During a checkup a few months ago, we noticed that my Isabell had some spillage of sugar in her urine. We checked her blood sugar using a glucose monitor for cats and it was on the high side (we checked her cage mate as a control). At this time we eliminated any sweet snacks from her diet and hoped that without the extra sweets she would bounce back in the normal range.
Unfortunately it didn't happen. Since that time, Isabell has lost weight despite being supplimented. I took her back in and she had +++ spillage of sugar in her urine and her blood sugar had gone up from the last check. It was 230 at the vets office.
My vet is checking to see if anyone has had experience with diabetic gliders and what treatment they can have. However monitoring her glucose levels at home is not really feasible. I do have my own glucose meter (I got it for my cat) but getting blood is not something I can manage at home. I tried, but poking the pads of her feet just made her annoyed with me and when I tried to prick her ear (like I did with my cat) I just ended up putting a non bleeding hole in her ear and pricking my own finger. My vet had to quick her nail to get a sample. Given the difficulty in glucose monitoring, putting her on any sort of medication would be tricky at best and lethal at worst. If we miscalculated the dosage for her, we could cause her blood sugar to drop to dangerous or deadly levels very quickly.
So we decided to attempt to control her diabetes through diet. From now on, she is to get NO fruit, or fruit juice. She is to be on a high fiber diet which will cause fewer spikes in her sugar levels. Since my gliders tend to prefer veggies over fruit this is not horrible for her. However her staple diet (Reeps) is made with juice and I have always supplimented it with either applesauce or baby food fruit in an effort to get the kids to eat some kind of fruit (they really tend to ignore it for the most part). I mentioned this to my vet and per her instructions I am substituting the juice with Boost and the fruit with vitamin C.
Since I am on unfamiliar ground here, I was wondering if anyone has had experience with diabetic gliders, or any recommendations on what veggies might be best for controling blood sugar levels.