numbers roller coaster - thoughts and advice.

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jasper cats

Member Since 2017
hello, this is my first post here. about six weeks ago, my 8 year old male cat was diagnosed as diabetic. he was started out on 1 unit of prozinc twice daily, which increased .5 per week until we reached 3 units, which he was on for two weeks in a row. his numbers were still a little high, but his vet seemed really pleased and excited about where they were.

i was surprised when on the second week of being on 3 units, she increased the dosage from 3 to 4 - we had never increased an entire unit before, and we were close to the target number that we were hoping for. i should add that while he was at 3 units, his excessive drinking and peeing stopped, he had no diarrhea, and he'd gained back the weight that he'd lost before his diagnosis.

my mom has started home testing about 2 weeks ago. for two days after the increase to 4 units, his bg numbers were perfect. however yesterday morning it was dangerously low, despite him acting perfectly normal. we took him to the vet, and she dropped him back down to 3 units. he had last night's dosage at that, and this morning's. tested him 5 hours after the morning dose, and his numbers are now way too high.

has anyone else experienced this or have any idea why the extremes?
 
jasper cats said:
hello, this is my first post here. about six weeks ago, my 8 year old male cat was diagnosed as diabetic. he was started out on 1 unit of prozinc twice daily, which increased .5 per week until we reached 3 units, which he was on for two weeks in a row. his numbers were still a little high, but his vet seemed really pleased and excited about where they were.

i was surprised when on the second week of being on 3 units, she increased the dosage from 3 to 4 - we had never increased an entire unit before, and we were close to the target number that we were hoping for. i should add that while he was at 3 units, his excessive drinking and peeing stopped, he had no diarrhea, and he'd gained back the weight that he'd lost before his diagnosis.

my mom has started home testing about 2 weeks ago. for two days after the increase to 4 units, his bg numbers were perfect. however yesterday morning it was dangerously low, despite him acting perfectly normal. we took him to the vet, and she dropped him back down to 3 units. he had last night's dosage at that, and this morning's. tested him 5 hours after the morning dose, and his numbers are now way too high.

has anyone else experienced this or have any idea why the extremes?
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There's a huge difference between 3u and 4 units. That is not safe. Thank goodness your mom started home testing. If 3 wasn't enough it should have been raised to 3.25. Small increases are safer. Likely the ideal dose was skipped. Cats insulin needs can sometimes change quite frequently.
 
I'm still one of the newer members but I agree with Janet that his ideal dose was missed with the jump from 3U to 4U. Great job with home testing!
 
jasper cats said:
has anyone else experienced this or have any idea why the extremes?
Click to expand...

Your kitty is "bouncing".....when they 1. drop too low 2. drop too quickly or 3. drop into numbers their body doesn't recognize as "normal" anymore (or any combination of all 3), the liver releases stored sugars and hormones to bring them back up quickly

It can take up to 3 days for those sugars and hormones to clear out of the body before you'll know if the current dose is going to bring them back down into "good" numbers again
 
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