Scrambling to get glucose down at home, when at vet office numbers are good!

My cat Tigger was diagnosed with diabetes about 3 weeks ago. Spent a week at vet (holy crap the cost). Vet manged to get BG to 128, 95 ect. Well within good range I was told. Sent him home with Vetsulin at 5 units 2x day...30 minutes after food about 12hrs apart. Been doing hours of research since.
However because Tigger has lost so much weight (no scruff really to work with on neck or shoulder area) the vet wants me to give shot near front legs...almost between them. That's been a disaster.
My once low key cat is now having fits, growling, swatting at everyone in house ect. I'm missing more than hitting with shot. My husband tried to hold him for me and ended up bit and stratched. Forget testing at home I've tried but that's worse then the shot for growling and attacking. The one time I manged to get one test in the morning numbers on relion premier compact was 546 at 7am
Then vet says bring him in once a week to see his numbers. Ok but he fights tooth and nail to go into carrier. Get him to vet and the numbers are always 300 or up. So Vet keeps him for the day, gets his numbers down and I pick him up.
Tigger is then more cranky and cycle starts all over.
I feel like I'm failing him and he'll have slow death because I can't get this right. The vet seems frustrated with me and I was in tears because I'm trying...I thought about switching to another vet, but the cost for another vet to start over from scratch is way beyond me after this diagnosis and we live in a small town so not alot options.
Tigger does seem better. Still hungry constantly, drinking more than usual for him, but not like it was before diagnosis. Gained 2 pounds back in last two weeks and finally peeing in his litter box again.
HELP. Has anyone dealt with a similar situation.

 

Yes I have.... my cat is a pain with blood check. You just have to breeeeathe.... your cat feeds off your anxiety. Do what you can. I just go off facial and physical queues of my cat. This is new to him as it is to you, but he has the shitty end of the deal.... getting poked all day all of a sudden. I don't test my furbaby twice a day, it was just too hard. Maybe once a month.... continue with the 5 ui twice a day, 30 minutes after eating, for several weeks.... give him low to no carb food and treats... make sure he always has pate food available to eat throughout the day. I use Fancy Feast Natural Pate has 0-1% carb, then I give Young Again kibble because my cats are used to a combination of wet and dry... and the Young Again claims to be low low carb...I use their raw freeze dried treats also... so let your cat mellow with that routine for a while.... you breathe, kitty breathes..... by just doing that you will see weight gain slowly, kitty getting back to himself slowly, less peeing slowly and less water drinking..... just keep it steady, consistent and calm.....after 4 weeks or so take him to the vet 8 hours after his last insulin, get him checked and see if there needs to be an adjustment on his insulin. Just remember if kitty is difficult to do glucose checks, don't stress.... just learn kitty queues on how kitty feels..... you can really see in their eyes how they feel ... and most importantly, breeeeeaaaattthe.

 

Thank you for your help. It helps to know others have cats that have been cranky too. I guess I've always been lucky with my pets over the years. Mostly minor issues nothing this big has ever happen, so very stressed trying to do best for Tigger.
On the free feeding..he's always been a wet food preference cat, but how do you free feed with pates. Right now he gobbles up anything and everything. I tried to eat my husband's breakfast burrito the other day on the regular table....that's a first. He has never gotten on the table when we are eating.
One day the vet said feed him when he wants which is constantly. Then said only twice a day? It won't hurt glucose numbers?

 

So first of all, 5U Vetsulin is a huge dose. Almost no cats need that high of a dose. I very strongly suspect he is overdosed - the way to confirm that is through home testing. Some tips - https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

When testing, you want to fast for two hours before preshot. Then test. Then feed, wait 30 mins, then give the shot. Do your best to test again about 4 hours after the shot - for Vetsulin this is usually the lowest BG of the cycle.

What happens in an overdose situation is the insulin drops him too hard and/or too fast, potentially dangerously low. His liver panics and dumps stored glycogen and counterregulatory hormones in order to spike BG back up as a protective measure. The effects of that can last up to 6 cycles/3 days...so often times when people bring the cat to the vet for a curve, they catch them on a high and flat day.


He is ravenous because he's unregulated, his body cannot properly utilize what he's eating. So yes, if he is hungry let him eat - do not restrict to twice a day. Just keep an eye on weight gain, because not all cats have the "I'm full" sensation and may start to overeat.

What food is he eating?

 

I'm completely clueless on anything related to pet diabetes. This is a big first for me.
Like I stated before ....testing his BG is almost a no go right now, I'm down right lucky if the insulin shot gets in. So I want too and will keep trying to test periodically, but like Lewys momma adviced it might be visual clues right now. Tigger is so very stressed and mom too. I was warned by vet to watch for a "drunk cat" and they gave me this sweet stuff to put in his mouth if so.
As for food, he's always prefered wet. I've switched between fancy feast, 9 lives and sheba (that's all our female cat will eat) over the years based on what's available. He has before this gotten temptation treats pericarditis and he loves dry dog food. Lol my dogs aren't happy they can't free feed anymore.

 

Is a Libre an option for you? At least for a week or two to see what is going on.

The trouble with visual clues is often times it's too late when they get that way. Believe me I understand the testing issues, but at the dose he's at (again not guaranteed but very likely a big overdose) his body won't be able to keep fighting it...and that's when you get into trouble with hypos.

The only reason he would legitimately need that high a dose on low carb diet is if he has an underlying disease causing insulin resistance.

 

I honestly don't know. I didn't know there was a no blood device for diabetes.
He did have a uniary blockage about 5 years ago and was told he might get another one more easily again, but beyond that never any official diagnosis of anything else.
When we took home weeks ago the vet never said there was other issues. Honestly the vet never even said the low carb diet I picked that up from this forum and my hours of reading about feline diabetes.

 

I just always leave pate out on plates, if he eats it all I put more out.... it sounds like alot but once he is on a routine of food and shots and gets more regulated he will eat less...

 

Thank you once again for the advice. Tigs is still growling when you mess with him, but have used treats to distract for shot But I've tried to let him and me breath like suggested and I've noticed he's not happy, but not as cranky.

 

Changing vets can be a good thing. We did and man what a difference for the good we are now seeing. Our normal vet had us coming in once a week for them to check her sugar and the numbers would be slightly lower from the week before and the vet would raise the amount of insulin she wanted us to give by a full unit. The vet we have used for years is the one that diagnosed the diabetes and though I trust them I wanted our cat to also get a 2nd opinion on her treatment plan. So I made the appt to take our cat to another clinic. Ever since she started seeing the new vet our cats numbers started dropping faster, where as with our other vet her numbers would only go down slightly by slightly her numbers would be 324 one week and 298 the next. The new vet we are seeing seems more knowledgeable and puts my mind at ease when we have questions. Takes the time to show us how to do at home testing which right now is still a learning process for us. The cat will not cooperate and we are still experimenting with tips and tricks to do home BG testing. Right now she is addicted to the Temptations Purree squeezable treats and will do just about anything if she seeing the Purree tube in our hand.
After the visit to the new vet and the assessor her and they do bloodwork, the new vet calls us in the evening and goes over her blood work numbers, and tells us what they feel we should be doing based on what they are seeing. We have been seeing the new vet for a few months and we are happy with her low numbers now. She started out at over 500 when diagnosed and now she is down to an average of 124-165. So it was worth it to get a second opinion.
Believe me I have been in your shoes. I was bawling my eyes out one night because I felt like I was not going my best to take care of our cat. And I kid you not, the vet called 20 minutes later to go over her bloodwork numbers and I was still sitting in the hallway outside of our bedroom after I had just finished wiping away my tears and pulled myself together. It was as if that phone call from the vet was meant to happen right at that time. When the phone call was over I felt so much better. The vet had no idea I was a complete mess just prior to his call. Had I gotten the call sooner I would have been too much of a mess to talk to the vet. And this happened just a few weeks ago.

PS we did not start from scratch with the new vet they simply fine tuned and tweaked the plan. yes they did more bloodwork but it was good because they did a more comperhensive bloodtest to give us an better over all picture plus it had been 2 months since she had complete bloodwork done. It was worth that added cost and the outcome made it all worth it. So changing vets or getting another opinion could be a good thing. Just breath and take it easy.

 

Thank you,
I have not dragged rigger back to vet in over a week and while testing as been a no go..letting us both breath has allowed us to at least get the shot in, although I've had at least one fur shot every other day it seems..I'm taking that at least I'm getting close enough to even do that.

 

Happy dance.
I sneaked in a BG test about mid-day yesterday when Tigger was pretty mellow and it was 245. Ok not the best, but compared to two or so weeks ago it's awesome in my book. I'm hoping that means I'm getting the insulin in right. His dandruff is clearing up and not drinking excessive. Ans even jumped on to cabinet. He hasnt jumped in months. At the time we blamed old age and jointss not diabetes Hungry still alot though.
As you can see he wasn't happy about the BG test and was crankier at night time shot. Lol so will have to wait to sneak another one in.

 

How many hours after he got his shot did you do the BG check?

 

Shot was between 730am to 8 am. Because I was up about 645am and feed all the pets.
Bg test was about 3:30 pm so around 8hrs after morning shot.
Weekdays. AM shots are 630 to 45 and PM 645 to 730.
Weekends a little later either way mostly because I sleep in some.

 

So a check done at 3:30 was about 7 1/2 hrs after the shot so that means your kitty was just a little over half way through the 12 hr time frame. That means Your kitties body had used a little over half of insulin you gave in the shot that morning. So continue with a low carb diet of wet food. Built the trust with your furry kid by rewarding with a low carb treat when you have to do shots and BG testing. I use
Whole Life Pet Living Treats Probiotics Salmon Recipe Cat Treats, 1 oz.

 

I've been using a few aw shrimp or chicken hearts as treat for shots. He really likes them.
But I'll look into the ones you recommend for a separate BG treat.

 

I boil a chicken breast for my boy for treats, then I tear it up, put it in containers in the freezer & pull them out as needed. He loves it & does great with testing.

 

Do you give it frozen or thawed.
until the diabetes. We used dry temptation treats.

 

I give it thawed out. My boy had all but his 2 top canines pulled a year ago so we don't do freeze dried treats & that's also when I took his dry food away from him.