Problem regulating my kitty - LONG time in his body

Hi,

I wonder if someone could please give me a little advise. I have an older kitty who was diagnosed with diabetes about six weeks ago. He was prescribed 2 units of prozinc twice a day after his couple of days staying at the vets and was sent home. After three days he had a very scary bout with hypoglycemia and was readmitted and they told me to put him on one unit at night and increase it slowly. At that point I wasn't home testing but after the costs from the vet became so stupid I realised I had to learn. I got him back onto his dose again slowly and started testing and made sure he was eating and then the meter told the story! he was going down to levels of 20 most days so I cut back.

Now, I have done a couple of curves on him and I see what his issue is; the glucose is lasting for ages with him. Yes, I know it stays around for about 36 hours but its staying a LOT. I gave him one unit at 6pm last night. I tested him at 12pm and he was at 77. I tested him again this morning at 11am and it was 102, then again at 4.30pm and its 149. I will test him again at 11pm tonight but I doubt that it will be more than 200 - 250 so I may give him half. If I give him one unit I know he may become hypo overnight so I can't risk that and he may not even get that high anyways. Am I better to err on the side of caution and not give the glucose rather than trying to establish a regular cycle that may cause him to become hypoglycemic and die?

Does this occasionally happen? He is 18yrs old and he seems happy enough. He is eating okay though not a huge amount and the drinking and peeing is ok, though he still has his facination with the tap!

I test him three times a day so I have my eye on it constantly and I do hope at some point to get it controlled. He is only getting one injection maybe every other day of perhaps .5/1 unit. I would appreciate any advice.

Sharon

 

Hi Sharon

Glad you are finally hometesing but sorry you had to go through so much first!

Question - how was he diagnosed? If it wasn't through a fructosamine, there's always a chance that his blood glucose levels were high for other reasons.

as for the duration, yes, it is rare to go for so long off of one dose of insulin...my suggestion is to cut WAY back to 0.5 units and only give it if he's 200 or above. Test prior to shot and get spot checks 6-8 hours post shot when you are able. Give it a few days and then see if there is a pattern.

Jen

 

He had been drinking a lot, having accidents and was very, very wobbly on his back legs. he had also completely stopped purring and had lost a lot of weight. I believe they did the normal blood panel because they told me that his glucose was 500.

It does keep creeping up if I don't give him anything at all but very, very slowly. It also comes down from that up really easily - one unit will bring 386 all the way down to 77 in 6 hours and it will stay down for two days which as I said really doesn't make a lot of sense does it?

I keep thinking he might be one of those lucky 20% that are going to go into remission and perhaps he is, maybe he is slowly getting well and it will take time. I am just confused because I should have it under control by now and I am not sure how to control something that doesn't seem to have a set agenda!

Sharon

 

Like Jen said it is rare because cats normally metabolize insulin much faster, but I can tell you that I did have a cat that could go over 36 hours on one dose of PZI, which is similar to the Prozinc.

Before she passed away from cancer I was micro-dosing her on a different type of insulin. The dose was so small I wore reading glasses so that I could see a drop in the syringe, maybe 0.2U at the time.

I would also agree with Jen and cut the dose way back, now that you are hometesting you'll be able to see how your kitty is on the small dose and if you need to raise it in the future you would be able to do so safely. See what the data you collect over the next week is and then decide if you want to keep the dose or possibly change it.

Have you checked into diet change? What are you feeding? Your cat may be easily diet regulated, as you suspect since the one dose can last so long. Low carb, high protein canned or raw food can do wonders. A cat that I adopted in December as a diabetic hasn't had any insulin at all since I got him, he's eating mostly raw and some Fancy Feast canned.

 

I printed out the list of all low carb canned canned and I am buying those. I tried him on FF but he turned his nose up at a lot of them but he is pretty fussy at best. Thankfully there is a lot of low carb versions of friskies, 9-lives and sophisticat that he picks at. I am also feeding him some raw chicken but I do worry about him catching salmonella - I am over-reacting aren't I?

He doesn't have many of his teeth left so I can't give him anything with bones in and I am paranoid about carbs now (my non-diabetic cats is starting to lose weight so I have a bonus there) and think that anything even slightly funky might make his blood sugar weird.

Well, I am glad that there are other cats that are doing the 36hr stint on prozinc, it makes me feel a little better. I know that if I hadn't started testing him myself, I probably would have killed the poor little thing by o/d'ing him. Sometimes I think the vets are in la-la land. They certainly think we have bottomless pits when it comes to money - $28 for BG test, no thanks.

Sharon

 

A diet change may be of significant benefit. And I understand the frustrations of having a picky cat as my two drive me nuts sometimes.

Are his teeth rotten at all? ANy chance that infection could have raised his blood glucose levels?

Regarding vets and blood tests...not everyone is willing to test at home so I guess they do what they can. As long as they will support you testing at home and respect your abilities, you should do ok!

Jen