Prozinc and Friskies canned food?

My cat switched to Purina Diabetic Management food about 6 months ago. I didn’t see any changes, and my cats insulin requirement continued to go up, he was drinking tons of water & always hungry. I went ahead and did a glucose curve on him. The numbers were the following:
400 (fasting)
383 (4.5 units of prozinc)
360
343

After these 4, I quit getting readings since the numbers were so high. I took my cat into the vet and she recommended trying friskies wet food. I switched to one can in the morning & one in the evening. I did a new glucose curve this morning. The numbers were

126 (fasting)
143 (4.5 units prozinc)
76
43

I immeditiley called the vet and gave my cat some honey.

Is it normal for the food to change the glucose curve so drastically? Any help is much appreciated!!!

 

Carbohydrates definitely impact glucose levels. So, yes, this is normal!

 

Wow! How many hours after the shot was that 43?

As FurBabiesMama says, that is totally normal. However, you probably need to adjust your insulin dose! 4.5 on a 143 is obviously too much with that 43.

 

Yes, please be testing. 4u with those numbers makes me nervous.

 

It was 5 hours after the shot

 

Normally, a curve means you test before the insulin shot then every two hours after that ending with the next pre-insulin-shot test. Did you test after the 43? The lowest point of the cycle can be later than 5 hours after the shot. With Mia, it was normally at 6 hours after though I saw it be as late as 8 hours after on occasions. It is great that you intervened with honey. Normally, when you have to do that, you want to test a few times afterwards to make sure their number comes up and stays up.

Did the vet tell you to lower the dose? 4.5u is a very large dose, and as Rachel already mentioned, it was obviously too much insulin for it to have taken her so low.

 

Yes. I did get an initial number of 126 without insulin. It had been 5 hours and the number was 43- An emergency check since the value at 4 hours was in the 70s. The vet wants me to cut insulin in half... only giving 2 units at a time. I’m little nervous. Thoughts?

 

2 unite sounds a lot better than 4.5, but be sure to keep testing because that is the only way you will know if even that is too much. I suggest you set up a spreadsheet to track the test results.. it will make this a lot easier for you to keep up with, and I you put a link to it in your signature, others here can see it should you ever come here for help.

Your signature should include things like your cats name, date of diagnosis, type of insulin, type of glucose meter you are using, etc.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/editing-your-signature-profile-and-preferences.130340/
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/understanding-the-spreadsheet-grid.156606/

 

I think cutting to 2 units is a good start. It's hard to know how much to reduce by (that's always the worst part!) but trying 2 would help and just make sure you keep testing so we can see if it's too much or too little.

We're more than happy to help (you can think of us as free consultants if you want...happy to give our opinions which you can of course take or leave and can definitely discuss with your vet if you'd prefer). This is one of the nerve wracking times when you try to decide what is a good dose with different circumstances. I do love that your vet suggested changed food...that's so rare!

Please let us know if we can be of assistance!