Getting Control of Diabetes for my 15yr old cat, The Dude

Hi Everyone,
Myself (36yr old from Maine) and my man, The Dude, 15yr old Maine coon mix have had a roller coaster of a month since diagnosis. Doing initial food changes along with one day on insulin (Vetsulin) that may have caused diarrhea and vomiting (may have been the simultaneous food changes) but to be safe we took a hiatus from the insulin to see if food alone was enough and he had a normal glucose curve a day later! So we stuck with the food. About 2 weeks after that Dude ended up in the ER vet, constipated, dehydrated, no appetite, unregulated high blood sugar (518) and ultimately spent 48 hours there where they started him back on the insulin 1 unit, twice daily and monitored him. Here we are 2 weeks later after that episode, he had another glucose curve at the vet and he was still slightly above 500 AMPS, so his dose has been upped to 1.5 units, twice daily. He's pretty lethargic, has weakness in his back legs, but he's eating regularly, no stool issues or vomiting, but generally I feel like he's not as good as he should be. I'm sure his blood sugar are still high, and I do believe the curves at the vet stress him out. They mention he gets feisty when they try to get the afternoon numbers. He has been nothing but sweet, unphased and 100% compliant when I give him his insulin shots at home so I'm in hopes doing testing at home won't be too hard of a transition.

I am buying a meter today to start testing, I feel like I need to take control of this at home and I worry not knowing what's going on with his numbers. Knowledge is power! My regular vet has been very helpful but has not brought up home testing, she sort of mentions these types of on-going issues are typical of a diabetic cat. I understand the initial dosing and getting to a truly regulated state is a process but I feel that there's more I could be doing in the meantime. This page has already been a big resource for me and I hope to get Dude's numbers stable!
-Audrey

 

Welcome. Glad you understand why home testing BGs is very important. If you have any specific question post them in the Health forum.
Also, there is no need for prescription DM and WD. You needa low carb food and those are really canned. See the following for a listing of canned food. You can sort it by % calories from carbs. You want 10% or less.
https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
WD canned is high (25%) for a canned food

 

Yes! thank you about the food info. After reading a lot last night and this morning, I was thinking about adjusting his food after I start the at home testing. He didn't react well to the DM canned food, and the bag of DM dry is getting low so it would be a good time to transition to all canned.

 

Hi Audrey, and welcome to you and The Dude to FDMB. You are so right about learning to home test to save additional stress for your kitty and keep costs down for you. As you say, you are going to be able to track and see the effects of the insulin and the diet change. One caution, transition slowly to avoid GI upset. Several small meals a day are better for our sugar cats, and until The Dude is better regulated he is going to be very hungry because he is not able to effectively process his food.
We are here to help you as you learn about feline diabetes treatment, and integrating it into your life.
When you have a few minutes (I know, they are probably few and far between with all that's going on, I remember that feeling of being run over by a steamroller!), just review the FAQs forum HERE. There is critically important Hypo information there that all sugar cat parents need to know, as well as valuable information in the Index.
Be sure to post in the Main Health forum and the Vetsulin forum with questions, concerns and issues, so that more members can read and offer suggestions and advice. Best wishes going forward!

 

Thank you! I've started testing at home and he's been such a champ. I'm only able to do a few times these past few days because of work but on Friday I plan to do a curve at home to know better, I also just left a message for my Vet because I'd like to up his insulin dose another increment. I already feel huge RELIEF at feeling like I have some control in helping him get better rather than leaving it all to the Vet. (Which had never mentioned at home testing in the multiple visits we've had)
I've started to switch out his wet food from the Hill's with Fancy Feast and will soon wean him off the DM dry (both of which my Vet pushed him to be on).
Sigh.... Feeling like we're making tiny progress with huge help from this forum!