Eldroch
Member Since 2013
Hey everyone,
Between an assortment of misinformation and a scary experience yesterday, I am wondering if I need to take my Asia's treatment into my own hands and start over from the beginning. Sorry if this post runs long.
Asia was diagnosed in Oct 2013. He had gotten bad suddenly, and developed a UTI and had ketones. After a bit of a stay at the emergency vet, he came home with antibiotics, PZI insulin, and Purina DM dry and canned food. Several things I was told in the beginning have either been refuted, or I suspect are incorrect and maybe someone here could offer more info; and those are:
Purina DM dry food is low carb, and I should still give my diabetic cat dry food to help with dental hygiene.
PZI insulin can be stored in a dark closet; refrigeration not needed.
I should inject right behind the scruff of the neck.
Anyway, he was started on 1.5 units, twice daily, of PZI insulin, and was on the Purina DM dry and canned food, which he quickly tired of. After I couldn't convince him to eat that anymore, I began giving him an assortment of the canned food I found listed as low carb on some of the boards. In the first couple of weeks, I noticed a good amount of improvement, but as I approached the 1 month mark, we started backpedaling. First, the vet said to up the dosage to 2.0 units, twice daily, which didn't change matters. Then, she said she suspected the food wasn't right for him, and suggested the Whiskas choice cuts line, which admittedly, he seemed to enjoy. Finally, his condition was getting to the point where I was getting scared, and I got a Relion blood glucose monitor.
The first reading was around 530, and so I started taking a reading every hour that weekend and charted it out based on a number of factors (pulled an all-nighter to write a program to analyze the results -- geeks and their cats, you know...). It didn't take long to notice that there was no real change before or after the expected peak time for his dosage. I finally came across some info that lead me to believe that the insulin, kept unrefrigerated, had lost its potency. The next day, I shared my data with the vet, and she gave me a new vial (now being kept in the refrigerator), and also told me to start giving him 3.0 units, twice daily. Things quickly turned around for the better, and some new behaviors emerged that I had never seen in him. He would wake me up in the mornings as soon as my alarm would go off, nudging my face and purring in my ear until I got up to feed him. His thirst and appetite seemed to be stronger than ever; always very eager to be fed around meal time, and boldly begging for food when I ate. However, as of a couple weeks ago, he started having "accidents" around the house occasionally, which would leave behind a very sticky floor. Testing his BG would show him in the 400's often, which prompted the vet to tell me to increase to 3.5 units, twice daily. Finally, last night, things were pretty normal...got home from work, fed him, gave him his 3.5 units...then it wasn't but 2 hours before I heard this strange howl coming from another room. He was on the bathroom sink, staring at the faucet. I turned it on and he drank for a few minutes. Thinking that's all he wanted, I left, and he started howling again. It's hard to describe, but they sounded very distressed. I was worried, so I held him and kept him nearby, but every time I would stop restraining him, he would jump down and go in another room (odd, because he was always very clingy). I got out the glucose meter and tested him....it gave me a "Hi" reading, which is 600+ according to the manual. Assuming it was a bad reading, I tested twice more...same for both. Now, he was starting to go from window to window, howling and looking outside, and also waiting by the door, begging to be let out. Now, keep in mind, this is in Illinois, and it has not been a tropical paradise by any measure. I opened the door to see what he wanted, and he just went right out, into the snow, just ambling around, howling every few seconds.
I was worried sick, and stayed up all night, keeping an eye on him and researching these new developments. Around 4:00AM, he started coming back to normal, lying next to me and sleeping peacefully, purring when I would pet him. I found that the Whiskas choice cuts food was certainly not low carb, which could have definitely attributed to a lack of progress, but also the possibility that the dosage might have been increased too drastically, and we might have missed his ideal dosage and gone over. I don't know what last night's incident sounds like, but from what I've read, if given too much insulin, in order to protect against hypoglycemia, the liver can flood the system with glucose, which would explain the sudden high readings, along with the behavior I had not seen before.
So, I have gone back to the classic pate' canned foods from the list that fall between 3% and 6% carb, and as of this morning, I have dropped his insulin dosage to 2.0 units, twice daily. I imagine that as well meaning as my vet is, she doesn't have a lot of experience in feline diabetes, and I should really take control of the treatment myself. I just want to make sure that I am going about this right, and if I'm starting over entirely, I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to ensure progress. Is there anything I should be doing differently or additionally?
Thank you for reading this far ;-)
Between an assortment of misinformation and a scary experience yesterday, I am wondering if I need to take my Asia's treatment into my own hands and start over from the beginning. Sorry if this post runs long.
Asia was diagnosed in Oct 2013. He had gotten bad suddenly, and developed a UTI and had ketones. After a bit of a stay at the emergency vet, he came home with antibiotics, PZI insulin, and Purina DM dry and canned food. Several things I was told in the beginning have either been refuted, or I suspect are incorrect and maybe someone here could offer more info; and those are:
Purina DM dry food is low carb, and I should still give my diabetic cat dry food to help with dental hygiene.
PZI insulin can be stored in a dark closet; refrigeration not needed.
I should inject right behind the scruff of the neck.
Anyway, he was started on 1.5 units, twice daily, of PZI insulin, and was on the Purina DM dry and canned food, which he quickly tired of. After I couldn't convince him to eat that anymore, I began giving him an assortment of the canned food I found listed as low carb on some of the boards. In the first couple of weeks, I noticed a good amount of improvement, but as I approached the 1 month mark, we started backpedaling. First, the vet said to up the dosage to 2.0 units, twice daily, which didn't change matters. Then, she said she suspected the food wasn't right for him, and suggested the Whiskas choice cuts line, which admittedly, he seemed to enjoy. Finally, his condition was getting to the point where I was getting scared, and I got a Relion blood glucose monitor.
The first reading was around 530, and so I started taking a reading every hour that weekend and charted it out based on a number of factors (pulled an all-nighter to write a program to analyze the results -- geeks and their cats, you know...). It didn't take long to notice that there was no real change before or after the expected peak time for his dosage. I finally came across some info that lead me to believe that the insulin, kept unrefrigerated, had lost its potency. The next day, I shared my data with the vet, and she gave me a new vial (now being kept in the refrigerator), and also told me to start giving him 3.0 units, twice daily. Things quickly turned around for the better, and some new behaviors emerged that I had never seen in him. He would wake me up in the mornings as soon as my alarm would go off, nudging my face and purring in my ear until I got up to feed him. His thirst and appetite seemed to be stronger than ever; always very eager to be fed around meal time, and boldly begging for food when I ate. However, as of a couple weeks ago, he started having "accidents" around the house occasionally, which would leave behind a very sticky floor. Testing his BG would show him in the 400's often, which prompted the vet to tell me to increase to 3.5 units, twice daily. Finally, last night, things were pretty normal...got home from work, fed him, gave him his 3.5 units...then it wasn't but 2 hours before I heard this strange howl coming from another room. He was on the bathroom sink, staring at the faucet. I turned it on and he drank for a few minutes. Thinking that's all he wanted, I left, and he started howling again. It's hard to describe, but they sounded very distressed. I was worried, so I held him and kept him nearby, but every time I would stop restraining him, he would jump down and go in another room (odd, because he was always very clingy). I got out the glucose meter and tested him....it gave me a "Hi" reading, which is 600+ according to the manual. Assuming it was a bad reading, I tested twice more...same for both. Now, he was starting to go from window to window, howling and looking outside, and also waiting by the door, begging to be let out. Now, keep in mind, this is in Illinois, and it has not been a tropical paradise by any measure. I opened the door to see what he wanted, and he just went right out, into the snow, just ambling around, howling every few seconds.
I was worried sick, and stayed up all night, keeping an eye on him and researching these new developments. Around 4:00AM, he started coming back to normal, lying next to me and sleeping peacefully, purring when I would pet him. I found that the Whiskas choice cuts food was certainly not low carb, which could have definitely attributed to a lack of progress, but also the possibility that the dosage might have been increased too drastically, and we might have missed his ideal dosage and gone over. I don't know what last night's incident sounds like, but from what I've read, if given too much insulin, in order to protect against hypoglycemia, the liver can flood the system with glucose, which would explain the sudden high readings, along with the behavior I had not seen before.
So, I have gone back to the classic pate' canned foods from the list that fall between 3% and 6% carb, and as of this morning, I have dropped his insulin dosage to 2.0 units, twice daily. I imagine that as well meaning as my vet is, she doesn't have a lot of experience in feline diabetes, and I should really take control of the treatment myself. I just want to make sure that I am going about this right, and if I'm starting over entirely, I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to ensure progress. Is there anything I should be doing differently or additionally?
Thank you for reading this far ;-)
