My cat cloud is struggling.

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Allie & Cloud

Allie & Cloud

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hello, so you can call my trap.
I have a cat named cloud who's diabetic. He's been diabetic since January. I have been struggling to keep him in the 'safe range' blood glucose levels for a while now. He takes his insulin then plummets into the 20 to 30 something range. I keep panicking to help and then when he's not low he's at 200 to 300 something. He recently had a scare with hypoglycemia and was too lethargic and had to be taken to an emergency vet. He eats grain free purina true nature canned food. And every time he gets his insulin, with food. He still plummets. The vet keeps insisting I give him 5?in the morning and give at night ( units of insulin.) I feel like this is very wrong. I don't even really know what the ' healthy range' is. So I'm hoping tolearn how to handle this through this forum. Because I'm losing my mind trying to keep him healthy.
 

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Hello Trapnurse and Cloud, welcome!
trapnurse said:
He takes his insulin then plummets into the 20 to 30 something range. I keep panicking to help and then when he's not low he's at 200 to 300 something.
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It sounds like his dose might be too high for him. Hitting the lowest ranges and then going up to 200 - 300 is quite common (sadly). When Cloud goes too low his body perceives it as a threat and his liver secretes chemicals to protect his life. This is natural body response, and it brings up higher numbers. This can overcome with BG regulation - something many on this Forum had achieved and will be glad to help you with.

The most important thing is to give Cloud the insulin he needs and to do it safely you may need to start home testing his BG prior to administering insulin. Do you home test? Injecting 5 units which is high dose for an "average" kitty without testing is high risk.

trapnurse said:
The vet keeps insisting I give him 5?in the morning and give at night ( units of insulin.) I feel like this is very wrong.
Click to expand...
What insulin do you use? FIve units, in my humble opinion is high dose. But without knowing Cloud's med history, and especially without seeing his BG numbers it is difficult to form an opinion. What reasons has your vet give you for such dose? Was it Cloud's initial dose, or where there increases made?
trapnurse said:
I don't even really know what the ' healthy range' is. So I'm hoping tolearn how to handle this through this forum. Because I'm losing my mind trying to keep him healthy.
Click to expand...
It is the best place for you to get help with it. The wealth of collective knowledge here is amazing. Please keep posting any questions you may have and tell us more about Cloud.

ETA: He is very handsome!
 
My suggestion would be to get a testing meter for home, and REDUSE THE DOSE. It's clearly too much of he's getting hypoglycemic events... They can seriously be deadly.

If you are willing to test at home we can help.

I have a video showing how I test in my signature.
 
Welcome to you and your handsome Cloud! :) You've come to the right place for help and support. Please repost on the main health forum where more people will see it. Include this info so we can get started :
  • Cloud's age and date of diagnosis
  • what insulin is being used
  • how you got to the dose you're at
  • whether you test blood glucose at home and, if so, what meter you use
  • what food Cloud eats
  • any other health issues/meds he has.
You've covered some of this already but the folks who read your post on the main health forum might not read this post.
 
Welcome Trap and Cloud!
Sounds like you are already home testing but we can help you refine it :). This is the Spreadsheet template we use to share BG (blood glucose) readings of our kitties, if you can back log as much data as possible we might be able to see a pattern besides 5.0U needs to be reduced. If you need help setting one up, just ask ;). Only need a Google e-mail addy: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

Also, you can put a lot of that information that Kris posted in your Signature (it's the light grey text that appears below each of our posts): http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/

Lastly, you've already had the unfortunate event happen but HERE is the information we use. Home testing and the help of this forum will do our best to help you keep Cloud safe and get him feeling better :bighug:.
 
Tanya and Ducia said:
Hello Trapnurse and Cloud, welcome!

It sounds like his dose might be too high for him. Hitting the lowest ranges and then going up to 200 - 300 is quite common (sadly). When Cloud goes too low his body perceives it as a threat and his liver secretes chemicals to protect his life. This is natural body response, and it brings up higher numbers. This can overcome with BG regulation - something many on this Forum had achieved and will be glad to help you with.

The most important thing is to give Cloud the insulin he needs and to do it safely you may need to start home testing his BG prior to administering insulin. Do you home test? Injecting 5 units which is high dose for an "average" kitty without testing is high risk.


What insulin do you use? FIve units, in my humble opinion is high dose. But without knowing Cloud's med history, and especially without seeing his BG numbers it is difficult to form an opinion. What reasons has your vet give you for such dose? Was it Cloud's initial dose, or where there increases made?

It is the best place for you to get help with it. The wealth of collective knowledge here is amazing. Please keep posting any questions you may have and tell us more about Cloud.

ETA: He is very handsome!
Click to expand...
His initial dose instructed by the vet was 5.0U in the morning and 4.0U at night. And I am home testing quite a bit actually. I spent yesterday hourly doing so after his incident. He's more active today. I finally got more time and filled my profile out with his information.
He takes novalin N human.
 
I'll be quite busy today but I'm going to work on that spread sheet today. Hopefully I can get it pretty simple and quickly. I'll put all my info in my signature asap too! I'm greatful for all of your help. I feel less lost and panicked now knowing I can do this with help.
 
Update:: I'll need help understanding how to make this spread sheet but I have a room mate who's tech savvy IT worker status so he can probably help but anyoffer of understanding would be appreciated.
 
The insulin you are giving is a rapid acting insulin and only lasts a short time (couple of hours). It is normally used to bring down high glucose very quickly in emergency situations. 5 units is way to much (as he is going low) and can be very dangerous. Talk with your vet, there are better insulins out there.
 
Novolin N is an intermediate acting insulin with onset within 1-2 hours after injection and a peak at 4-6 hours. Novolin R is the fast acting insulin used in emergency situations. Novolin N may not last a full 12 hours in a feline but it will last 8 or slightly more on average.
 
The Information on what Novolin is, and how fast is works is a bit confusing. Im not sure if its intermediate or rapid. But it lowers his sugar quite a bit. Im starting that spread sheet Now. but I can't remeber how much i gave him at previous dates because all my meter says is the date and the reading. so it doesnt help much to start the spread sheet that far back. Im going to just have to start filling it in now. any advice would be much appreciated. Im calling my vet on monday when his office is open to discuss the change of insulin possibly. I dont have the money to an overnight stay after a 890 something dollar vet bill from his episode But I will try my hardest to keep a log written on paper from now on. starting from last night.
Edit:: I put as much of his spread sheet together as I can tonight. Ill keep adding to it when ever I can.
 
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Awesome job with the spreadsheet!
I am glad you reduced the dose after those scary numbers yesterday.:bighug:

ETA: Please take another test soon - the big difference between the per-injection number and the test 2 hours later suggests that Cloud will lower further. If so - give him some food. It would be great if you post the test results - or update the spreadsheet with it.
 
Wow looking at the spreadsheet on so glad you lowered that dose. 5 units could have been deadly. 3 may be too much too. It looks like he's doing a lot of bouncing which could take a few days to settle. Honestly if it were my cat I would kind of start Over and hold 2 units for like 4-5 days and record lots of readings.... Wait for the bouncing to settle.... Then if it was not enough raise it 0.25-0.5 units at a time as needed.
 
I agree with Yong. It's time to set up a new thread over on the Caninsulin/Vetsulin/N/NPH forum. This forum is meant for introductions only and dosing advice should be kept in the specific insulin forum.

If you set up a new thread in the Caninsulin/Vetsulin/N/NPH forum and copy and paste the link below at the top, all the info provided here will be available to anyone offering assistance. :)

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/my-cat-cloud-is-struggling.179049/#post-1979734
 
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