Onslo

[Lee J]

Onslo, my Scottish Fold boy, is 15. Was diagnosed about 6 weeks ago, also has Feline Herpes. He's on Levemir, 1/2 unit per day. Any more and he crashes. His readings in the morning range in the low to mid 400s and by 2 pm he has usually dropped to low to mid 100s. Sometimes when his #s are high he sneezes, snuffles, and has nose bleeds. We think this is, at least, somewhat due to his Herpes. He's on Lysene (Enysil F) and hasn't had a Herpes outbreak in years until the diabetes. Vet has him on a course of Clindomicin in case this is a respiratory infection. I also use nose drops and they help but are only treating the symptoms.
His appetite is robust but he is much less active than pre-diagnosis. Several folks have suggested a B12 shot and I have a call into my vet.
I can't give him insulin late in the day because of the chance of his crashing during the night while we are asleep. He is most active 1st thing in the morning and, of course, hungry. He does come into the bedroom to get me up but that's about the most activity he has all day.
I would appreciate any comments and in-put.
Lee and Big Onz

 

[BJM]

What are you feeding him?

Also, we use a syringe to withdraw the insulin from both the vial and the pen, and eyeball 0.25 unit doses. You might try doing that so you can shoot twice a day safely.

 

[Lee J]

Onslo, my Scottish Fold boy, is 15. Was diagnosed about 6 weeks ago, also has Feline Herpes. He's on Levemir, 1/2 unit per day. Any more and he crashes. His readings in the morning range in the low to mid 400s and by 2 pm he has usually dropped to low to mid 100s. Sometimes when his #s are high he sneezes, snuffles, and has nose bleeds. We think this is, at least, somewhat due to his Herpes. He's on Lysene (Enysil F) and hasn't had a Herpes outbreak in years until the diabetes. Vet has him on a course of Clindomicin in case this is a respiratory infection. I also use nose drops and they help but are only treating the symptoms.
His appetite is robust but he is much less active than pre-diagnosis. Several folks have suggested a B12 shot and I have a call into my vet.
I can't give him insulin late in the day because of the chance of his crashing during the night while we are asleep. He is most active 1st thing in the morning and, of course, hungry. He does come into the bedroom to get me up but that's about the most activity he has all day.
I would appreciate any comments and in-put.
Lee and Big Onz

We feed him grain free Bl. Buff Wilderness wet food and occasionally Gerber's Baby Food chicken flavor for a treat in very small amounts. We do use a syringe and measure the dose. Had a long talk w/vet this aft. He has over 200 diabetic cats in his practice and agrees Onz like some of his other patients can not do 2x per day, at least not now.
He's had a good day today, even asked for catnip. It's a bit of a struggle for us as he fights us when we measure his BG and the hubs has little use of his left arm and it really takes 4 arms: 2 to hold and 2 to test. But we're managing.
Tomorrow we call to schedule a B-12 shot which I'm hoping will help his Herpes symptoms. If you are not familiar with Feline Herpes, it presents as an upper respiratory infection and can be nasty. Also, Onz is allergic to Clavamox which is often the go-to antibiotic. Right now, I am as concerned about dealing with his Herpes problems.
Lee and Big Onz

 

[BJM]

Check what is in the enisyl in the way of ingredients; maybe one is a carb?
And check this food list at Cat Info for the carb calories in the Blue Buffalo Wilderness food; it may not be low enough in carbohydrate and a food change might get him off insulin.

 

[Lee J]

I couldn't find any reference to Blue Buffalo on the food list link. However, by googling Blue Buffalon Carbohydrate content, I did find a couple of threads with people having diabetic cats and using this food because it is low carb. He is going for his B-12 shot later this morning.

 

[Marje and Gracie]

Enisyl F has sorbitol in it which is a sugar alcohol. It "may" raise BG in diabetics but is thought to not, overall, have much, if any effect, in hyperglycemia. I used to use it with Gracie but had to stop.

My Tobey, who is not diabetic, has feline herpes and I give Viralys powder. I mix it with water and give it by syringe as he doesn't like the taste of it. I checked with the company that makes it and they said that is a good way to give it. It is made by the same company that makes Enisyl F.

If Onz is going lower on 0.5u once a day, the solution is to give 0.25u twice a day. If he's getting down to 100, that isn't low but it's a good number. Of course, it depends on what his numbers are looking like overall. Are you using a human glucometer or an Alpha Trak for pets? Have you given him insulin at night ever?

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

We've had the experience of clindamycin wiping out all the good bacteria along with what you're trying to kill, resulting in diarrhea, so we learned to always give a probiotic along with the antibiotic.

Some people can get their cats to eat yogurt - if so, that might do the trick. Punkin didn't like yogurt so we used Fortiflora (a cat probiotic available only from vets or online, not in stores), or a people probiotic.

Punkin ended up with C. Diff the first time he had clindamycin, which was a nightmare, so i wanted to pass that on to you now before you have a problem with it.

Usually the big swings in blood sugar are because the insulin dose has run out and the cat's blood sugar has been left for hours without help from any insulin, resulting in a rise to a high number at the time of the next insulin shot. Giving 2 shots a day - as marje suggested you could decrease to just a tiny 0.25u dose - will help Onslo get better blood sugar control and have flatter numbers.

We do have people who can't test at night. In that case a timed feeder can be a huge help. Many people set the timed feeder to feed the cat during the hours they are sleeping or at work. My favorite was the PetSafe 5 Compartment Feeder - you can find it online or in pet stores.

 

[Marycatmom]

I'm so sorry I missed this, Lee! Things are very crazy with wrapping up the school year, so I haven't been on much.

I was terrified about shooting Mikey's insulin during the day, because Don and I are both at work all day. The timed feeder has been a wonderful solution for us. What you would do is to lower his dose to .25, which you might want a magnifying glass to measure, then shoot that amount twice per day 12 hours apart. Before you go to bed, you'd test again, then fill the timed feeder according to what you're seeing. Of course, if he was too low at PMPS, you would want to skip the dose. We've been doing this during the day with Mikey since the fall, and it's worked really well.

Lantus and Levemir are kind of odd insulins in that they build up a reserve that we like to call a depot. When you only shoot once a day, that depot becomes unstable, and your cat's numbers end up all over the place. Shooting twice a day is scary at first, but it's the best thing for Onz, and you really do get so it's no big deal.