Alison & Sarge
Member Since 2014
Hi all!
I have been studying the AAHA diabetes management guidelines and reading posts on this site since May 5th when my 8 year old kitty Sarge was diagnosed (fasting BG of 400+) and I thought it was time to officially join this great group. You guys have already helped me dodge a few "urban legends" shall we say (meters etc.) and catch a few things on the way to getting Sarge regulated. Not the least of which was his Novolin N dose was too high. I worked with my vet and cut him down to 2.5 units and he is slowing showing a good response (PS highs of high 300's, and no more 600's and 700's). I am still not convinced Novolin N is the best insulin for him but I am trying to be patient. It has only been a couple of weeks. A rough couple of weeks but a couple of weeks none the less. I am home testing with a Relion Confirm meter pre-shot and at 6 hours when I can run home quick from work. So, I do have data to share just not in front of me at the moment. I think I am my vet's first client to test at home but she seems open to the idea and appears to be willing to work together. Sarge just loves everyone at this office so that really helps keep the stress level down for checkups too. They really spoil him
I am doing my best not to get overwhelmed and not to change too many things at once. However, I do know that ultimately his food must change. After his Science Diet was reformulated he and a housemate threw up the new stuff. Everywhere. I fed Organix for a while and for the last two months I have fed Purina Focus Urinary Tract Health which was a pretty close match to their old SD (there is a reason why this is a factor but I don't want to sidetrack myself). I have introduced low carb wet food over the last week which brings me to what Sarge and I currently face.
I talked to my vet Monday about switching Sarge to Lantus. She said I could but that it might take another two weeks to know if the Novalin N is working. It has slowly shown promise since the dose decrease but I know it is one of the last choices for cats and a tougher road for achieving remission. Since I had already introduced wet food I thought maybe if we went all wet food I could ease the burden on his kidneys (lab work good but want to keep it that way) while we gave the Novolin N the full 30 days my vet suggests. Kind of a happy medium thing.
After a wet food dinner Monday night and plenty available and eaten overnight his BG was 369 Tuesday morning. One of his lower morning pre-shot numbers but nothing I hadn't seen when he was eating dry food. I gave him 2.5 units of Novolin N and left two bowls with wet food and an extra helping of wet food still frozen to defrost for he and the two boys to to pick on later (three kitty household). I came home from work and tested Sarge at 6hrs. His BG was 59 then 51 on recheck. I called my vet. At first she said 50-150 is normal and if he was acting ok (he was), to leave him alone as long has he had food and was eating. I said he ate wet food as soon as he woke when I came home. She said what happened to his dry food? You can't leave wet food out more than 3-4 hours. I said I am suspicious his issues started when I put him on his current dry food a couple months ago. He has been eating wet food in increasing amounts so I gave him just wet food today and left some of it frozen so it would defrost for later consumption. She said to give him his dry food back. Discouraging, but not giving up. So I gave him a small handful like it was a treat and put the bowl of dry food back out. Fifteen minutes later his BG was on the rise at 61. Quick enough it was probably on the rise anyway. I then had to go back to work. By his evening pre-shot he was back to 356. So, he got his 2.5 units of Novalin N and his usual 2oz snack of FF chicken pate. The other ounce gets split amongst the other two boys so they feel spoiled too. Dry food still out for all to eat and about midnight before going to bed I also set out a can of FF chicken for him to snack on. Which he did.
This morning his PS BG was 170. His lowest morning reading ever. I called his vet. She said to give him 2 units, leave him his dry and wet food and check him at noon.
So, I have been doing all kinds of mental gymnastics to figure out our next move. My thoughts at the moment are…
1. Did he just not eat enough naturally lower carb wet food for the insulin dose on Tuesday? I know a new diet will require curving but after wondering if he was even responding to Novalin N I didn't expect a big change in less than 24 hours. However, I did come home to check just in case. After working like mad I will finally have a couple days over the holiday weekend to do a couple of curves at home.
2. If I can't be home all day to watch him, do I need to find a low carb dry food to be sure he is grazing all day (possible kibble junkie)? Sarge seems to adore wet food when it is a treat but maybe he hasn't accepted it as his only food yet. I can't feed each meal, my schedule just won't allow it and the cats don't let us sleep when we try it. So, free feeding has proven best for our household and none of the three cats are fat. Also, Sarge's pal Lobster is definitely a kibble junkie. So, that's a little wrinkle in the wet food plan too. I actually tried all wet food once before with Lobster when his BUN was high normal. It was a fight. Finally found a dry food with a phosphorus level that worked for him, lab work was awesome again and peace was restored. Not the win I wanted but a win.
3. Is this possibly a good sign the food/diet is the problem and maybe he won't need insulin when I find a better fit?
4. Could Sarge be starting to self regulate again? His diabetes diagnosis was immediately preceded by an infection. An eye infection that received antibiotic/steroid eye drops and a second discovered just two weeks later when he wasn't acting right, was peeing and drinking more and he looked like he had lost weight since his last visit. I took him in for lab work and we discovered he had a fever and a BG of nearly 400. We treated the infection and did curves to get him on insulin. Now that the infection is clear, could his sudden lower numbers be due to him starting to make his own insulin in addition to what I am giving him?
Long story short (probably too late for that!), I am currently formulating a new "plan of attack" to safely get him on a better diet and get him regulated in the most patient but efficient way. I sincerely don't want to make any bone head moves. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for all you guys do!
I have been studying the AAHA diabetes management guidelines and reading posts on this site since May 5th when my 8 year old kitty Sarge was diagnosed (fasting BG of 400+) and I thought it was time to officially join this great group. You guys have already helped me dodge a few "urban legends" shall we say (meters etc.) and catch a few things on the way to getting Sarge regulated. Not the least of which was his Novolin N dose was too high. I worked with my vet and cut him down to 2.5 units and he is slowing showing a good response (PS highs of high 300's, and no more 600's and 700's). I am still not convinced Novolin N is the best insulin for him but I am trying to be patient. It has only been a couple of weeks. A rough couple of weeks but a couple of weeks none the less. I am home testing with a Relion Confirm meter pre-shot and at 6 hours when I can run home quick from work. So, I do have data to share just not in front of me at the moment. I think I am my vet's first client to test at home but she seems open to the idea and appears to be willing to work together. Sarge just loves everyone at this office so that really helps keep the stress level down for checkups too. They really spoil him
I am doing my best not to get overwhelmed and not to change too many things at once. However, I do know that ultimately his food must change. After his Science Diet was reformulated he and a housemate threw up the new stuff. Everywhere. I fed Organix for a while and for the last two months I have fed Purina Focus Urinary Tract Health which was a pretty close match to their old SD (there is a reason why this is a factor but I don't want to sidetrack myself). I have introduced low carb wet food over the last week which brings me to what Sarge and I currently face.
I talked to my vet Monday about switching Sarge to Lantus. She said I could but that it might take another two weeks to know if the Novalin N is working. It has slowly shown promise since the dose decrease but I know it is one of the last choices for cats and a tougher road for achieving remission. Since I had already introduced wet food I thought maybe if we went all wet food I could ease the burden on his kidneys (lab work good but want to keep it that way) while we gave the Novolin N the full 30 days my vet suggests. Kind of a happy medium thing.
After a wet food dinner Monday night and plenty available and eaten overnight his BG was 369 Tuesday morning. One of his lower morning pre-shot numbers but nothing I hadn't seen when he was eating dry food. I gave him 2.5 units of Novolin N and left two bowls with wet food and an extra helping of wet food still frozen to defrost for he and the two boys to to pick on later (three kitty household). I came home from work and tested Sarge at 6hrs. His BG was 59 then 51 on recheck. I called my vet. At first she said 50-150 is normal and if he was acting ok (he was), to leave him alone as long has he had food and was eating. I said he ate wet food as soon as he woke when I came home. She said what happened to his dry food? You can't leave wet food out more than 3-4 hours. I said I am suspicious his issues started when I put him on his current dry food a couple months ago. He has been eating wet food in increasing amounts so I gave him just wet food today and left some of it frozen so it would defrost for later consumption. She said to give him his dry food back. Discouraging, but not giving up. So I gave him a small handful like it was a treat and put the bowl of dry food back out. Fifteen minutes later his BG was on the rise at 61. Quick enough it was probably on the rise anyway. I then had to go back to work. By his evening pre-shot he was back to 356. So, he got his 2.5 units of Novalin N and his usual 2oz snack of FF chicken pate. The other ounce gets split amongst the other two boys so they feel spoiled too. Dry food still out for all to eat and about midnight before going to bed I also set out a can of FF chicken for him to snack on. Which he did.
This morning his PS BG was 170. His lowest morning reading ever. I called his vet. She said to give him 2 units, leave him his dry and wet food and check him at noon.
So, I have been doing all kinds of mental gymnastics to figure out our next move. My thoughts at the moment are…
1. Did he just not eat enough naturally lower carb wet food for the insulin dose on Tuesday? I know a new diet will require curving but after wondering if he was even responding to Novalin N I didn't expect a big change in less than 24 hours. However, I did come home to check just in case. After working like mad I will finally have a couple days over the holiday weekend to do a couple of curves at home.
2. If I can't be home all day to watch him, do I need to find a low carb dry food to be sure he is grazing all day (possible kibble junkie)? Sarge seems to adore wet food when it is a treat but maybe he hasn't accepted it as his only food yet. I can't feed each meal, my schedule just won't allow it and the cats don't let us sleep when we try it. So, free feeding has proven best for our household and none of the three cats are fat. Also, Sarge's pal Lobster is definitely a kibble junkie. So, that's a little wrinkle in the wet food plan too. I actually tried all wet food once before with Lobster when his BUN was high normal. It was a fight. Finally found a dry food with a phosphorus level that worked for him, lab work was awesome again and peace was restored. Not the win I wanted but a win.
3. Is this possibly a good sign the food/diet is the problem and maybe he won't need insulin when I find a better fit?
4. Could Sarge be starting to self regulate again? His diabetes diagnosis was immediately preceded by an infection. An eye infection that received antibiotic/steroid eye drops and a second discovered just two weeks later when he wasn't acting right, was peeing and drinking more and he looked like he had lost weight since his last visit. I took him in for lab work and we discovered he had a fever and a BG of nearly 400. We treated the infection and did curves to get him on insulin. Now that the infection is clear, could his sudden lower numbers be due to him starting to make his own insulin in addition to what I am giving him?
Long story short (probably too late for that!), I am currently formulating a new "plan of attack" to safely get him on a better diet and get him regulated in the most patient but efficient way. I sincerely don't want to make any bone head moves. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for all you guys do!
