eating and was having some liver failure... that kitty also switched to Evo (and Fancy Feast) canned food and his owner also did the 4 times a day shots, though I think she was more aggressive in the dosage than I am being, and he went into remission after a couple weeks of that and has stayed that way for over a week now. I just wish that the same treatment would work for his mother!
I almost forgot - I took her to the vet on Friday because she had soft stool with bright red blood in it and now she's on Metronidazole. I wasn't sure if whatever was causing the intestinal problems could have affected her blood sugar or not but thought it could be relevant.
I'd appreciate any advice or (gentle please!) criticism if I'm doing something wrong. Thank you!
Sarah
p.s. the high (358) reading in the middle of July 2 was right after a trip to the vet...
poor kitty!
