Regulating The Blood Sugar Of Your Diabetic Cat

Regulating the blood sugar of your diabetic cat is the first thing that should be carried when you discover your cat is diabetic. Tucker, a 14 year old cat, was diagnosed with cat diabetes last week. Unfortunately he is an inpatient at the vets while the vet tries to regulate his blood sugar and the concerned owner is asking whether the cat should be brought home and he should try to regulate at home.

If there are no complications then I’d say it was better to bring the cat home and try to regulate at home. This is because stress can cause an increase in a cat’s blood sugar and staying at a vets in unfamiliar surroundings with unfamiliar sights and sounds can be pretty stressful! Provided you have changed your cats diet, you have a blood sugar monitor and there are no complications, you should be able to regulate your cat at home.

“My 14yr old cat Tucker was diagnosed with diabetes last Tuesday, and he’s still at the vets. They tell me they still can’t regulate his levels. Yesterday they were 50 in the morning, and 350 at night.

Although I know nothing about cat diabetes from personal experience, I want to bring him home now. I have a glucose meter and bought a variety of wet food recommended online.

Do you think he’d be better off with me monitoring his BG, or should I wait for the vet to release him back to me? 8 days seems way too long.

I have another cat at home, who’s 10 yrs old. She has been changed over to wet food already. I’ve been practicing by checking her BG levels. (They’re averaging about 50)
I miss my friend!”

“I’m not aware of any complications. They sent his blood sample for testing and said there were no other problems. I asked if I could bring him home and monitor his levels. They said I could bring him home, IF I would bring him back in to the vet 2x a day for testing. I mentioned Tucker is probably stressed and that could affect his BG levels. They responded with “he’s fine, quietly laying in the back of the kennel. I think Tucker would be better off at home.”

“Seriously, Chris, there is no reason for Tucker to be at the vet for so long. Your vet should have advised you about Tucker being diabetic and told you about giving insulin shots and how to home test.

Some cats take weeks and months to become regulated so your money is being wasted by your poor Tucker stuck at the vet, with both of you unhappy. Stress alone could be keeping Tucker’s numbers high – the majority of cats test higher at the vet office then return to lower numbers when they get back home.”

This is a situation where the owner needs to stamp her authority, after all he is the customer. I’d take my blood sugar meter to the vets and show the vet that I am quite capable of taking readings at home.

This should be enough to persuade the vet to release the cat. If he doesn’t then he must have a very good reason not to. If he doesn’t, I’d discharge the cat and change vets in any case.

Regulating the blood sugar level of your diabetic cat is always best carried out at home  in safe, comfortable surroundings.