Should we increase insulin dose? Leg weakness returns after progress

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Elmo's Mama

Elmo's Mama

Member Since 2020
Hello,

Elmo's diabetes was first caught (12/20) after losing feeling in both legs. After insulin treatment, cutting out all dry food, and sticking to a Pate diet, he started jumping around like a kitten again.

Things were going very well until this morning. He barely ate his breakfast, but had about 15 treats so I gave him his 1 unit of insulin. We noticed his back legs were slightly weak and he had trouble balancing.

We checked his BG even though he just ate and got insulin and it was 241. The first time we tested after his diagnosis, it was 286 (AM pre shot) and the vet said it was "a good number" and to keep his dose at 1 unit.

Has anyone experienced this? Is his dose too low?

Thank you in advance!

If it helps, Elmo's back story: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...betes-after-leg-weakness.240249/#post-2707047

*Update: Vet says to keep it at 1u and since he's not drinking or urinating excessively, it's just diabetic neuropathy. I put off getting B12 for him since he was doing so very well...
 
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Hi Elmo’s Mom

Unfortunately, you don’t have enough data for us to be able to answer your question. A number above 200 pre shot is not bad, your vet is right. But we adjust dose here by the nadir, lowest point in a cycle, not the preshot numbers. Do you think you can start testing more consistently? At least before each shot and one more time mid-cycle. Vetsulin hits hard and fast. Are you making sure he has food onboard at least 30 minutes before the shot? I’d try to test around +4 since that’s usually when Vetsulin peaks. Lastly, Vetsulin is also called caninsulin because it was made for canines who have lower metabolism than cats. It’s not always the best insulin for felines. I’d consider a gentler long lasting insulin like prozync or Lantus. The leg issue sounds like neuropathy but typically a cat won’t recover so fast. Has your vet done any other neurological tests? What about blood work? I believe low potassium levels can also affect their movement. A lot of us give our cats who suffer from neuropathy methyl b12. You may want to try that but I’d suggest running more tests to make sure it’s in fact neuropathy and not something else
 
to control blood sugar you have 2 methods :
1. life style changes as in diet and exercising .
2. medications .

so you can be more playful with him to engage exercising , changing food from dry to wet helps a lot but what does help even more is to find a low carb wet food , cats are carnivores (meat eaters) btw , it is the ultimate food for cats in my opinion , but needs preparation , also indoor cats are so finicky and might refuse it , there is concerns about raw/semi raw food it might transmit parasitic diseases and sickness .

as to medications i used lantus for my cat , and as aleluia said i had to test blood sugar extensively the 1st couple of days to get a picture of how my cat is responding to insulin and to make sure that no hypos are occurring which is considered an emergency and a life threatening condition .

when my cat 1st developed diabetes she suffered i guess for 2-3 months of high blood sugar before she was diagnosed and apparently this affected her hinder limbs and she had trouble jumping , but as soon as a month passed after controlling blood sugar her legs improved a lot and returned to normal .

in short : always try to get a lower carb wet food , you need more frequent blood sugar testings at first , you don't want hypos as it is life threatening than hyperglycemia , 200 mg/dl is better than the possibility of hypoglycemia occurrence .

wish elmo best of luck and soon recovery .
 
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are you giving b12 to help with the neuropathy? Try to always get a preshot number and at least one mid cycle and/or before bed reading. It's hard to know if it's too much or too little without data.
 
Elmo's Mama said:
Thank you all very much for your help. I will be testing more frequently now so we can get a better idea of what his cycle is. He seems to be doing much better, but we won't know until we see some data. I appreciate this forum so much.
Click to expand...
In your chart it shows that you are only giving insulin once a day. Is that correct?
 
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