Shady's Mom
Member Since 2018
Hi, I'm Shady's Mom and I just found this forum today. Here's our story, comments and suggestions are welcome, mostly I just wanted to say hi and introduce ourselves.
This is my first experience with diabetes and I'm concerned about getting my 13 yr old male cat regulated and on the proper insulin dose.
Shady was diagnosed 11/30/2018 and the vet started him on 1unit of Vetsulin twice daily. Since then the dose has been increased at the following intervals due to continued high glucose test results at the vet's office and only moderate improvement is his symptoms:
11/30 - 1 unit twice a day
12/6 - went to 2 units twice a day
12/13 - went to 2.5 units twice a day
12/17 - went to 3 units twice a day
12/21 - went to 4 units twice a day
We just started 5 units twice daily on Friday 12/28
During this last visit on 12/28 I mentioned a concern about getting high readings in the office due to his stress of the car ride and visit. He said I could get a glucometer to test at home, but didn't advise on brand or how/when to test. I bought an AlphaTrak2 this weekend and started searching for information. I did the first test this morning 2 hours after his AM injections and plan to test going forward before injections and 6-7 hours after his morning injection. Every test, both at the vet and my first here at home with the meter show his BG in the 500s.
After reading some of the posts on the forum, I'm now concerned maybe we missed the proper dose and he's on too much insulin. I look forward to testing regularly to have a better idea what is happening.
A bit of history... earlier this year Shades started to appear paranoid, looking behind him all time, circling at times, and walking a bit wobbly. In July, I took him to the vet who indicated it was a tough thing to diagnose but was concerned that he either had an infection or was having seizures. He was started on Baytril in case of infection and when that didn't help, he was hospitalized for a few days for IV fluids and they started Phenobarbital for seizures. After a few weeks of no improvement, they stopped the Pheno and started him on Prednisolone, now concerned it was instead a brain tumor. Over the next 2-3 weeks, the vet increased the Prednisolone dose to 10mg/day. Then my 20 pound cat lost 7 pounds, started eating ravenously, and began excessive drinking and urination. He became weak and lethargic. As the meds weren't helping anyway, the vet had me lower the dose and ween him off. At that time his glucose was tested and the vet indicated he was pre-diabetic, which can be caused by the steroids, but she thought the symptoms would subside if we weened him off the prednisolone. He became so weak, I started keeping him indoors and that seemed to finally resolve his original "paranoia" symptoms, which have not returned. After weening him off the steroids, I waited monitoring his diabetic symptoms, hoping they would subside, but after several months, in November I switched vets and the new vet diagnosed him with diabetes.
This is my first experience with diabetes and I'm concerned about getting my 13 yr old male cat regulated and on the proper insulin dose.
Shady was diagnosed 11/30/2018 and the vet started him on 1unit of Vetsulin twice daily. Since then the dose has been increased at the following intervals due to continued high glucose test results at the vet's office and only moderate improvement is his symptoms:
11/30 - 1 unit twice a day
12/6 - went to 2 units twice a day
12/13 - went to 2.5 units twice a day
12/17 - went to 3 units twice a day
12/21 - went to 4 units twice a day
We just started 5 units twice daily on Friday 12/28
During this last visit on 12/28 I mentioned a concern about getting high readings in the office due to his stress of the car ride and visit. He said I could get a glucometer to test at home, but didn't advise on brand or how/when to test. I bought an AlphaTrak2 this weekend and started searching for information. I did the first test this morning 2 hours after his AM injections and plan to test going forward before injections and 6-7 hours after his morning injection. Every test, both at the vet and my first here at home with the meter show his BG in the 500s.
After reading some of the posts on the forum, I'm now concerned maybe we missed the proper dose and he's on too much insulin. I look forward to testing regularly to have a better idea what is happening.
A bit of history... earlier this year Shades started to appear paranoid, looking behind him all time, circling at times, and walking a bit wobbly. In July, I took him to the vet who indicated it was a tough thing to diagnose but was concerned that he either had an infection or was having seizures. He was started on Baytril in case of infection and when that didn't help, he was hospitalized for a few days for IV fluids and they started Phenobarbital for seizures. After a few weeks of no improvement, they stopped the Pheno and started him on Prednisolone, now concerned it was instead a brain tumor. Over the next 2-3 weeks, the vet increased the Prednisolone dose to 10mg/day. Then my 20 pound cat lost 7 pounds, started eating ravenously, and began excessive drinking and urination. He became weak and lethargic. As the meds weren't helping anyway, the vet had me lower the dose and ween him off. At that time his glucose was tested and the vet indicated he was pre-diabetic, which can be caused by the steroids, but she thought the symptoms would subside if we weened him off the prednisolone. He became so weak, I started keeping him indoors and that seemed to finally resolve his original "paranoia" symptoms, which have not returned. After weening him off the steroids, I waited monitoring his diabetic symptoms, hoping they would subside, but after several months, in November I switched vets and the new vet diagnosed him with diabetes.
