Help...having trouble reducing bg due to prednisolone

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Deb&Tiki

Deb&Tiki

Member Since 2022
Hello!
Tux and I are having a lot of difficult time and hope you may be able to help us out. He was diagnosed diabetic in late November and I immediately managed to get him to eat more wet food (Fancy Feast). I was home testing and within a week his bg had dropped and he no longer needed insulin (Lantus).

At the same time as going into remission he began vomiting and had little appetite. We did an x-ray but no obstruction was found (he had been eating clumping cat litter due to his pica flaring when he felt unwell) and after a few days he began eating a bit better and the vomiting stopped. The vet suggested that he could have IBD so we tried to change his protein but the only wet food we could get him to eat was A/D.

In mid-January the vomiting returned and he was diagnosed with pancreatitis but he really struggled to bounce back so the vet decided to give prednisolone a try. Tux's appetite returned but so did diabetes. We tapered him off the prednisolone but within a few days had to put him back on due to vomiting and not eating again. This time his bg will not drop below 20 and I'm wondering how quickly I can increase his dose in order to get his glucose down. He has been consistently above 20 for over a week and I am so worried about DKA. In the past week, I have increased him slowly from 1u BID to 2u BID but I think I should increase more aggressively to get his bg down. He has tested negative for pancreatitis, we are in the process of tapering prednisolone again and we are waiting on an ultrasound for IBD diagnosis.

I am hoping you might be able to give some advice as I'm feeling a little lost and my vet doesn't seem overly concerned.
Thanks so much,
Deb and Tux
 
Ask the vet is budesonide or other medicine would help the possible IBD without affecting bgs too much. Short term prednisolone use can cause temporary diabetic-like symptoms and elevated bgs.

If the vet diagnosis IBD, there's a great web site with info: https://www.ibdkitties.net/

What do you normally feed? IBD cats have super sensitive tummies and a bland-ish novel protein diet seems to work best. Have you tried rabbit?
 
If Tux does have IBD another good resource is the FB group Raw Feeding for IBD Cats. There is a lot of good info for diet for an IBD cat. One thing to consider is making your own cat food. You can use cooked protein instead of raw, I do that for Simon. He has done so well on it, I am in the process of changing all 6 of my cats to the same diet. When I did a cost comparison, I spend just a little more per month than when I was feeding all of my cats Friskies canned. There is more time involved in making the food, but I like that I have control over what goes into their diet.
 
I will ask the vet about budesonide. We originally tried prednisolone as he had pancreatitis in January and that helped resolve it quickly. The only food I can get him to reliably eat is A/D which I know shouldn't be used long term but I'm having a hard time getting him to eat any other wet food. I did give him a bit of Humulin R today along with Lantus and that was able to get his glucose down some.
 
With an IBD kitty, it's also good to give a probiotic and fiber. Visbiome is a probiotic made specifically for IBD and you can use something like psyllium husk powder for fiber. With both probiotics and fiber, start low then increase.
 
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