UTI - very high sugar

Yvettt

Yvettt

Member Since 2021
Our Loka (12 years old) was diagnosed with diabetes over 4 years ago. So far she was doing great, she is on 1 unit of pro zinc, she was showing a good control level.

A month ago I have noticed a tiny bit of blood in her wee, suspected UTI, got her to the vet and she got an antibiotics for 5 days (synulox). After 2 days is seems to get a bit better.

After around 3 weeks I have noticed that she is peeing a bit less again (I have 3 cats so sometimes is hard to noticed who is doing what in the box). She have also lost a bit of weight. Back at the vet, unfortunately they cant do blood check anymore (she is very scared of them, even sedated she will keep flinching so they asked for a wee sample. I managed to get it next day (tiny amount, with blood again), send it off for check and heard nothing from them. Sample was taken on Thursday, on Tuesday still no word and she was getting thinner, her fur started to look matte and her sugar spiked to 28 pre shot (before she maybe had 14). I have called them on Tuesday, they managed to find a results, there was a E. coli, white cells and glucose in the sample. Got synulox again, for 7 days this time.

She is on the meds since Wednesday and her uti seems better (she is peeing more, no more blood). But her sugar is all over the place. This morning 29 again, pre shot. She have lost 500 g in a month (from 3.6kg to 3.1kg). I tried to feed her more but don't want to change her diet too soon since her diabetes in unregulated again. I have checked her with keto strips (just in case it is DKA) but it came back ok. She just looks so poor, skin and bones :( She still eats, just not too much but we have a heat wave for the last 3 weeks here in UK so non of my cats eats a lot now. She mostly just lay down in a shade. My vet is not super experienced with diabetes, they advise will be to just increase insulin dose but I am not sure. 1 unit was always a sweet spot for her, higher doses always ended up with her dropping dangerously low and I don't want to just increased when she is so week. I am working from home today so will be able to do a blood curve and see what is going on
Just at lost on what to do: should I wait until antibiotics clear everything and hope her diabetes will get back under control? Increase the dose? change food to get more calories in her? Any ideas? She is on meds since Wednesday morning so she had 5 doses so far.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum.
E. coli UTIs can be difficult to get rid of so make sure you send another urine test off AFTER the antibiotics are finished to see that it has gone. One week of antibiotics may not be enough.
Well done testing the urine for ketones…I would do this daily at the moment while the BGs are so high and she has the UTI.

It’s really important she eats well, so try offering her snacks throughout the day. Even if she eats foods that are not low carb….it is better she eats well, than not eats. She can get back on track later when she is well again.
Can you put some warm water in all her food? Would she still eat it? Just a teaspoon each time would be good.

Her BGs are high at the moment, so I do think she needs a dose increase.
Because the nadirs are over 300, you could increase to 1.5 units each dose. However if you are concerned, you could increase to 1.25 units.
We need to make sure she is getting enough food and enough insulin to prevent the ketones while she has the UTI.
Does this all make sense?
I am going to tag @Suzanne & Darcy re the dose as she uses Prozinc.
Keep posting with updates.🙂
 
thank you so much. She is still eating, not much but I have been giving her lick a lick and some canned tuna in water - she would have a few licks and then stop but I have been doing this every hour or so. Luckily she is drinking, more than usual to be fair but this is probably due to the high sugar. Also just realised that the keto strips has been open for more than 6 months so might be inaccurate, but I have ordered some more and it should be coming tonight so I will check her again. She just had some tuna and her bg is now 27.6 (497) so still high but got down a bit. I am happy to increase to 1.25, I wont sleep much today so I can monitor her just in case.
 
Do you think she could be nauseated?
It might be worth asking the vet for some antinausea medication such as cerenia or ondansetron as it is really important at. She eats well.
 
I have asked for anty nausea meds, hopefully a vet will reply soon. She had tiny more food but her bg is still around 500 :(
 
Could not get ani nausea meds from the vet but got her a nice selection of food and she ate whole sachet. She was 450 pre shot, I have increased dose to 1.25. Keto strips shows something between negative and trace, I have checked it twice, once from a pee sample from 4 hours ago and once from fresh and both were identical. Would trace be something to worry about or should I just keep monitoring?
 

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Hello. I am glad you did the dose increase in dose. I would not hold it for too long because those red and black numbers are very high. In 3 days let’s take a look at her numbers again. If ketones are present above trace, I would increase to 1.5 units) and contact the vet as well. Keep the food coming and add water to the food for extra hydration if she will let you. Is she eating a solely low carb wet food diet?
 
Yes, she is wet only and low carb food for the last 4 years.
She is 389 now, 2 hours after insulin and she had some more food, she is happy to eat it with extra water so hopefully she will be ok overnight.
 
She was much better yesterday, her bg dropped, still high but did not go above 20. She had much better appetite and she was a bit more alert. Did another keto test and again somewhere between negative and trace. She will finish her antibiotics on Tuesday so I will request another test.
 
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