Are these BG Numbers in The No Shot Range?

These are Bobbie's numbers for today. Are we safe still not giving shots?

She is only eating Canned food now. Friskie's Classic pate.

Should I do the 12 hour curve testing tomorrow?

this morning before feeding 167
morning, 1 hour after eating 167
morning 2 hours after eating 153

6 hours after morning feeding(before afternoon feeding) 171

2 hours after afternoon feeding 164

before evening feeding 147
2 hours after evening feeding 160

Thanks for you advice/help!

 

Hi again, Becky,

While they are not normal glucose levels for most cats (depending on the source, the range can be from 50 to 150, those who have tested non-diabetic cats often get 50s and 60s) her glucose range is very stable. Unless she exhibits other signs of diabetes such as frequent urination or excessive water drinking, you're probably fine to help her with diet alone right now.

Numbers this low might be difficult to manage with insulin without running the risk of hypoglycemia where the BG goes very low, or rebound situation where too much insulin causes the blood glucose to go low and then the body reacts to protect itself causing a release of substances which make the BG climb higher.

I don't think I would consider starting insulin unless she was regularly over 200. Have you spoken to your vet about the effect the diet change is having? You may want to show them her BG values and ask if they think she should have insulin.

Seems to me like you are getting plenty of spot checks the way you are doing it. Curves are usually only done for cats on insulin because the purpose is to learn how well the insulin is working at the dose given.

You're doing a great job for her and the diet change really shows how powerful of an effect it can have to lower blood glucose alone.

 

Another question I have is,

Ever since she was so sick with pancreatitis, and then being diagnosed as diabetic,even though she had been better, she has never really been back to normal. But when we stopped the shots, and switched to canned food(already her favorite kind before she got sick), wow the change has been drastic. She has perked right up, been playful, good appetite, not hiding anymore, the diarreah has almost gone away. She has cut her water drinking in half. I am thinking that she was dehydrated from that and that is where the thirst was coming from.

Wow, that got long, but what i was trying to get around to asking, I am wondering if she was too low and that was causing her to feel bad?


I'm logging all the testing and plan to get with the vet after I have done it for 2 weeks to see what he has to say.

Thanks so much for your advice- I want to do the best thing for her and am so afraid I am going to mess up and make her worse!

 

Low carb food is never a bad choice!

Pancreatitis makes them feel lousy. So she may have still felt poorly because of that. More likely however, if you were giving her insulin and were not hometesting to see how the insulin was affecting her blood glucose, is that she was experiencing what's called Somogyi Rebound. That's what I mentioned could happen if you gave her insulin at these BG levels. It's a reaction to the BG going low and it causes the BG to then increase rapidly. The higher BG can make them feel bad, especially the feeling of going form low to high.

She almost sounds like a case where the pancreatitis caused the diabetes, rather than the other way around, which is more usual, that because a cat is diabetic they are more likely to develop pancreatitis.