#s

[Kimberly Curran]

hello!
My kitty coco was diagnosed a few weeks ago. We started him on 1 unit 2x a day and when I brought him in to be tested about 3 weeks later he was low so the vet told me to skip the dose and change to 1/2 unit 2x a day. Then one morning he crashed..... I luckily had Karo syrup in the house and he came right back. Then when I brought him to the vet his # were normal and continued to be in the normal range without any insulin. The vet wants me to wait a few days with no insulin and bring him back in to be tested without any. I also think they aren’t really sure what is happening..... ideas? Thanks!!!

 

[Idjit's mom]

Hi Kimberly. I'm sorry to hear that Coco had a hypo event. That's not fun at all! Did you change Coco's diet when you began giving insulin? My vet advised a low carb diet, which we transitioned to, but did not advise that this could significantly lower the blood sugar level very quickly, which it did! We also were not home testing much at the time and Idjit also had a mild hypo. I did not like that at all and began testing as advised here on the board.
I would suggest that you invest in a home testing kit and see what Coco's blood sugar levels are. A diabetic cat is still diabetic even if food controlled. Idjit is in this state, OTJ (off the juice) or in other words, in remission. It's rare but can happen in a very short period of time. You still need to test to be sure the cat is staying in remission. Home testing also saves you money avoiding more costly vet visits for infrequent and possibly less accurate results from "vet stress". Idjit's BG is always higher at the vet.
Please create your signature and the spreadsheet we use here to track the BG (blood glucose levels).
Here are the links:
1. SIGNATURE
2. SPREADSHEET INSTRUCTIONS
3. UNDERSTANDING THE SPREADSHEET
Read the following link that helps our new members:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/fdmb-faq.htm
We can help with diet advice, learning to home test and support you going forward.

 

[Tina and Boozle]

This is what we are experiencing now. I can't say for sure why, but we cut down to a 3% carb food and he went down a little bit each day over a few days. We are only on day 4, (I think. The days run together somwtimes) so we are still in the "wait and see" period.

It definitely helps us to home test, though. It just gives us a clearer picture of what is going on. The spreadsheet is really nice too, because it gives you a visual representation of the data which makes it easier to see trends.