STILL new to diabetes! First post

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mdholley

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Hi, my name is Melinda and my 6 year old male Frankie has diabetes. We were diagnosed exactly 4 weeks ago after a scary weight loss, lethargy and strange fever episode and a first glucose reading in the 500s! Anyway he has been on Lantus for four weeks now, 2 units morning and night the normal 12 hrs apart, and he eats one can of Fancy Feast Elegant medleys at each test. Below is a 12 hr curve we did, and we test morning and night before food and insulin and he doesn't get insulin below 200, so it seems like we have a handle on this but then I feel like we don't. Some mornings and evening his glucose levels read high like 350, and other morning and evenings he will not get a shot at all, I don't feel like we are having any consistency. Then there is how he is behaving, anytime I walk by his food bowl he is howling for another can of food, he is also trying to eat the dog's food, and trying to nibble off of any dirty dishes. Am I really not feeding him enough? I'm not really getting any positive answers on this from my vet for two reasons, first she wants me to only buy the vet prescription food and I will not because its too expensive and he doesn't like it, second shes not happy I am testing at home and wants me to bring him in and leave him every two weeks so she can basically do a curve for me! I am not helpless with this, when I test it doesn't always go smoothly but we get it done and sometimes its seamless, and when he is tested there his levels are outrageous and I know this is the stress factor. The other factor that tells me we aren't well controlled yet is the little box, he is flooding it with urine and its reacting strangely with the litter which makes me think the Ketones are high, but I cannot test them because when I get anywhere near him when he is in the box he stops and goes outside! Oh the looks I get!
So advice? Should I be feeding him more or is he playing me for the super good canned food he loves? Why do you think we aren't controlled yet?
our curve:
7:00- 248
9:30- 196
11:30-152
1:30-153
4:00-220
7:00-293
 
Hi Melinda!

Your Frankie and my Pumbaa were diagnosed at exactly the same time, and Pumbaa is nowhere near regulated yet.

The other, more experienced people will give you better advise than I could, but you may want to consider canned food lower in carbs than the Elegant Medley's. Also, I am still free-feeding Pumbaa just about as much food as he wants until he's regulated, and believe me, he's hungry all the time!

Good luck...it sounds like you know what you are doing!

Suze
 
Welcome! You are doing great! Kudos for hometesting and change in diet. As Suze suggested, a wet food around 8% carbs would be best. Here is our food chart: Janet and Binky’s chart

What is his ideal weight? I stole this formula from Carl who lifted it from someone else, but it is fairly easy: 20-30 calories per pound of ideal body weight, per day. That will keep a healthy cat at its ideal weight. The range of calories is dependent upon a few factors, one of which would be level of activity. Unregulated cats are often hungrier than usual; their bodies are not metabolizing the food well.

Ketones. Sometimes you can put a piece of saran wrap in his favorite part of the box and get a sample. Our Oliver would not pee on command or with an audience, so we ended up putting him in a room with a clean box filled with aquarium gravel. He had to christen the clean box, and we got our sample!

I don't use your insulin, but there are two forums with people who do. Here is the forum for tight regulation http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9and relaxed regulation http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=32 Either one is fine, depending on your life. Most important on both are the starred topics on the top of the page. They will tell you all you need to know about Lantus, including what you are looking for in terms of blood glucose levels.
 
Thanks for the replys! Unfortunately food is the trickiest part isn't it? Well maybe the food change is the key, and I actually used that chart to pick this food, but I'm still confused by the chart too! I was thinking it was most important that the calories from protein be higher, and there are so many flavors but we only use the ones without gravy and around 9 or 10 % calories from carbs, and not to make it any harder we tried others and he wouldn't eat them! I have also been told the Fancy Feast classics may be better as long as they are the ones without gravy, anyone else of that assumption?
 
Welcome Melinda & Frankie,

FIrst off Congrats for testing at home!!! That is the single best thing you can do to help Frankie.

Now to get to the other things, while you are getting a really good response from Lantus, if you were started on that 2u twice a day, you were started on a higher dose than we normally recommend, and there is a good chance that you have over shot (pun intended) his ideal dose. We recommend starting at no higher than 1u twice a day and many cats need even less than that, of course there are those that need more, but those usually have underlying conditions.

Second diet, while Fancy Feast is what a lot of us feed our sugarcats, not all Fancy Feast is created equally. The Medleys are a lot higher in carbs than what we recommend for a diabetic. Now the Classics are great for a diabetic cat. Personally I have 14 cats only 3 of which are diabetics, since everyone here eats what my 3 diabetics eat I am way too lazy to open that many 3oz FF cans, :lol: So everyone here eats Friskies Pate Style canned food, this diet has my first diabetic Maxwell in remission now and off insulin for nearly a year, my second girl Musette flirting with remission and my newly adopted third girl Autumn reponding well to her insulin (Autumn is a challenge because she went 10+ months without being treated before I adopted her a week ago).

Small meals several times a day also help diabetics smooth out the highs and lows, here everyone eats at 7am (shot time), 1pm (nadir or lowest point), 7pm (shot time) and again a frozen meal at 11pm when I turn into for the night so they can nibble all night long if they desire.

To answer your last question....some cats are just harder than others to regulate. Case in point...Maxwell was in remission and off insulin in exactly 2 weeks, all he really needed was a short course of insulin and a diet change...Musette on the other hand we have been at it since June 25th of last year and it wasn't until about 2 months ago that I started making headway into getting her well regulated, it took finally deciding that Lantus (which is a great insulin for cats) wasn't a good fit for her, and I switched her to Levemir. Now while Lantus worked great for Maxwell, and not so great for Musette, when I adopted Autumn a week ago I started her on Lantus as well, and so far it looks like it will also work well for her.

One trick for testing for Ketones is to fill a clean litter box with aquarium gravel since it won't absorb the urine and then once he exits the litter box you can test the fresh puddle.

I'm sure others will be along shortly with welcomes and additional advice.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette, Autumn & The Fur Gang
 
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