? Newly out of remission

[StephanieH]

my cat, Hula was originally diagnosed back in 2015. He quickly went into remission after I switched his food to a low carb wet food. His numbers stayed great until this last December. I took him in for a dental and his number was up to 250. He had an extremely hard time coming out of anesthesia. He did not eat for many days and I was syringe feeding him and giving him appetite stimulants. The vet did say it was likely pancreatitis but did not test him. He started eating on his own and recovered well. I kept a check on his BG and always stayed around 100 or so. Previous remission readings were in 60s. Recently his drinking came up again and I checked him and his numbers were back to 300s. We went to the vet and had blood panels done to make sure there was nothing else going on to increase his BG. He had no sign of infection, liver was good, triglycerides are high (he is a bit overweight- his appetite is outrageous right now) and his teeth still looked ok. So we went back on Prozinc, starting out at 1 unit.

Since starting insulin, I have done one curve. This was a day when he actually looked pretty good. But I do have some questions, what BGs are we looking to get to between doses? Also his PMPS is always much lower than his AMPS. I am not sure what causes that unless it is the stress of being hungry. I leave food out overnight but his bowl is always empty in the morning and he thinks he is starving.

I increased his dose this morning to 1.25 units to try to get him a little more reduced. I wanted to increase slowly where I could keep an eye on him. Is increasing the right thing to do with his numbers? I just need to make sure I am doing the right thing for him. I would love for him to go back into remission again!

Also wondering how often I should do a curve? I really hate testing him. I know I must but he has become a master at jerking his head away at just the wrong time and causes way more than just a prick to his ear.

Thanks so much you guys for all you do to help these kitties!

 

[Djamila]

Oh, Stephanie, I'm so sorry to read this! I remember you and Hula from my kitty's first diagnosis, too!

Was he up at 250 before the dental at home, or at the vet the morning of the dental?

Pancreatitis is a bugger. Sam has it too and it's definitely taken a toll on his blood glucose/insulin needs. It sounds like Hula only had that one bout of it though?

As for the numbers: Ideally, you want the PS numbers to be below 200 and the mid-cycles to be in the dark greens. At this point though, you want the mid-cycles to be about 50% of the nadir, and then gradually you want to start wiggling those down until the PS numbers start to come down as well.

This may be a little tricky because Hula isn't showing a consistent nadir time. Are you at work during the week? If not, you may find it helpful to keep a scattering of numbers during mid-cycles if you can: so one day get a +4 and a +6. Another day get a +5 and a +7, another day get a +4 and a +8, etc. Just grabbing whatever two tests you can to get a picture of his responses.

Do you leave food out during the day when you're at work? Is there a difference in when or what you feed him during the two cycles?

It's not uncommon for the AM and PM cycles to be quite different from each other. That's why getting mid-cycle numbers on both cycles is so important. You've had some daytime greens, and many cats (though not all) run lower at night, so it's possible that he's getting into lower numbers during the night and then bouncing up to those higher AMPS numbers.

 

[StephanieH]

He was 250 at the vet. Then normal at home after I got him home. His numbers started climbing slightly after the bout with pancreatitis.

I am home for the most part during the day so I will be able to test him at different times throughout the day.

He definitely eats more during the day than at night.He gets a Can in the morning after test at about 7ish or so. Then another around lunch. Then at night I give him a can that he eats on during the night. He doesn’t eat everything all at once so in a sense he is a bit of a free feeder.

I will try to get some numbers this week with this increase in dose. And I will try to get some during the night as well to see how that cycle looks as well.

Thanks so much! I really appreciate it.