Cat randomly isn’t regulated anymore?!

My cat has had diabetes for 3 years. His BGC has always been great. Lowest he dropped was 90 and he maintained in the 100’s on 4 units of Prozinc insulin.

Noticed my cat was drinking more, so I took him to the vet. He’s on 4.5 units and BGC is as follows:

417, 425, 388, 410, 423.

Vet wants me to up him to 5.5 units. Little nervous to do this. Even with the 4.5 units of Prozinc, doesn’t look like he’s responding. Advice ?!

 

Wow! Well first, are those numbers you have from any specific time in the cycle? And are those numbers all from the vet? How long has he been on 4.5?

When you say he was in the 100s before, do you mean at mid cycle?

I wouldn't up to 5.5 units. That's quite a jump. The most we ever up a dose by is 0.5...and mostly we do 0.25 unit jumps. 1 unit is a lot for a cat. Are you testing at home? The numbers can be quite a bit lower at home since vet stress can cause them to be higher. It's hard to know for sure what kind of dosing to suggest without some data...if you can answer the questions above, that should help us!

 

Yes, those numbers listed above were every 2 hours after he was given his 4.5 units this morning. He’s been on 4.5 units for a year or so. He was tested today at the vet.

His glucose curves in the past have been in the mid 100s to start and then his peak was 90s. Then he would go back up to mid 100s.

 

So the curves have always been done in the vet's office? Are you testing at home?

 

I’ve tested at home in the past. But decided to take him in for his yearly blood work and his lab work was elevated, so they went ahead and ran the glucose curve.

I did notice he was drinking more water. Licking the tub & drinking from the toilet.

 

They recently had me change him to diabetic management food by Purina. His numbers have never been this bad.

 

Aaaaaah....That's the problem right there. Those diabetic management foods are super high in carbs. Switch back to the food you were using before. It will likely take some time to get him back to good numbers again. I'm so sorry your vet told you to do that.

 

Since you've got a couple of people responding to your question, would you mind removing the 911 from your thread title? When we see that we assume a cat is in an emergency situation. Here is how you remove it:

First, go to the top right and click on Thread Tools. Then click on "Edit Title"
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A new box will open up that looks like this (below). Click on the prefix and the "Tag Special" menu will open up. Then you can select "(no prefix)" to remove the 911.

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Let me know if you have any trouble with that! Thank you!

 

His current food the vet put him on says carbohydrates 18%, his previous food was 35%. So I’m not sure why he’s responding this way.

 

What was his previous food? And which Purina is it now? The values on the can aren't necessarily correct. Dr. Lisa Pierson has a handy food chart here: Food Chart.

Going with a lower carb food would actually REALLY help his numbers. We've seen cats drop over 100 points overnight. If you check out the food chart, we all try to feed a diet below 10% carbs. And there have been cats who've gone into remission on a food change alone! I wouldn't suggest changing food unless you're able to tests for the next few days though. You want to be sure that it doesn't drop him too far.