8/1 Glucometer HI, then 600!!! Now what?

Shoud I Feed, give insulin..yes/no? Go to ER..having near heart attack and need advice, that's kitties highest reading since diagnose earlier this week. His Glucose level was 422 yesterday pre shot and 475 apr. 4 h's later.

yesterdays' thread: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21196&p=210666#p210666

hi there!

you're on 2 units right?

Are you checking for ketones at home?

keep in mind, this could also be due to the diet Sox is on.

I would suggest you shoot and feed as usual. Let's see what others say, k?

I hope you can get a profile and spreadsheet going soon, this would really help others so we dont ask the same thing over and over.
When you have a chance ok?

Yes, 2 units of Lantus twice daily. We're not testing ketones, the vet advised us not to. I took two readings first the reader said "HI" which is alarming enough, then "600" which still way way too high. I'm worried, Sox seems fine tho.

I'm working on the spreadsheet, but somehow google didn't like me yesterday and explorer crashed. So have start that up again today. We switched diet earlier in the week and I checked the carb content of the Roycal Canin Renal and it's good, around 8%..Much better than the K/D we fed previously.

Most vets advise not to do this and that, but most of us go ahead anyways,,,testing for ketones is highly suggested in this forum, especially with high numbers. You don't want ketones sneaking up on you...You can get the kit from any pharmacy, and it's under $10 (in Canada!)

Same goes with home testing, as you found out already.

Did Sox get into any dry food overnite, last nite?

The RC you have - is it canned or pouches?

I would give regular dose and feed, and check again in a few hours. Then go to the store and buy some Ketostix so you can check for ketones. It's very important to check for ketones while they are in high numbers. The high numbers themselves are not an emergency, but if ketones are present then we do need to get more aggressive.

Ketostix are cheap, around $15 for 100.

This is what you are looking for:



They are available at most pharmacies.

oops, and looking at that box it's $15-$20 per 50, not 100. Still cheap, though, and well worth the peace of mind.

The RC we feed is wet food, but Sox does get some dry kibble at night time. Thx

I'd strongly encourage you to get rid of the dry food. It's probably what's jacking up your numbers. Dry takes a long time for the body to process and will keep numbers inflated for hours. It's very hard for the insulin to compensate.

I use a timed feeder to leave a canned food "snack" for Gabby overnight.

that's probably the reason for the high number, then, if he ate more kibble than usual last night. What kind of kibble is it? Even a small amount of the EVO grain free dry used to send Lucy's numbers skyrocketing. Once I got rid of it, it was much easier to control her numbers.

Good morning.
The dry kibble at night would cause his numbers to be higher.

You can also get these at a WalMart for about $6.87 for 50 strips.

Some people are able to put the strip right in the stream of urine. Some people use a ladle and catch a bit of the stream to test. I use a small (1/4 cup) plastic cup, and just put it under J.D.'s tail when he's peeing, catch a little, and then do a test.

UGH to dry foods. You should remove all access to dry foods, even treats, because they could be contributing to the high numbers.

I have one cat, Shadoe, who will have numbers go through the roof if she gets even a small mouthful of just 5 pieces of dry food (my civvie Booboo will eat nothing else), so I have to cover the dry food when I am not around. It does not take much, and even those innocent little dry treats can cause problems. Shadoe got a couple pieces on 6/16/10, and you can see on her ss what those few pieces did for her!! I compare it to a little kid who eats a HUGE bucket of ice cream then cries over a belly ache. She's usually good about staying clear of the dry because I turn into a raving lunatic with flailing arms screaming at her when she gets even close to the bowl. Besides, she likes the new treats of steamed chicken breast chunks!

Test for ketones; they are serious. When you get high BG numbers like you are, it is very important to be testing for ketones. I would ask your vet why you were told not to test for ketones because even a trace is a serious issue. When you get the ketostix, test daily, as often as you can, some cats are more prone to ketones than others. I have been fortunate that neither of mine have tested positive. Even just a trace should be seen to immediately, so it's kind of important to test.

There was a mention of a timed feeder so you can leave mini meals or good snacks; here's the feeder I have
Petsafe 5-meal Auto Feeder

I equate feeding dry kibble to cats with feeding children a diet of fruit-loops. Think of what would happen if humans fed their kids sugary cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Once I removed kibble from Punk's diet, her number range dropped about 200 points. :mrgreen:
My vet didn't even want me to home test, so I just stopped telling him about it, that is until I gained enough confidence and knowledge to go back with my spreadsheet, now we fight every time I go back, but it's a fun fight and I think I'm winning.

Wow, I've been reading all the threads and unanimously people are damning the dry kibble..The timed feeder for wet food sounds like a real good idea. We're also thinking of fresh meet and/or fish as treats now. May be all around better for everyone, including our non-diabetic kitties. I feel like a horrible cat-mother for doing this to my furbaby.. ohmygod_smile. Thanks for the quick feedback. Hours later Sox is his adventurous self and I'm about to check numbers, I am hoping BG has come way down.

I have to add my 2 cents on dry Do Lou was a dry kibble addict and for months I really did not try to get his diet changed since he just hated wet, we at first fed RC diabetic and also dry DM both made his numbers very high and I also tried evo in hopes he could eat that but it also made his numbers high our insulin dose really changed for us and his numbers really improved when I finally got him on raw and freeze dried raw which he loves now he is fed 4x a day at amps shot time at +5ish or 6, pmps time and before I go to bed sometimes in the middle of the night he gets FF when me just much have a meal :lol: and will not let me sleep I also had the high readings a long time ago so I do understand how upsetting it is I think we were still on N at the time before we got on lantus hang in there it will get better but if your cat eats wet then I would take up all dry

Do not feel like a horrible mom....most of us here or probably all of us fed dry food before we came here. I know I had no idea how bad it was.

I'm printing the canned and dry food carb charts to give to my vet. She seemed like it was hit and miss with some foods, but the information is obviously out there and I know there are more diabetic patients in her practice. Sharing is caring after all.. Furbabies got some nice raw meat in their future today, especially if night active Sox wants a snack at 2am.. That 600 number got me wide awake at 5:30am..that's no way to wake up on a Sunday..haha. Thanks all, it's really good to hear all the good feedback.

Hi from me and Lily! Did you get a better reading for Sox this afternoon? I'm one of those people who totally gets the "bad momma" feeling. I've been feeding my girls Science Diet Oral Care and Hairball Formula Light for years, thinking that I was taking such good care of them. After a friend sent me to this site and Elizabeth Hodgkins site, I pulled both of them off of dry AND all high carb (including MD), and Lily's doing great. We went from the 300s to the 100s and even the 50s in just the matter of a few days. Keep us up to speed on Sox's BG...we're rooting for you.

--Laura

You should not feel like you are being a bad pet owner when you did not know any better, and the pet food companies have been doing their best to conceal the info.
Either they concealed info or could not be bothered to make food that is healthy for animals.
Sadly, just look at the vet offices! Are they not also pushing this harmful, poor quality pet food on owners?
No. You are not a bad pet owner, you are a very good one by searching out the truth, and sharing it with those who do not.

Food snacks my two love:
Oliver loves raw chicken breast cut in strips like chicken fingers.
Shadoe loves steamed chicken in little chunks/cubes. She is little miss prissypot and recoils from the raw as if I were insane! She did try it once, and apparently has decided to leave the raw to the neanderthal in the house.

I took a reading at 10:30am and BG was 460. High still, but not as high as last nights 473 or this mornings 600..It definetly shows the dry kibble is bad bad bad for kitty. We removed the dry food feeder, bought some tuna for cats from Trader Joes to try and just toying with the timed feeder now to see how that works. We'll give that a shot tomorrow and see how the numbers will play out. We fed a wet food snack this afternoon and I'm hopeful the number will come down some more. Going the wet food route will probably help. Thanks for all the input! I felt so lost this morning when his BG spiked and I just had no clue what to do.

It all takes time to get used to that is for sure! I have been at it since March and I STILL feel like a bumbling idiot sometimes. Glad that you are nixing the dry food- Kazi jumps around 150pts if she has managed to get a bit of dry from someone forgetting the bowl after feeding our other cats. It takes her anywhere from 3-6 shots to get back to normal!