Newbie advice please

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Jennb89

Jennb89

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background:

Last Tuesday I took Baby to the vet because she had been excessively urinating. Baby is an 8year old female- 13.1lbs. She was diagnosed with feline diabetes and Wednesday night she got to come home.

Baby used to graze on Whiskas dry food all day long as well as a serving of wet food in the morning. The vet switched her to 1/2 can Purina D/M in the morning & 1/2 can at night (12 hours apart). He also put her on 2units of prozinc to be given at each feeding.

He told me to continue with this until this upcoming Tuesday where I was going to bring her in and we were going to work on a curve.

Baby hasn't really been herself this week. A lot of snoozing and laying around. Not being able to graze on kibble she has also been begging for food.

I've been doing a lot of research & decided to go out and buy a blood glucose monitor for home and start testing. I got my first reading today which I took prior to eating/insulin. Her reading was 4.1 mol/l which I believe is far too low to give her the insulin?

I decided not to give her the insulin & will call the vet tomorrow.

Was this the right decision? Or am I wrong with my timing of glucose reading?

Please advise on what you think
 
I am SO glad you got a meter and tested her yourself. We use US numbers on the forum so I multiply your numbers by 18. 18x4= 72 Way to low to give insulin. For reference, we generally consider a cat regulated if they are in the mid to lower 200s at pre shot time and in double digits by mid cycle, but not below 50, which is approaching hypo territory. We suggest that new diabetics not get a shot under 200. So giving a shot at a level that low would have been deadly.

We also suggest starting a kitty at 0.5 or one unit of insulin. Two units is clearly too much for your cat. Tomorrow morning it is possible that she will be high. That would probably be a combination of being without insulin for 12 hours and a bounce. When their body senses a number that is lower than they are used to, it releases extra sugars that cause their levels to bounce up. Either way, I wouldn't shoot under 200 tomorrow. If she is over 200, I'd cut the dose to one unit.

The other factor at work is the lower carb wet food. It can lower the levels 100+ points overnight. I do not understand why vets send home people with wet low carb food and insulin and tell them they will see them in a week. It can be deadly as you have seen. I'd work to get a pre shot every day twice a day, to make sure she is high enough to shoot and a mid cycle number whenever possible (it's called a nadir and usually is the lowest point of the cycle, 5-7 hours after the shot). If you can't get that number during the day, then set the alarm and get up at night. Once you have that data, you can tell the vet you don't need to come in for him to get numbers; you already have them. We consider home data much more accurate than vet data, as the cat is usually stressed at the vet and stress raises levels.
 
Just to confirm- I am using a U-40 syringe to measure the insulin. Is this the same at what you would use?
 
You are using ProZinc, correct? The bottle should say U40 strength to match your syringes, which also should be U40. There is a form of Insulin similar to ProZinc called BCP PZI that comes in U100 strength but I assume that is not what you are using.
 
So I was unable to get a test this morning- my kitty is very vicious & it requires 2 people right now so I didn't give her any insulin to be safe & left a message at the vets office.

About 7 hours after she ate this morning I decided to check and see what her level was at (assuming it would be quite high since she hasn't got insulin since Sunday morning at 6am).... She was at 79.

Could I be super lucky & is her new high protein low carb food maybe controlling this?

I checked her litter box & she hasn't been excessively urinating like last week.

I'm still awaiting a call from the vets office & wondering what you guys think?
 
Yes, I think that is a possibility. We consider a cat to be in remission if they range from 40 - 120 without insulin for two weeks. If I were you, I'd start the countdown, get numbers twice a day and see if she stays in those ranges. If she goes above 200, she may need a drop of insulin to get her down.

Once a diabetic, always a diabetic. She should never have high carb food again.
 
At what times do you think I should check her levels? Before food? After food?

Also she seems more her self today- playing with toys & not sleeping 24-7
 
Maybe before food one day and after the next. You just want to make sure she stays in that range, so anytime during the day will really work.
 
Thanks! Fingers crossed. Still waiting to hear from my vet- we had the appt tomorrow to do a curve. Don't think we will be needing that.
 
An update on baby: we went to the vet today & her level was 91. The vet couldn't believe that only 4 days after starting her on this diet & insulin therapy that she's gettin these results.

The count down is on!

Wish me luck :)
 
Fantastic. Paws crossed. Hope this will convert your vet to wet low carb diets for all cats. AND convince him that home testing is vital. Your kitty could have died if you'd blindly given 2 units .
 
5.5 days and she's still testing in the 80's without insulin!!

We're having major issues getting her BG tests done every day but she's doing awesome.

Thanks for everyone keeping their fingers crossed :)
 
Don't give up on testing!! Keep trying!
Practice makes perfect.
If Baby continues on this path and remains OTJ, you will still want to do the occasional spot checks, from what I understand.
Such great news on this thread!! Congratulations! :cat:
 
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