Newly Diagnosed; Pretty Confused and Scared

My sweet baby, Sophie (about 8 lbs) was recently diagnosed with diabetes. She was drinking and peeing a lot and very lethargic. However, we've had a terrible time regulating her because she's still drinking and eating a lot. No vomiting or anything, though.

She is up to 3 Units of Lantus twice a day after 2 curves done at the vet that had her BG at 500 or over (once it was 498, but whatever). She's also taking potassium and is on the Hills W/D diet for low carbs.

She's less spunky, more lethargic, and still drinking a peeing a ton. Poor baby. We're going to do our own glucose monitoring to see what the numbers look like as I've learned vet readings can be high, but I'm sure she's still not regulated.

Few questions (sorry if I'm in the wrong forum, happy to move this):

1) Injections- the vet techs said a chemically smell around the injection site means the injections aren't getting in. We've smelled that, but we are super sure we are getting the needle all the way in and aren't going through the other side of the tent. Any truth to that? We use Nipro 1/2 cc 1/2" U-100 needles/syringes.

2) How long after being regulated should it take for drinking/peeing to get back to normal? E.g. should the insulin fix that immediately?

3) Any advice as to what to ask the vet about regarding other conditions that may be exacerbating this?

4) Would forcing her to exercise help her lower her blood sugar significantly (e.g. bribing with a treat to run back and forth across the house)?

I'm just worried sick about her, and I feel overhwelmed. I also feel like the vet is taking shots in the dark, even though it's a cat only vet. Vet was like, well, we can keep doing curves at the vet (for $300 a pop, USA), but it might be good to do an abdominal ultrasound to see if there is anything else going on. I'd be willing to spend the $600- $800 she says it will cost, but from what she's said, it would be the same course of treatment.

Okay, ending verbal vomit here....ugh...so worried!

 

HI! Welcome to the best place you never wanted to be.
My kittie Pimp has been dx'd diabetic almost 5 months now and things are really looking up thanks to this message board

Did your vet mention the possibility of home testing? We strongly recommend home testing here, as it's really the only way to keep our sugar babies safe on insulin. You can also do away with the expensive curves at the vet, it you're home testing.

I'll try to answer some of your questions! Here's some links for you to look at while I think and type:

Home testing

home testing tips and links

 

Are you feeding wet or cry food. If dry look at switching to canned it does not have to be Hills; many here do great feeding Fancy Feast. (Mine stick their noses up at FF but love Grreat Choice from Pet Smart, I love cheap kittens).

 

1)Yes and no. Insulin has a strong smell, like band-aids. There will be some insulin on the outside of the needle after adjusting the dose. You can wipe the needle with a tissue before injecting to remove any residual, then the smell-check can be valid. Also feel the injection site for wetness to determine possible fur-shot. Those are large syringes...most of us use 1/3cc 30 or 31 ga, 6 or 8 mm.

2) The road to true regulation is a marathon, not a sprint. Some symptoms will subside very quickly, others will take longer. Glucose spills into urine when hyperglycemic causing polyuria.

3) Any inflammation, pain, infection, or a number of other things can cause inflated BG's. Dental problems are common causes of poor regulation along with a number of possible high-dose conditions.

4) Better control would be provided with proper testing/dosing regimen and diet.

I hope this helps. Please keep asking questions! I have a couple for you:

What kind of W/D does Sophie eat? Dry or canned? Either way it is not a great choice for a diabetic, but dry is way worse. W/D canned is too high in carbs and dry is even higher. Sugar kitties should be fed 10% carb or less. *You do not want to change her diet without home testing, it can lead to hypoglycemia and death*

food info

food chart

How long has she been on Lantus?

What doses were maintained before arriving at 3 units?

 

As already mentioned, home testing is the key to getting Sophie regulated. Basing dosing on curves done at the vet could actually be part if not most of the problem. We often find folks landing here frustrated over lack of regulation only to find out the dose prescribed is too high and causing their cat's glucose to go much lower than they are used to or even to unsafe low levels. When the cat's body perceives those lower numbers as a threat, their internal "controls" spring into action and cause the body to release other hormones which raise the BG levels often causing a phenomenon called bouncing. Dosing should be based on the lowest readings in the 12 hour cycles and with only vet readings influenced by stress, those numbers are usually elevated and chances are good the dose she's on could be too high. The only way to avoid this problem and potentially dangerous low BG situations is to home test so you can see how the insulin is working for Sophie while she is chilling in her usual environment.

I'm very happy to see you want to start testing at home. Most people here use human glucometers and a popular brand are the Relion meters available at Walmart. All the reference material here is based on human meter readings unless specified otherwise. We can help you learn to test Sophie and have all sorts of tips and tricks to make it as easy as possible so keep the questions coming.

 

That could be part of the problem; w/d is like kitty cornflakes. It's packed to the gills with carbs.

As Andy advises above, if you do decide to transition to a different, low carb food you MUST be home testing first and do the change very gradually, checking BG levels and adjusting doses right the way through to keep Sophie safe and also to minimise risk of digestive upsets. Especially with w/d I'd lay odds you would see a really big drop in insulin requirements as a result of the switch. Be sure to post asking for advice about food transitions before attempting one, especially with Lantus because the depot will need time to drain after a dose reduction.


Mogs
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Welcome
Most of use here use 3/10 cc syringes that have 1/2 unit markings. All 1/2 cc syringes have 1 unit markings. I myslef and some others too like the shorter 5/16 inch needles (8 mm) and some like the shorter 6 mm ones.

 

Welcome! We're here to help you in any way we can! But if you could answer a couple of questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. Where are you located?
3. What is the date of diagnosis?
4. How old is Sophie?

If you could put these items in your "signature" it'll make it so people don't have to ask you the same questions over and over . These these things help us to give advice and its nice to know who we're "talking" to.

 

Glad to have you aboard. Yes, think about getting your Sophie on a good, low carb canned 'wet' food, like Fancy Feast or Friskies classic pate's. But do not make the change suddenly, the difference in 'sugar'/carbs is so dramatic that you can drop your kitty's BG by 100 points or more just by making the switch, and it could send your cat into a HYPO episode. Don't do that...make the change gradual, mixing foods so you can slowly adjust your insulin to cope.

By all means, do your own home testing...and you can do curves at home and save a bundle on vet bills. A curve is a curve is a curve.

Again, welcome

 

W/D dry and free feeding my fur babies caused us to be on a roller coaster. The folks on this page saved both my cats. If not for home testing and using the spreadsheet I don't think I would have Woody today. The vet was dosing him at his office 9 hours after injection. Of course, with free feeding (which came to my attention that was what was saving both my cats) none of us knew when the last time they ate or how low their BG was before eating the "corn flakes".

So, home testing, following the advice here AND asking questions, and using the spreadsheet (so the wonderful people here can "see" what is occurring) is vital. I have no idea how to link pages on here but at the main forum page this is under in Suggestions, Tech Support & Testing Area
FDMB SPREADSHEET INSTRUCTIONS.

 

Please follow the advice to home test to get your curve. Please look at my post above for the spreadsheet, it's invaluable to the members here!

 

OMG! My email didn't alert me to your replies! Bless all of you!!! Thank you! I am so thankful to have people to talk to about this. My husband also sends his thankfulness as I type.

I had no idea about the food; we went all at once to food that was supposed to be low carb. Darn. I'm guessing I should gradually mix in the Fancy Feast recommendation you all made.

We started testing this past week. We have a Walgreen's gulcometer, but the vet said the readings are crap, and we should get the AccuCheck one. Although, I've read on here that's baloney.

Her gums/teeth are perfect, no vomiting, no inflammation.

She has been on Lantus since Jan. 12, and she started on 1 unit, twice a day. 10 days later, we went up to 2 units, and 10 days later, we are at 3. She's at the vet today for another check, so we'll see what happens today.

Her readings, yesterday with that glucometer were:

Before Breakfast: 276
2 Hours Later (after breakfast): 471 (a@#$@#$!!), but she was stressed
2 Hours Later: 338
2 Hours Later: 308
2 Hours Later, right before dinner: 325
2 Hours Later (after dinner) : 211

I'm just like WTF. Are the numbers ever accurate with my glucometer? Do they run low or high with not the Accucheck?

Took baby girl in this AM, and she was dehydrated and lost another half pound, down to 7.5 pounds, from a normal 8.5 pounds. I waited until I was in the car to do the "ugly cry."

The vet says she is insulin resistant and is doing a curve today and more labs. She also talked about adding Abacose (sp?) in addition to the Insulin.

 

You will get some very frustrating readings for awhile and some symptoms will linger.sometimes a cat won't go well with certain insulins but must stay on it a bit to find out cause the cat needs time to adjust to the insulin.every cat is different.my cat was diagnosed a few months ago in October after her showing symptoms of diabetes for like 2 months and I went to the worlds most awful vet lol.i had to come here to help my baby cause vet wouldn't tell me anything cause I couldn't afford the million tests she wanted to do.this place really helped not only my fur baby but myself as well.you came to the right place.