ROCCO. Here's your thread

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

Hello, I am a new subscriber and not familiar with how this site works. I took my cat to the vet because he was looking & feeling listless. I knew he wasn't feeling well. He is diabetic for a few years and I have been giving him 5 units of insulin. They did a blood test & his glucose test results was 39 which I learned is very very low. They gave him an I.V. of fluids because he was dehydraded and wasn't eating. I was instructed to give him Nutri-Cal Oral Gel which is a High-Calorie Nutritional Supplement in order to increase his glucose level.For a few days now I have been getting very High readings of glucose (375,273) which I was told over 200 I should go back to giving him the 5 units, which I do. I am still getting high glucose testing. My question is SHOULD I INCREASE THE DOSEAGE AND BY HOW MUCH, to get him to a more normal level ? What is a nornal glucose level for a cat? When I call my Vet, all I get is a recording and they never return my calls. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance. Sincerely, Rocco

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

Here is your post so it doesn't get mixed up with the other. You can read all the replies to your post by opening it and choosing FIRST UNREAD POST at the top. Then you reply and choose Submit and everyone can see your reply.

First some questions so we can help What kind of insulin? what dose did you start with? what food is he eating.

We have a very successful protocol for treating feline diabetes. It has three important parts:
1. A slow, long lasting insulin. Lantus, Levemir and ProZinc are popular as they have a slow onset; they are not harsh and they are easiest to use for regulation. Humulin and Canninsulin are less popular because, in most cats, they have a rapid onset and don’t last as long. We like new diabetics to start low and go slow. That is, start at a low dose of .5 or one unit twice daily every 12 hours. And increase slowly, by .25 or .5 units as the numbers indicate.

2. A low carb, wet diet. We like to feed under 8-10% carbs. There are several food charts you can use: Dr. Lisa’s food chart
Hobo’s Food Chart Rhiannon’s 8% and under list

Whatever food you can afford that your cat will eat in that lower range. BUT do not change over to wet until you are hometesting. With our Oliver, the switch meant an overnight change of 100 points downward. If we hadn’t been testing and had given our usual amount., he could have hypoed.

2. And most importantly, hometesting. We think cats tend to be stressed at the vet
and we know stress raises blood glucose levels. So we test our cats at home. You want to know what the number is before you give the shot to be sure the amount you are planning to give is safe. And testing midcycle will show you how the insulin is working. We use human glucometers and test on their ears or paws. Here is a video that shows you how it is done: Video for hometesting

Keep reading and ask questions. We'd love to help you help your kitty.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

Normal blood glucose is about 70 to 150.
I would start insulin at 1 unit twice daily, and then inscreas slowly as indicated.
Also, what are you feeding? canned? dry and what specific kind.