Newbie...Introducing Gracie

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Marje and Gracie

Marje and Gracie

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First, thank you to all of those who have put these websites, info, and FDMB together. What a comfort esp if it is a
weekend and one has questions but it's not an emergency.

My darling Gracie, 4 year old spayed female, had to have steroids for cystitis in May (too long a story to inc here). While she was on the steroids, we ran a UA and found 3+ glucose in her urine (no symptoms of anything). Checked her BG and it was 100. Checked fructosamine and it was 477 so she had spiked somewhere so my vet figured it was steroid-induced and transitory so we got her off steroids as quickly as safely possible. I gave her 50 mls LRS every day until her urine glucose was normal. We did several rechecks of urine and BG and all were normal. Every few weeks, I checked her urine...normal. My vet said "no more oral or injectable steroids for this cat unless it is a life-threatening emergency and we have no other options".

A few weeks ago, Gracie had conjunctivitis and vet & opthamalogist felt it was ok to give her neo ply dex as the dex was only .1% and it was topical. Last weekend, I could tell Gracie was not herself. I hadn't checked her urine in a few weeks but did and glucose was 3+. Took her to vet and BG was 409!! She has not been PU/PD, has not been ravenous, etc. Gracie is not overweight. She has always been on canned diet with 30-40% protein and less than 10% carbs...we feed no dry food. Vet had me start up subq fluids again; our other vet checked her BG in office on Thurs and it was 174 but I wonder if this was wrong as I had her in to regular vet today and it was 300 even though Gracie is acting totally normal. Her urine indicated glucose has come down to 2+. USG is 1.055 even with fluids. Vet is hoping this is transitory again altho totally befuddled. She wants to retest mid-week next week and if BG is still up, she wants to do glucose curve. Any thoughts, recommendations? I have read much of the info on felinediabetes.com and some of the links...am overwhelmed. She is so young. Thank you for any thoughts...

Marjorie and Gracie
 
Hi and welcome.

I have a youngster, Bean, who was a steroid induced diabetic. I adopted her at the end of May, she was already off the steroids and when she came here we changed her diet to canned only. She went off insulin within a week. Like you I'm going to have to watch steroids with this cat.

Regarding your little one. The test at the vet, the 174 could have been part stress, maybe food spike. Blood sugar will go up and down naturally during the day, stress, eating, exercise, lots of things can affect it. The 409 at the other clinic could have been part the meds, partly from recovering from infection and again stress.

If this were my kitty I'd think about learning to hometest. This way you could test Gracie at home when she's at rest and not stressed from the drive, the vet visit, the waiting room, all that good stuff. If you're not ready to think about hometesting, maybe get ketone strips to test the urine, ketodiastix I believe they are called. This way you can be sure that Gracie's not going to high and suffering from ketone toxicity.

The USG is within the normal range which is good. Another reason to think we have a transient FD and that stress and the infection/meds made the BGs go up. Gracie is diabetic, her whole life you'll want to keep her diet as good as you have it now and you'll want to stay on top of her teeth, bad teeth can lead to pain and increased BGs. She may never show high BGs again, but at this point it seems you have two separate incidents where the BGs have spiked, so I'd watch for it in the future
 
THanks, Jennifer, for the quick reply. Yes...I am definitely going to talk to my vet about BG home testing. I have so many questions that I don't even know where to start...like should I go get the keto strips and check her or are her numbers low
enough that I dont' have to worry about that yet? And with home testing...does the kitty start running and hiding from you? I want to do all I can from Gracie and I'm not a novice cat owner...have had cats for over 40 years. Currently have a CRF 15 year old but have never had a diabetic cat. I was just wondering if anyone had ever heard of this happening with topical steroids when the kitty has before shown a sensitivity to oral steroids? My vet said she's never seen it but she wouldn't rule it out. Like I said, we are overwhelmed. At this point, I'm just trying to educate myself and trust my vet who's been in practice 25 years and has her own diabetic pets. I'm just trying to process and like you all say..go slow.

Marjorie and Gracie
 
To answer some of your hometesting questions --Here is a website with some good beginning info: http://www.sugarcats.net/sites/harry/bgtest.htm and a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zE12-4fVn8

We tie each test with treats. In our case, Oliver was not keen on the process in the beginning. We used the burrito (wrap in a towel with only his head showing) the first few weeks. And we gave a lo carb snack each time, whether we were successful or not. Before long, he was happy to sit and have us do the test, cause he knew a goodie was coming. They really do get used to it. Some kitties here purr during the process. Oliver was never that happy, but he never fought us and never complained.
 
Hi Marjorie and welcome to FDMB :mrgreen:

You've had excellent advice.
There have been a number of cats come here as steroid induced diabetics. Some manage to go into remission (diet controlled) others are life long FD.
Gracie is young so hopefully that is on her side.

Hometesting is definitely the way forward. If you don't need to give insulin, you won't need to test as regularly as one who is.More like a cat that has gone into remission, test regularly to start then eventually ust intermittently to check bg's still in a god number range.

Normal bg range is anything from 40-140 in the main, depends when kitty eaten as well.

You sound like you have evrything in hand and a good vet.
Good l :mrgreen: uck
 
Here's where I'm going to confuse you for a moment. Regarding the topical steroid and your vet not seeing other cats get high numbers from that. ECID - every cat is different.

My Bean was a steroid induced FD. My cat Tucker has lots of issues, just this past March he had to start steroids daily. Since taking oral prednisolone his need for insulin is at it's lowest point in years. My vet is stumped because his need should be much greater for insulin.

Not all cats will react the same way all the time. So Gracie may have had the transient diabetes episode from the ear medicine, but Gracie may have been transient diabetic simply from having the ear infection in the first place. We don't know, but what we can do is test going forward and treat as needed.

At this point I would not worry about testing for Ketones if Gracie is not showing FD signs. She's not drinking or eating more, right? At the vet she was 174, I've read that we could add up to 100 points to the blood sugar to account for vet stress.

I'd get a home glucometer and learn to hometest to help in the future. If you want help maybe someone lives nearby. You could post your general location, county and state or city/state. I'm in Milford, CT.
 
Thank you all for the replies. I went out last night before I read the posts and bought the ketone strips and checked her and she was negative. This morning she was a little more lethargic but her urine tested a little lower in glucose today. I have a few questions:

1. We feed our cats their canned food throughout the day as one of us is usually home and since we have a kitten and a CRF cat, they need meals more frequently. We typically also feed right before we go to bed but then they have about 8 hours with no food down. Could this affect Gracie's BG so that when she first gets up in the morning, she's got a higher number? She seems to perk up more after I feed her.
2. Is it possible for BG in a cat with unregulated diabetes to go so dramatically up and down on separate days? The Antech BG was 409; three days later the vet office BG using glucometer was 174; and two days later vet office glucometer was about 300. I guess I'm trying to figure out if that 174 reading could have been accurate. In the past, Gracie's BG has never been elevated as a result of trips to the vet.
3. As I said, Gracie is not PU/PD and she's not eating any differently than she did before. Should I worry about waiting a few days to retest her BG at the vet? The reason the vets wanted to wait is our nutrition vet put her on Standard Process pancreatic support (Cataplex GTF) last Thurs and they want to give her time to see if her BG comes down on its own before doing the glucose curve. Her next visit is Thurs to recheck BG but should I try to get her in before that? I was going to get a glucometer and check at home...perhaps that would be best and it would tell me if I can wait until Thurs.
4. I am in Tucson, AZ. Is there an experienced FD here who could help me learn how to do the home monitoring? I know my vet will teach me but that's another trip for Grace. I'll look at the websites and videos provided in FDMB.

Thank you all. Hugs to your babies.
 
Gracie- Tuscan, Arizona anyone?

Hi Majorie,

sorry I'm a long way from Tuscan,Arizona!

I've not heard of the pancreatic support stuff you mention.

I think by hometesting you'll have a much better picture and it will give you peace of mind. Hopefully the vet is thinking of your purse, but there's nothing wrong with you hometesting.

BG's will go up and down with food intake and time of day.Free feeding is fine, you just need to bear in mind how long it has been since kitty has eaten when you test as their bg will spike within the first hour or so. If it comes down on it's own, then you have at least a partly functioning pancreas.
There is something called the 'dawn phenomenom'. This is recognised in humans but still up for debate in cats. This is where cats can have a higher bg reading in the morning. It's thought it's the body's way of preparing human/cat for the day supplying them with ready energy (glucose).It's a plausible explanation at the very least.Not something to worry about, again, just another piece of your jigsaw.

Yes cats bg's can flucuate a lot, for all sorts of reasons, vet stress is just an obvious one.

Good luck :mrgreen:
 
Sorry, seeing this late. But I wanted to add something about the steroids and a little encouragement about testing.

My Megan is a transient diabetic. Most of the time she is fine (I hometest her at least every two weeks, much more often if she is having a problem, and feed her as if she were an active diabetic). She has had BG spikes from 1) an injury that required sewing up, so no doubt she was stressed, 2) a steroid shot, given for a urinary infection or inflammation - insufficient diagnostic testing was done to be sure which, and 3) a topical ointment that contained a tiny amount of steroid, used for a "hot spot" that has since resolved. And I think there was an actual infection in there somewhere, but I'm hazy on the details.

Each time, when the instigator of the BG spike cleared up, her BG went back down. Last time I tested her (a little more than a week ago), she was at 60.

Oh, at the time of the injury (that week, while the stitches were in and she was wearing a "lampshade" because she kept chewing on the stitches), she also developed ketones, even though her BG was not very high at all, and she had glucose in her urine.

Her vet now has in her records that steroids are to be avoided with her if at all possible.

Even though she is not on insulin, so she can't possibly associate testing with feeling better, she comes to me readily when she sees the testing equipment, she lies down to let me get at her ear easily, and she purrs throughout. This is not a cat that purrs easily, though she is pretty easy to handle almost always. I think she likes the few minutes of undivided attention (she isn't my only cat), and of course she *loves* the treat that follows testing.
 
We try to make testing time a comfortable bonding time. We don't give treats much in my home -- but we do give love and cuddles.

When it is testing time, I unzip the meter pouch and ask Tiggy to come get tested. He trots on over, and I pick him up -- I test him on top of the washing machine so I don't have to bend over too long. He lays there and purrs while I test him.

Then I go in the bedroom to test Rusty -- he jumps up on the bed and lays right next to me when i sit down - easy to reach his ear. He fidgets a bit more, but doesn't get up or try to move away.

Both these guys have been tested at least twice per day for over a year -- so it is just a normal routine.
 
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