Poly 7 yo female cat

[Christi Williams]

Poly was diagnosed 2 years ago. Started on Humulin, but switched to Lantus about a year ago. She is now on 2 units, twice a day. Her bg average is 225-250, but she is STILL losing weight. Vet is still trying to find out what is wrong with her. We went up to 3 units, then 4 and controlled bg at 200, but she bottomed out and they thought she was going into remission. Off insulin for a week and she went back into the 300s.

She has been back on 2 units, twice daily (Lantus) for about 6 weeks now and her bg is good, but she is still losing weight. She eats all the time and acts like she is starving still.

3 1/2 years ago, she was 15 pounds, this morning, she weighed in at 9.1 pounds.

Ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Tuxedo Mom]

Has Poly been tested for hyperthyroid? It is a separate test from the normal panels and the basic T4 test can be done at the vets. A full thyroid panel is done an an outside lab such as IDEXX. Some info on Hyperthyroid:

https://pets.webmd.com/cats/guide/cat-hyperthyroidism#1

Has she ever been tested for Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). Usually there is also diarrhea with EPI, but not always. Because a kitty cannot absorb the nutrients from the food they can lose weight even though they are eating well. Some info on EPI:

http://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/digestive/c_ct_exocrine_pancreatic_insufficiency



Are you doing regular daily home testing? If so it would be helpful to set up a spreadsheet. Sometimes the spreadsheet makes it easier to see the big picture on how well a dose is working. You said the BG average is 225-250, but how low are the lows and how high are the highs?

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Hello and welcome to the group. There is lots of good info in the yellow Sticky Notes on the top of this forum. And as Mary Ann said, we are great advocates of home testing, if you are not doing so all ready. We use that data to figure out how to change the dose. We record our blood glucose data in a spreadsheet. Take a look at all of our signatures, you'll see links to the kind of data we collect. Here are the instructions on how to record the data.

Feel free to keep asking questions - we love to help here. We all remember what it was like to be new here.

As for losing weight - has your vet suggested running a Texas A&M GI Panel? It's a set of four blood tests which can help pinpoint GI issues. If her blood sugar numbers are good, then maybe something else is preventing her from absorbing the nutrition in her food properly. The test for EPI is included in the GI panel. What type of food are you feeding?