New to the forum

Good morning all,

I'm new to the forum and hope that I will be able to get some answers here in my search about my diabetic cat.
My now 8 year old cat was first diagnosed with diabetes in summer 2015 and had to be hospitalized for a week because he was doing really bad. 2 weeks after his release from hospital he went into remission and got off the insulin. He has always been a cat who loves to eat lots and is very vocal, that never changed. 2 weeks ago he was again diagnosed with diabetes and is back on insulin 2 units twice daily. My vet sold us the diabetic can and dry food from Purina, he loves it btw and I purchased the home monitor too. After one week on the insulin I did a glucose curve, checking him every 2 hours until 2 hours after last dinner and insulin. What was standing out that in the morning eating the dry diabetic food that his reading after eating and insulin was higher than before eating. At night with the can food his levels came down after eating and insulin. That sparked suspicion in me and i started searching on the internet for answers. Through this forum i learned of www.catinfo.org and started reading on there about foods and feeding your diabetic cat. Next day my vet increased the insulin to 3 units twice daily and I stopped the dry food and started giving him only wet food (but not the diabetic one, the website recommended Friskies pate or fancy feast). Friskies is what I was originally buying at Costco already anyway, so I started going back to that and he is happy but still constant,t hungry and very vocal. I checked his glucose levels randomly to see how he was responding to the feeding and his levels were slowly coming down. Last night after eating and insulin he was down to 8.3 lowest yet and we were so happy. Naturally I checked him this morning before feeding and giving insulin because I didn't want to overdose and his reading this morning was 32.6. I'm seriously out of my mind and don't understand the world anymore. I understand fluctuations throughout the day but didn't expect this huge jump over night.
I'm so sorry the thread gotten so long. I appreciate any input, suggestions and experiences anybody like to share with me, thank you.

Susi

 

Welcome! We can help you get your lovely kitty back on track. Please post any questions you have on the main health forum where they'll be seen by more people. I'll get started here but please give your answers on the other forum:

Then you know that the best diet for a diabetic cat is canned low carb food. Friskies and Fancy Feast pates are fine, Purina DM is low carb and if your kitty likes it and you can afford it, you can feed it too, either alone or mixed with Friskies/Fancy Feast.

What insulin are you using? A 1 unit increase is large and the increase was probably made based on BG numbers that were hjigher because of dry food. We recommend increasing in 0.25 u increments.

A BG number that goes from 8.3 to 32.6 is indicative of what we call "bouncing" here - an overreaction to either a low number, lower than usual number or fast drop in numbers.

 

Welcome!

 

Thank you for the warm welcome and thank you Kris & Teasel for giving me already a few answers. I will post again on the main forum.



Then you know that the best diet for a diabetic cat is canned low carb food. Friskies and Fancy Feast pates are fine, Purina DM is low carb and if your kitty likes it and you can afford it, you can feed it too, either alone or mixed with Friskies/Fancy Feast.

I'm feeding the Friskies as I was feeding them that food and dry food before. I stopped giving dry food to any of my cats since I learned that it's not good for them.

What insulin are you using? A 1 unit increase is large and the increase was probably made based on BG numbers that were hjigher because of dry food. We recommend increasing in 0.25 u increments.

The vet prescribed Caninsulin and he started with 2 units twice daily and I did the glucose curve at home after a week. Next day the Vet told me to start giving him 3 Units twice daily. Today I'm doing another curve. During last week his levels came nicely down, especially after removing the dry food but yesterday they came back up.
My Vet says increase needs to be drastic. I know for sure that when she gets today's glucose curve results that she will either put him in 3 units twice or change the insulin.

A BG number that goes from 8.3 to 32.6 is indicative of what we call "bouncing" here - an overreaction to either a low number, lower than usual number or fast drop in numbers.[/QUOTE]

I will post a new thread on the main forum.

Thank you for already responding here.

 

I must vehemently disagree!

 

I'm with Kris, I completely disagree! Not only could that kind of increase cause you to miss finding the correct dose for your kitty, it could also be very dangerous! It takes a while to regulate a kitty with FD, you can't make it happen overnight. As we say here, it's a marathon, not a sprint!