struggling

Status
Not open for further replies.
Peanut_Butter_mom

Peanut_Butter_mom

Member Since 2012
I know I don't post much, but please know I read all your posts and consider you all family. I have been having trouble with Peanut Butter. He had been off the juice and we dropped back to testing him only every couple of weeks and just keeping an eye on him to watch for any changes. I noticed Sunday that he seemed a bit off. tested him and he was 429. found a vial lantus that we had left over from when he was on the juice about a year ago and gave him 1 unit (which is what he was on before). tried to give him his dinner but he wouldn't eat. tested him again a couple of hours later and he was only down a few points. we decided to take him to the ER. they tested him and he was down to 387 but was spilling a lot of sugar in his urine (but no ketones). they kept him over night. gave him fluids because he was a bit dehydrated and kidney levels were on the high side. around 2:30 in the morning when they tested him his sugar was <100. I picked him at 6:30 and took him to our regular vet so they could continue giving fluids and retest kidney levels. our regular vet has totally ticked me off. they said they were going to do a curve on him. that didn't get done. talked to them this morning before we went to pick him up and they said his kidney levels looked great and he was ready to come home. went to pick him up and they tried telling me he needed to be on a special diet for kidney issues. i asked why. they said as a precaution. i pointed out that a recent study (from 2011) showed that a low protein diet has only been shown to help in end stage renal failure and that if kidney levels are normal or near normal the low protein diet can actually do more harm than good because of muscle wasting due to the lack of protein. I also reminded them (again) that he is diabetic and the diabetes must be treated first. they still didn't mention anything about his blood sugar. vet finally said it was up to us if we wanted to feed the special diet or not and they will recheck his kidney levels in 6 months (assuming we are still using that vet!). anyway, got PB home. first thing we did was test his sugar. 437!!!!! they had not tested his sugar or given him any insulin in the 30+ hours he spent in their office. this momma is very honked off. so now we are working on getting his sugar back down. i am just struggling seeing him uncomfortable. i am a diabetic. i personally know what blood sugars in the 400s feels like, and it isn't good. my heart breaks for him and i just wish i could wave my magik wand and fix him. I know we will get him under control again and we have learned from this that 1) we need to test more often even when he is off the juice 2) we need to find a new vet and 3) PB really doesn't like the new puppy.

thanks for listening you all, I appreciate it.

Ang
 
Sorry to hear that. How long was he OTJ? Has he been eating low carbs high protein all this time? No other med issues until now?
 
he has been otj since 12/5/12, almost a year. he only gets high protein canned food (nature's recipe grain free). no signs of infection at all in any of the blood work the vets have done. wondering if the new puppy has stressed him out and caused the need for insulin again. PB tolerates the older dogs but the puppy has a lot more energy and doesn't want to just lick him like the older dogs, he wants to play.
 
He might have had an infection that was already clearing or maybe one that just didn't show up on the results (that's if they really did test him :roll: ). Some cats do fall out of remission; some cats are also transient diabetics, meaning they fall in and out of remission often. Some cats end up back on the juice and never get off again.

Either way, you already know how to test and treat his diabetes on your own, so all you really need from the vet are insulin and syringe prescriptions. ;-)
 
I know the ER tested for infection (i actually trust them). anything is possible. and if he stays on the juice, we'll deal with it, though we will be interviewing new vets soon because i have had it with this one. still ticked that they had a diabetic, knew he was taken to ER for high blood sugar and not eating, and then didn't test his sugar at all except to order a fructosamine (sp?) test which will be back next week. and they can't claim they didn't know he was diabetic. it is in his chart and was posted on a big sign on the front of his cage. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
 
If your insulin is a year old, it may not be any good?
If you can do a curve, testing every 2 hours, you should see the numbers drop lower and then rise.. if your insulin still has a kick to it.

Gayle
 
beginning to think this vet has never dealt with a diabetic cat. just called to ask them to call in a script for lantus because we aren't sure if ours is flat or if PB's blood sugar is just being stubborn, best to rule out flat insulin. dingbat vet suggested we give PB the dog's insulin (humulin n, way to harsh for cats) or some of my insulin (humalog rapid acting). ummm, no. setting up an appointment for friday to go in and meet with all 3 vets in the practice and hopefully educate them in case the next person with a diabetic cat either doesn't know any better or isn't quite as out spoken as I am.
 
his teeth are fine and he can't eat the dog food. one of our dogs is also diabetic so they also get fed set amounts on a schedule (feeding time at our house is rather fun. 5 cats and 5 dogs, one of each is diabetic, and two humans, one of which is diabetic). if it isn't stress from the puppy, wondering if maybe some sort of seasonal allergies aggravating him and causing a spike. this is the same time of year he was diagnosed. idk, anything is possible and as someone else said, he could just be one of those kitties that will either periodically need insulin or he may be back on it for life. we shall see.
 
How are things going? Have you had to start giving him more insulin again? Did you get the prescription sorted out?
 
The Nature's Recipe Grain Free canned food may not be as low carb as Peanut Butter needs. It's not on vet Dr. Lisa Pierson's Food Chart, so I can't say for sure what the carb content is. Looking at the ingredients, most of the flavors have some sort of vegetable in there like carrots or potato.

You might want to consider changing the food to one that is on Dr. Lisa's food chart that is <10% carbs, our recommend carb limit.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top