5 yo cat with diabetes

Good morning everyone. I apologize if I'm writing this post in the wrong place, but I need help ASAP. My cat Mittens was diagnosed with diabetes about 5 weeks ago. Feels a lot longer with how horrible this has been on everyone. I had taken him in from my mothers care about 10 months ago. She gave him endless amounts of dry cat and dog food, 1 can of wet food every morning, and he would eat the scraps off her plate from dinner. When he moved in with my boyfriend and I he was given only dry cat food. I took him in to have blood work done because he hadn't been himself lately to find his blood sugar levels were 589. My vet started him out with 1 1/2 units of insulin (Novolin) and put him on 1/2 cup of dry cat food (Royal Canin Glycobalance) with 1 can of wet food (Royal Canin Glycobalace) per day. She took him from 1 1/2 units to 5 units within two weeks. His numbers were decreasing, but when we went to 5 units the meter wasn't able to read his numbers anymore so we went back down to 4 units. He now seems to have somewhat stable numbers in the 300's, but he is still very lethargic and all he wants to do is eat. Does anyone have any advice as to what my boyfriend and I are doing wrong? I want to help my cat so badly, but he keeps getting into our human food even after I think I have secured it all which makes his numbers sky rocket. He won't even let us hold him anymore. He growls and hisses at us until we put him down then he runs to the kitchen. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I would appreciate any advice since I don't trust my vet anymore. (Currently searching for a better vet)

 

Hi & welcome. It may be a good idea to post also on the introduction page. But basically don't panic.! There is plenty of support & advice for you on the forum. You may need further diet advice and it is very important to be testing at home (it sounds as though you already are. ) this will help you to keep Mittens safe. Mittens will feel extra hungry until regulated as he will not be getting what he needs from his food right now. So you may need to feed more initially of a more suitable food. Sounds like you are already researching the subject. But keep posting on here and introduction page for more advice on how to begin the journey and to start to feel more confident. Others will offer more advice than I am able to.

 

He's getting into your human food because he is STARVING. Unregulated diabetic cats can't process the nutrients in the food properly... so they need to eat more then a typical cat.

You're vet is doing things wrong, and frankly sucks at dosing. NEVER should a cat's insulin be raised in whole units. it's DANGEROUS. Go back to 2 units, and get a human meter... you are going to need to test at home if you are going to get this thing under control. Clearly you can't rely on your vet's dosing "expertise", but you've come to the right place as there are many experienced cat folks here that live and breath cat diabetes 24/7. You're going to have to grab the bull by the horns if you want to keep your cat safe and find her ideal dose..... then hopefully work on getting her regulated and possibly into remission.

Head to Walmart and get:

1. Relion confirm or micro meter (not prime it needs too big of a sample)
2. extra box of 100 test strips
3. Box of 28 gauge lancets (the ones that come with the meter are for humans and are too thin)
4. neosporin ointment with pain relief
5. cotton cosmetic rounds to put behind the cat's here as you poke.

I have a video in my signature below showing how I test my cat CC.

The next thing you need to change is the diet.

While the cans of prescription are low enough in carb count, it's unnecessary to buy expensive food. Most of us feed fancy feast classic or friskies pate. Use up the cans you have but not need to buy more of them.

THE DRY FOOD needs to go bye bye... it's like 16% carb, and you wanna keep the carb levels under 10 %. There are only a handful of dry foods that meet that criteria... young again zero carb is one, Dr. Elseley's clean protien chicken is another... You can skip the dry all together and just feed the fancy feast.

YOU DON'T need to feed twice a day... you can let her graze. Feed as much as she wants if she's hungry!! Just no food at least two hours prior to your preshot test.

So if you shoot at 6:30 am /pm, you will want to test about 6am, that means NO FOOD AFTER 4. You will test, then feed, then shoot in that order. Then when you can try to get some mid cycle numbers... if you do a curve on your cat you will see when she tends to dip lowest. For my cat it's usually at 5 hours after the shot... others it's earlier or later depending on the insulin and the cat.

If you have any specific questions don't hesitate to ask.

 

You've gotten good advice in Janet's post. The only thing I can add is another reason that you should start home testing right away. Even though you will be feeding more food, more often, you will be feeding low carb food. This means that the insulin needs will change, sometimes drastically. It would be best to start the testing as soon as possible so that you can monitor closely during food transitions.

 

Thank you for the fast replies! We have been home testing him now for a few weeks. We are using the Relion brand for out testing as well. If we are to take away his dry food how will he graze and how many cans of wet food a day should he get?

 

Many people leave wet food out for grazing through the day. You can freeze small amounts of it in "pucks" and put those out for later in the day after starting the day with fresh from the can. You can do this with an autofeeder too. As for how much - as much low carb wet food as he wants until he's better regulated. It's best fed in several small meals, though.

 

Great that you are already home testing!!!! That's half the battle.

We r have a template for am awesome spreadsheet from Google Sheets.... When you get a chance plug in the numbers and add a link to your signature. (We can help if you need it).

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

 

So far we have increased the amount of food he's eating to a full cup of low carb dry food with 1 can of low carb wet food per day. He seems to be getting less hungry, but now he's way more lethargic. All he does is lay around. We brought his insulin down to 3.5 units 2 times a day with meals, but now when we take his blood sugar levels the meter says HI. I am very worried.

 

What low carb dry is it?

 

You could try removing all the dry food from his diet and increasing the amount of low carb wet food. This can have a big impact on BG in some cats. Setting up a spreadsheet with all the data you have so far would help us to help you.

 

I will give him all wet food tomorrow and set up the spread sheet. We are giving him Glycobalance from Royal Canin. Thank you everyone for all of your guidance. I'll be sure to update you on his progress.

 

Mittens' glucose levels were much better this morning (mid-300s) after we reduced his insulin to 3.5 units from 4 units on Monday (his levels were very high on Monday). We also started letting him eat more, and he seems to be a lot happier and better behaved. We are not going to phase out his low carb dry food just yet because we are afraid that if we change too much on him too fast, he will have trouble adapting. We will switch him to wet food once his glucose levels become more consistent again.

We plan on doing a glucose curve for him when my boyfriend has a day off of work, so we can get a better idea of where his insulin levels actually need to be.