Newly diagnosed this month and overwhelmed.

[Butterscotch's Pawrents]

Butterscotch is a 14yr old female, likely Maine Coon mix. She began drinking excessive amounts of water, sleeping in her water bowl, begging for food, and becoming less interested in play time when she was misdiagnosed with chronic kidney disease in March 2019. We put her on a renal diet at that time and her health began to decline. Her symptoms were increased drinking/peeing, extremely lethargic, restless, not sleeping, hiding, not grooming, not meowing, begging for food but refusing to eat a variety of the tastiest things put in front of her, intermittent diarrhea. We brought her to a new vet at the beginning of Aug 2019. We were told she has normal older cat kidney's but nothing to worry about, some constriction in her lungs, abdominal bloating with an ileus, dehydration, weight loss/muscle loss, and diabetes. Her blood sugar was 440 and she had glucose in her urine but no ketones. We started her on 1 unit of lantus twice daily on Aug 8 as well as SubQ fluids. Getting her to eat anything was an extreme battle despite the fact that she was begging for food. Her blood sugars a week later were between 383-441 and Lantus was increased to 2 units twice daily on Aug 15. She is more alert and more willing to actually eat at this point. Her sugars are 334-402 on the 2 units. She eats very low carb Weruva and Tiki canned food twice daily. Still losing weight and drinking tons of water, diarrhea started again and had first pee accident next to her box.
We love our sweet Butterscotch so much and hope she isn't suffering while we try to improve her quality of life.

 

[Idjit's mom]

Hi and welcome to FDMB. She's a lovely girl and I believe that with some data collection and review the experienced members that use Lantus can help get Butterscotch to better regulation, and therefore feeling better too.

Are you testing her blood sugar at home at this point, or are you visiting the vet clinic for the results you have reported? Testing at home before every injection ensures that the blood sugar is high enough to "shoot", and testing during the mid cycle is going to show you how the insulin is working for her.

If you are not testing we can provide information about learning the process and what supplies you will need. Now, many vets don't suggest or support home testing but we have found it to be a valuable tool, first to keep our sugar cats safe, and to know "real time" just what the blood sugar is. Having this data recorded on a spreadsheet, like we use here, helps you see the patterns and trends, and see if this dose is a good dose, too high or too low. We also advocate raising a dose by only 0.25 U or 0.5 U at a time, to ensure you don't bypass a correct dose.

Sometimes a dose is started too high, or increased by too much and the kitty's body panics when it thinks the sugar is too low, then the liver releases glycogen and hormones to get it back up to what the body is used to. That results in a higher BG (blood glucose) number that the vet sees and doses from.

Edit, I do see that you are using vet's AT2 meter, good for you!
Here are the SPREADSHEET INSTRUCTIONS and UNDERSTANDING THE SPREASHEET

We have lots of information about diet, testing, the insulin you are using, plus a world wide community of caring diabetic cat parents with the same goal in mind: the best care and life for our kitties. So tell us what you want to explore, please.

Going forward, please post in the Main Health forum HERE This Introduction forum is just the welcome mat, and more members monitor the Main forum in order to be of assistance. I will watch for your next response here, or post there, and we will all help you work on getting Butterscotch's sugars under better control and lessen your worry and frustration.

Best wishes

 

[Butterscotch's Pawrents]

Hi and welcome to FDMB. She's a lovely girl and I believe that with some data collection and review the experienced members that use Lantus can help get Butterscotch to better regulation, and therefore feeling better too.

Are you testing her blood sugar at home at this point, or are you visiting the vet clinic for the results you have reported? Testing at home before every injection ensures that the blood sugar is high enough to "shoot", and testing during the mid cycle is going to show you how the insulin is working for her.

If you are not testing we can provide information about learning the process and what supplies you will need. Now, many vets don't suggest or support home testing but we have found it to be a valuable tool, first to keep our sugar cats safe, and to know "real time" just what the blood sugar is. Having this data recorded on a spreadsheet, like we use here, helps you see the patterns and trends, and see if this dose is a good dose, too high or too low. We also advocate raising a dose by only 0.25 U or 0.5 U at a time, to ensure you don't bypass a correct dose.

Sometimes a dose is started too high, or increased by too much and the kitty's body panics when it thinks the sugar is too low, then the liver releases glycogen and hormones to get it back up to what the body is used to. That results in a higher BG (blood glucose) number that the vet sees and doses from.

Edit, I do see that you are using vet's AT2 meter, good for you!
Here are the SPREADSHEET INSTRUCTIONS and UNDERSTANDING THE SPREASHEET

We have lots of information about diet, testing, the insulin you are using, plus a world wide community of caring diabetic cat parents with the same goal in mind: the best care and life for our kitties. So tell us what you want to explore, please.

Going forward, please post in the Main Health forum HERE This Introduction forum is just the welcome mat, and more members monitor the Main forum in order to be of assistance. I will watch for your next response here, or post there, and we will all help you work on getting Butterscotch's sugars under better control and lessen your worry and frustration.

Best wishes

Thank you for the welcome. We have some spreadsheets at home and will start uploading data to our profile soon.

She did one glucose curve in the office last week. I've been testing her once a day at a different time over the last few days as practice and I'm doing my first curve (her second curve) at home today.
Biggest thing we're trying to figure out right now is which meter to use.
We like that the AT will only produce a result if it collected enough blood saving you from a false low reading but the strips are too expensive. I've read some about using freestyle lite strips in the AT but wondering how valid that is.
We were gifted a PetTest monitor but have no strips for it. The strips also seem expensive and only marginally cheaper than the AT strips. Biggest concern with it is I've read that it will give you a glucose reading even if the blood sample is too small and will result in a inaccurate low reading.
I initially liked the idea of a cheaper human meter for daily testing but I have anxiety and I fear that I will question every slightly low/high result and end up wanting to retest with a pet specific reader to confirm and thus wasting more strips.
Looking for a meter that uses 0.3uL blood sample because her ears don't consistently bleed well.

Other concerns include, new diarrhea today (she had diarrhea 2 weeks ago when first diagnosed and not eating well but all normal stools since then) and some pee outside her box today - she's never had an accident in the 11 yrs we've had her.
Losing weight but begging for food. She was a healthy 13lbs all her life (larger breed part Main Coon vet always said was a perfect weight) and lost 2lbs per her weigh in last week. Feeding 300cal per day per online research. She begs for food all day long. Not sure what to do. I understand if her sugars are over 300 she can't use the glucose from her food properly.
Eating has been better since we started rotating foods. Initially just prior to diagnosis she was acting super hungry/begging but no matter what we put in front of her she turned away and proceeded to beg for new food. Tried baby food, human tuna, bonito flakes, variety of cans, you name it and she didn't want it. She is still kinda doing this, begs and turns away from some foods or needs to be hand fed, but the problem is improving. She has not previously been a picky cat.

Thank you all for any advice.

 

[Idjit's mom]

Please use the spreadsheet from the instructions link I sent you. If you view some of the other members' spreadsheets you can see that cells are formulated to reflect ranges and colored to match. There are columns for the morning preshot test, then the hours after the shot, another column for the evening preshot test and subsequent hours after the shot. So you don't have to format at all, and we all use this spreadsheet and can glean the information easier.

I would like us to get the issues of not eating as much as you would like, plus the diarrhea out into the Main forum, so others can read and offer some advice and suggestions. You can copy your first message and even the second also, if you wish, and paste them into a new thread on the Main forum. Just indicate that you have posted in the Intro forum and are providing the same information/questions/concerns.

You will also get input on choosing a meter, most of us use a human meter for the reason of strip cost. Many of us began with the AT2 and, like myself, just couldn't keep up paying the high strip cost, and having to order online and wait for delivery.

 

[(GA) Gypsy's Parent]

Lots of people use human meters for the affordable test strips. There are spreadsheet templates for AT and human meters. Each has appropriate color and ranges; the values from human and pet meters cannot be compared. Pick one. I'm happy with the Walmart ReliOn Prime, which requires a 0.5uml, which is a bit higher than the AT at 0.3uml. My cat's ears bleed plenty if I put enough pressure on the lancet to break the surface. The accuracy of the meters is pretty terrible (15%-20% difference) so you are mostly looking at numbers over time. Except when you are at the low end or reach super high BG. Without a some BG data over time to look at trends, people are not going to be able to provide dosing recommendations.

 

[JanetNJ]

Thank you for the welcome. We have some spreadsheets at home and will start uploading data to our profile soon.

She did one glucose curve in the office last week. I've been testing her once a day at a different time over the last few days as practice and I'm doing my first curve (her second curve) at home today.
Biggest thing we're trying to figure out right now is which meter to use.
We like that the AT will only produce a result if it collected enough blood saving you from a false low reading but the strips are too expensive. I've read some about using freestyle lite strips in the AT but wondering how valid that is.
We were gifted a PetTest monitor but have no strips for it. The strips also seem expensive and only marginally cheaper than the AT strips. Biggest concern with it is I've read that it will give you a glucose reading even if the blood sample is too small and will result in a inaccurate low reading.
I initially liked the idea of a cheaper human meter for daily testing but I have anxiety and I fear that I will question every slightly low/high result and end up wanting to retest with a pet specific reader to confirm and thus wasting more strips.
Looking for a meter that uses 0.3uL blood sample because her ears don't consistently bleed well.

Other concerns include, new diarrhea today (she had diarrhea 2 weeks ago when first diagnosed and not eating well but all normal stools since then) and some pee outside her box today - she's never had an accident in the 11 yrs we've had her.
Losing weight but begging for food. She was a healthy 13lbs all her life (larger breed part Main Coon vet always said was a perfect weight) and lost 2lbs per her weigh in last week. Feeding 300cal per day per online research. She begs for food all day long. Not sure what to do. I understand if her sugars are over 300 she can't use the glucose from her food properly.
Eating has been better since we started rotating foods. Initially just prior to diagnosis she was acting super hungry/begging but no matter what we put in front of her she turned away and proceeded to beg for new food. Tried baby food, human tuna, bonito flakes, variety of cans, you name it and she didn't want it. She is still kinda doing this, begs and turns away from some foods or needs to be hand fed, but the problem is improving. She has not previously been a picky cat.

Thank you all for any advice.

The begging but turning away tells me she may be nauseated. You could ask for an anti nausea medicine such as cerenia until she's eating consistently again.

The diarrhea... Try a probiotic mixed with the food or a teaspoon of plain canned pumpkin (no spices). If any of my cats get the runs I usually add FortiFlora to the food. FortiFlora is a probiotic and flavor enhancer. You can get it on amazon, or Adwdiabetes.com

I have been using the Alphatrak meter for over 3 years. Two years ago I started using Freestyle Insulinx strips with it and have found them very good. I have done a lot of comparisons between the two. If you look at my cats spreadsheet and click on the insulinx tab you can see the numbers. I get the strips on eBay cheap... You can buy them on amazon as well.