New member in need of advice

Hello! I am new here and still figuring out how to work the message board. Hence, I uploaded the spreadsheet directly into this post because I haven't figured out how to put it inside my signature yet.

My Inky Stinky Baby Girl was diagnosed with diabetes on 9/10/21 and started on 1.5 units of insulin on 9/14/21. She had been having increased thirst and urination for 1-2 weeks pre-diagnosis and was given a blood test when I took her to the vet. The test showed a blood glucose level of 614 but there were no ketones in her urine. As soon as I started her on insulin and changed her over to wet food only, the increased thirst and urination completely resolved. She has also started to get the evening zoomies again, which had stopped for a few months.

I would appreciate it if someone would look at my spreadsheet and give me their thoughts. I took her to the vet on 9/27 for a glucose curve, where they used the Alphatrack pet meter. Her BG was in the 200's so they recommended she be increased from 1.5 units to 2.0. I did not follow their advice yet, as I am still calibrating her diet. She has food allergies (to what exactly I'm not sure). She was on the Royal Canin hydrolyzed protein dry food (discontinued following her diagnosis) and the Royal Canin selected protein duck and rabbit wet food, which are both around 15% carbs. I tried her on Weruva chicken but she had an allergic reaction. She also reacted to Instinct Duck, which has turkey liver in it. Right now she is being fed Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet Duck and Pea Protein (11% carbs).

At the time of her glucose curve with the vet, she was eating the Royal Canin wet food. Her BG readings were in the 200's and they did not feed her. I did a glucose curve on her today with the CVS Advanced ProHealth human glucometer and her readings ranged from around 80 to 125. She did not eat much during the day until I opened a fresh can of food after her PMPS.

I've been rambling a bit, but my main question is if the CVS meter appears to be accurate/reliable based on what I have entered in the spreadsheet.

My secondary question is: Inky has been having intermittent diarrhea, possibly due to all the food changes and allergic reactions. Has anyone's cats developed diarrhea following a change from mostly dry food to all wet food or from starting insulin?

 

Welcome. Inky Stinky is a great cat name!
I'm tagging @Wendy&Neko who has experience with novel proteins.

 

Hello and welcome to you and sweet Inky. Maybe I'd do those questions in reverse order.

Food - yes, it's common to get GI upset with food changes, especially if you have allergies to deal with too. Not so much the starting insulin. You do want to make food changes very slowly. Start with maybe 25% of the new food for a while, then over to 50, then 75%. Sometimes a probiotic can help. Since you are dealing with allergies too, Visbiome might be a probiotic that'll help.

I'm going to tag @Bandit's Mom Bhooma, who can help you get the spreadsheet sorted. If you saw an 80 today, it's a really good thing you didn't increase the insulin dose! It's again common if you switch from higher carb food like the hydrolized to other lower carb canned food, that the amount of insulin needed goes down.

Have you tried Rawz pet foods? I think they have a duck version. I found rabbit options a good choice for my allergy girl. Sometimes an allergy to one poultry means none will work. There is a limited ingredient Natures Variety Rabbit, Hounds and Gatos Rabbit, Rawz Rabbit. Or you could try lamb or venison of which there are again a few choices. Another option to consider is raw food, which has a lot more novel protein options.

 

Thank you for your reply! I haven't heard of Rawz but I'll look into them. Last night Inky's BG dropped to 51. She had just come from the direction of her food and water bowls and was licking her lips so I thought she might have had a snack, but her face was also twitching - is that a symptom of hypoglycemia? Either way, I'm glad I checked her. I gave her some dry food to get her numbers up and monitored her. Her AMPS this morning was 112 so after feeding her I gave her 0.5 units instead of the usual 1.5.

 

Hi, Welcome to FDMB!
I can set up your spreadsheet for you. Will send you a PM with the details I need. Look for it in the Inbox at the top right corner of this page.

 

ZiwiPeak has venison, lamb, and rabbit and lamb varieties and is a high quality food. It also has no gums or carrageenan. It does contain green-lipped mussels as its source for Omega-3 so if your cat is sensitive to fish or seafood this could be an issue.

Many of us who feed our cats a raw diet also use a pre-mix. It's a powder that contains all of the necessary supplements to make a nutritionally complete diet. Many of us use EZ Complete that's made by Food Fur Life. As Wendy noted, if you make your own raw food, you can choose any protein that's accessible to you and your cat likes.

Once Bhooma has set up your spreadsheet it will be easier for us to read. Not everyone here uses Excel. (Just like our cats, we're creatures of habit!)

 

Thanks for the info about ZiwiPeak and raw diets! In the future I'm going to do a food trial with seafood to see if she's sensitive to it, but I want to wait a while. Inky is still having diarrhea but the itching and ear discharge have resolved so I'm going to keep her on the food I'm giving her now and look into a probiotic.

The spreadsheet is now in my signature, so please check it out! Her PMPS tonight is 96 even though I only gave her 0.5 units this morning. I'm going to give 0.5 again and test her BG later.

Edit: I did the PMPS 30 minutes ago and it was 96. She ate a little wet food 5 minutes ago and I tested her again just now. She's still at 96! Should I stall the shot?

 

Please do not shoot tonight. Only an experienced caregiver with much more testing information would shoot a green number.

 

Got it. I haven't shot her and I'll hold off until tomorrow morning.

 

Let's see what Inky does with no insulin. If you could take a test half an hour or an hour before your shot time tomorrow and post asking for help. someone will be able to recommend a dose or no dose.

 

Okay!

 

Welcome. Looks like Inky was started on too high a dose. Most start in 1.0 or .50 when there’s a food switch away from dry. Can you get a +3 or before bed test tonight. It will help when deciding on a dose tomorrow IF high enough to shoot. Did she have any intestinal issues before? If not it’s likely the food was switched too fast. The good news is it’s making an impact on her bg! That means less insulin. You got answers from the others. I really just wanted to welcome you.

 

Thank you for the welcome! I'm really excited to have found this forum. The vet who prescribed the insulin also gave me the link to Dr. Lisa's wet food chart, which is how I found the forum.

I'm paranoid that my glucometer (CVS Advanced ProHealth) is not accurate, especially since the glucose curve at the vet's was in the 200's. Logically, I know about stress related hyperglycemia and the fact that the wet food she was eating that morning has a higher carb percentage than the one I'm giving her now, and that the AlphaTrak generates higher numbers than a human glucometer. But still, I worry.

As per the diarrhea, I likely switched her food too fast. I'm lucky because she eats what I put in front of her at least 9 times out of 10. Because she takes to new food quickly, I hadn't been gradually transitioning her.

I'll post an update with a +3 if I can get it. That'll be around 30 minutes from the time that I post this.

 

Human meters are just fine. They were used by the people that formulated our dosing methods. The fact that they read a little lower is like a built in safety net. I don’t want to overwhelm you with information but you might want to read the sticky on dosing methods and think about which one would work for you. All the stickies at the top of the LLB forum have great information but there’s a lot there.

https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-low-go-slow-slgs-tight-regulation-tr.210110/

 

Her +3 BG is 83. I'll post her AMPS in the morning. Should I make that a separate thread?

 

Yes but link this one to it. Just copy and paste the url in your new post. That’s really good that her +3 is still green.