Pre-diabetic

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Shonnie

Member Since 2016
Hello,

I met a user of this forum (Bama) at a pet store and she suggested I post her for any suggestions/help.

My cat, Shonnie, is 18. She was dx with intestinal thickening and IBD about 2 years ago and with kidney disease about 1 year ago.

She has been on a variety of medications over the past 2 years, but the last 6 months has been:
Prednisolone (5 mg. daily)
Pepcid AC (2.5 mg. daily)
Subq fluids daily with potassium added (100 ml. alternate each day with 125 ml.)

She recently had a bout of some diarrhea/vomiting and was put on Cerenia and Metronidazole. After she came off those the diarrhea started, so she has been on Metronidazole (50 mg.) for the past week and she has no vomiting/diarrhea now.

Shonnie used to be overweight (up to 13 pounds at one point) and has steadily lost weight as she gotten these diseases. We have tried appetite stimulants and offering many different brands and types of cat food and she kept losing lots of weight. We now syringe feed her daily and try to keep her weight around 8 pounds. She eats very little on her own (a variety of brands of cat foods).

She has been syringe fed Wellness complete health chicken or turkey for about a year now.

Shonnie had her blood tested at the vet on 5/13 and her blood glucose was 130. The day after that I brought in a urine sample and there was glucose in her urine. The vet had me bring home a strip to retest her urine in a week after she recovered from the diarrhea/vomiting. The urine glucose test at home was positive for glucose in the medium range.

At that point the vet gave me a glucometer to test her at home. We started that testing last week and upon reading here we bought our own glucometer to compare the results over the past few days.

May 26 (8:00 am) 172 (AlphaTrak2)
May 27 (2:30 pm) 155 (AlphaTrak2)
May 28 (11:00 am) 166 (AlphaTrak2) and 99 (Relion Confirm)
May 29 (9:30 pm) 160 (AlphaTrak2) and 105 (Relion Confirm)
May 30 (9:30 pm) 140 (AlphaTrak2) and 87 (Relion Confirm)
May 31 (7:30 am) 196 (AlphaTrak2) and 128 (Relion Confirm)

I would appreciate any suggestions to try and help her avoid becoming diabetic.
 
Hi Shonnie's person,

I really feel for you dealing with so many issues in your efforts to help Shonnie (in a similar boat here). :bighug:

It would help if you could let us know what foods you're giving Shonnie at the moment (brand and variety if possible). Also do you feed her little and often at the moment?


Mogs
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Her diet is predominantly Wellness complete care either turkey or chicken. We feed her with a syringe about 75 ml./day.

She is extremely fussy about what she'll eat on her own. I offer her a variety of brands (she pretty much only likes tuna). Merrick Surf and Turf, Blue Buffalo Ocean fish and tuna, etc. But she mostly just drinks the water I mix into those and eats very little. She easily tires of a food and then we try a different one the next day.
 
If Shonnie is on the Prednisolone for her IBD and requires it to keep this under control, then there is a possibility that this could be causing the glucose levels to be higher. HOWEVER if the Prednisolone is necessary you can't stop giving it and end up with other complications.

I am not sure what the carb content of the Wellness is, but it is suggested to try to keep carb under 10% based on a dry matter analysis. You certainly have your hands full in dealing with the various illnesses Shonnie has. :bighug::bighug:

How long after eating where your tests done? Usually in the first about 2 hours the glucose levels will rise because of the food. The numbers you have are in the high normal to low diabetic range, but that would depend on when they were taken. A good way to see how well Shonnie's pancreas is working would be to do a few tests during the day. Doing one before she has had any food for at least 2 hours, then another about 1 hour after eating and another one about 3-4 hours after eating, should give a good idea how her body deals with food.
 
Thank you for your suggestions. I will do the testing at the times you indicated. The vet didn't explain when to take the readings, so we had been testing her after she hadn't had any food in a while. I was happy with the 140 number last night, but then very disappointed that she had a 196 this morning.

We leave dry food out at all times (we have another cat) and Shonnie may have eaten some overnight. She rarely eats the dry food and if she does she eats very little of it. I had not given her any canned food in the 10 hours between those two tests.
 
Shonnie said:
Thank you for your suggestions. I will do the testing at the times you indicated. The vet didn't explain when to take the readings, so we had been testing her after she hadn't had any food in a while. I was happy with the 140 number last night, but then very disappointed that she had a 196 this morning.

We leave dry food out at all times (we have another cat) and Shonnie may have eaten some overnight. She rarely eats the dry food and if she does she eats very little of it. I had not given her any canned food in the 10 hours between those two tests.
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Doing the testing without food, with food still affecting the glucose and after the food should show what the pattern is. Levels change through the day even in a non-diabetic cat in response to food and the normal processes that the body follows.

Dry food is not a good idea for any kitty, especially for one that may be borderline diabetes. Dry food tends to be higher in carbs and takes longer to clear the system than a low carb wet food. Some kitties on here have actually been able to go off insulin just by removing dry food from the diet. There are a few kitties on here that have had MUCH higher numbers just from getting into a bit of dry food from one of the other kitties or dog, The steroid Shonnie is on already puts her at a risk of higher glucose, so best not to add any extra factors to that.
 
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