? First time doing glucose curve at home...feeling lost and frustrated

Hi Everyone my nine year old baby Humphrey was diagnosed in October last year, he is on Lantus 3 units twice a day. His last glucose curve at the vets was still very high and instead of spending more money to have them do it again I decided to try it at home. He is on the Purina Pro Plan DM diabetic dry cat food, half cup in the morning, a half cup in the evening. He got his food this morning around 8am and I did his first reading at 9:15 (It was my first time took me awhile to get a good sample!) that was 183. I gave him, his insulin shot and then I retested him at 12:15 (I thought it was every 3 hours eeekk I'm new at this!) It was 379!! I feel sad for my little guy, I don't know how his sugar jumped that high in 3 hours...I'm going to keep testing him through the day. I want to get him feeling better and I feel lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

It is hard to tell what is going on since you did not get a BG before food/shot. Normally we dake BG, then feed and then shoot
Your BGs are:
Preshot/prefood BG - not taekn
at +1 1/4 (1 1/4 hours after food) BG=183
At+4 1/4 (after food, (+3 after shot) BG= 379

It could be that the insulin dose is too high since a BG of 1 1/4 hours after food with no shot seems to be low if 3 units are really required.

Another question is how much does Humphrey weight?
1/2 cup of the dry DM seems high. The manufacturer recommendation:
https://www.proplanveterinarydiets.com/products/dm-dietetic-management-cat/
weight of 17–20 lb. (7.7–9.1 kg) amount of dry DM PER DAY 3/4–1 c. (108-144 g).
I am weight for your other curve BGs.
A low-carb canned food is best and should result in reducing insulin needs. It may even result in Humphrey not requiring insulin.

 

First, is Humphrey really that big in your avatar? He's looking very handsome!
Good for you that you're doing curves at home. It saves money and cats get stressed at any vet's office and their numbers never reflect what's really happening. Don't feel lost, I've had many curves that made no sense at all. Sometimes Noah looks out the window or the wind blows and his numbers go all over the place. It will almost never be textbook perfect. What you want is a general idea of how your doses are affecting him and how low he gets at his nadir (the low point) of his 12 hour cycle. Other members that use Lantus will give you better advice, Noah is a Caninsulin cat. Good luck.

 

Humphrey started at 20 pounds but has lost weight and is currently between 16 and 17....Maybe a low carb wet food might be a better option. I plan on doing a better testing day in the future now that I feel a little more confident and know more what I am doing!

 

Yes Humphrey has always been a very big boy!!! But he has a big frame so I never really thought he was too overweight! Your Noah is a handsome boy as well!!

 

You and your cat are pretty!

 

I think you would find it very helpful to use one of the spreadsheets we all use here:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/

If you set up a signature with basic info it will keep you from having to re-state things every time you post:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/

Here is a cat food database that is very helpful when choosing low-carb wet foods: http://catinfo.org/chart/index.php
You want to keep carbs as low as possible, definitely under 10%. The vet who made the list (and has the catinfo.org website) recommends starting with protein min 40, fat max 50, carb max 10, and for cats with kidney issues, phosphorous less than 300. You may also want to read this post by her: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...ust-carbohydrate-content.175004/#post-2111346

 

Welcome to you and Handsome Humphrey! Lots of help here for you.

 

Welcome and congratulations for starting to test at home!!

You'll need to be very patient, it's hard to say what's going on with only a few tests so as you keep testing and adding data it will get easier to have a picture of how is he really reacting to insulin, I'll be curious to see the rest of the day results even though you probably will need to get more tests in the next days ( not necessarily a curve ) to help understand what's going on. If you can ( I know is complicated at the beginning ) test him before you shoot and before you feed him tonight (withdraw food two hours before shooting ) and maybe (again if possible ) two hours after his shoot tonight.

Since you are using Lantus here's a link where you can start understanding a little bit about this insulin

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...the-basics-new-to-the-group-start-here.18139/

 

Welcome! Could I ask what meter you are using (human or pet)? That helps when looking at the numbers. You've received great suggestions about getting a spreadsheet going, as well as checking out the Lantus forum, there are many people there who can help, and additional info on the Lantus insulin and how it works. DM dry is about 18% carbs, most of us try and feed food less than 10%.

 

Bearing in mind that Humphrey's already on insulin, there is very important info at the following link about how to safely transition to a lower carb food:

catinfo.org - Feline Diabetes page

Humphrey's so handsome!


Mogs
.

 

Thanks for all your replies, you are all so awesome thank you for all the suggestions and links!!!! I decided to switch him the a wet food, i did some research from some of the threads here on the forum and I went and bought some of the Fancy Feast tender beef and chicken classic. If anyone has any serving size suggestions on how much for a 16 pound cat I would greatly appreciate it. The can says one per 3 1/2 pounds of body weight daily...but that seems like a lot that would be like 5 cans a day?

 

It is an animal meter that the vet is letting me borrow.

 

Yes I read this before I went out and bought the new food. Im nervous on starting his new diet because I dont want him to have any issues. I'm not going to change anything with his diet until I am 100% on what I am doing

 

Is good to know since numbers with a pet meter are different from human meters, if you are considering buying your own ( probably you will eventually need one unless your vet will let you keep that one for a long time ), most of us use human meters because the strips are a lot cheaper (or there are not pet meters available where we live) and easier to buy and you will find that usually you will be using a lot of strips.

And one important note the information in the protocols and everything you are going to be reading is usually considering human meters.

 

One more thing to consider as you transition him to a wet low carb food is that his levels of blood glucose will probably go down so I do suggest you monitor him specially that you always test before shooting him to keep him safe (sorry if I'm repeating what you already read but it is very important )

 

The Catkins diet (low carb, high protein, moderately high fat) definitely helps. If I could, I would give my guy wet food all the time. He got tired of the Fancy Feast fast though, and demanded a more expensive IAMS Salmon. Recently he prefers Young Again Zero kibble (which I have to leave out when I'm not home because he dislikes rancid wet food), but I take up the kibble when home and try to get him to eat as much of the wet food as he'll tolerate because wet food is better for him and the YAZ has bad effects on his stool (because it uses guar gum -- a potent laxative -- as its binder).

As others have mentioned, definitely monitor closely as you transition carefully to the low-carb diet. Good luck!