Newbie seeking advice and guidance...

Hi Everyone,
I'm not sure whether or not I'm posting to the right forum or not so please forgive me. My little guy, Mako (12 yo male siamese), was recently diagnosed with diabetes on Saturday and am feeling very overwhelmed. Diagnosis was largely through blood glucose which at the time was sitting at 30mmol/L. At the same time he was also diagnosed with very low B12 and relatively high Folate which are vet concluded was likely due to IBD. He tested negative for Pancreatitis.

Mako was kept in over night to generate a BG curve and it was decided that we would start him on Lantus (at .5) once daily, since his nightly reading on Saturday was very low (he received insulin Saturday mid day right after diagnosis). He got one more dose of Lantus the following morning (Sunday 10 am) as well as a shot of b12. I brought him home and began taking BG readings every other hour. His feeding schedule was switched from free-fed Royal Canin Urinary SO dry to Purina DM wet twice daily (half a can per feed - mako is 3.6 lb down from 4.4 lb normally). At about 1pm the following day Mako became Hypoglycemic (3mmol/L) the reading stabilized after giving him some of his previous kibble we had on hand but it was decided by our Vets that he was way too sensitive to the insulin and that we should keep monitoring BG before deciding whether to give more. We have not given him a dose of insulin since Sunday morning (it is now Wednesday) and BG readings are all below 6mmol/L. We have kept on our regular feeding schedule as best we can but he doesn't seem as ravenous as he did a few days ago (i.e. doesn't finish it all at once or beg for his meal) so it was okay'd by my vet to leave it out for him to graze on until he finish it. This morning however he seemed way less interested in his morning Purina DM - he took a few bites then went back to bed. BG reading before feeding was 6.7 mmol/L. I guess my question is does this all seem normal? I'm feeling very confused about how this is progressing and not sure if I should be worried. Thank you so much for your help!

Anthea

 

Welcome! I'm not sure of the answers to your questions but there are other more expert people here who may know.

Does it seem like he may be nauseated? Have you talked to the vet about his reduced interest in food?

 

Welcome to the FDMB!...The best place you never wanted to be if you have a diabetic cat!

It's totally possible that the diet change from high carb dry SO to lower carb wet DM had a lot to do with the lower numbers.

However, there's nothing "special" about the DM food (except the price!) and the ingredients are really pretty lousy. Most cats will eat it at first, but tire of it quickly.

There are lots of other choices of low carb canned foods like Fancy Feast Classics (Pates), Friskies pates, 9-Lives ground, etc. that your kitty may like more.

Where do you live? I see you're using mmol/l in your blood glucose numbers so I figure you must be someplace other than the US

 

Thanks Chris and Jean. We are Canadian. He seems to be grazing quite a bit more as the day goes on. Just took another reading and BG is at 8.3mmol/L (149 mg/dL - should i always report this way here?). Doesn't seem nauseated. wondering now if I should pull the food? He's just such a little guy i don't want to restrict is intakes but also don't want to mess with the gains made in regulation.

 

Many of us here allow our diabetic kitties to free feed and pick up the food 2 hours before test/feed/shoot. So basically a 2 hour fast before testing BG levels AM and PM. My cat PrettyGirl has done so much better following this eating plan.

 

Hi and welcome Anthea. It would be helpful if you created a signature and have Mako's pertinent information available with every post. Here is a link on how to do this: SIGNATURE Then each member who responds can see the info readily without having to ask and you having to repeat. We also use a spreadsheet to track and record insulin doses and times and the blood glucose tests so that you and other members can see any changes and/or patterns. Here is a link on how to create the spreadsheet and understand how it works: SPREADSHEET
Having the signature and spreadsheet information available enables members to respond more readily to your concerns and questions, since you cannot be present online at all times.

 

Thank you so much, Lou. I'll start on that now.