Gem and her BG levels

jkbank · Apr 19, 2012

Hi all

Gem seems to be doing ok, better than when we brought her home Friday from her week at the vet, still not so energetic but better. I decided to give home BG testing a try best I can. I'm not at home to test every hour or even 2 hours but am trying to get a bunch of samples over a few days and see what I come up with. She is currently on Lantus/glargine 3u twice a day, at about 7AM and 7PM, with her meals. She is eating all wet food, mostly Purina DM but I am working in some grain free high quality cans as well (Merrick, Wellness etc). Here's what I have so far:

4/18 about 5:30 PM - 351 (about an hour pre-shot, about 10 hrs post-AM shot)

4/19 7:00 AM (pre-shot) - 409 (shot given at 8AM)

4/19 at both 11:30 and 12:30 - 373

These numbers don't look great to me - wouldn't you expect that noon-ish, midway number to have come down more? I know it's hard to tell from so little info, and I will keep going with the testing, but I was interested to hear any feedback anyone has on this.

Thanks so much

jkbank · Apr 19, 2012

Jkbank said:
Hi all

Gem seems to be doing ok, better than when we brought her home Friday from her week at the vet, still not so energetic but better. I decided to give home BG testing a try best I can. I'm not at home to test every hour or even 2 hours but am trying to get a bunch of samples over a few days and see what I come up with. She is currently on Lantus/glargine 3u twice a day, at about 7AM and 7PM, with her meals. She is eating all wet food, mostly Purina DM but I am working in some grain free high quality cans as well (Merrick, Wellness etc). Here's what I have so far:

4/18 about 5:30 PM - 351 (about an hour pre-shot, about 10 hrs post-AM shot)

4/19 7:00 AM (pre-shot) - 409 (shot given at 8AM)

4/19 at both 11:30 and 12:30 - 373 (ate a small amount around noon)

These numbers don't look great to me - wouldn't you expect that noon-ish, midway number to have come down more? I know it's hard to tell from so little info, and I will keep going with the testing, but I was interested to hear any feedback anyone has on this.

Thanks so much

Here are numbers for the rest of the day:

2:00 - 335

6:00 - 319 (gave dinner but she didn't eat much)

7:30 - 431 (ate more, gave her 3u)

I honestly don't know what to make of this, or is it too early to see anything?

sugarcatmom · Apr 19, 2012

Hi Jkbank,

First of all, how great that you're home-testing!!! Best thing you can do to help regulate Gem's diabetes. Ya, those numbers don't seem to be moving much and they are on the high side (although cats can tolerate higher numbers for longer than dogs or people can). Do you have any values from the vet when Gem was there for a week?

Try to get a few tests in somewhere around 2, 3, and 4 hrs after her shot (doesn't have to be on the same day). I'm curious to see if she's dropping initially and then going quickly back up, or if it's mostly just a flatline. You'll need more data before you can think about tweaking the dose but you're off to a great start. Food might also be a factor, since M/D is too high in carbs for diabetics. Good that you're planning to switch to something better, just make sure you test Gem frequently while you transition to watch for a drop in bg.

Good luck! Looking forward to seeing more numbers.

jkbank · Apr 19, 2012

Sugarcatmom said:
Hi Jkbank,

First of all, how great that you're home-testing!!! Best thing you can do to help regulate Gem's diabetes. Ya, those numbers don't seem to be moving much and they are on the high side (although cats can tolerate higher numbers for longer than dogs or people can). Do you have any values from the vet when Gem was there for a week?

Try to get a few tests in somewhere around 2, 3, and 4 hrs after her shot (doesn't have to be on the same day). I'm curious to see if she's dropping initially and then going quickly back up, or if it's mostly just a flatline. You'll need more data before you can think about tweaking the dose but you're off to a great start. Food might also be a factor, since M/D is too high in carbs for diabetics. Good that you're planning to switch to something better, just make sure you test Gem frequently while you transition to watch for a drop in bg.

Good luck! Looking forward to seeing more numbers.

Hi Sugarcat - just popped on, thanks for your reply!

I don't have the numbers from when she was there, but I know from talking to the vet that they remained on the high side. Tomorrow I will be home in the morning so I can get some readings closer to the time of the shot. Her 4 hr had dropped about 25, 6 hrs was down about 65, with the low of 319 coming 10 hours post (which would be down about 90). What drop is expected or hoped for?

As for the food, I thought the purina DM was somewhat better than the Science Diet/Hills diabetes food. That said, I am working on incorporating other stuff with less crap in it, but there's just so much going on with all the meds, there's only so much I can deal with

I'm not going to make any dosage adjustments til I see the vet, but at least I am getting more info.

Any other thoughts?

sugarcatmom · Apr 20, 2012

Jkbank said:
What drop is expected or hoped for?

Ideally the drop isn't too drastic, you want the overall numbers come down. Staying under 200 (but above 50), would be great, but can be difficult to maintain depending on the cat. Standard practice is to aim for numbers mostly between 300 and 100.

Jkbank said:
As for the food, I thought the purina DM was somewhat better than the Science Diet/Hills diabetes food.

D'oh, I was thinking of M/D, not DM, sorry. Yes, the carbs in DM are better than the M/D (7% vs 14%). Ingredients still aren't great, and I don't know what it costs these days but it's probably not cheap either. Even the vet that developed this food (Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins) says there's no reason not to feed other low-carb canned foods with better ingredients. Or even raw!

Gem and her BG levels

jkbank

TCS Member

Thread starter

jkbank

TCS Member

Thread starter

sugarcatmom

TCS Member

jkbank

TCS Member

Thread starter

sugarcatmom

TCS Member

Latest Posts

Connect with us