This is our first post please help

[Aurora's Mom]

aurora is now walking flat footed, snoring a lot and can no longer jump. She is on levemir. 6 units a day. She is 12 years old and was diagnosed in may of 2010.

Thanks for reading this and guiding me to the right places on the site for guidance. She is going down hill quickly and I know that I must be missing something that I should be doing.

Thanks

Mary. aurora's mom

 

[nancy and payne]

Welcome Mary!
all the answers you need are here. It is late and not many people are around
but I wanted you to know this is the place you need to be. Are you giving her the
insulin 2x a day? do you test her numbers before you give her the shot? What are you
feeding her? wet low/carb is the best.

Others more experienced than me will be around in the morning to give you all the
specifics, I just wanted to say hi and you are not alone, hang in there and Aurora is
such a pretty name .... my little one is named Payne and I am being kind because
she is a pip!
Nancy

 

[JenElliot]

Are you home testing? What numbers are you getting?

What is her diet? Has there been any change to her diet recently (like switching from dry to wet)?

Here is a link to the page about hypo (low blood sugar), it can come on fast and strong.
http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=15887

Please give us more info about diet, BG numbers if you are home testing, and how many shots you give per day (I am assuming 2 shots @ 3 units each per day). Hang in there, we are here to help. For now all I can say is keep a close eye on her, and maybe have a carrier ready just in case you need to rush her to the vet.

 

[janelle and Nomad]

The difficulty walking and jumping could be neuropathy. When you mean snoring more, does this just happen when your cat is asleep? If he is making snoring noises while he is awale, then it could be asthma or some other resp. Probllem. If your cat appears to be having trouble breathing than this is an emergency and you need to get your kitty to the vet NOW!!

Unless you are testing blood glucose levels at home, it is difficult to tell how the insulin is working or if the dose is too high. In general, three units twice a day would be considered a fairly high dose. If you are giving your cat six units once a day that would be dangerious and you could overdose your cat.

We need you to come back on and give us more information.

 

[Anonymous]

bump

 

[Phoebe_TiggyGA_NortonGA]

Hi Mary and welcome to FDMB

I will take a different direction than the others -- because I had a cat that also snored, had big feet - lost his ability to jump and was up to a higher than "normal" dose of insulin.

My Norton had a condition called Acromegaly -- please read this sticky -- there are a list of questions that help us "Acromoms" assess your kitty.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=375

We are interested in hearing about Aurora's insulin dosing (does she get shots every 12 hours?) and her food and about her too -- does she have a great appetite? What does she look like? Did she lose weight / gain weight? What was going on with her when you first took her in and got the diagnosis of diabetes? What other health problems does she have?

Thanks! there is a lot of information here -- read and come back to post any questions that you have

phoebe

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

Welcome to FDMB.

We can try to help but can you answer some questions for us?

1) 6 units is a very high dose of insulin. What was your starting dose and how often were the increases?
2) Are you hometesting?
3) What are you feeding your cat?
4) Are there any other health issues going on with your cat?

My first thought is your cat is not regulated and you are dealing with neuropathy. Also, because of your high dose, you may also be dealing with Somogyi rebound. What this means is that in order to protect itself from becoming hypoglycemic, when too much insulin is given, the body produces extra glucose. So with the extra glucose in the body, your cat's diabetes can not be regulated and this in turn can cause the neuropathy.

If you are not already doing so, you should learn to hometest. Once you begin hometesting, you also should consider lowering your cat's insulin dose and basically start over with increasing it until you find your optimal dose. Insulin should only be increased after you have been on a consistant dose for at least a week to give the body time to adjust to the new dose.

Also, if you are feeding dry food, that could also have affect on the BG levels. However, please do not change your cat's diet until you begin hometesting. If you switch to a low carb diet, without lowering your insulin, your cat could become hypoglycemic and that could be deadly.

Please answer the questions above and also start reading the information on this site about hometesting, diet and hypoglycemia. We will be glad to help the best that we can.

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

Welcome to FDMB.

We can try to help but can you answer some questions for us?

1) 6 units is a very high dose of insulin. What was your starting dose and how often were the increases?
2) Are you hometesting?
3) What are you feeding your cat?
4) Are there any other health issues going on with your cat?

My first thought is your cat is not regulated and you are dealing with neuropathy. Also, because of your high dose, you may also be dealing with Somogyi rebound. What this means is that in order to protect itself from becoming hypoglycemic, when too much insulin is given, the body produces extra glucose. So with the extra glucose in the body, your cat's diabetes can not be regulated and this in turn can cause the neuropathy.

If you are not already doing so, you should learn to hometest. Once you begin hometesting, you also should consider lowering your cat's insulin dose and basically start over with increasing it until you find your optimal dose. Insulin should only be increased after you have been on a consistant dose for at least a week to give the body time to adjust to the new dose.

Also, if you are feeding dry food, that could also have affect on the BG levels. However, please do not change your cat's diet until you begin hometesting. If you switch to a low carb diet, without lowering your insulin, your cat could become hypoglycemic and that could be deadly.

Please answer the questions above and also start reading the information on this site about hometesting, diet and hypoglycemia. We will be glad to help the best that we can.