? Too much Insulin?? Need Advice Please

[Summers Mom]

Summer is on a very high dose of 11 units twice daily. She was starting to show greens really good around her 10 unit mark but then she stopped so i increased her again and nothing. Since she hit 11 units she is starting to have pink numbers!!! She has not been in the pink since nov.15th. What is going on??!! She is now starting to show more yellow again too instead of all the blues but now pink!! I am thinking she may have hit the point that she is getting too much insulin. Should i back off some and lower her down?? She has not gotten anything thing different food wise. Still raw diet. I talked to my vet friday about taking her in to get tested for insulin resistance and told him she was on 11 units and he agreed that it is alot. So i will be taking her in soon to get tested for cushings, Acromegaly etc. All of her up and downs are driving me crazy. I just took another one of my cats in to the vet friday to get tested for diabetes, kidney disease and all the blood work check out great so he is checking thyroid and i will know tomorrow or wednesday on that. When it rains here, it pours! But getting back to summer, if they get too much insulin, can't it make them too high just like when too little can make them high in numbers?? I just feel like she was making some progress and now she is starting to be higher in numbers all of a sudden. What is going on and what should i do? Back off of her insulin OR not?? Please help!

 

[Wendy&Neko]

The nasty thing about some of those secondary conditions that cause insulin resistance, is that they can change the amount of insulin that is needed over time. As long as a person is testing to catch any lows - and you do a great job there, and increases are done following the protocol, then it's unlikely you are on too high a dose. What has happened is that there has been some change in the secondary condition, causing the need for more insulin. At one point in summer 2015, Neko was cruising along needing around 3 units for months, then in the space of a month, her acro tumour started growing and she all of a sudden needed 7 units. I spend that time racing to catch up to what her body now needed. But like you, I too had wondered if I suddenly needed less insulin. Sadly, not true.

So, I think Summer needs more insulin, not less. As the size of her dose grows, you can do larger increments. If you wish, you can increase by 1 unit at a time when over 10 units in dose. I'm glad you are thinking of getting her tested for high dose conditions. Once you know what she has, it'll provide the answers to "why?". By the way, we have had kitties here on much larger doses.

Good luck with your other kitty. Seems like one kitty didn't like all the attention at our place either. I hope it's something simple.

 

[Summers Mom]

The nasty thing about some of those secondary conditions that cause insulin resistance, is that they can change the amount of insulin that is needed over time. As long as a person is testing to catch any lows - and you do a great job there, and increases are done following the protocol, then it's unlikely you are on too high a dose. What has happened is that there has been some change in the secondary condition, causing the need for more insulin. At one point in summer 2015, Neko was cruising along needing around 3 units for months, then in the space of a month, her acro tumour started growing and she all of a sudden needed 7 units. I spend that time racing to catch up to what her body now needed. But like you, I too had wondered if I suddenly needed less insulin. Sadly, not true.

So, I think Summer needs more insulin, not less. As the size of her dose grows, you can do larger increments. If you wish, you can increase by 1 unit at a time when over 10 units in dose. I'm glad you are thinking of getting her tested for high dose conditions. Once you know what she has, it'll provide the answers to "why?". By the way, we have had kitties here on much larger doses.

Good luck with your other kitty. Seems like one kitty didn't like all the attention at our place either. I hope it's something simple.

Thank you so much for your great advice! You know what? I just thought of something. Summer had another place on her back near her tail to rip open that was raw at the end of last week. She was hurting i could tell and i found this open raw area on her so i put neosporin with pain on it and it seemed to help. Since then it is starting to scab over. This may have had something to do with it. Idk but it is a thought for sure. I will let you all know what happens after the vet. Thanks again Wendy!

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Infection/inflammation/pain can cause the numbers to go higher. Best of luck.