Hello,
My name is Sarka and I am a new member on this forum, so am following advice and introducing myself and more importantly my cat. I have been having some troubles with him and am hoping to find some advice on this forum. Apologies that this inital story is going to be a bit long, but am going to try to give all relevant information.
Kuula is an 11 years old neutered male cat (age is estimated, I got him from a shelter 7 years ago). His name means "ball" in Finnish, because he was fat - partly due to the fact that soon after him I rescued a badly starved kitten who needed to have lots and lots of food, to which everyone else was helping themselves
So, obesity. In autumn 2007, he was treated for crystals in his urine, after which the vet recommended urinary diet food (dry Royal Canine Urinary). For the next year or so, I kept him on strict diet to reduce his weight, but was not very successful (we managed some weight reduction, but not as much as was needed). Then in April 2009 he was diagnosed with diabetes. (Under horrible circumstances. He had a scab on his forehead which would not heal. I thought it was an infected wound from one of his fights with my other cat. The vet quickly assessed it as an allergic reaction and gave him a shot of cortisone, followed by the most horrible 24 hours, during which he first went quiet, then started vomiting incontrollably, and eventually stopped responding to any kind of stimulus, just lay with his head in the water bowl. He also lost one kilo of weight. The cause was the cortisone, which apparently is incompatible with diabetes. Then he spent a week at the vet's who would not commit for full five days to saying whether he was going to survive.) He had some signs before which I was ignorant of: he urinated too much (which I put down to a bad quality of cat litter, as I had recently changed brands), he could no longer jump to the table (weak hind legs, but I put it down to his obesity).
He's been diabetic for a year now, but I still didn't manage to get him stable. I discovered this forum already back then (the old forum still) and followed some advice from there on testing blood sugar and feeding. The beginnings were difficult. Kuula's eating habits changed dramatically - he would refuse his usual food (which I wanted to continue as I read that other conditions should determine the diet, and I was worried about another blocked urethrea episode), and it was generally very difficult to get him to eat anything at all. He also started scavenging in the rubbish bin and developed some taste for cheese, butter, meat and meat products, which he had always ignored. Together with my vet, we were trying for months to find the right dose of insulin (he's been on Caninsulin from the beginning), but that just was not and is not happening. In the summer, we had several dramatic hypoglycemic episodes (including the meter informing me that the level is too low to measure, which on the meter I use OneTouch Vita means less than 20 mg/dl). His hypoglycemia is difficult to spot, he's usually just sleeping, and on several occasion I found out because he was napping in the wrong spot at the wrong time (I am sure many owners will know that at 11 am, the cat is to be found in the southern corner of the sofa, and if not, something is wrong). I suspect he must have these episodes more often, but I am a working person... In the first months he was allowed to eat as much as he liked and whatever he liked (to make up for the severe loss of weight due to dehydration and also because of his sudden pickiness), but once we learned to live with his condition and he was more responsive to what I chose to put in his bowl, I started keeping him on a regular feeding regime. He gets food twice a day right after his shot at regular intervals of 12h, he gets 30g of urinary dry food (which slightly varies, I bought all known kinds when he wouldn't eat, so am using up the supplies, currently it's Purina for sterile cats) in the morning and 45g of Purina Mousse (wet food) in the evening. (He is an indoor cat; his body weight is stable and according to the vet, it's his ideal weight.) Occasionally, I will give him a few pellets of dry food for snacks (around 3g). He has no clinical symptoms - when awake, is cheerful, likes his food, fights with my other cat, cuddles and purrs. Yet, his blood sugar levels are very uneven. Even on regular food, he may have 300 one day and 550 the next day. I have seen some of the spreadsheets on this forum, and am envious, mine would be very often in the black numbers (I will make one, but need to ask where to find the template). A couple of months ago, I did a curve measurement for him (which I will try to attach if I manage) taken at 2h intervals over 48 hours. The troubling finding was that even if his evening sugal level was at say 420, he experienced a dip to 45 at his lowest point. (He had a consistent lowest point 6h after shooting.) It was also uneven - during the day, he wouldn't go as low, but during the night he had hypoglycemia. Petrified of those low levels, I have pretty much resorted to keeping him in permanent hyperglycemic state. I have adjusted his insulin to a higher dose in the morning and a lower dose in the evening (currently 2.5u AM and 1u PM), but didn't have a chance to make another curve. I feel at a loss as what to do. My vet was baffled that he is so unstable and that his values (the regular evening blood tests) range so much with no apparent reason. I am worried about Kuula's long term health and about that one hypoglycemic episode which I will not spot in time. I do not know about his ketones (never heard of them until I read about them a couple of hours ago on this forum), but did previously try to check his urine - an impossible task, I only managed to get there in time to catch a urine sample. I would be very grateful if I could find some advice here.
Some specific questions I have:
- Could I have a blank template of the spreadsheet?
- I have also read Dr. Lisa's web on cat nutrition and am wondering whether the big differences in the day and night values could be due to the food: dry food in the morning, wet food in the evening. Should I try to switch to wet food only? Or try a different feeding regime? (I am somewhat limited in times of day I think; I feed my two cats in separate rooms to have some control over their intake, my other cat can eat her food and his food in a nick of time, which also makes me hesitant about getting a cat feeder - I think she would eat it all before he even got to the bowl)
- Can I stop with the urinary food without running a high risk of crystals again? (He doesn't like the wet urinary food.)
- I am resident in Belgium. Is any other member of the forum from here, who may have experience with availability of other types of food/insulin?
- Can anyone give any advice on how to get him more stable and, importantly, keep his blood sugar values within a reasonable range?
I really appreciate your help.
Sarka
My name is Sarka and I am a new member on this forum, so am following advice and introducing myself and more importantly my cat. I have been having some troubles with him and am hoping to find some advice on this forum. Apologies that this inital story is going to be a bit long, but am going to try to give all relevant information.
Kuula is an 11 years old neutered male cat (age is estimated, I got him from a shelter 7 years ago). His name means "ball" in Finnish, because he was fat - partly due to the fact that soon after him I rescued a badly starved kitten who needed to have lots and lots of food, to which everyone else was helping themselves
So, obesity. In autumn 2007, he was treated for crystals in his urine, after which the vet recommended urinary diet food (dry Royal Canine Urinary). For the next year or so, I kept him on strict diet to reduce his weight, but was not very successful (we managed some weight reduction, but not as much as was needed). Then in April 2009 he was diagnosed with diabetes. (Under horrible circumstances. He had a scab on his forehead which would not heal. I thought it was an infected wound from one of his fights with my other cat. The vet quickly assessed it as an allergic reaction and gave him a shot of cortisone, followed by the most horrible 24 hours, during which he first went quiet, then started vomiting incontrollably, and eventually stopped responding to any kind of stimulus, just lay with his head in the water bowl. He also lost one kilo of weight. The cause was the cortisone, which apparently is incompatible with diabetes. Then he spent a week at the vet's who would not commit for full five days to saying whether he was going to survive.) He had some signs before which I was ignorant of: he urinated too much (which I put down to a bad quality of cat litter, as I had recently changed brands), he could no longer jump to the table (weak hind legs, but I put it down to his obesity). He's been diabetic for a year now, but I still didn't manage to get him stable. I discovered this forum already back then (the old forum still) and followed some advice from there on testing blood sugar and feeding. The beginnings were difficult. Kuula's eating habits changed dramatically - he would refuse his usual food (which I wanted to continue as I read that other conditions should determine the diet, and I was worried about another blocked urethrea episode), and it was generally very difficult to get him to eat anything at all. He also started scavenging in the rubbish bin and developed some taste for cheese, butter, meat and meat products, which he had always ignored. Together with my vet, we were trying for months to find the right dose of insulin (he's been on Caninsulin from the beginning), but that just was not and is not happening. In the summer, we had several dramatic hypoglycemic episodes (including the meter informing me that the level is too low to measure, which on the meter I use OneTouch Vita means less than 20 mg/dl). His hypoglycemia is difficult to spot, he's usually just sleeping, and on several occasion I found out because he was napping in the wrong spot at the wrong time (I am sure many owners will know that at 11 am, the cat is to be found in the southern corner of the sofa, and if not, something is wrong). I suspect he must have these episodes more often, but I am a working person... In the first months he was allowed to eat as much as he liked and whatever he liked (to make up for the severe loss of weight due to dehydration and also because of his sudden pickiness), but once we learned to live with his condition and he was more responsive to what I chose to put in his bowl, I started keeping him on a regular feeding regime. He gets food twice a day right after his shot at regular intervals of 12h, he gets 30g of urinary dry food (which slightly varies, I bought all known kinds when he wouldn't eat, so am using up the supplies, currently it's Purina for sterile cats) in the morning and 45g of Purina Mousse (wet food) in the evening. (He is an indoor cat; his body weight is stable and according to the vet, it's his ideal weight.) Occasionally, I will give him a few pellets of dry food for snacks (around 3g). He has no clinical symptoms - when awake, is cheerful, likes his food, fights with my other cat, cuddles and purrs. Yet, his blood sugar levels are very uneven. Even on regular food, he may have 300 one day and 550 the next day. I have seen some of the spreadsheets on this forum, and am envious, mine would be very often in the black numbers (I will make one, but need to ask where to find the template). A couple of months ago, I did a curve measurement for him (which I will try to attach if I manage) taken at 2h intervals over 48 hours. The troubling finding was that even if his evening sugal level was at say 420, he experienced a dip to 45 at his lowest point. (He had a consistent lowest point 6h after shooting.) It was also uneven - during the day, he wouldn't go as low, but during the night he had hypoglycemia. Petrified of those low levels, I have pretty much resorted to keeping him in permanent hyperglycemic state. I have adjusted his insulin to a higher dose in the morning and a lower dose in the evening (currently 2.5u AM and 1u PM), but didn't have a chance to make another curve. I feel at a loss as what to do. My vet was baffled that he is so unstable and that his values (the regular evening blood tests) range so much with no apparent reason. I am worried about Kuula's long term health and about that one hypoglycemic episode which I will not spot in time. I do not know about his ketones (never heard of them until I read about them a couple of hours ago on this forum), but did previously try to check his urine - an impossible task, I only managed to get there in time to catch a urine sample. I would be very grateful if I could find some advice here.
Some specific questions I have:
- Could I have a blank template of the spreadsheet?
- I have also read Dr. Lisa's web on cat nutrition and am wondering whether the big differences in the day and night values could be due to the food: dry food in the morning, wet food in the evening. Should I try to switch to wet food only? Or try a different feeding regime? (I am somewhat limited in times of day I think; I feed my two cats in separate rooms to have some control over their intake, my other cat can eat her food and his food in a nick of time, which also makes me hesitant about getting a cat feeder - I think she would eat it all before he even got to the bowl)
- Can I stop with the urinary food without running a high risk of crystals again? (He doesn't like the wet urinary food.)
- I am resident in Belgium. Is any other member of the forum from here, who may have experience with availability of other types of food/insulin?
- Can anyone give any advice on how to get him more stable and, importantly, keep his blood sugar values within a reasonable range?
I really appreciate your help.
Sarka
