? Weight Loss

[H.M. Victor (GA)]

Victor has been losing weight pretty consistently since last month when we started weighing him at home (though not at a rate that is alarming, I don't think), but I was wondering if there was anything we should do about it at this time. I first weighed him at home on 8/11 of this year and his weight then was 12.7 1/2 pounds. When I weighed him on the 13th of this month, he was down to 11.10 pounds. The vet says his ideal weight is 10 pounds, but I've seen it mentioned on here that it's best for cats to lose weight over an extended period of time, so should we maybe increase how much food we give him a day, or feed him more than twice a day? He is still eating dry food at this time and we currently give him 3/4 of a cup daily, half of it in the morning, and the other half at night.

I would really appreciate your input on this @Kris & Teasel (as well as from anybody else), and also wanted to know if we should still increase his insulin to 4 units despite his weight loss?

 

[Kris & Teasel]

So he's down by about 1.6 pounds since August 11? Was he significantly heavier before his diabetes diagnosis (to your eye?). Were you feeding him this amount of food before the August 11 weigh in? Did you decrease it at that time? Slow weight loss is best but I'd leave his food ration as is. Unregulated diabetes (BG numbers too high overall) itself contributes to weight loss because lack of sufficient insulin means kitty can't use the calories from his food well. You've only been treating Victor since the end of June and he's still in the unregulated category.

Insulin dose has little to do with the kitty's weight except as a very general guideline when they first go on insulin. Even then, most insulins are best started at 1 u twice a day. There are tiny kitties who need a high-ish dose and huge kitties who need only a fraction of a unit. Have a look at others' spreadsheets and you'll see what I mean.

Once a kitty has been on insulin for a while, the BG data are the guide for assessing a dose. When I suggested an increase to 4 u I was going by your data from the last week at 3.5 - 3.75 u. I focused on HOW LOW the dose took him because I know that Humulin creates a deep curve. The PS numbers are more important in deciding if a planned dose is safe to give and much less important in judging the dose's effectiveness. The goal for low with Humulin is high dark greens to low blue (high 90s to low 100s).