Two weeks in glucose 3.4, remission?

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Dustincoe

Member Since 2019
Hi. My cat was diagnosed two weeks ago and started on 2IU of Lantus twice daily. I also switched him right away to Weruva cats in the kitchen high protein low carb canned plus raw food. So today was his first blood glucose check, was given insulin at 730 am and tested at the vet at 230 pm, they said his blood glucose number when tested was 3.4

Is that good, is he in remission already? It was only a vet tech as the vet was out of the office on lunch so they didnt explain the number of what it meant. Any help?
 
Two units is a large dose to start with for cats. If this is your first blood glucose test, you are very lucky he has not had a hypo episode if his BSL is 3.4 at the first check up test!! I hope the vet tech is going to check the blood sugar level(BSL) again in an hour to check that it is not dropping further.. your kitty needs a snack of low carb food.

In saying all that......3.4 is a great number and in the normal range. But to be giving insulin to a cat without testing the BSL more often at home and definitely before EVERY shot, is very risky for your cat..
I know your vet will say there is no need to check the levels at home,but believe me, itis MUCH safer for your cat..
If you are interested we can help you....it is not hard..

As far as going off insulin.....your cat could well be in remission or he may not be..........a random check like that does not give the whole picture.. you need to be check at different times of the day to see if the BSL is high or low at different times..
It just doesn't stay the same all the time.

To get a strong remission you need to be reducing the dose gradually down to a drop of insulin.. but the only way to do this safely is to be testing the blood sugars yourself..
I think he definitely needs a reduction in dose......mainly because it is not safe to have a cat that low without testing. It is a safe number if you are testing.......the trouble is by the time a cat shows signs of a hypo they are VERY low.......and in danger.
My recommmendation to you would be to go out and buy your self a human glucose meter and start testing the blood sugars...start posting on here and we can help you..don't let the vet talk you out of home testing.......it is far safer for your cat...

Good luck.....hope we keep seeing you......ask lots of questions ....we are only too happy to help.
Bron
 
It is great you are feeding a low carb diet..well done!!
When /if your cat goes into remission he will need to stay on a low carb diet forever.......he will always be a diabetic....just one controlled by diet.
 
Bron and Sheba said:
Two units is a large dose to start with for cats. If this is your first blood glucose test, you are very lucky he has not had a hypo episode if his BSL is 3.4 at the first check up test!! I hope the vet tech is going to check the blood sugar level(BSL) again in an hour to check that it is not dropping further.. your kitty needs a snack of low carb food.

In saying all that......3.4 is a great number and in the normal range. But to be giving insulin to a cat without testing the BSL more often at home and definitely before EVERY shot, is very risky for your cat..
I know your vet will say there is no need to check the levels at home,but believe me, itis MUCH safer for your cat..
If you are interested we can help you....it is not hard..

As far as going off insulin.....your cat could well be in remission or he may not be..........a random check like that does not give the whole picture.. you need to be check at different times of the day to see if the BSL is high or low at different times..
It just doesn't stay the same all the time.

To get a strong remission you need to be reducing the dose gradually down to a drop of insulin.. but the only way to do this safely is to be testing the blood sugars yourself..
I think he definitely needs a reduction in dose......mainly because it is not safe to have a cat that low without testing. It is a safe number if you are testing.......the trouble is by the time a cat shows signs of a hypo they are VERY low.......and in danger.
My recommmendation to you would be to go out and buy your self a human glucose meter and start testing the blood sugars...start posting on here and we can help you..don't let the vet talk you out of home testing.......it is far safer for your cat...

Good luck.....hope we keep seeing you......ask lots of questions ....we are only too happy to help.
Bron
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Oh I thought 2.iu wasn't a big dose to start. He was always on high quality canned and raw, I was away on business for several months so he was at my parents and they had him on garbage dry food from the grocery store.

I just talked to a friend of a friend who is a vet and he recommended to stop insulin now as he believes he may be in remission. Current vet is on board with home testing. All of his symptoms (tons of water, peeing a ton) all stopped a few days after starting back on all canned and raw food, 3 days before he went to the vet and got checked and diagnosed.
 
Dustincoe said:
Oh I thought 2.iu wasn't a big dose to start. He was always on high quality canned and raw, I was away on business for several months so he was at my parents and they had him on garbage dry food from the grocery store.

I just talked to a friend of a friend who is a vet and he recommended to stop insulin now as he believes he may be in remission. Current vet is on board with home testing. All of his symptoms (tons of water, peeing a ton) all stopped a few days after starting back on all canned and raw food, 3 days before he went to the vet and got checked and diagnosed.
Click to expand...
A good dose to start is 1 unit for most cats....
Great your current vet in onboard with home testing !!
If he were my cat, I would start testing and reduce the dose and see what is happening.
Can you test during the day or are you at work?
If you do decide to stop testing now, you should still start testing to ensure the BSL does not go back up as soon as the insulin is out of his system..
We see it often .....people stop the insulin too soon and kitty has to go back on insulin and reduce the dose slowly..
Dropping to 3.4 is absolutely fine if you are testing because you can keep kitty safe..what we do is gradually reduce the insulin while making sure the BSLs remain in a good range.....if they go higher, we increase the dose......if they go lower, we reduce the dose until we are only giving a drop.. this supports te pancreas until it is healed.. also we only increase and decrease the dose by 0.25 units (1/4 unit) at a time. This ensures we don't go past the best dose and we keep kitty safe.......a lot of vets think these small increases and decreases are strange but if you look through this site you will see we have great success with our kitties..

Ultimately it is up to you....kitty is your cat. A few cats will go into remission in two weeks but in my experience it usually takes a bit or a lot longer..
Keep asking questions..
 
Is your kitty still at the vet or do you have him home again?
Have you been given any instructions from your vet?
There is no doubt that swapping from the dry food (which is terrible for all cats) to a wet diet would have improved the blood glucose numbers and symptoms. There are a few lucky cats who only need a change of diet and the numbers come back to normal..but mostly they need some insulin to support the pancreas.
Which country do you live in?
 
Bron and Sheba said:
Is your kitty still at the vet or do you have him home again?
Have you been given any instructions from your vet?
There is no doubt that swapping from the dry food (which is terrible for all cats) to a wet diet would have improved the blood glucose numbers and symptoms. There are a few lucky cats who only need a change of diet and the numbers come back to normal..but mostly they need some insulin to support the pancreas.
Which country do you live in?
Click to expand...
Hi,

I live in Canada, Kelowna. No he is no longer at the vet, I took him on my lunch break for the blood glucose check and then brought him home. No instructions as it was a vet tech who did the test, the actual Vet is away until tomorrow.

All of his diabetic symptoms went away before even bringing him to the vet after switching his food back to what he has ate most his life which is expensive cannned and raw food. I also missed a dose yesterday so the fact his blood glucose was at 3.4 when tested makes me think I shouldn't be giving him his dose tonight.
 
Dustincoe said:
Hi,

I live in Canada, Kelowna. No he is no longer at the vet, I took him on my lunch break for the blood glucose check and then brought him home. No instructions as it was a vet tech who did the test, the actual Vet is away until tomorrow.

All of his diabetic symptoms went away before even bringing him to the vet after switching his food back to what he has ate most his life which is expensive cannned and raw food. I also missed a dose yesterday so the fact his blood glucose was at 3.4 when tested makes me think I shouldn't be giving him his dose tonight.
Click to expand...
If he was diagnosed AFTER the food switch then he must have had higher than normal BSLs at the vet for him to diagnose FD.

No I wouldn't give him a dose tonight if you are not testing.........and if you are going to continue with the insulin
I would reduce the dose..don't give 2 units if you are not testing.
Would you consider testing?
When you test and the BSLs drop, you can boost them up higher by giving either some low carb food, or if the BSL is too low then give some higher carb food..
It is always a good idea to have some higher carb cat food ( such as gravy type food or with rice in it) if you are giving insulin, in case you need to raise the BSL quickly. Also always have some honey available......you can always rub honey on there gums if needed..

Do you feed a few times a day or only twice?

For a cat to be in remission here on this site the cat is tested every day for 14 days and if the BSL stays within the normal range of 3 to 6.6 ( under 5.5 is better) it is considered to be in remission.. And some cats NOT on insulin can drop lower than 3 and this is normal if they are NO LONGER on insulin..
One way to see if the pancreas is working is to test the blood sugar, feed the cat,then test the BSL 2 or 3 hours later. If the BSL is lower than the pancreas is working.

I'm going to send you a few links for you to read through for info.

Here is a link about hypos
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-treat-hypos-they-can-kill-print-this-out.15887/

Here is a link about suitable foods..look for foods 10% or less carbs and get a couple of cans of higher carb food..medium carb around 16% and high carb around22% in case it is needed for lowBSLs.
https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

Home testing link.....it is easy and it doesn't hurt kitty. If you give a small reward each time they soon learn to come running when they hear the noise of testing equipment!!
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/hometesting-links-and-tips.287/

FAQ link
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/health-links-faqs-about-feline-diabetes.14/
 
What you want to do is test just before shot time without haveing fed him for at least two hours. You. Need to make sure it’s safe to shoot. Then get a mid cycle test to see how low he goes. I agree 2 units is too high of a starting dose. The recommended starting dose is 1 unit.
 
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