Introducing Ali

Ali is 13 years old. She was diagnosed with small cell lymphoma almost 3 years ago. She is being treated for it with prednisilone and chlorambucil. We are active on the Feline_Smallcell_Lymphoma group on groups.io.

Ali's blood glucose has always been high, around 300. However her fructosamine was always normal, so we attributed the high BG to stress at the vet's office.

About a year ago, her weight dropped and BUN spiked, so our vet put her on Hills K/D, which is a high carb food. This worked wonders; Ali's BUN dropped and she regained her lost weight.

Ali was doing great up until 2 weeks ago, when she developed acute pancreatitis. Her PLI was 50, and her BG was 480. Fortunately she responded well to treatment and is feeling much better now. However she is now diabetic and is on Lantos U-100 glargine. After some experimentation, our vet arrived at a dose 1.5 units in the morning and 1 unit in the evening. Ali will stay on this dose and return to the vet in 3 weeks for a fructosamine test.

I am not doing any in-home BG testing. Our vet feels that her glargine dose is low enough that she is at low risk for hypoglycemia even if her pancreas function returns to normal.

I am joining this group in the hope of sharing info with other members whose cat's diabetes was caused by pancreatitis.

Some questions I have include:

1. How frequently does pancreatitis induced diabetes resolve itself vs. requiring insulin for the rest of the cat's life?
2. Has anyone's cat become hypoglycemic on this low a glargine dose?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

Welcome! It is usually best to post questions on the main health forum rather than here in the introduction forum.

It is absolutely possible for a cat to become hypoglycemic on a low dose! Home monitoring is the only way to really keep things safe. It is also the only way to really determine appropriate dosing. I have a link to the AAHA guidelines in my signature, and they discuss home monitoring as being the preferred method. Fructosamine tests do not give you the full picture. They provide an average over the last 2 to 3 weeks. A cat's blood glucose can be all over the place, going too high, going too low, and the fructosamine result can look okay. I cannot imagine managing this without home monitoring, especially, if your cat proves to be a difficult one to regulate. Also, any studies I have read have all indicated that home testing contributed toward increased remission rates.