My goal has been keeping him comfortable...what is a desirable number to keep his BG at?
Hi, I agree with Jeanne's suggestion of numbers that are good to aim for.
Ideally, it'd be good to keep kitties below the 'renal threshold' for as much of the time as possible. And at the peak (lowest number) of the cycle it's good to touch down into 'normal numbers'. To achieve that is a pretty good result, and it does seem to be what you are doing... (There are a lot of kitties out there who never see numbers as good as this, and whose humans could only dream of the kind of numbers that you're seeing at the moment...)
However, if a caregiver is testing fairly frequently and is on a long lasting insulin (as you are) then it is certainly 'possible' to aim for 'Tight Regulation', which involves trying to keep the kitty's blood glucose in a
normal range for more of the time.
The 'ideals' of what we want to achieve, and 'what we can achieve in practice' may be very different for all sorts of reasons, including insulin type, frequency of testing, cat's response to the insulin, diet, concurrent health conditions, etc, etc.... Some of these factors are in our control, and some of them....are not....
From what I can see you are doing a great job. And you are also
lucky in that your kitty is seeing some great numbers. That isn't always possible... Sometimes caregivers put in a lot of serious effort for a long time but don't see numbers like the ones your kitty has at the moment. So DO celebrate all successes! This is so important!
BTW, I never expected my first diabetic to go into remission. He had awful numbers at first. And he had a number of health issues over the years (including kidney disease). But he needed less and less insulin over time and eventually went into remission after nearly 11 years on insulin.... In the early months and years I absolutely
agonised over his numbers, convinced that something awful would befall him if I didn't urgently get control of the situation. And I was even told by a member at that time (in a private message) that my cat would "suffer organ damage" if I didn't get him into a better blood glucose range. ...But in the end he lived for over 12 years with diabetes, and died aged 20, just from old age...
Eliz
