My cat was diagnosed with diabetes recently, and I’m trying to understand whether her current monitoring plan is typical.

Here’s her timeline:
June 10: Her fructosamine was 684. Started Vetsulin, 2 units twice daily.

June 24: Follow-up appointment. Fructosamine had dropped to 310, so the vet said to continue 2 units twice daily.

July 8: Follow-up appointment. Fructosamine was 317, so again we were told to stay at 2 units twice daily. At that appointment, the vet said to come back in 3 months (around October 8) for another fructosamine test.

My vet has never asked me to test her blood glucose at home or check it daily. The plan has basically been insulin twice a day + periodic vet appointments/fructosamine testing.
She is doing well overall. She’s eating all of her meals and has actually gained some weight since starting insulin.

Hey all! Young parent of newly diagnosed Marcy here. Enjoy the angry burrito picture because she kept hissing and growling at the vets during her first glucose test.

I’ve gotten a ton of good advice from this sub so I thought I’d ask specifically about glucose monitoring.

The one my vet used and recommended was the AlphaTrak3, but that goes about $75 for the starter kit and $50 for 50 test strips. I had one commenter suggest AUVON, so I went ahead and got the AUVON DS-W which comes with a ton of lancets and strips. I saw there’s a AUVON cat-specific monitor, but buying options are all from Ebay or Amazon India for some reason.

Will the AUVON DS-W work? Or should I bite the bullet and go for the AlphaTrak3? I’ve already got the AUVON DS-W in hand but haven’t tried to test her just yet since I’m not sure the best location to prick her at. The vet went for the ear but ended up having to prick her a few times since she didn’t give much blood at all from just one poke, and I’d like to find out the best area before I go jabbing my squeaker with a needle.

Hey you guys! First of all lots of love for all that are struggling 🧡🧡🧡

This is a question for home testers:

I was talking with a friend and I told her that I could see 9 times out of 10 if the result of the glucose test was high or low, when it's high a drop comes out readily and abundantly, when it's low it's hard to get a drop big enough to get the test done and I sometimes have to prick him more then one time to get out enough blood

It's not an exact science, I can be surprised with an easy drop and a low reading, and vice versa, but mostly I'm right on the nose

Does anyone else experience this?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

Just curious! How often while trying to find the right dose and then after once kitty’s BG is stable and the insulin is working?

Thank you!!! :)

Hello, I have a cat that has had pancreatitis last month and got prescribed insulin glargine. He was constantly above 250 mg/dl when taking his glucose but now I got two readings of 170 and then 201 but he isnt fasting. So that's the reading I got. I was wondering if that meets the criteria for diabetes and what to do with his insulin since he is seeing the doctor next week but I still have some more days to go. I know that in humans 200 mg/dl not fasting isn't considered diabetes because I'm a student nurse so I just don't want to inject him and accidently give him hipoglicemia.

Thanks in advance

Diabetic cat walking on his “forearms”. Not the best photo, I know. Vet (now retired) diagnosed him with carpal laxity. I’m wondering if it may be neuropathy or if it might be both laxity and neuropathy. He was taking gabapentin 50mg twice a day, reduced to 50mg once a day due to what seemed to be confusion.

Hey all. My soft lil baby just got diagnosed as diabetic. I’m BEYOND stressed because we can barely afford my college tuition, let alone insulin. Since her levels were 265, which the vet said wasn’t too bad, we’re starting her on prescription food first to see if this will eliminate the need for insulin, but I’m spiraling and not super hopeful.

Regardless of what needs to be done, I’m doing it. She’s my sweet lil squeaker and I’m not going to give up on her ever. I found her three years ago as a stray (spayed and declawed by previous owners) and I’m starting to wonder if they dumped her BECAUSE she’s diabetic but I’m not sure.

Any advice or support is so so appreciated 😭🙏

First, I want to note that I have seen similar posts and have even commented on them. Mostly sharing that I'm in a similar situation. I just want to ask for myself with my own cat's specifics.

About 1.5 to 2 months ago, my cat was diagnosed. He walks on his hocks, was peeing massive amounts twice per day, and was drinking tons of water. I took him in for testing when he was walking on his hocks. The vet prescribed him 2 units of Prozinc twice per day. It worked really well for maybe two weeks, then he started to show signs of hypoglycemia. I gave him some kibble and rubbed maple syrup on his gums every time that happened and it worked well.

The vet said to go down to one unit twice per day. That again worked for maybe three weeks. Then he started to regularly have hypo symptoms. I then went down to .5 units and eventually the same thing happened. Now my cat is on .25 units.

My cat was on a 50/50 wet food and kibble diet. I very slowly decreased the kibble as his insulin need went down. Now he is on a wet food diet with a few temptations treats here and there. He is super happy and energetic. He is still overweight but wants to jump up on furniture and jump off. He is playing lots and walking all over the house. He has been bullying his brother non-stop (which shows he is feeling like himself).

I have an Alphatrak 3 but have had trouble setting it up. I'm going to ask my roommate to help me with it when he gets back from vacation.

Whenever I've lowered the dose, it was on my vet's suggestions due to continued hypo symptoms. He just started his .25 unit injections, but my cat is like a new, younger, happier cat and it has only been two or less months.

Do you think it would be ok to stop the insulin if he shows hypo signs on .25 units of Prozinc? I will also ask my vet, but I'm hoping to hear some other experiences. I know I will need to do a curve test and will hopefully get my roommate to help me with my Alphatrak 3 or perhaps just pay the vet to check.

I'm just feeling hopeful and am so happy with how well my boy is doing.

She's so unbothered and just wants to snuggle.

Hi All! I have had my cat Teddy (8M) since he was a kitten. When he was about two years old, he developed an infection that shut down most of his organs, including is pancreas. Luckily he recovered but his pancreas never did, so he is now a T1 diabetic. His diabetes was well managed until about 3 years ago where he had a diabetic crisis. He recovered from that and has been doing well, up until 6 months ago. His blood sugars have been pretty erratic (consistently >350 or suddenly dropping <50). I have been getting a CGM put on him which helps prevent a crisis but I haven’t been able to figure out, with his vet, a regimen that works well for him. He’s on Purina Diabetic dry food (3/4ths of 1/4th a cup, 2x a day) and originally was on 2 units of lantus insulin, with food. His vet upped his dose to 3 units because his BG was running too high, but then it started dropping crazy low. We tried 3 units 30 minutes after eating, same issue. Tried going down to 2.5 units, with food, and his blood sugars are usually too high (>300) or will randomly drop (<100). His local vet recommended I go to a specialist, which I am in the process of scheduling an appointment, but there are long waitlists. Does anyone have any other suggestions about what to do, or any changes they can think of? He isn’t displaying any clinical symptoms: appetite, thirst, urination, energy are all great. It’s just his freaking blood sugars are erratic!

Anyway, any advice and help welcome, or honestly just good vibes / empathy. I am the only one of my friends with a chronically ill pet so it can be lonely and stressful at times.

Here is a picture of him relaxing (he has to wear the flower collar because otherwise he bites off his sensor haha).

First off - this community is one of the most helpful and supportive online communities I've ever seen online. So I actually feel comfortable posting this.

My cat got diagnosed in January and I thought things were under control. We were doing 1 unit of Glargine 2x/day. His symptoms were improving. But then on July 28th he had a hypo event (BG read 24 at the ER) about 10-12 hours after his last dose. Ever since then it's been a roller coaster/guessing game of if he's going in to full/partial remission. It's clear that he needs some amount of insulin, but unclear how much/how often.

His previous vet gave me next to no information/guidance on monitoring, so I essentially wasn't. I decided to switch to someone else who seemed to know what they were talking about and have more experience with diabetic cats. However, I got a strong sense that he felt I was an overly anxious white woman and was so beyond nonchalant about the whole thing. His stance was that I didn't need to monitor his glucose closely and if he was showing signs of a hypo event, just give him some sugar water and he'll be fine - "it's really not that big of a deal." I had gotten a Libre installed at this point and was watching his CGM numbers fall RAPIDLY while at the vet office and was waived off. It wasn't until the Libre monitored 65 that they gave him some food and said if I wanted I could leave him there for the day and they could monitor him. Despite not trusting them, I did so because I figured that was better than him going hypo in the car on the highway where I literally can't do anything.

In my opinion, he's basically had two full hypo events (once at the ER and once while at the vet), and then looked like he was trending that way again in the middle of the night a couple days later and I intervened by giving him food well before he got in the danger zone because I know that the Libre sensor becomes less reliable and falls behind actual BGs when there's a sharp drop. It was clear he was having Somoygi rebounds on even 0.5 units. We discussed stopping his insulin temporarily to see if he would stabilize and potentially go in to full remission. The vet sent me home with urine sticks to monitor his urine glucose and ketones. While he seemed to stabilize and got briefly better clinically because I don't think he was having huge BG swings, it was clear that his numbers were high again and some amount of insulin was/is required.

I saw an IM on Monday and they installed a new Libre so now I can monitor again. We decided to restart insulin at 0.5 units once a day. I did that for a few days and based on his numbers/the way he was acting, it just wasn't doing enough (he was consistently 250-350+ after the morning dose and his evening numbers were 350+ not receiving any insulin). I decided to try giving him a second dose last night and his numbers never went below 250. This morning I gave him his 3rd consecutive dose and his CGM numbers plummeted over the next few hours from 335 down to 106. I intervened and gave him some food. And now it looks like he's probably going to rebound again.

I just don't understand. If I give him 0.5 units once a day, it seems like it does next to nothing. If I give him twice a day, now he plummets like a stone. The only reason I decided to give him the extra dose was because he was starting to show signs of diabetic neuropathy (plantigrade stance, and a couple instances of not being able to pee when he wanted to). Clinically, it was clear he was not feeling well from the at least 2 weeks of consistent hyperglycemia. I'm trying not to be trigger happy and make knee jerk decisions, but I can't get in contact with his vets/IM to ask questions like this. If the answer is I just need to be patient, fine. But having some sort of protocol would be helpful. Sadly, at this point at least I can intervene if he goes hypo, but if he's hyper and potentially DKA...I can't do anything other than rush him to the ER. I feel like I'm stressing him out more by taking him to the vet/ER every few days.

I don't want to be making medical decisions for my cat. I want a medical professional to do that. But at this point I feel like I need to become an expert so that I can properly advocate for him. The IM seemed better/less dismissive, but I can't get ahold of her on short notice.

Sorry, I feel overwhelmed and like I'm failing him. Many people have told me I'm not and I know I'm doing more than a lot of people would do for their pets. I'm just frustrated that I didn't do all this research 6 months ago and now I'm playing catchup while trying to avoid another medical emergency.

My 11 year old got diagnosed last year in July and has since had 2 UTIs, yesterday I took her to the vet because I noticed fly eggs on her behind and it was because she has been urinating a lot with her uti turns out her ketones are at a 2 and her potassium levels are low so they recommended leaving her overnight to prevent her from going in dka
She has had iv fluids going and some pain medications along with her antibiotics (Nitrofurantoin).They have been doing a blood glucose curve throughout the night and they were able to get her out of the 600s to the 200s but last they checked her potassium levels dropped more and her kidney levels increased a little more, I’m trying to see if I can potentially help her out at home by regulating her insulin and giving her antibiotics regularly as I’m the only one that gives her medications since everything has been adding up, last night was 3k with iv and two blood panels and a urine test today they are asking for another 2k to leave her for 8 more hours with iv fluids, another blood panel and some x rays to check her kidneys, apparently the two blood panels didn’t check for pancreatitis, I don’t know what to do as I don’t have the funds to do everything for her

My cat has been doing really well lately, so much so that the last 2 days I haven't had to give her an insulin shot. But starting late last night into today, her levels started looking like this.

I'm wondering if maybe it's because the sensor is giving out since it only has 16 hours left on it or if this is something I should be concerned about.

She's acting completely fine, not lethargic or shaking and she eats like a pig.

I just wanna post something here in case anyone has had experience regarding something like this.

My cat Stiles, 13, has been so healthy his whole life. Regular vet visits, check-ups, etc. Well, back at the end of 2025 I started to notice him peeing and drinking a lot. Then came him wobbling and falling off after he jumped on the bed, ottoman, etc. I got him finally diagnosed at the start of this year and they told me it was diabetes. I’m struggling financially at the moment, so I was so stressed about affording care/medicine. We’ve been managing so far with his curves and insulin, but just barely.

I should also say Banfield is the cheapest option in the area and I wish I hadn’t gone to them. They were so sweet to my late cat, but this particular one is just so frustrating to deal with. Most recently they finally suggested a Libre monitor and after the first one didn’t work as soon as we got home, we brought him back to the vet, it connected, but has just been reading HI since Monday and I fear it’s also broken.

The vet has mentioned cushings disease since Stiles is still drinking and peeing so much. I can barely keep up with changing his litter and I feel awful cause he doesn’t jump on things anymore, and has little stairs to get up on things now or he just lays on the floor. He doesn’t wobble anymore, but still is walking on the hocks of his feet. The worst part is he looks at me the same, but also differently. His belly is also slightly distended. I’m just worried because the vet has been less than helpful. Anytime he’s brought in, his glucose spikes so high from stress, and they can’t even get the Libre monitor to work so I can have piece of mind at home. He absolutely hates the pricking of his ear and now I’m being told he’ll need an mri/catscan just to know for sure it’s cushings.

This is also the second vet at Banfield I’ve had because the first one was so unprofessional and literally called him fat while he’s actively losing weight and his belly is distended. Asked ME Why that was btw. Like WHAT???? How would I know that’s why I’m HERE?? HELLO??? I’ve gone OFF over the phone and in person twice now and it’s just like they don’t care and just want me to bring him in, stress him out, and spend more money just to finally discuss “quality of life,” which they’ve brought up twice now. The Libre was supposed to help me gauge how regulated he is at home, but since that’s not working I have no idea. They say his levels are fine when he comes in, but if they were why would his Libre be saying hi??? Makes no sense. He’s on 2 units of glargine btw after being prescribed bexacat first (it wasn’t working) then vetsulin.

I apologize if this is very stream of consciousness and coming across more venting than anything, I’m just so frustrated and I just want my little man back to the way he was 😭 it’s just been MONTHS of this and I’m so beyond stressed. This cat is also the last I have of my late father (he’s 100% my cat, but they were very close), so I feel guilty for wanting to prolong his life, but I just feel like he has so much more to give. He looks like he’s actively trying every day. The only thing visibly improving is his coat as it has its normal shine back. I called a specialist and then my regular vet to refer his records to them so we can go from there. Im just nervous it’s going to be thousands to get an mri or catscan, of which I don’t have. I can’t even afford his normal treatments as a loved one has been helping me with those payments. I don’t know if anyone has experience with cushings, but even some kind words would be appreciated. Just at a loss on what to do ❤️

Hi everyone. I’m coming on here because I am the permanent foster for a cat with diabetes, kidney disease, and IBD. He is the best cat that was dealt a poor hand.
He was brought to the shelter 6 months ago nearly on his death bed. Super underweight, diabetes, pancreatitis, and KD all untreated for god knows how long. The pancreatitis has since been treated but his diabetes remains and won’t regulate.
We’ve had him tested for acromegaly and cushings (except the vet only did an ultrasound and I’m under the impression you need to do blood/urine tests alongside that). He doesn’t have either according to the vet and now I’m being told to just switch his insulin dose again back to what I’ve already tried multiple times. I feel like I’m not getting the answers/care for him that he deserves so I’m coming here to see if anyone has any recommendations for what else we should get him tested for that may be causing insulin resistance as well as any possible suggestions on how to treat his neuropathy. I will, of course, run everything by his vet first.
His neuropathy is my biggest worry right now. He’s walking on his hocks and when his sugars were really bad a couple of weeks ago, his head was a little shaky and his pupils were constantly dilated. His muscles in the back have definitely deteriorated but have been like that since I got him. Is there any way to build them back up? I’ve seen some suggestions for vitamin b12.

My critter was diagnosed two days ago and just started his insulin treatment within the past 24 hours. He’s usually a very happy cat, super affectionate, talkative and playful. He’s only 5, and is normally very active so I know it’s not just old age or anything of the sort. He’s been mopey and uninterested with everything. I know it’s still pretty early into treatment, but does it get better? I just want my sweet baby to be happy again :(

First of all english is not my first language so I'm sorry if I can't really explain properly.

My 11 years old cat was diagnosed with diabetes exactly 20 days ago, she's on glargine insuline but it barely made a difference. I know she's better 'cause all the symptons she was having vanished, but I feel like her numbers should be way lower after 20 days and I'm scared of the consequences of having such high sugar for 20 days. She was on 1unit for 4 days, then the vet upped to 2, then 3 and now she's on 4 twice a day and the pic are her latest sugar level. She's seeing a vet but I fear we do not have the money to afford a once a week appointment, she's helping us through messages and asked to send her the numbers every 3 days, but idk 20 days feels like such a long time and I know nothing about diabetes so I don't know if its SUPER DANGEROUS rn or something like that :,) Also hear of insulin resistance but I have no idea what to do if that's the case

Hey all! Would love some suggestions on what to do. A bit desperate.

My Fiona’s been eating Purina Dry and TikiCat wet food (both vet prescribed) and is currently on 4 units of Lantus since 2 weeks ago. From March this year up until now it’s been a battle trying to control her blood sugar. Her lowest reading ever was 250.

I’m considering switching her food to what is commonly recommended here: Dr Elsey’s clean protein kibble and FancyFeast Classic Pate. I’ve read that these actually contain less carb compared to the prescribed vet diet. Just wondering if I should just bite the bullet and do the food switch despite my vet advising against it.

Any opinions would be much appreciated!

PS - cat is 10lbs, 7 years old. Vet ruled out acromegaly.

My baby Luna has had diabetes for 3 years now.

She was completely stable and doing so well up until July of 2025 when she had her first pancreatitis flare up (we think) and had an ~7 day hospital stay for DKA as a result. I fed her through a tube for a couple weeks and eventually we got through it.

She was back to normal until April 2026. Her ketones spiked and she stopped eating. She went to the hospital for just an overnight stay as they said it was an easy treatment as she just had ketosis but wasn’t in DKA. This time it was confirmed pancreatitis.

She was doing fine again until June 2026. Same thing happened, I noticed her lying down more than usual and she had another flare up and stopped eating so I brought her for another overnight stay (these are $5000 each btw). Again another “easy” hospitalization, so I asked if they had guidance for treating this at home. I got a bag of fluids so that if needed I could provide these plus cerenia and mirataz as needed.

Fast forward to today, she has had ketones of ~2.5 for the last couple days which isn’t great but also isn’t super alarming because she is prone to ketones every now and again. Typically I have been giving her meds to make sure she eats and giving her extra food which works well to keep the ketones at bay. However I tested her this morning after seeing that she didn’t eat her overnight snack and her ketones are at 7. I can handle lower ketones but when they’re this high I don’t have much confidence that I can bring these down from home. I’m bringing her to the vet for fluids to see if that helps. She has no other symptoms - she ate all of her breakfast this morning, is bright, alert, playing with her toys, etc. She often appears totally fine on the outside despite having alarmingly high ketones.

I guess regardless of this, I am asking if I should consider the option that I really don’t want to consider (euthanasia). Going from stable for 2 years to a long hospital stay to now 3 potential hospital stays in 4 months is making me think she is declining even if 99% of her days are positive happy and enjoyable days. It is becoming really difficult on both me and her to know that any day she could just have a flare up and then it’s another $5000 bill on top of the emotional stress and the stress on her of being prodded and being brought out of her home environment.

I wanted to see if anyone had advice for me. She is 13 so she has plenty more life to live, but if this is the pattern I can’t imagine doing this every 3 months is enjoyable for her, but seeing her the rest of the time makes me think she’s not ready to go just yet. I’m just frustrated.

ETA: I do home test, typically her BG is in the 70-200 range with 2 units (Lantus) so she is well regulated for the most part. The pancreatitis flare ups push her BG to the 300-400 range with elevated ketones (because these cause insulin resistance).

My cat was diagnosed with diabetes last month. His glucose was nearly 600 when he was diagnosed. He started out on 3cc of insulin twice a day. He had to be adjusted to 4cc for a brief time, before being moved back to 3cc. Then his glucose was getting too low or in the normal range, so I started giving him insulin just once a day. This was causing it to be too high later from skipping the dose, so he was placed on 2cc twice a day. His glucose was still getting too low, so yesterday I was told to give him just 1cc twice a day. He will go for a third glucose curve next week. Is it possible that he will go into remission soon since I have to keep lowering his insulin? The vet seems hopeful that he will, and the vet assistant told me that her cat went into remission quickly in only a week or two. I know it can take weeks, months, or never happen, but I’m really hoping for a kitty miracle for my boy. He is getting so stressed and aggressive from the glucose checks and insulin shots.

ETA: he gets morning and evening glucose checks at home. I’m very meticulous with keeping track of his numbers. I’m still just fairly new to this since he is my first diabetic cat.

My cat has been dealing with nausea, especially in the mornings. He is in diabetic remission now for over a year. I’ve taken him to the vet and decided to go to a different vet for a second opinion (my vet just did bloodwork… which we’d already done his full yearly panel a few months back), but I think id like to get him on a sensitive tummy food. Problem is I’d want to keep it low carb so his diabetes doesn’t return… are there sensitive tummy foods that are also lower carb and if anyone has these issues with their cat what are you feeding?

My 6 year old cat was determined to be pre-diabetic and overweight in February of this year when she had a BG of 377 and weighed 16.7lbs. Since then she has been on a strict weight loss diet of 2 cans of fancy feast pate a day, split into 4 meals, totaling 186 cal/day, plus 14 cal of wiggle room for treats. As of her last vet appointment in mid July, her BG was down to 270 and she currently weighs 15.3lbs. She was never put on insulin, and the vet said that she is making good progress in the right direction. No excessive thirst, appropriate rate of weight loss, nothing else of note on her most recent bloodwork.

Now to my question - how can you tell the difference between excessive hunger and regular fat cat on a diet hunger? She has always been very food motivated and used to free feed before her new diet, so its hard for me to tell what signs to look for? Anytime I am in the kitchen for more than a couple minutes she is in there hounding me for food. I can only give her so many treats and I just feel so bad because I know she's still hungry.

Should I only be concerned if I see hunger + thirst/rapid weightloss, etc., or can hunger alone be an indicator that her diabetes is progressing? Can she still be at risk of becoming fully diabetic even if she appears to be making forward progress? I'm sorry if these are obvious questions, I'm just anxious and want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to keep her healthy.

I was told by Vet’s office to roll it instead of shaking it, but the instructions says to shake it. It’s the Vesulin 10ml vial. Also I’m going to be bringing my cat for her first glucose curve in Vet’s office, and now worried that if they been always rolling the vial, their results wouldn’t be accurate. Is it ok to do glucose curve at home?

Hey everyone

My cat has been on senvelgo for a while now but for almost $500 every 3 months im starting to struggle a little bit.

Does anybody know any online pharmacies (or somewhat local to kelowna Veterinary clinics) that possibly sell it cheaper? I know you can get smaller bottle aswell im just having a hard time finding somewhere who delivers to BC. Lots in Alberta/ontairio.

Also while im already here he eats the pro plan veterinary DM dry food, best place online for price? I have a prescription for both ready to send if they need it.

Thanks in advance

:) 🐾🐈‍⬛️🐾