? Brittle Diabetic?

I had did a FB post last night when we were going through Zeke's action and my aunt (who is an RN) said it sounded like he was a brittle diabetic. Of course I know that isn't the case with him because he is new to Lantus so we are just in the process of finding his prefered dose.

BUT. . . .

Can kitties be brittle diabetics? Or is that just a human thing? So far with all my reading, it seems if a kitty can't be regulated, usually it means there is something else going on. (Not saying this is even a possibility with Zeke cause we are still way too new to this dance lol)

 

Hey Meridith. I really don't know if a kitty can be classified as a "brittle diabetic" probably more like, hard to regulate. Like you said, Zeke is so new to Lantus and is responding beautifully. Heck , he just earned his first reduction from last night's cycle and is bouncing today from the very low 33 you got.

Fingers and paws crossed that the reduction holds. It can take up to 6 cycles to see if the bounce clears and then you can access if the reduction is holding. Just yell if you need help discerning between the 2 things. It is hard to identify at first.

 

I had to look that one up! We do have high dose kitties but you are right. Not only is it too early and Zeke is not high dose but cats are very different than humans or dogs. They can go into remission.

 

Thanks guys, was wondering on that after she mentioned it.

 

I heard the term "brittle diabetic" for the 1st time from @Meya14 ,a very experienced member of the forum.
I tagged her here in hopes that she shares her look on things for you.

 

Thank you

 

In humans "brittle diabetic" refers to people who are uncontrolled and have high BS for much of the time, but when you do give them insulin or try to increase to account for the high BS, they take huge nosedives. This often happens in response to very small amounts of insulin. In these people they are very hard to regulate because they swing dangerously to both extremes and tend to be very sensitive to insulin.

Typically the term is applied to type I diabetics, however, it's becoming more common to see type II diabetics display this same pattern.

The cause for "brittle diabetes" is usually due to having either a chronic illness that affects the metabolism, or no bodyfat to draw from when sugars go low. The typical person with this is chronically ill, very thin, no muscle mass, poor appetite and tends to be frail. When insulin is given, their bodies try to hold on to the little amount of fat they have, and often they aren't eating enough. Their livers won't allow the fat in their body to be released to increase the BS in response to insulin and a lot of times, they also don't eat enough to account for the insulin.

Addressing the root cause of either the poor food intake or the metabolism issues (IBS, cancer, pancreatitis, etc) that are causing them to be thin is the initial step. Then trying to increase eating at the nadir of the insulin and reduce feeding at shot times sometimes helps. Lack of calories overall really contributes to the wild swings. Sometimes, increasing food overall then increasing insulin makes these people more stable.

Does any of this ring a bell with your kitty? Has she lost a lot of weight, or is thin for her size? Does she have any issues with metabolism or digestion?

 

Thanks for explaining what it is. My kitty is doing just fine, wasn't worried about him having this. Was just curious after my aunt mentioned it.

 

I've seen several cats on this board that display a similar type of pattern to human "brittle diabetics", so I suppose it does occur in cats if you were wondering about that.

 

Ahh, ok. So definitely something that we don't want happening. At least I don't think we are gonna have that issue with Zeke. Looks like we are getting him there finally lol.