Vet Visit Tomorrow (Might be Back on Insulin)

C

Cat Mom97

Member Since 2023
Hello everyone! I'm back after my last post. (Am I freaking out over nothing?)

So I was really hoping that his BG would stabilize to what it used to be after stopping the medication. Unfortunately, it's been pretty high. Tomorrow morning I have an appointment with the vet and I'm thinking I may have to start him on insulin again. I haven't seen him drinking water like he did when he was first diagnosed so I was unsure. Lately though, he's been more vocal. I thought it was a cry for attention as I've had a lot on my plate, but after seeing him paw at his bowl I realized it might be hunger.

When he was first diagnosed he was put on Novolin (and at units that people felt were too high for a cat only just starting insulin). (Just Diagnosed) He only ever had one shot of it because when I changed his food (Friskies Pate, wet food only), his BG went into the green.

Is Lantus the best insulin I could get him? Any other that's equal to it? Could he go back into remission if we start insulin soon? I can't afford full price for Lantus, if we end up going with that, so how can I afford it or another good insulin longterm? Are there any questions you would recommend I ask the vet?
 
squeem3 said:
There's a way to get a box of five Lantus / glargine pens for $35 in the US: Info - Sourcing Insulin More Economically

Some pharmacies will sell a single pen at their discretion.

ProZinc is another good choice. It's made just for pets. Chewy has the 10 ml bottle for $131.69. That seems to be roughly the price at other online pet supply related web sites.
Click to expand...
Thank you! Is there anything I should keep in mind if the vet writes the prescription? Like anything that would keep the pharmacy from filling it?
 
No, it just needs to have "Lantus Solostar pens 3ml x 5" or something like that and a dose. Lantus is the brand name. Glargine is the name of the insulin so you may get a generic brand if the pharmacy doesn't have Lantus. A pharmacy will be able to fill a prescription. Whether the $35 coupon works or not is a different issue. You can read the Sourcing Insulin thread for tips on how to get a coupon to work.
 
Okay so here's the update. They did a fructosamine test and other bloodwork. Everything else in his bloodwork came back great except for his glucose. I have to collect a urine sample and take it to them for further testing, but I haven't been able to catch him at the litter box yet.
They said they don't necessarily worry until a cat's glucose is higher and don't want to make him dependent on medication or insulin until we've tried other things.
I got a call from the vet today saying that the results of the fructosamine test show that his glucose has been high and she wants me to try the glycobalance wet food for a while, bring in the urine sample, and then we can discuss possibly medicating him. She thinks that if I switch over to that food from the Friskies that it should help get everything under control without resorting to insulin.
She also told me that I need to use a pet meter for better results, although I've already explained my reasoning for wanting to stick with my human meter.

Any thoughts? I'm waiting on the office to send me the fructosamine results.
 
Last edited:
There's nothing in the Glycobalance food that makes it better than commercially available canned food that is low carb. Just agree to disagree with the vet about food. The vet can't force you to feed it.

Give a low carb canned food only diet a try for a week, maybe two. Test your cat's blood glucose levels during this time, one at breakfast time and one at dinner time and maybe one or two in between checks. Normal blood glucose levels is roughly 60 to 150 mg/dl in cats. Over 200 is a good indicator that insulin is needed. The sooner a cat starts on insulin and diet, the greater the chances of remission are although there are oddball cats who never go into remission.

Veterinary studies done on diabetic cats and their blood glucose levels were done on Human meters up until maybe within a decade ago when the first pet meters were made (AlphaTrak for one). FWIW, CGM meters which some vets are putting on new diabetic cats are actually made for Human diabetics. There is no pet CGM meter. There is no reason at all to buy an expensive pet specific meter. Test strips are not sold in stores so you have to plan ahead to buy online or set up an online autoship somewhere. Agree to disagree with the vet about meters.

What does your vet need the urine sample for? Urine glucose levels are always high in a diabetic because glucose just builds up in the urine until the cat pees. Bacteria love glucose so there'll probably be a presence of that in urine. It does't necessarily mean your cat has a urinary infection or anything. Ketones can be tested with a (Human) urine test strip you can get at any pharmacy.
 
Thanks for the insight! I try to defend myself and Mus at the vet where I can, but I admittedly don't know enough to put my foot down on certain things.

He's been on a low carb diet with Friskies Pate a little after he was diagnosed and I discovered the forum. That's why I'm so worried now. I haven't changed anything besides those few days that he was required to take medication to prevent an ear infection after a bad scratch. At that time his BG levels did go up and I went to the vet with my concerns. We took him off the medication as soon as we could and I thought his BG might stabilize. But recently, as shown in my spreadsheets, he hasn't gone back down to green much at all.

The human meter thing is something that I have refused to budge on.

As far as I know, she's wanting to test his urine for glucose, but it's possible she'll check more like with the blood work yesterday. I have ketone strips, but it's been a while since I've tested him as he seems to pee most when I'm not around to catch it.

Edit: If the issue is food, I'm willing to try something like Tiki Cat if need be. I settled on the Friskies Pate because he did well on it and it's still more affordable for me. Can anyone advise?

Update: I was able to get a pee sample after many tries, but there seems to be a little sediment from the litter (a very small amount to where I almost didn’t notice). Does anyone know if this will affect the urinalysis? Also tested for ketones and still nothing.
 
Last edited:
The other information about food to educate your vet about is that the pet food manufacturers lost a class action lawsuit regarding calling pet food "prescription." As Squeem3 noted, there's nothing prescription worthy in most pet food. If you look at the ingredients, several of the prescription diabetic foods contain carbohydrates and their carb content is not what anyone would consider low carb. Friskies and Fancy Feast are popular here because the cost is reasonable. Tiki Cat is a human grade cat food. The only downside is the cost. It's pricey but probably about the same cost as the Glycobalance.

Just out of curiosity, how often are you feeding Mus? I'm wondering whether snacks may help to stimulate his pancreas and lower his numbers. You may want to get a mid-cycle test to see what his numbers look like between meals.
 
squeem3 said:
Whatever food your cat will eat and you can afford is fine :) Many people rotate between a few brands.

Catching and testing urine
Click to expand...
Thanks! He wouldn’t pee when I was near (I swear he knows to avoid me when I need something from him) and the only way I could get him to was to put a bag down over his litter box with a bit of litter sprinkled in. So I did collect some urine, it just seems to have the barest amount of sediment?
I’m going to call the vet and ask if it’s okay. Nope. Was not okay. So I’d have to make another appointment to have them collect a sample.

I’ll keep the food thing in mind. Sometimes I have to alternate between Friskies and fancy because he wants different flavors. :facepalm:
 
Last edited:
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
The other information about food to educate your vet about is that the pet food manufacturers lost a class action lawsuit regarding calling pet food "prescription." As Squeem3 noted, there's nothing prescription worthy in most pet food. If you look at the ingredients, several of the prescription diabetic foods contain carbohydrates and their carb content is not what anyone would consider low carb. Friskies and Fancy Feast are popular here because the cost is reasonable. Tiki Cat is a human grade cat food. The only downside is the cost. It's pricey but probably about the same cost as the Glycobalance.

Just out of curiosity, how often are you feeding Mus? I'm wondering whether snacks may help to stimulate his pancreas and lower his numbers. You may want to get a mid-cycle test to see what his numbers look like between meals.
Click to expand...

Yeah when comparing Tiki and Glycobalance, I noticed that Tiki would be just slightly cheaper and looks better in carbs than the other. I also won’t need a prescription for it. My little guy is also picky about not having different flavors, so he’d probably turn his nose up at glycobalance by the third feeding.

I feed him about 3 times a day as that’s what’s worked for us. In the morning before work, in the afternoon when I get back, and in the evening at dinner time. Is this okay?
 
Many people offer multiple small snacks daily. Some do as many as 6 or so snacks. A programmable timed feeder works great for this purpose.
 
At the very least, I might suggest adding another small meal during the PM cycle. It's a good way to keep numbers bumped up while you're asleep. I also found that a timed feeder was helpful given that I work full time.
 
squeem3 said:
Many people offer multiple small snacks daily. Some do as many as 6 or so snacks. A programmable timed feeder works great for this purpose.
Click to expand...
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
At the very least, I might suggest adding another small meal during the PM cycle. It's a good way to keep numbers bumped up while you're asleep. I also found that a timed feeder was helpful given that I work full time.
Click to expand...

Good to know! I'll try to give him more snacks or small meals in between. I've tried not to give him any close to his dinner because I test him in the evenings, do you have any recommendations for how I should space out his meals and snacks?

I also gave him a less than a tablespoon of Tiki Cat today as a little snack to test out whether he'd like it or not. He seemed to really enjoy it which is good, as there seem to be cats who refuse to eat it. Any opinions or concerns on Tiki Cat I should watch out for?
 
Last edited:
Don't feed within 2 hours of insulin time. Food will spike bgs a bit.

Offer snacks every few hours. Every cat is different so try different times to see what works for your cat.

Tiki Cat is fine. Don't feed seafood varieties too often (any brand). Seafood can be addicting to cats.

Can you add the insulin dose to your spreadsheet? It's the column labeled as U.
 
squeem3 said:
Don't feed within 2 hours of insulin time. Food will spike bgs a bit.

Offer snacks every few hours. Every cat is different so try different times to see what works for your cat.

Tiki Cat is fine. Don't feed seafood varieties too often (any brand). Seafood can be addicting to cats.

Can you add the insulin dose to your spreadsheet? It's the column labeled as U.
Click to expand...

I fed him a little more today so hopefully that helps.

He's actually not on insulin. I'd spoken to the vet about it and she wants me to make a diet change first before she would suggest insulin or medication.
 
You're getting yellows in the AM. It does look like Mus is able to lower blood glucose levels down to blue over the course of the day on his own. More daily spot checks of levels would be helpful. A small insulin dose for a short period of time may be all Mus needs to go into remission.
 
squeem3 said:
You're getting yellows in the AM. It does look like Mus is able to lower blood glucose levels down to blue over the course of the day on his own. More daily spot checks of levels would be helpful. A small insulin dose for a short period of time may be all Mus needs to go into remission.
Click to expand...
I'd like to, but my vet won't prescribe anything unless I've tried a food change until our next appointment. :(
 
This morning he was almost at 300 on the ReliOn (around 280). That’s even with a few more snacks and replacing a portion of the Friskies with Tiki Cat. Is it even really the food? Should I ask the vet to please just prescribe the insulin?
 
No, it's not the food. Your cat's pancrease needs a little help with insulin. The sooner many cats start insulin and diet, the greater the chances of remission are and it's ok if some cats never go into remission but that doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. You can do everything FDMB recommends and still have a dud who doesn't respond to anything. Like mine :blackeye:

Be a little pushy with the vet about starting insulin. If you get more pushback from the vet, maybe start thinking about switching to another vet at a different practice.

A 2025 guide to treating diabetes: 2025 iCatCare consensus guidelines on the diagnosis and management of diabetes mellitus in cats

There are some newer oral medications to treat diabetes with but few people here on FDMB use them. There's info here: Info - New Treatments for Feline Diabetes
 
squeem3 said:
No, it's not the food. Your cat's pancrease needs a little help with insulin. The sooner many cats start insulin and diet, the greater the chances of remission are and it's ok if some cats never go into remission but that doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. You can do everything FDMB recommends and still have a dud who doesn't respond to anything. Like mine :blackeye:

Be a little pushy with the vet about starting insulin. If you get more pushback from the vet, maybe start thinking about switching to another vet at a different practice.

A 2025 guide to treating diabetes: 2025 iCatCare consensus guidelines on the diagnosis and management of diabetes mellitus in cats

There are some newer oral medications to treat diabetes with but few people here on FDMB use them. There's info here: Info - New Treatments for Feline Diabetes
Click to expand...
I called today and it was honestly not great. They said that they won’t consider insulin for any cat that doesn’t have higher BGs, around the 600 range.
They’re pushing the prescription food because what I’m feeding him is “junk food” and the prescription food has ingredients that ‘actually help with diabetes’. If it’s not manageable with the prescription food, then they would try the oral medication.
 
They won't even consider insulin until 600s??? That is ridiculous. Sounds like you need a different vet. I would be beyond pissed off. I'm so sorry.
 
Jessica & Indy said:
They won't even consider insulin until 600s??? That is ridiculous. Sounds like you need a different vet. I would be beyond pissed off. I'm so sorry.
Click to expand...
It’s exhausting. They said 500s and 600s is when it’s really bad. They won’t consider insulin or medication for a cat at 300 until I do a diet change for a period of time. However, they don’t take me seriously unless it’s the prescription food.
They said a cat can function at 300s, but that giving insulin when he may not need it can kill him or send him into shock and they don’t want to risk that.

Mind you, the ReliOn was around 280 which means he’d be higher on a pet meter. That’s the only kind of glucose meter they seem to take seriously.
 
I could understand their hesitation if you weren't willing to monitor at home. Like, waiting weeks between curves because the vet has to do the monitoring....yeah, risk of hypo would be ridiculously high. But if you are monitoring at home either with alphatrak, human meter or a CGM....then the risk of hypo becomes much lower. Wish all vets would listen to people.
 
Jessica & Indy said:
I could understand their hesitation if you weren't willing to monitor at home. Like, waiting weeks between curves because the vet has to do the monitoring....yeah, risk of hypo would be ridiculously high. But if you are monitoring at home either with alphatrak, human meter or a CGM....then the risk of hypo becomes much lower. Wish all vets would listen to people.
Click to expand...
I don’t think my chances are good even if I switch vets.
I’ve shown them my spreadsheets and explain things to them, but they’ll say I shouldn’t be using a human meter either.
I hate that they keep pushing the prescription food and I’m worried for his health.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top