hellolucy
Member Since 2017
Hello - Lucy is back again and I have a long post. I had initially joined this board determined and was posting regularly to try to help my furball, Lucy. A family member I was very close with passed away and it completely shut me down for a while with life in general and I disappeared from the boards. Long story short, I am back, in a good place, and needing help with Lucy and will do whatever it takes. The vet suggested putting her down as she was an uncontrolled diabetic which I am extremely against and absolutely NOT willing to do at this point so need help. My finances are also completely shot from the extensive ER visits in the past year - money (credit card) wasn't even a consideration when I took her in though, I just wanted her to be okay.
I wasn't as good at testing at home as I should have been (I admit) because she did not want to have one bit of it and was extremely difficult to draw blood from (even wrapped in a towel), but has since gotten better. She was back in the ER (again) a few months for ~36 hours due to ketones which I caught at home using the ketone strips. They said her pancreas values were low so she's been taking half a tablet of PancreaPlus 2x a day now for ~2 weeks. She has been on both ProZinc and Lantus but has been on Lantus now for about 6 months. She was a previous diabetic and went into "remission" a few years back, was taken off of insulin, had severe pancreatitis in Dec 2016, and was put back on. Her current dose is 5U 2x per day. When I had initially taken her in to the ER, I was feeding her Radcat. They told me to stop as the raw food could trigger a bacterial infection more easily which is not good for diabetic cats. They switched her over to Purina DM which I've been feeding her but am not a fan of due to the seafood and her BGs on this food. Her BGs for the past several months have hovered between 215 - 400, but they seem to be a tad higher on Purina DM than the raw. For the past several days, I've been feeding her a mix of Purina DM & Radcat in an attempt to switch her back to Radcat. I am very, very familiar with Dr. Pierson's food list and have tried most of the foods with low carbs, higher protein, and moderate fat. Nothing has helped. It makes it more difficult that she has a tough time eating shredded food and really only likes pates. I've tried different foods, different insulins, different doses, and nothing gets her even close to the numbers she needs to be at.
- Do I keep her at 5U of Lantus for now? Should I start over?
- Do I keep her on Purina DM only? Switch her back to raw only?
- She went into remission on ProZinc, but she was also a newly diagnosed diabetic at that point. Do I try switching her back to ProZinc? Keep her on Lantus?
- What are the best times (beside before she eats 2x a day) to test? I work a standard 9 - 5 and run errands after work. I am home for about an hour in the morning.
What do I do? Where do I even start to "start over" and figure this out?
I wasn't as good at testing at home as I should have been (I admit) because she did not want to have one bit of it and was extremely difficult to draw blood from (even wrapped in a towel), but has since gotten better. She was back in the ER (again) a few months for ~36 hours due to ketones which I caught at home using the ketone strips. They said her pancreas values were low so she's been taking half a tablet of PancreaPlus 2x a day now for ~2 weeks. She has been on both ProZinc and Lantus but has been on Lantus now for about 6 months. She was a previous diabetic and went into "remission" a few years back, was taken off of insulin, had severe pancreatitis in Dec 2016, and was put back on. Her current dose is 5U 2x per day. When I had initially taken her in to the ER, I was feeding her Radcat. They told me to stop as the raw food could trigger a bacterial infection more easily which is not good for diabetic cats. They switched her over to Purina DM which I've been feeding her but am not a fan of due to the seafood and her BGs on this food. Her BGs for the past several months have hovered between 215 - 400, but they seem to be a tad higher on Purina DM than the raw. For the past several days, I've been feeding her a mix of Purina DM & Radcat in an attempt to switch her back to Radcat. I am very, very familiar with Dr. Pierson's food list and have tried most of the foods with low carbs, higher protein, and moderate fat. Nothing has helped. It makes it more difficult that she has a tough time eating shredded food and really only likes pates. I've tried different foods, different insulins, different doses, and nothing gets her even close to the numbers she needs to be at.
- Do I keep her at 5U of Lantus for now? Should I start over?
- Do I keep her on Purina DM only? Switch her back to raw only?
- She went into remission on ProZinc, but she was also a newly diagnosed diabetic at that point. Do I try switching her back to ProZinc? Keep her on Lantus?
- What are the best times (beside before she eats 2x a day) to test? I work a standard 9 - 5 and run errands after work. I am home for about an hour in the morning.
What do I do? Where do I even start to "start over" and figure this out?
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