Speckles&Me

Hi everyone,
My kitty is almost 11 years old and was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus about 4-5 months ago. I thought I'd join the forum because even though we think we're keeping his glucose levels under reasonable control, he seems to be progressing in terms of symptoms (neuropathy and trace ketones in urine). He does have other health issues, which could play a part in why, but I want to learn from your experiences too, since I am fairly new to this. I am grateful for this forum!
Thanks all!
AJ

 

Welcome to FDMB, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 Carb found online.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.

 

Thank you!
I realized after reading some of the other intro posts that I didn't provide much info. lol He's on 1.5 units of Lantus 2x a day (6am and 6pm). He gets food 3x a day, and we have him on the <5% carb Weruva and Tiki Cat canned foods (some of the Tiki Cat Gourmet Carnivore flavors have a lot of fat- not sure if I should stop giving those to him). We have a spreadsheet of blood glucoses (monitored with Free Style BG Monitor), which were under 200 ever since we started the 1.5 u Lantus 2x per day, basically until last week, when he had a BGs around 220-250, and then yesterday, a BG of 304 plus trace urine ketones (which have always been negative before).

Not sure why his BG started increasing all of sudden. My two ideas are: 1) we started feeding him a couple tablespoons more per meal and did not increase his insulin dose -he's been losing weight quickly; 2) about 1.5 weeks ago, we gave him Xanax for the first time ever and he's had diarrhea ever since. Pumpkin didn't help- so I started doing 1/4 tsp psyllium husk, which made the poo slightly more formed. Yesterday, upon recommendation by a vet, I gave him a half loperamide pill (1mg), which he had a very bad rxn to and I rushed him to the vet. He's okay now except that he still has diarrhea and is now limping because he hurt himself while "under the influence" of the loperamide. I started him on Fortiflora. Before he was diabetic, the only thing that would help him when he had diarrhea was canned W/D but I don't know about trying that now. Advice? Thoughts?

Thanks so much!
AJ

 

Diarrhea in the absence of abrupt food changes can indicate pancreatitis. Any vomiting? I would advise a test for pancreatitis. If your cat does have pancreatitis his BG can become elevated even with the use of insulin. Also if the pancreas is inflamed high fat content can cause aggravate the pancreas more. Might want to dial it back on the fat content.

 

Will do regarding the fatty food. Could he have pancreatitis if he's not vomiting? He isn't and the vet didn't think that he could have it based on that, but it would be good to get a test so that we have a definitive answer.
Also, he's still eating and acts hungry a lot of the time.

 

Welcome to you and your kitty, AJ.

Just on a fly-past at the moment - haven't time to write more just now, but I noticed you're looking for help with neuropathy. B12 methylcobalamin supplementation can help with that. Diabetic-friendly supplements include Vitacost and Zobaline (both available online).

 

Thank you! I got Zobaline a few weeks ago, and it does seem to be helping. I just always thought that neuropathy would be further down the line, like when his BGs got much, much higher? I was surprised to see it so early, but have little idea if that's weird or not.
Also, I have heard a lot of people use Jarrow's B-right, which is a B complex, but I am afraid of niacin flushing. Does anyone have any experience with this in cats?

 

I've no experience of the niacin flushing - either in cats or humans.

Saoirse was recently diagnosed with early stage II kidney insufficiency. Jarrow B Right is one of the brands recommended on Tanya's site (c. 1/10 capsule per day is a typical dose for a cat). I've tried it with Saoirse but she's not too keen on the taste (although it's not as strong-smelling as many B complex supplements I've taken in my time). Other than that it did her good. She had post-shaving alopecia after some scans earlier this year. Her fur started to regrow immediately I added the B complex to her diet.


Mogs
.

 

Hey

Hey Critter Mom, did you notice any spike in BG when you gave Saoirse the Jarrow B-right complex? Cooper is also CKD and I want to add a b complex in. I also see on your SS that you have used Moxxor some. Did you see good results with that?