Rescued cat with diabetes

[Mel070278]

Hi all! I just found your site and have been reading some articles about my little feline friend. My niece found this cat in an abandoned house in their neighborhood. He is approx 14 or so years old and weighed 4.9 lbs. After a routine vet visit, deworming and lots of fluids he was up to 6.2 lbs. Turns out he has diabetes after he continued to not gain weight. I am trying to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can, because his diabetes seems to be unstable at this point. On Friday I tried to do a glucose curve with readings of 419/189/486 in four hour increments. Today I am doing another curve in one hour increments, with readings of 102/71/59/76. I did not know that I wasn't supposed to give insulin this morning, hence the drop in numbers. I gave caro syrup and food at the 59 reading.

Charlie gets 1 unit of Humulin twice per day. He has diarrhea on and off but I monitor his dehydration. He is also getting B12 injections once per week (blood test showed low levels). He eats Purina (the prescription diet for diabetics).

Any thoughts/suggestions/advice? I want to make sure I'm doing what I can for him. I don't understand why there is such a a variance, and until today why I haven't been able to control his blood sugar/diarrhea.

Thanks in advance for any input!!!

Melissa & Charlie

 

[Carl & Polly & Bob (GA)]

Melissa,
As shown by the numbers you posted, that 1 unit dose is having a tremendous effect. Before you give even that "small" dose again, please post the test number here so someone can advise you as to how much. Humulin works fast and drops the BG pretty steeply. We usually recommend, when first starting out, to not shoot any reading below 200. However, you already have gathered valuable information as to what the 1 unit dose has done for Charlie. With that information, we can help you with dose advice. It would well be that his dose will need to be reduced, or that you may have to skip a shot.

So, keep us up to date, and try to hold off on shooting again until someone can give you some feedback?

Welcome to the board!
Carl in SC

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

Welcome Melissa and Charlie,

As you will read, Humulin is not a popular insulin here. It tends to be harsh, dropping fast and then going back up before 12 hours. The cycle today does indicate that he may be on too large a dose, so there is some hope that maybe a diet change could do the trick. I would post my cycle results when you finish your curve and get some advice on reducing the dose. (Good for you to realize he was going low and intervene.) Here is a thread on using Humulin: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=303

Is he eating Purina wet or dry? The vet on this site explains why wet food is best for diabetic (or any) cat: www.catinfo.org Even Purina wet is higher in carbs than we like to feed and it is very expensive. There are no "prescription" ingredients and we think it is poorer quality food than the standard grocery store brands. We try to feed a food under 8-10% carbs. Here is a food chart that may help: Janet and Binky’s chart Many of us feed Fancy Feast, Friskies, Wellness or Merrick.

 

[Venita]

Hi Melissa,

It sounds like you are doing a great job learning and treating Charlie. Poor dear. I am so glad you and your niece rescued him.

As Sue said, there are better insulins with flatter curves. Like Lantus or Levemir. You should speak to the vet about those. We can show you how to buy those insulins from a Canadian mail order pharmacy at half the price it would cost from a US pharmacy. And you don't need to spend so much money on the prescription diet. You can get better low-carbohydrate foods OTC, like certain Fancy Feast and Friskies flavors. Sue gave you the link to Janet and Binky's list.

Best to you, your niece, and extra-sweet Charlie.

Venita