Spike in BG

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Rachel & Gus

Member Since 2010
Gus spiked up into the 400s and it has been so frustrating. The vet isn't sure what has caused this. I gave him a little chromium picolonate which brought him down to 232 - the first 200s in almost two weeks. Of course he is just going back up and was in the 400s again tonight.

He has dental issues which I'm going to take care of, but the vet doesn't believe that's the cause because she said he has a cavity but not an abscess. Either way, he can't have his dental until he has his echocardiogram which is scheduled for next Wednesday. I also got a urine sample sitting in the fridge which I'm taking tomorrow to have them test to make sure he doesn't have a UTI.

Can I just say how frustrating all of this is. We were going along pretty well and then out of no where this happens. Sometimes this is all so overwhelming. I got so upset a couple days ago that I started crying on the phone with the receptionist at the vet's office.
 
Just in case there is an infection somewhere, can your vet prescribe antibiotics to start him on?

Also, do you have a more updated spreadsheet on Gus?

I hope it turns out to be something simple to deal with.

Suze
 
I just have his numbers on my calendar at home. I've gone through a lot with meters and the previous numbers weren't accurate. Once I got an accurate meter - AlphaTrak2 - I was able to figure out his dose.
I don't know if my vet will start him on antibiotics without a urine test and culture. I took a urine sample to this this morning that had been in the fridge, but they didn't tell me that it had to be less than 12 hours old so that was a complete waste of time and I was so frustrated I had to fight back tears while I was standing in the reception area. Now I have to decide if I try to get another sample or just take him in and let them draw a sample which is painful for him.
 
Poor Rachel...have a good cry! I find that, sometimes, just letting it all leak out through my tear ducts helps relieve the stress and frustration and allows me to think more clearly again. (((HUGS)))
 
Thank you
Pumbaa said:
Poor Rachel...have a good cry! I find that, sometimes, just letting it all leak out through my tear ducts helps relieve the stress and frustration and allows me to think more clearly again. (((HUGS)))
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Thank you! I feel like a good cry is in order but I need to find somewhere to do it. Gus and his sister Carma get so upset when I'm upset.
I difinetly think a glass of wine will help when I get home. This has been a long cruel day.
 
Rachel, I hope you had a nice, big glass of wine tonight, then hid out in the bathroom, in a tub of hot, scented water, and had a good cry without Gus and Carma finding out. :)

Tomorrow is another day to face life's challenges head on.

And, just remember that too little insulin takes a while to do damage, but too much insulin can kill quickly. So you have time to deal with the spikes in Gus' numbers.

When you have a spare minute, try and update Gus' spread sheet so that everyone here can see his BG history as well as his dosing history, and any other information you documented, like how he was feeling/reacting and what foods you were feeding him. All of this helps others see the big picture, so they can help you pinpoint what went wrong when and what to do now.

And, regarding the urine sample for the vet? I'm for getting a fresh one and getting it to them within hours, instead of subjecting Gus to their methods of withdrawing urine. If you can do this. And they should have told you that there is a 12 hour statute of limitations on kitty urine! Glad that no one in your house thought his sample was apple juice while it was in the fridge. Hahahahaha!

Hang in there. We all understand your stress and frustration! (((HUGS)))

Suze

Addendum to the above: I just looked at Gus' SS from January, and it looked like you were increasing doses just based on pre-shot readings. While his pre-shot readings were beautiful and mostly in the blue, pre-shot readings only tell you if you should inject or not. Pre-shot numbers don't determine dosing, the nadir (lowest point on the scale, which is "normally, but ECID) around 6 hours after the injection, is what dosing decisions are based on.

Since the history of Gus is on your calendar, I don't know if you are testing him more frequently these days. While Gus didn't appear to be a diver and bouncer in January, his high numbers now may be due to his dropping too low during the peak of his Lantus, which you might not be catching, and having his liver freak out and react and send more sugar into his system. Again, updating his SS is the only way for anyone to correlate Gus' BG numbers and dosage, to help you out. :)
 
I will try to update his numbers over the weekend. The problem is the meter I was using. I need to go back and add 40 - 50 points to the numbers from the Relion meter. The meter previous to that was more than 70 points off. The AlphaTrak is most accurate but expensive strips. I'm using the Relion and Alphatrak together now.

I have been taking mid point numbers. We didn't give insulin for 24 hours over concerns of Symogie effect because he was a flat line of 400s no matter what time of day I took his glucose. He spiked up to the after I took him off insulin to the 500s.

This morning he was 260. I increased him to 2 units yesterday as the vet felt at this point that's what we should do. She isn't sure if it's Symogie, pancreatitis (although he is playful so probably not), decrease in pancreatic function and need for more insulin or a possible infection from his teeth or undetected UTI.

Last summer he had a UTI and it went completely undetected - no outward symptoms.

The vet is even having a hard time figuring him out and says he has a complicated medical picture compared to most cats. We have done two fructosamine tests and both weren't very good. We have done curves and I've given her the numbers to analyze. For a while - 1.5 Units was the magic dose for him and then we just had this sudden spike which worries me that something else is happening.

Gus has triad disease so there is a lot going on and we try and keep him in the 200s to prevent the dips and dives - although we had a dive a few weeks ago which is one reason we suspected Symogie effect. I pulled back on his insulin but he just kept going up and up for days and it should have cleared out after 72 hours.

I did have the wine last night and a little bit of a cry while walking to the train this morning. Gus did at least give me a good number before coming to work this morning which was his present to me. He is going to the cardiologist next week for his echocardiogram. Will try again for the urine sample.
 
Rachel, I didn't know what triad disease was, so I looked it up. Wow...Gus does have a lot going on, poor little guy. And it sounds like you have a very good relationship with Gus' vet, who understands all of Gus' problems, and is up-to-date on Gus' BG numbers. So, ignore what I said about updating his SS (unless you have spare time), because the vet having the up-to-date numbers is the most important thing in your case.

Glad to hear that Gus gave you a decent lower number this morning! And I hope that the little cry on the way to the train this morning helped purge some of your stress and frustration!

Suze
 
Thank you again Suze. We are going to the cardiologist on Wednesday and then I will find out if Gus is OK for dental surgery. I will update after I get the results.
 
Let us know how Gus does at the cardiologist. Hope he gets a clean bill of health in that area!

From many of the posts I've read here, I hope you count in your blessings the fact that you seem to have an absolutely wonderful vet! Between your care and your vet, Gus seems to be in excellent, loving hands. A cat can't ask for much more than that!

Hope you have made time to unstress this weekend.

Suze
 
Re: BG going down after pain meds

Suze,
Thank you for the well wishes. And yes - I have about three good vets total! Our main vet is at the Cat Hospital in Chicago and she is really good. She has a cat with pancreatitis so she understands the frustrations.

Even though Gus wasn't displaying pain in the typical way - no hiding or getting on the bed during the day - I thought he might be in pain since nothing else was working. I started giving him Buprenex (which we have a script for) on Saturday and his BG has gone down every following test. This morning we are now back to 220 at preshot. He went from 400 Saturday to 325 to 279 to 220. I may have to reduce his Insulin, but want to see if we are going to have anymore spikes first.

Of course this concerns me because something is causing him pain, but who knows what!?!? His teeth? His pancreas? Ug. So frustrating.

The problem with the Buprenex is that he has focal seizures (and we don't know why - his sister also has them to a lesser degree) and the Buprenex increases them, however, he is in pain and that has to be taken care of until we figure out what is going on.

I at least feel some relief that we are getting somewhere. He is much, much more enthusiastic about food as well which makes me suspect it is either related to his teeth or his pancreatitis and not a UTI, but I can't be sure.

I have an email into my vet and awaiting her reply.

Thank you for all the support. I sometimes feel our kitties our being held together by shear will and large cash infusions! But we love them so much! I can't imagine life without my two, but they are getting older and I know we are just going to face more medical problems, not less :(
 
Rachel, I hope they figure out the source of Gus' pain, quickly, and that it's something easy to treat!

Great news that he's eating better and his BG numbers are coming down, now that you've relieved the pain!

Keep us informed of his progress. I'll bet just having the little guy eating again and his numbers better are reducing your stress a bit.

Suze
 
Thanks Suze. I do feel less stressed because he looks a lot better. He never stopped eating, but he didn't seem like he was enjoying it when he did eat. He was agitated all the time. Now he looks all bright again.

His numbers sprang up to 375 last night, but down to 148 this morning so I reduced his insulin. I just want him to stay in the upper 100s and low 200s. I couldn't get a mid point reading because I was at work.

My vet thinks his pancreatitis is causing this, but I'm still concerned about his teeth. The vet thought he had a cavity when we were there a couple of months ago. She said it wasn't urgent to treat, however, Gus had a tooth that abscessed before and the infection went into his eye. I don't want that to happen again.

We are off the the cardiologist tomorrow. Will let you know what they find out. They said the results are immediate which is good and bad. I'm feeling anxious about it because I don't want his heart disease to have progressed. We already have enough to juggle.

Thank you for the support. It helps to have people who understand all of this. As I told my vet, it's really hard because I live alone and my family is in another state. It gets really scary sometimes dealing with these illnesses - wondering if I'm doing the right thing or not. Can you believe I grew up on a farm!?!? It was different then though because my parents were there and I was just a kid.
 
Rachel,

I am so glad that you are less stressed than you were a few days ago!

If your vet thinks Gus' high numbers are being caused by pancreatitis, and Gus has a history of this, what is preventing your vet from prescribing meds to alleviate this problem, rather than you giving Gus pain killers? It's not like you're trying to get out of vet visits...you did the urine routine and that failed because they didn't give you exact information about the longevity of the urine sample. If I was the vet, and I suspected pancreatitis, I'd be writing a script ASAP to help the kitty in question. *sigh*

Don't worry about the cardiologist appointment for Gus tomorrow. Think positive thoughts! And may your wishes come true!

You are so welcome for the support! I, too, live alone, and it's only with the support of the people on these boards that I maintain my sanity!

Good luck with Gus tomorrow! May you only get good news!

Suze
 
Hi Suze,
Hope you are well.
I'm glad you have the boards for support as I see you are on your own too. It can be rough sometimes. Its a little easier now that I've been through so much, but I used to be so scared because I messed a lot of Gus's treatment up in the beginning. Through a lot of experience over 4 years and a lot of vet visits, I feel a little more confident in my skills, but still overwhelmed at times.

Gus passed the echocadiogram with flying colors!!! He has no signs of heart disease now and the cardiologist attributes the inflammation to the upper chambers of his heart last year to the fluids he was on at the time (he was in the hospital). I've sent an email to my vet this morning regarding what we are going to do next about his teeth (poor guy only has 4 left).

As for the pancreatitis - there isn't really any medication for it. It totally sucks as vets don't understand this disease in cats. The cardiologist told me yesterday so many illnesses in cats are mysterious - just like cats themselves! I wish they would lighten up on the mystery though! Anyway - they just treat the symptoms of pancreatitis with pain meds and pepcid ac. If it gets really bad then subq fluids and if its really, really bad, a plasma transfusion which is what Gus had last year.

My vet said that breaking the cycle of pancreatitis is the best thing and then it can get back on track. This is why we are doing the Buprenex and pepcid. I still think Gus has something else going on though. I really worry about his teeth as those problems can go from bad to worse really quickly with diabetics.

As of now, I'm happy because he got good news regarding his heart. I will take any bit of good news that comes our way.

Hope you enjoy your day and thank you again so much for the support. It really does mean a lot!
-Rachel, Gus and Carma
 
Rachel & Gus said:
Gus passed the echocadiogram with flying colors!!! He has no signs of heart disease now and the cardiologist attributes the inflammation to the upper chambers of his heart last year to the fluids he was on at the time (he was in the hospital).
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GREAT NEWS, Rachel!!!! :thumbup One less thing for you to worry about!

Hindsight is always 20/20, and dealing with sick cats is a learning experience, that is for sure. But it sounds like you've always done the best that you could for Gus, and no one can ask for more than that. I give you a lot of credit for dealing with so many issues all on your own. Pumbaa (thankfully) doesn't have any other health issues other than the FD, and that's hard enough to deal with some days.

That's too bad that pain meds and Pepcid are the only way to treat pancreatitis. Here's hoping that he doesn't also have teeth issues, and that the Buprenex and Pepcid break the pancreatitis cycle quickly and Gus is feeling in the pink soon!

You have a great day, too, Rachel. Hopefully you were smiling and dancing on the way to the train this morning, instead of crying. (((HUGS)))

Suze
 
Hi Suze.
Yes - for right now there is one less thing to worry about and I am happy about that!

I took a look at Pumbaa's numbers and I see you are dealing with a lot regarding his swings from high to low. I'm sorry. I know that roller coaster isn't any fun :( I hope you are able to get him evened out.

I wish both of you a good weekend!
-Rachel
 
Rachel, I hope you and Gus has a nice, calm, uneventful weekend!

You are correct...Pumbaa's roller coaster of highs and lows hasn't been fun for him or for me. He acts so much better when he's in the green/blue/yellow range. When he's in reds and blacks, he wants to be left alone by everyone. Unfortunately, the better he feels, the harder it is to test him and inject him. It's a double-edged sword, that's for sure. *LOL*

Suze
 
Hi Suze,
I hope you and Pumbaa are well. Do you know what is causing the rollercoaster with his numbers? Does he have pancreatitis? On the up side - at least his mood helps you gauge what's going on with his blood sugar numbers. Gus can be racing around the house and seem fine and yet his numbers are in the 400s so his mood doesn't always correlate with his actual numbers.

I've mostly taken him off the bubrenex and his numbers are stable now. Maybe the vet was right that it was pancreatitis. I'm not sure. Either way, he is going in for his dental next month as he is going to need at least one tooth removed. He only has 4 left.

Isn't Pumbaa a relatively new diabetic? I'm wondering if that has something to do with his rollercoaster numbers. It has taken me so long to get Gus to an "almost" stable place with his numbers -- but then if something happens like a dental issue or pancreatits, they go up.

I hope you and Pumbaa have a good weekend and that he has some good numbers and that he feels well.
 
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