First Hypoglycemic episode happening now

Thankfully, my Saoirse likes the taste of Fortiflora. I have been struggling to get her to eat with the pancreatitis. Fortiflora has been a godsend to get her tastebuds going most of the time I have given it to her.

I also found it helpful at times to gently warm the food/Fortiflora mix to encourage her to eat.

 

So I let Claudia graze on her food all day today instead of removing it and she seemed to be munching(measured amount). Also when I got home from work tonight BG was 397 and she was begging for food again like her normal self! I mixed some Vital brand moist kibble in with the dry and she started eating right away!!! Sooo happy!

Any comments on letting her graze all day as long as I measure her food? She's been losing weight quickly by not eating much and this seemed to help today!

 

Actually, it's better for a healing pancreas to deal with small meals, so if you want to feed her more often, that's actually good for her!

We usually say to take the food up 2 hours before Pre-shot tests so the test isn't influenced by food. Since you're not giving any insulin right now, I'm not sure if it's that important right now though

 

I free feed cannd food and put it down twice a day. They all seem to do fine that way (14 civvies & 1 diabetic)

 

I've found that Saoirse does much better when she can graze. She has never been a greedy eater, and if she can get small, frequent amounts of food down she seems to do a bit better. If her stomach gets completely empty (usually at 3-3½ hours), she starts up with the lip-licking and pulling faces when she tries to eat.

The first vet responsible for her treatment absolutely insisted that she only be fed twice a day on w/d Dry in order to pre-load her with carbs in order to be able to administer Caninsulin but I abandoned that within a couple of days because Saoirse started getting very painful bouts of foam vomiting.

I measure out each feed for her, and I also make a note of how much she eats at each sitting. On average, her natural preference is to eat 12-18g at any one time. The maximum that she has eaten at any one sitting has been 48g: both of those occasions were after a long fast and a dose of Pepcid (famotidine), but the vet has advised me to be sparing in my use of the antacid.

It shrivels me up inside to see her wanting food, not being able to eat and getting thinner again. I've resorted to feeding her out of my hand on several occasions over the last couple of days to ensure she gets something down. (Petrified of hepatic lipidosis after losing Danú.)

 

Thanks for the tips. Claudia also prefers to eat small amounts throughout the day. I am afraid if I don't leave out the food she wont get enough calories throughout the day. She's been losing weight.

Also when I do a curve test I'm guessing it's best to feed only 2x per day?

 

There's really no need for a strict "curve" if you're home testing. It's better to just get spot checks at all different points in the cycle ....but if you want to do one, you want to feed the same way you intend to feed at other times so you know how your cat does.

Some of us don't feed after +6 because the insulin is already starting to wear off so we don't want to add more carbs, but some of us feed right up until +10...it's one of those ECID things (Every Cat is Different)

 

What does +6 and +10 mean? Is that hours after shot?

 

Yes. If you check out other folks' signatures, you often see a link to a spreadsheet.

Understanding the spreadsheet/grid:

The colored headings at the top are the ranges of glucose values. They are color-coded to clue you in as to meaning.

Each day is 1 row. Each column stores different data for the day.

From left to right, you enter
the Date in the first column
the AMPS (morning pre-shot test) in the 2nd column
the Units given (turquoise column)

Then, there are 11 columns labeled +1 through +11
If you test at +5 (5 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +5 column
If you test at +7 (7 hours after the shot), you enter the test number in the +7 column
and so on.

Halfway across the page is the column for PMPS (evening pre-shot)
To the right is another turquoise column for Units given at the evening shot.

There is second set of columns labeled +1 through +11
If you snag a before bed test at +3, you enter the test number in the +3 column.

We separate day and night numbers like that because many cats go lower at night.

It is merely a grid for storing the info; no math required.

 

Thanks!!

Claudia has been doing much better these past couple of days. She doesn't like to come upstairs much-I think her neuropathy might be bothering her. But she's still ready to eat at mealtime! The only problem has been she likes to pee on the rug in the bathroom instead of her litter box sometimes. She gets fed in there(in case i need to keep the other cats out) but I hadn't been shutting her in. And it's a room away from her litter box! I don't know if there's still a problem or if she's just getting lazy.

 

If it hurts when she goes, she will look for something soft like a rug. Also, some cats will avoid the litter box due to the volume of urine when their diabetes isn't really regulated yet. (Apparently, it gets on their paws and they don't like it.) Tisha has done a lot of this over the past few years. We have tried lots of things, but have found for right now that having puppy pads where she tends to go is helping. She doesn't usually go outside of the puppy pads or litter box now. They also help with her annoying habit of using her paw to scoop litter onto the floor, then pee on that. (Clumping litter stuck to the floor is really hard to clean up.) She also really likes to use the Breeze litter box (non-absorbent litter, drains to a cat pad in a tray underneath) for urinating. She still thinks stools belong in the regular litter.

Hope that helps! If you continue to have issues, other things the vet has had us try:
More litterboxes
new litterbox (they can absorb smells)
bigger litterbox or litterbox with higher sides
different litter - softer grain, clumping vs. nonclumping, scented vs. unscented
confining to a small space with just food, water and litterbox to retrain (we couldn't do that because Tisha completing freaks out in a confined space)

I'm glad to hear that Claudia is feeling better. I hope she continues to improve!

 

Diabetic neuropathy isn't restricted to the legs. It may affect other parts of the body ... like the ability to hold the sphincter closed. In other words, she isn't lazy, she's an unregulated diabetic. Set up things so it is easier to get to the litter box.

As she becomes regulated, the neuropathy may improve. Giving methylcobalamin, a specific form of Vitamin B-12, has been shown to help recovery from this. VitaCost makes one that has no sweeteners and only a pinch of rice floor.

 

So I'm researching lantus prices and at over $200 a bottle I'm not sure I can afford that right away. What are your thoughts on using prozinc? Is it better than vestulin? Or will the lantus last so long that the cost up front wont be as big of a deal?

 

Also thanks for the advice on the B vitamins. I'll go out and get her some today-looking for no sugar formulas. Reccomended dosing? Just a small pinch over her food ok or should it be something i measure too?

I plan on getting some fortiflora eventually too. Probably in the next week or two when I get paid. I figure that can wait a little longer-I really just need to get her regulated.

I plan on doing a curve every weekend until she's regulated. I was going to call the vet and see how he reccomends I adjust based on my curves but I also want to post it on here and see what you all reccomend. The more input the better!

 

A number of folks get theirs from Canada.

Here's one place:http://Www.77canadapharmacy.com

 

ProZinc is a good insulin for cats, as well as Lantus, and yes, it's better than caninsulin

I did find a pharmacy in Canada that will sell 5 Lantus solostar pens for $133.95 plus $19.95 shipping. The 5 pack of pens is over $360 for me usually, so I was thrilled to find this place! They're a real pharmacy next to a doctors office, instead of one of those "website pharmacies" , but they do ask for a prescription (which can be faxed from your vets office or emailed)

The pens are a better buy than the vial because you'll be able to use every last drop. With the vials, there's 1000 units and most cats are only on about 2 units per day..the insulin will lose effectiveness before you'll use it up. The pens are like mini-vials with 300 units each and will last until their expiration date (the ones I just got expire in early 2016)

They're called Marks Mobile Pharmacy or Rxcanada4less, but as I said, they are a real pharmacy. They even have a customer loyalty program so if you recommend them to someone else, you get $20 off your next prescription.

What a lot of us use for B-12 is Zobaline for cats You just crush the pills and put it in their food

 

Good day today. Claudia was under 300 most of the day! She got less insulin than normal and had a good intake of food (2 3.5 oz cans of fancy feast). She actually came upstairs and hung out in the living room with us. She was rolling on her back on the floor to relax and stealing lap warmth all evening! Rewarding us with her super loud purr. She ate heartily when given her food and seemed like she was in a little less pain on her low back and legs. =) Leaning into our pets and rubbing her face all over us!

It's been wonderful. Outstanding even. Hopefully more days like this will help with her neuropathy. And I can get her playing again to help her lose some weight!

I picked up an off brand pro-biotic at the pet store called Animal Essentials: Plant Enzymes and Pro-biotics. It was a much more affordable option for now. I still plan on getting the fortiflora eventually. I also picked up some B-12 Methylcobalamin in chew tab form-it is 5 times the dose in the Zobaline so I'll be doing my best to split those pills-or just using it very sparingly after I crush them. She ate her food with the pro-biotics mixed in just fine. Haven't given her the B yet.

Crossing my fingers we are through the worst for now.

I priced the Lantus at the local Walgreens and they wanted to charge over $400! I'll definitely be exploring that Canadian Pharmacy option once she's gotten through more of the vestulin. I still have half a bottle left and would like to use it first and allow me to recoup a little financially. Overall her response has been well to more appropriate dosing and better food.

Thank you all for all of the knowledge, advice, and encouragement thus far. Your support means so much to me. I have not been getting as much support from a couple family members on this (due to the financial aspect and Claudia's age-13) so this forum has been a lifeline. Sometime in the next few days I'll be looking at that spreadsheet you provided and getting myself set up to use that. We've been pen and papering it so far.

Thanks a million!!!!! Much love and appreciation!! I look forward to being able to pay it forward someday!

 

Something weird happened this morning. Her premeal BG was 127 so I did not shoot and gave her breakfast-some Fancy Feast LC and when I tested an hour later her BG was 98. Does this mean she's self regulating? Or is something wrong?

I left out a little HC dry food for her and I have to go to work. I plan on taking an early lunch to check on her. I'll be back in a few hours-however my sister is home so I'm going to ask her to keep an eye on Claudia and call me if she starts acting hypoglycemic.

 

Hi,

Have I understood you correctly that it is more than 12 hours since Claudia had insulin?
If so then that could potentially be very good news.
It is very possible that the food stimulated her pancreas to work and her blood glucose dropped as a result of that.

I do entirely understand your being cautious (and leaving out higher carb food) because of the experience you had when Claudia dropped into hypo numbers. She seems to possibly have a long cycle given that she's on Caninsulin (is she still on Caninsulin...?).
Will be interested to see what her numbers are later on today...

Eliz

 

I was unable to get an early lunch today so I had my sister give her 1/4 cup of her old dry food as a precaution because she said she was not getting out of her bed when she saw my sister like she normally would. It sounded like she wasn't quite hypo yet because she was meowing and responding to my sister pretty quickly when she messed with her ears a little. She could have just been tired and napping but I thought it better to err on the side of caution since I couldn't be home. I wondered if the addition of probiotics to her food yesterday maybe caused her to be using the restroom more and processing her food faster or something.

Anyway, just got home it's 12:20p and she just tested at 154!!!! She seems to be doing fine however a little less enthusiastic than normal. I might be over-reacting-but this is really cool so far.

She hasn't had insulin since 6:45 last night!

Thoughts? I'm going to leave a message with my vet right now!

Edit: yes she's still on the vestulin-I cant afford to buy new more expensive insulin just yet and she's got half a bottle left!

Edit: No fresh poo in the boxes, no excessive urine and the urine is finally clumping again.

 

Oooh,

If you got a 154 after the dry food then that is very good (I'd thought it might be higher than that after the dry food...)
(And at this point you don't need to worry about hypo. Without insulin in her system there is no danger of that.)

Things are looking very good for Claudia. And she may even be wanting to come off insulin soon... nailbite_smile

 

Well, I knew it was too good to be true. Got home from work and she tested a 258 BG at 5:38p. Still not as high as it was before but too high anyway. She'll get 1/2 unit with dinner tonight. That's ok though because this morning totally made my day!

edit: She's at 218 at dinner time. I'm going to give her .25 u or as close as I can come to it. And of course keep testing till bedtime...

 

No insulin needed at all today! Baby steps! She's doing pretty well!

 

So Claudia started regulating soon after her antibiotic shot. I'm starting to wonder if she just had pancreatitis the whole time. Is it normal for a cat to start to remiss so early like she is? We did test for pancreatitis early on(per my request-she had a false diagnosis a couple years ago when it was pancreatitis) but the recent test came out negative. It's been a week today since her antibiotic shot. . .

 

I'd might consider it transient diabetes, meaning that under the right circumstances, she'll need insulin to control her glucose levels. That would include infection, steroid treatment, pancreatitis, just to name a few.

You'll need 14 days of no insulin and numbers between 40-130 mg/dL on a human glucometer to have her in remission.

 

Thanks for the info! So it sounds like she's still a tad high then-

I'll keep up with the probiotics, hopefully it will help!! And just cross my fingers that she gets it under control! It would be very cool if we could manage it without insulin. Then I wouldn't have to worry quite as much! I am pretty much her sole caregiver in the household and my husband knows how to do her ear prick test so I can manage her via phone if needed.

I wish my sister would get more involved. She's at the house most of the time and it would be so helpful. Especially if I want to go out of town! She said she'd give an insulin shot if needed but I need more than that from her!!

 

So It's been over two weeks and Claudia is still in regular blood sugar numbers! Sooooo excited!

 

If it has been 2 full weeks of glucose values between 40-130 mg/dL on a human meter, she is officially otj_icon

Maybe make a new post and shout out to everyone!

 

I just read through this whole thread. My cat is newly diagnosed so I've been surfing around reading. First I want to say--Congrats on being insulin free! And also, I'm humbled and awed by the level of caring/kindness on this board. What a fantastic group of people looking out for others and their furry friends. Amazing.

 

I know! It brought me to tears talking about it with friends at work.