BG #'s

Hi, I am beginning to understand food spikes, etc ECID
But, my mom is diabetic & said that not eating can provide a spike too (in humans) is this true in cats too?
I do understand that small meals throughout the day are best - but then it seems challenging to get a true #? Just thinking... :roll:

 

Hello...

The "true" number needs to include the food, as it is a natural part of a cat's day, and why fasting curves are not a great idea, ( besides the obvious giving insulin to a cat without food on board is dangerous and can lead to hypo, and not feeding a cat can lead to al kinds of problems)
You want to manage FD with the diet taken into consideration in combination with the dose, and why making big changes from say, dry food to a lower carb wet diet, should be done with an eye to lowering the dose when you do.

I can not speak to the relationship to humans with this, but do know cats metabolize food and insulin faster than humans and therefore those smaller meals spread throughout the day work more effectively, especially if there is a healing pancreas in the picture.

 

Hello...

The "true" number needs to include the food, as it is a natural part of a cat's day, and why fasting curves are not a great idea, ( besides the obvious giving insulin to a cat without food on board is dangerous and can lead to hypo, and not feeding a cat can lead to al kinds of problems)
You want to manage FD with the diet taken into consideration in combination with the dose, and why making big changes from say, dry food to a lower carb wet diet, should be done with an eye to lowering the dose when you do.

I can not speak to the relationship to humans with this, but do know cats metabolize food and insulin faster than humans and therefore those smaller meals spread throughout the day work more effectively, especially if there is a healing pancreas in the picture.

 

That's interesting, I have never heard that before (no idea if it is true for cats or not).

Some people give their cats 4 small meals - 2 around test/shot time, and then 2 a few hours later. It varies by insulin when the best time is to schedule those second small meals, but the idea I think (at least with PZI & Vetsulin) is to balance the insulin as it is approaching peak, to keep the curve flatter. At my house we free-feed, so I haven't followed that side of things too much.

Back on dry food when free-feeding, I did find it hard to know how to read the #s, as some days I would get a good nadir but not others, and I was never sure what was food spikes and what wasn't. Had Bix stayed a dry food addict I probably would have switched to mealtimes, but thankfully he became a canned food convert. On canned, his #s have stayed more consistent, and I've never been pushed to worry too much about the accuracy of the tests - his #s started being consistently good so the free-feeding stayed.

Hope that helps!