Lindsay and Mittenz
Member Since 2019
Hi everyone,
I'm wondering if anyone out there has gone through a prednisolone taper with a diabetic cat, and just how much the pred reductions affect blood sugar, and how quickly you noticed a change.
My IBD kitty Mittenz has been on prednisolone since December 2018 and was just diagnosed with diabetes last week. Our vet has put her on 1 unit of Lantus twice daily. It's pretty nerve-wracking getting used to all of this and trying to educate myself, but we are trying. After reading various threads on this site, I decided to start home testing. I ordered an AlphaTrak 2 from Chewy but it won't be here until next week, so in the meantime we are making do with a human glucometer from the local drugstore.
Our sad story (sorry this is long but there's no short way to explain what we've been going through): Mittenz was on 1.5 mg pred through most of January and February, after that initial taper from 5 mg and a brief but unsuccessful attempt at replacing it with Budesonide. We were away at school and far from our regular vet, so I took her to a vet who aggressively insisted that I could get her off of pred if I would get her onto Royal Canin hydrolyzed protein food and off of Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein, which almost does the trick but still gives her a little inflammation in her small intestine. We reluctantly tried the RC and it made her flare (I now suspect a rice allergy), and I spoke with her regular vet on the phone, who recommended an increase to 3 mg prednisolone. Three weeks later, after things seemed okay and she was down to 2 mg pred, I attempted a switch to Instinct Limited Ingredient Turkey, and she flared again, or at least it looked like it at first (vomiting, sitting in cat loaf position, refusing to eat or drink). I took her to an emergency vet, who recommended I increase her pred to 3 mg and then back up to the original 5 mg if 3 didn't help. 3 didn't help, so we tried 5 mg. She improved for one day and then became even worse. I took her back to the emergency vet, who detected ketones in her plasma but not in her urine and wanted to hospitalize her for 72 hours and charge $2500. I am already poor from too many vet bills and Mittenz was so terrified in there that there was no way I could do that. We left school a week early, fled home, and after a scary 8 hour drive, got in to see our regular vet, who checked for ketones, ran a fructosamine test, put her on an IV for two days (just during clinic hours and Mittenz got to come home at night), and had her on Lantus by our second visit.
I'm worried that I mistook symptoms of Mittenz's onset of diabetes for that second IBD flare (it began as vomiting, lethargy, and refusal to eat or drink, which is right in line with her flare symptoms), and that increasing her pred tipped her into diabetes. This last Thursday I got the go-ahead to reduce her dose of pred from 5 mg to 3. She already seems to be feeling better. I'm not very good at collecting data yet, but I managed to test her today before her evening dose of insulin and got 298. I also tested her urine for ketones and it was negative, and the glucose test on the strip showed a reduction in glucose (I think--it has been deep brown all week and this one was green with brown speckles. Perhaps I messed it up?).
This is our routine--her daily dose of pred is split for the time being. I'd like to just give it all as one like we used to, but am not sure what that would do to her blood glucose.
7 am 1.5 mg pred
9 am 1 unit Lantus
7 pm 1.5 mg pred
9 pm 1 unit Lantus
I hope to get her down to 1.5 or 2 mg of pred in two weeks, after she adjusts to 3 mg, and have no idea how this is going to affect her insulin dose. I'm already nervously watching her with the drop from 5 to 3 mg pred.
This is a long post and I apologize, but I am just really curious what people's experiences with pred tapers have been. I'm very scared of making a mistake, and while our regular vet is wonderful, she's also very busy and it's hard to get in to see her sometimes. I did manage to schedule a sit-down consult session with her for Tuesday to talk about the big picture (food, pred, insulin, and home testing, which she didn't even mention as an option) but I'm feeling pretty lost and alone about the whole mess. Poor Mittenz!
I'm wondering if anyone out there has gone through a prednisolone taper with a diabetic cat, and just how much the pred reductions affect blood sugar, and how quickly you noticed a change.
My IBD kitty Mittenz has been on prednisolone since December 2018 and was just diagnosed with diabetes last week. Our vet has put her on 1 unit of Lantus twice daily. It's pretty nerve-wracking getting used to all of this and trying to educate myself, but we are trying. After reading various threads on this site, I decided to start home testing. I ordered an AlphaTrak 2 from Chewy but it won't be here until next week, so in the meantime we are making do with a human glucometer from the local drugstore.
Our sad story (sorry this is long but there's no short way to explain what we've been going through): Mittenz was on 1.5 mg pred through most of January and February, after that initial taper from 5 mg and a brief but unsuccessful attempt at replacing it with Budesonide. We were away at school and far from our regular vet, so I took her to a vet who aggressively insisted that I could get her off of pred if I would get her onto Royal Canin hydrolyzed protein food and off of Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein, which almost does the trick but still gives her a little inflammation in her small intestine. We reluctantly tried the RC and it made her flare (I now suspect a rice allergy), and I spoke with her regular vet on the phone, who recommended an increase to 3 mg prednisolone. Three weeks later, after things seemed okay and she was down to 2 mg pred, I attempted a switch to Instinct Limited Ingredient Turkey, and she flared again, or at least it looked like it at first (vomiting, sitting in cat loaf position, refusing to eat or drink). I took her to an emergency vet, who recommended I increase her pred to 3 mg and then back up to the original 5 mg if 3 didn't help. 3 didn't help, so we tried 5 mg. She improved for one day and then became even worse. I took her back to the emergency vet, who detected ketones in her plasma but not in her urine and wanted to hospitalize her for 72 hours and charge $2500. I am already poor from too many vet bills and Mittenz was so terrified in there that there was no way I could do that. We left school a week early, fled home, and after a scary 8 hour drive, got in to see our regular vet, who checked for ketones, ran a fructosamine test, put her on an IV for two days (just during clinic hours and Mittenz got to come home at night), and had her on Lantus by our second visit.
I'm worried that I mistook symptoms of Mittenz's onset of diabetes for that second IBD flare (it began as vomiting, lethargy, and refusal to eat or drink, which is right in line with her flare symptoms), and that increasing her pred tipped her into diabetes. This last Thursday I got the go-ahead to reduce her dose of pred from 5 mg to 3. She already seems to be feeling better. I'm not very good at collecting data yet, but I managed to test her today before her evening dose of insulin and got 298. I also tested her urine for ketones and it was negative, and the glucose test on the strip showed a reduction in glucose (I think--it has been deep brown all week and this one was green with brown speckles. Perhaps I messed it up?).
This is our routine--her daily dose of pred is split for the time being. I'd like to just give it all as one like we used to, but am not sure what that would do to her blood glucose.
7 am 1.5 mg pred
9 am 1 unit Lantus
7 pm 1.5 mg pred
9 pm 1 unit Lantus
I hope to get her down to 1.5 or 2 mg of pred in two weeks, after she adjusts to 3 mg, and have no idea how this is going to affect her insulin dose. I'm already nervously watching her with the drop from 5 to 3 mg pred.
This is a long post and I apologize, but I am just really curious what people's experiences with pred tapers have been. I'm very scared of making a mistake, and while our regular vet is wonderful, she's also very busy and it's hard to get in to see her sometimes. I did manage to schedule a sit-down consult session with her for Tuesday to talk about the big picture (food, pred, insulin, and home testing, which she didn't even mention as an option) but I'm feeling pretty lost and alone about the whole mess. Poor Mittenz!
