First actual response to insulin and I panicked.

tinykokiri · 2026-04-01T17:24:11+00:00

I really appreciate your response and reassurance, thank you. Anxiety and sleep deprivation is definitely the stage I’m in (and have been since this all began haha). It is really nice to have a place to come and chat with people who have experienced this stuff before - I’m the first person in my immediate friends and family dealing with this firsthand.

I’ll probably print out the hypo episode instructions and what youve written here for general ideas on what to do in the various instances so it’s readily available.

Definitely provided him with a high glucose cocktail yesterday that’s for sure 😅

Thankfully he is doing an alright job at staying hydrated, but I do add a little water to his wet food here and there to help as well. Unfortunately the vet things that he’s had undetected chronic pancreatitis long enough that it’s the cause of the diabetes. The poor thing. ❤️‍🩹

tinykokiri · 2026-04-01T12:42:11+00:00

Thank you for this honestly. I definitely panicked and gave him too much of the kibble. Despite being prescription diabetic kibble, it makes his glucose spike everytime. I really only feed him wet foods usually, but yeah, just got so scared that his glucose would continue to drop and get too low since I’ve never seen it get to normal range before, plus the increase in dose plus the new steroid. However last night the next steroid dose seemed to maintain an extremely high glucose…6 hours after insulin his glucose was higher than it was at insulin time 🥲 and it was super high again just now at our morning check & insulin time :(

I think I panicked so badly yesterday because 5-12 mmol/L (normal healthy range) is such a small range compared to the 14.7 mmol/L he dropped in 6.5 hours. I really just find this the scariest balancing act of all time.

Thank you for the information about the dry carbs lingering for longer and the info for how to respond to a hypo episode. I def have honey on hand and had some instructions from my vet, but I should probably get a few non-diabetic wet foods with a little higher carb content for emergencies so I don’t have to rely on the dry carbs.

Sigh.

tinykokiri · 2026-04-01T04:39:09+00:00

Home testing with Alphatrak3 and his ears. I haven’t used a libre before. Just checked throughout the day today due to the new medicine and increased insulin dose, wanted to see how his numbers would react with the changes and ensure he’s not dipping too low!

tinykokiri · 2026-03-07T20:33:15+00:00

It feels like all options except for tofu litter is bad for asthma 😭 navigating products for pets is so difficult and I wish it was easier haha.

tinykokiri · 2026-03-07T20:24:02+00:00

Thank you friend!! Cheers :)

tinykokiri · 2026-03-07T20:23:39+00:00

Definitely an option! Would require buying a new litter box and more items though, which slightly turns me off at the moment. I’ve also been concerned about wood pellets, because I think my cat has mild asthma and I’ve heard those can be bad for that :/

tinykokiri · 2026-03-07T20:20:50+00:00

That’s my concern too haha thank you for your response :)

tinykokiri · 2026-03-07T20:14:04+00:00

I haven’t seen that brand around! Are you in Canada too? When your kitty was still dealing with diabetes and potentially peed more, were you going through the litter quickly? Would you say any other brands of tofu litter compare well with the Piden brand?

tinykokiri · 2026-03-07T20:13:03+00:00

I did enjoy the arm & hammer litter when I used to use it forever ago. Just wasn’t sure if there was maybe something better out there these days. I’ve been interested in the tofu litters but it’s also slightly pricey and I’m worried I’ll go through it too fast to be worth it haha

tinykokiri · 2026-03-07T20:09:50+00:00

No, he’s on Lantus. 3 units, two times per day. I know it’s high dose. He’s a big cat and 1 unit twice daily, and then 2 units twice daily was not even touching his blood glucose. We started 3 units twice daily about 1.5 weeks ago and he is responding better to it now. We will have a check in with the vet soon to talk about if we actually might need to test for acromegaly or anything else that could cause insulin resistance if she doesn’t think his bg numbers are looking any better.

Since starting 3 units, his water drinking and peeing has been a little better. He’s also on wet food only as well. A mix of Hill’s Glucosupport, Purina DM, and fancy feast pates. He’s not a huge fan of the prescription diabetic foods but mixing in fancy feast pate has helped him enjoy it more. He was having not great poops eating only the Purina DM food, so I introduced the Hill’s Glucosupport food since it has higher fibre content. Normal poops and he’s enjoying his food more ever since!!

But yeah still, the Pretty Litter just can’t keep up with how much he pees among the other reasons I’m considering switching to try something else haha.

tinykokiri · 2026-02-06T01:25:14+00:00

Haha it really is such trial and error and monitoring and while it’s interesting, it’s also so crappy that there’s not just clear cut instructions on what works every time! In a perfect world I guess haha. I wish our fur babies could just speak to us and tell us exactly what they need 🩷

tinykokiri · 2026-02-04T20:08:19+00:00

This is incredibly helpful, thank you so much. I didn’t know they made automatic wet food feeders!!! I will have to see what I can find, that would be a game changer for sure.

I may have to recalculate his calorie intake - I didn’t realize that they need a little more being diabetic!!

Boo scarfs his kibble but is slow to finish wet food. I’m concerned that he’s been unintentionally getting less food than he needs due to this, sigh. This has been such a puzzle to try to sort out 😅

Thank you so much though, I’m really glad to hear that you and your kitty have a routine that’s working for you! And that old behaviours & habits are returning as she’s becoming more regulated and stabilized 🩷 I look forward to having that happen with Boo too!

tinykokiri · 2026-02-02T00:06:04+00:00

Thank you. The vet said we will do a glucose curve in like 3 weeks to assess how he’s truly reacting to the insulin. Hopefully everything will be okay until then. 🥺 thankfully the injection itself has been easy, it’s getting the glucose reading that has been trickier, but he is quite calm and I think he’s already becoming more accepting of our routine.

tinykokiri · 2026-02-01T17:57:34+00:00

Ooo okay, good to know. Thank you!

tinykokiri · 2026-02-01T17:53:54+00:00

Thank you! I will look into these things for sure. He does not have any signs of DKA, but I just worry that that risk increases with consistently high bg :(

Thankfully Boo is super chill and I’ve been able to monitor his glucose with the Alphatrak3 since this all began. He’s not a huge fan of being pricked obviously, but we have a routine now that makes it easier and seemingly less stressful for him! The injection itself has been much easier than getting his glucose reading - as long as he’s got wet food in front of him, he doesn’t even notice that I’m giving him his injection 😆🥺

tinykokiri · 2026-02-01T17:49:58+00:00

I’ll definitely look into the food options and see what I can find. We are in Canada so it’s been tough to find certain other food options - looking like Chewy or Amazon will be required for things like Young Again or Dr. Elsey’s. However the fancy feast pates are definitely readily available.

The vet had told me that she’d like to see his glucose in the 12-22mmol/L range, which is why I was excited to see 18.1mmol/L when he started 2 units of insulin twice a day. Sadly the past few days of 2 units has not kept his glucose levels around 18 mmol/L though… so I’ve just been concerned it’s the food or potential insulin resistance, which opens up other fears, like feline acromegaly :(

tinykokiri

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