Puzzled

[FrancesG50]

I took my cat back to the vet yesterday and her blood sugar was down to normal range and she had zero ketones in her blood. She's only been on Senvelgo for 3 days. How could this work so quickly? Could she have had a false positive? The vet says I'll need to continue the med for the time being with her monitoring at intervals. She goes back on Monday, January 5. For some reason the veterinary practice does not hand off their numbers to you - so I'll have to ask when I go in and write them down.

Although the vet and I settled on a daily feeding amount, I am still uncertain whether to break this up into small meals every few hours, or larger meals at key times of the day. Anyone have any input on that?

Thanks for any input you might have.

 

[CORKY]

I took my cat back to the vet yesterday and her blood sugar was down to normal range and she had zero ketones in her blood. She's only been on Senvelgo for 3 days. How could this work so quickly? Could she have had a false positive? The vet says I'll need to continue the med for the time being with her monitoring at intervals. She goes back on Monday, January 5. For some reason the veterinary practice does not hand off their numbers to you - so I'll have to ask when I go in and write them down.

Although the vet and I settled on a daily feeding amount, I am still uncertain whether to break this up into small meals every few hours, or larger meals at key times of the day. Anyone have any input on that?

Thanks for any input you might have.

@Bron and Sheba (GA)
@Sienne and Gabby (GA)

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

To the best of my knowledge, there's no data on how long a cat needs to remain on Senvelgo despite blood glucose being in normal range. Most of the information relates to when to stop the medication due to problematic side effects.

We generally advise several small meals per day.

 

[SmallestSparrow]

SGLT2 drugs can lower blood sugar very quickly. Remember from my previous explanation —it is dumping all of the sugar out of the blood stream and into the urine in the kidneys. Blood sugar should be normal. This can start within hours of the first dose and reach full effectiveness within a week in humans

I’m concerned about your statement that ketones are now resolved: how high were they when your cat was started?

no this is NOT an indication that the original diagnosis was an error. And it is NOT an indication of remission. As long as your cat is on an SGLT2 their blood sugar should be normal. You are likely committed to having him on this drug as the only way to know if he doesn’t need it is to stop—risking complications from diabetes. As far as I could find, the only times cats were stopped was when they had serious side effects from the medication.

I can’t speak re timing of food for cats. In humans meal timing isn’t important, and humans who fast for Ramadan (no food or water sun up to suns down) while on SGLT2 medications do not have problems with hypoglycemia but do have potential for dehydration.

good luck with your kitty, be sure to keep testing for ketones and monitoring liver, kidney and pancreatic function