Extreme Blood Sugar Reading Difference After Starting Vetsulin...Normal?

Hi y'all,
New to the forum, but wanted to ask people going through similar situations with diabetes babies.

My orange tabby (12 years old) female, Kiara, was recently diagnosed as diabetic on Friday 10-4-19 after a suspicion with her water intake and output followed by weight loss. Took her to the vet, who took a Blood Sugar reading of "Too High to Read", which was a horrible sight to see. The vet immediately put her on Vetsulin, 3u twice a day. I denied the veterinary diets, but put her on a lower carb. percentage soft-food diet, with tuna for protein, instead of the dry food she had been given previously.

But here is where my concerns really lie:

After the diagnosis, I decided to go all out, new diet, new food, and I purchased a glucose meter for weekly sugar checks. I noticed after the weekend ended, Kiara's been a little more sleepy(?), a little slower to respond to her name when she is sleeping. Early this afternoon, I took her blood sugar (and maybe its the fact I use a human meter instead one specific for pets). This is SIX hours after the first 3u of the day. And its currently 44mg/dL. (Didn't get the chance to take one before she ate, but I might have to follow up with that tomorrow before and after her meal/insulin.)

Is that normal for a diabetic cat? The sudden extreme fluctuation after starting an insulin regimen?

 

Welcome. 44 is low for a kitty. Please take another test to see if she has dropped any more.

3 units is a high starting dose and that, along with the food change can be a dangerous combination. Please do start taking readings before food and shot and if I were you, I’d decrease the dose to 1 unit which is the typical starting dose.

 

Retake is 51 mg/dL.

 

I agree with Sharon. The dose of insulin is too high.
Please feed your cat a tsp or 2 of food with a dribble of honey and retest BG again in about 20 to 30 minutes. Ideally with Vetsulin you don't want BG dropping lower than 90.
How many hours ago did you give the insulin?

 

Insulin was given at approximately 8:30 this morning, which would put it at about 8 hours ago.

 

Your cat should be past nadir (peak insulin action) now however there is a second smaller peak usually around 7 to 8 hours after the shot so it is imperative you get your kitty's BG up higher to avoid it dropping too low again. What type of meter are you using?

 

ReliOn Premeier Compact (a human meter)

 

Ok your kitty is in normal BG and safe now however because of the insulin you don't want her that low so recheck her again 20 to 30 minutes after she has eaten that snack.

 

Retake after snack was 70.

 

Ok Kiara's BG is probably on it's way up now and she may go quite high due to a phenomenon called bouncing. It's a defence system that the body has to keep BG from dropping too low. Anytime BG drop quickly, a lot or a combination of those, bouncing is likely. No more food for now and retest her again in an hour or so just to be sure her BG is staying up on its own.

You indicated you changed diet over to a low carb variety and that alone can have a significant lowering effect on BG. Going forward, test BG before giving insulin and after at least 2 hours after a meal/snack. You don't want any food influencing the pre-shot BG reading. If BG is 225 or less, please post for assistance. If BG is 225 or higher, you can give insulin but reduce the dose to 1u and test BG again +3 hours post shot as Vetsulin starts to work quickly and some cats reach nadir (peak action) around that time but she may not reach it until later around +6 hours post shot. You need to find out how low the insulin shot is dropping BG to determine best dose for Kiara.

BTW, now that the excitement is over, welcome to FDMB. We are here to help in any way we can.

We have a very simple SS we use here to track our kitty's BG readings and it would be great if you would set one up so if you need assistance in the future, the information will be available to anyone helping.

The instructions for setting up the spreadsheet are HERE. Understanding and using the SS is explained in THIS DOC.

It would also be helpful if you would set up a signature (the light grey text under our messages) with info about you and your kitty including your name, or how you'd like to be addressed, your general vicinity (we are from all over the world here so time doesn't mean much to us), your kitty's name, type of insulin, type of meter, date of diagnosis, any other health issues.

Keep the questions coming and we'll help you get Kiara feeling better very soon.

 

Oh dear, forgot to include instructions on how to do the signature. My bad!

Click on your user name up in the upper right of the screen and select "Signature" from the menu. This opens a text box into which you can type the info you wish to share. Scroll down and click on the Save changes button and you are done.