New member - My newly diabetic cat Smokey might as well be a yo yo :(

Hi all! I am new to the group. Discovered it tonight in a moment of panic and am happy to have done so. My Smokey gal (15 years) has been thinking about becoming diabetic for the better part of this year, likely due to necessary long-term pred usage. She finally tipped over into the BG >300 range about 2.5 weeks ago, began Lantus insulin, and with that went my sanity. I am a very logical person and have had many special needs cats (cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, hyperthyroidism) so I wasn't really daunted by the diabetes diagnosis. I bought the Alphatrak, did my reading, and mistakenly thought it would be like a math problem easily solved (find right dosage, home free). I was not prepared for how quickly her numbers have risen and how inconsistently she has reacted to the insulin. I panic every time I see a new high number on the meter. I filled out her spreadsheet with my measurements and I would love for anyone to tell me that A) their cat's values were also as whack-a-doodle during the first few weeks but eventually stabilized and lived happily every after and B) ease my mind about what appears to be an alarming trend of increasing "new highs" despite being on insulin. She went from her first value in the 250s (mid-August) to her first in the 400s a week later (that is when we started insulin). Now, tonight, 15 days after starting insulin and on her first day on her new higher insulin dose, she has her first 500+ reading (WHAT?!!!). I have read a little bit on here already about "bouncing" which has eased my mind a tiny bit, but I would love to have some veterans look at her spreadsheet and tell me if her #s are panic-inducing? My vet hasn't seen the 500+ value yet but has been pretty calm about everything else up to this point, wanting to increase her dose by a half unit only every 5-7 days, which sounds pretty standard. Also, she has thankfully never had any ketones in her urine.

She does have some complicating factors: 1) She is still on prednisolone and can't really get off of that last 2.5mg/day due to disc issues and severe arthritis/allergy to adequan injections. And 2) She has SEVERE food allergies to all things bird which eliminates all diabetes diets from contention. I am trying to transition her from her venison-based dry prescription allergy diet to canned food but the low-carb venison choices are slim and canned food isn't her favorite. Also, because of her history of food allergies and our uncertainty if there are additional things she is allergic to, I have to be very cautious with diet changes. Also, 3) I work 7 days, 60 hours a week and have been running home as I can to test her glucose but unfortunately can't often get a full curve on her.

Let me explain some of the weirdness of her spreadsheet/dosing (this is also in the notes on the spreadsheet if you want the condensed version). She started insulin literally 3 days before I left town for a week so we started her on a 1u, 1x a day dose as that is what my pet sitter was able to handle and I didn't want to risk hypoglycemia when I was not here. During the week I was gone, he only checked her blood glucose once a day so data is scarce. When I got back, there was some wobble in her dosage as it was a holiday weekend and communication with my vet was delayed so I had to make the executive decision of how to handle her newly increased numbers I came home to. I added a small 2nd dose the first day I got home. Then the next day I increased her morning dose by 0.5 u. Then, I got an e-mail from my vet saying she wanted to do 1u every 12 hours before increasing the morning dose. So...I skipped the evening dose that night since I had given her the larger dose that morning and we embarked on the 1u twice a day. Maybe I should have left her on that dose longer, but when it had basically no effect (nadir well over 300 both days), I upped the morning dose to 1.25 u on the 3rd day (9/5). That had a better effect (mid-day nadirs of 213, 176, 252) but very short lived, often bouncing into the upper 300s/mid 400s by evening dose time. The vet said I could increase to 1.5u in the AM (she doesn't eat at night so I am hesitant to increase her evening dosage but maybe I don't need to worry about that since she doesn't seem at all prone to hypoglycemia at this time) today because I was home more of the day. As you can see, instead of getting a good response, her numbers went up to their all time high of a terrifying 552 (that was 3 hours ago, which led me to discover this group). So here I sit, having discovered this fantastic wealth of information, trying to breathe slowly and not panic, but wondering what in the world is going on with her numbers being so crazy and her response to the insulin so all over the place. Is this at all normal for starting out? Also, thanks for letting me *splat* my words at you. I promise I will be calmer next time....probably. Thanks for any insight you have. Seriously. (Also, feel free to redirect me to a better board/thread to continue this on.)

 

Hi and welcome!
I answered you in the main forum.

 

Hi and Welcome to you and Smokey. You have much going on and I have read your thread on the Main Health forum.

Since you have started that thread in the Main Health forum, which was the right thing to do, we can continue to communicate there, and in the Lantus forum for more input.

Best wishes going forward.