Hi everyone, I’m sorry my post is so long but I figured it would be best to just write a full rundown of events…… My 13 year old cat was diagnosed with pancreatitis and diabetes around the first of September. Her bg was something like 328. She had some hair/skin issues, no energy, was peeing a lot, and started just lying beside the water bowl. She ate like she was starving; she wanted to eat all the time! She had gotten to 12 pounds but I had been trying to switch her to wet food and she had lost down to 11 + ounces. She loves kibble. Even with the pancreatitis, at this point her appetite was not affected; she was eating like always. They put her on Lantus every 12 hours. These were her numbers after the first week on 1 unit of insulin on 9/12/14: 8am - insulin, 10:40 – 202, 2pm – 212, 4pm – 234, 7pm – 271. They moved it to 1.5 units. She still had no energy; she would go a few feet then lay down. Toward the end of September she slowed down on her food and water, and developed an apparent diabetic neuropathy. She started limping on her right front leg on 9/21/14. She is now having to walk on her wrist. Besides that, she acted sicker. I tried a vitamin B-12 pill because I had read of the benefits in cats with her symptoms but it made her sicker, she just threw it up. Friday and Saturday, 9/26 and 9/27 she did not eat anything during the day. She ate a few bites of kibble those nights. Her sugar stayed low while she was barely eating so they advised not to give insulin. They redone blood and urine tests and also did x-rays on that Friday 9/26 when she was the sickest. They did not find anything else. They had to give her Prednisolone just to get her eating. I started it on 9/27. She got down to 10 pounds + ounces. She started eating a little better, but nothing like she was. Her sugar was not too high while she wasn’t eating; it was 154 on 9/29. On Thursday 10/2, her sugar went back up to 334 so I started her 1.5 U of Lantus insulin back. Even with the evening insulin shot, she drank water all Thursday night. Friday 10/3 she seemed to feel worse and she ate less again. She also went back to lying beside the water bowl a lot. I gave her 1.5 units at 7:30am Friday and at 11:30am her bg was 225. I worried the Pred was making her sugar higher. I talked to the vet Friday night, but her concern was more for the not eating. We agreed to skip the Pred and see if she would eat Saturday morning. She ate well that Saturday 10/4 morning without the Pred but she was still extremely thirsty. Also, besides lying beside the water, she added lying in the litter box! She was peeing and pooping ok, so I didn’t understand that. I can’t understand why she got sicker again since we were working on the diabetes, even if it’s not managed yet? Is it the pancreatitis? Why did it come back this fast and worse than the first time? Well, she continued to eat so I never had to give her anymore of the Pred. But, her sugar has continued to rise. Thus my next chapter of extreme confusion....
She still has no energy; she can still only go a short distance without lying down. Also, her front left wrist seems to be weakening too. She is still eating well. But, her belly rumbles and she has bad gas. This never happened before she became sick. I started her on Purina DM dry when she stopped eating. She had been eating Purina One dry before all this started, but I figured if I had to feed her dry to get her to eat, get the one with lower carbs. She loves dry and has kinda over eaten that stuff lately; about 4 ounces a day plus Fancy Feast wet! She’s back to almost 12 pounds. I’m going to try again to wean here back off the dry if she will continue to eat the canned fancy feast. I only gave here 1.5 ounces of dry yesterday 10/23 and she was happy with the canned. I’m going to list some dates and BG #s below. I’m still not the greatest at checking BGs. She will tolerate spot checks, but my attempt at a curve annoyed her. Here is what confuses me the most right now: Every time they bump the Lantus dosage up, her BGs go up! I don’t understand that? If the dose wasn’t high enough, looks like we would see either no change, or tiny improvements with an increase. What could be going on!? Please, do any of you guys have any ideas, advice, or similar experiences? I would appreciate any help you can give me. Am I not doing enough? Or, am I not doing the right things? I’m so worried and so confused. We’ve been at this for two months and we have higher BGs now with treatment than we did when we started. I don’t know what to do.
I give her shots around 8am and 8pm nowadays. Here are some Lantus dosages and BGs over the last month through the increases:
10/5 – 7PM: BG 302 then 1.5 U (we had a vet visit 2 days later and went up to 2 U but I can’t remember the BG)
10/12 – home tests - 8AM: BG 288 then 2 U; 10AM: BG 320; 1PM: BG 337; 8PM: 2 U
10/17 – Raised to 3 U because of excessive water drinking and huge pees.
10/22 – vet curve - 8AM: given 3 U; 10AM: BG 326; 1:30PM: BG345; 4:30PM: BG 353; 8PM: 4 U
10/23 – this one may not count because I didn’t give the 4 U a few days to “settle” but I was curious…. and now even more worried because it’s the highest value I’ve seen with her so far: 8AM: 4 U; 8PM: BG 383 then 4 U
Thank you so much!
She still has no energy; she can still only go a short distance without lying down. Also, her front left wrist seems to be weakening too. She is still eating well. But, her belly rumbles and she has bad gas. This never happened before she became sick. I started her on Purina DM dry when she stopped eating. She had been eating Purina One dry before all this started, but I figured if I had to feed her dry to get her to eat, get the one with lower carbs. She loves dry and has kinda over eaten that stuff lately; about 4 ounces a day plus Fancy Feast wet! She’s back to almost 12 pounds. I’m going to try again to wean here back off the dry if she will continue to eat the canned fancy feast. I only gave here 1.5 ounces of dry yesterday 10/23 and she was happy with the canned. I’m going to list some dates and BG #s below. I’m still not the greatest at checking BGs. She will tolerate spot checks, but my attempt at a curve annoyed her. Here is what confuses me the most right now: Every time they bump the Lantus dosage up, her BGs go up! I don’t understand that? If the dose wasn’t high enough, looks like we would see either no change, or tiny improvements with an increase. What could be going on!? Please, do any of you guys have any ideas, advice, or similar experiences? I would appreciate any help you can give me. Am I not doing enough? Or, am I not doing the right things? I’m so worried and so confused. We’ve been at this for two months and we have higher BGs now with treatment than we did when we started. I don’t know what to do.
I give her shots around 8am and 8pm nowadays. Here are some Lantus dosages and BGs over the last month through the increases:
10/5 – 7PM: BG 302 then 1.5 U (we had a vet visit 2 days later and went up to 2 U but I can’t remember the BG)
10/12 – home tests - 8AM: BG 288 then 2 U; 10AM: BG 320; 1PM: BG 337; 8PM: 2 U
10/17 – Raised to 3 U because of excessive water drinking and huge pees.
10/22 – vet curve - 8AM: given 3 U; 10AM: BG 326; 1:30PM: BG345; 4:30PM: BG 353; 8PM: 4 U
10/23 – this one may not count because I didn’t give the 4 U a few days to “settle” but I was curious…. and now even more worried because it’s the highest value I’ve seen with her so far: 8AM: 4 U; 8PM: BG 383 then 4 U
Thank you so much!
She's moving around a little bit more as well. I haven't been able to get a pic of that wrist yet. It only flattens with the weight of walking; my camera can't catch it. When she sits, it doesn't bow much. She still uses it for bathing so it must not be too painful yet. My newest concern is sneezing, she's been sneezing a lot the last couple of days. Only a little clear discharge after a big sneeze, none noticed any other time....