Tootsie's Progress

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We actually do have steps at the end of our bed that our dog used before he passed. We have seen Tootsie use them when he gets up on the bed. Honestly since we got his cat tower though he doesn't sleep with us like he use to. He loves the top of his tower. And he uses the end of the couch to leap onto that so it isn't a big jump. And the couch itself is pretty low to the ground. I wouldn't guess it was anything with the bone but definitely more of a muscle issue. He is older so he might just tweak it once and awhile and then its sore for a day or two. He usually walks good on it and everything when it does happen, it's just when he leaps because all the pressure comes from the back legs when they jump. He can jump off of things and won't make a noise. I'll keep an eye on it some more and see if its always the same leg. Right now it's his left back. Let's see how his pmps goes here in a few minutes. Fingers crossed.
 
Yesss! Thank you guys! I appreciate all the help you guys have given throughout this process. I've learned so much already and ready to pass on the little knowledge I now know to others that were/are just like me. And ready to continue to learn more. You guys are basically strangers but feel like my friends already hahaha. Which is nice because I dont have any of those. I always tell my husband I have to go update my people about Toot!
 
This board works because people join, learn, and then stay to pass it on. Absolutely share what you've learned with other folks here!
 
:bighug: And his appointment this morning at 11:15am. I'm going to test right before walking out the door, then they will test and then I'll test when we are back home to see how much difference there is.
 
Our appointment went really good. The nurse kind of looked at me like I was crazy when I explained all the changes I've made. Even said I hope your research is all the right research. I asked how they usually check his blood and they said with a pet meter but they usually drawl from the neck or leg. Everytime I've taken him in they have done it from the neck and they take him to the back to do it. Today a new female doctor that we have never seen before came into the room to weigh him and check his levels. I asked if she would use a human meter and she said they use the Alphatrak. I said okay that's fine even though I do expect it to be a bit higher than my human one at home. She also said she uses a human one at home. I was just happy that they were actually using a meter and right in front of me this time. Right before I left I checked him and he was 67. With the Alphatrak at the vet he tested 79. And when we got back home I tested again and he was 68 :bighug::bighug: She said looks like you got his pancreas working again and he's in remission. I was happy but said I won't call it until the 14 days, lol. She said she would check him about once a week just to see how he's doing and I said oh no I'll be checking him everyday for at least the 14 days. She was happy with his food change being all wet and said she does the same for her kitties. I mentioned this board to her and she said she was familiar with it.

For his weight I asked the nurse first what his healthy weight should be and she said 14/15 pounds was good for his type of build. The doctor said she thinks 12 pounds would be better and two 3oz cans of food a day would be good for him. She also said cats are prone to arthritis and I could start him on cosequin or glucosamine.
 
Sounds like a great vet visit! Yay! So is Tootsie on a diet now? Is that less than he's been eating?
 
Wonderful report! Who abducted your other vet and sent you this one?!

There is a wonderful dental specialist that I take Willow and Mia to. (I wish he was an everything vet because I LOVE him... he is absolutely terrific and looked up to across a multi-state area.. ok, I'll stop.. he is just really that awesome. :)) Anyway, he told me to start both girls on a supplement called 1-TDC. It is for periodontal and joint health. Once I read up on it, I found that it is also good for other things like muscle stamina and coat health. You may want to consider it. From what I have read, the way it works (way it's delivered/absorbed.. something like that.. it has been a while since I researched it) is different and can provide benefits beyond things like good old glucosamine. I get it from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/1-TDC-Dual-A...?ie=UTF8&qid=1531502663&sr=8-2&keywords=1-tdc It seems expensive, but it lasts a long time, especially once you are past the first month. You give it once a day for 30 days then every other day. It's in a heart-shaped capsule. You are supposed to twist off the top (I cut it off, too hard to twist off) then squeeze the gel-ish stuff onto their gums.. or, if that is a no-go, you can put it somewhere where they will lick it up. For Mia, I just squirt it on a treat and she gobbles it up. For Willow, I hold her and squirt it into her mouth. She will not just eat it up, and besides, I find that the easiest way to give her Zyrtec is stuck in the gel
 
@Djamila that's the plan. She said to just start working on it. He isn't severely overweight but she said it would just be beneficial to him.

@FurBabiesMama I like the idea of that medicine. It hasn't effected your kitty with his blood sugar levels at all? My biggest fear is giving something now and it freaking his body out lol.

Has anyone else had any luck using cosequin or glucosamine? I know cosequin can be bought elsewhere besides a vets office, but can glucosamine? She did say that they are both sprinkles that you just sprinkle on the food once a day and she said most cats like the flavor of the cosequin over glucosamine.
 
AshleyDiamond said:
He isn't severely overweight but she said it would just be beneficial to him.
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That's been an ongoing battle here too. Sam is at a good weight, but Atty is chubby. This despite the fact that they both get the same food. Chubby is a factor in diabetes and joint health, so I'm always working on ways to get Atty to drop a couple pounds. I'll get him down about half a pound, and then I lose focus and he gains it back. I'm hoping our upcoming move to a house will force him to be more active.
 
@Djamila yeah I'm going to work at it. Since he is regulated now he isn't starving so I'm going to focus on feeding him his morning and night meals, and then I'll only give him a small snack if he is really begging for it. He pretty much stopped begging to eat once his normals got better, but I still have been giving him the snacks in between meals and he would eat them (not all of it though) So I think if I cut that out for the most part it will start to come off slowly. He's definitely not an active kitty so the less food will be what gets the couple pounds off.

@FurBabiesMama is that supplement just the gel that needs to be given? I was reading the directions and it said dual health-squeeze the gel out and onto the gums, then joint health- feed capsule/contents as a treat?.
 
The supplement is for dogs and cats. I think with a larger dog, you could just give it as a treat, but I don't think that is an option with a cat. It seems a little big for that. When it is given as a treat, it does not have the periodontal benefits since the contents do not come in contact with the mouth. For a cat, you just squirt it in their mouth or let them lick it up. That way, they get both periodontal and joint benefits.

A lot of people use cosequin (which contains glucosamine) or glucosamine. They have been around longer. Most people do not even know about 1-TDC. I have also been adding MSM powder to their food once a day. It was recommended to me here when Mia had that limp. https://www.theholistichorse.com/shop/animal-products/cats/su-per-msm-ultra-pure-powder-2/
 
Hey, Ashley... Sometimes, I have seen where people insert a row in their spreadsheet before the first day of no insulin that says something like 'OTJ Trial' (like you see on mine for new Levemir pen) so that it is easy to see at a glance how many days there have been with no insulin.

Just sayin.. :D
 
@FurBabiesMama sounds good to me. Actually could you tell me what my spreadsheet looks like on your end where I added the row and explained how I was using U40 insulin in a U100 syringe. On my end its solid black with white letters, centered on both sides (the am block and the pm block) but if I click the link from certain spots it shows up completely different. Kind of silly but I swear stuff like that drives me crazy, haha.
 
When I click the link and it first opens, it is not filled, but once everything loads/updates, it is black. I'll show you...

Loading.png


OnceLoaded.png
 
Lol thank you. Well either of those look okay. The ones I've seen show the right side really big with two lines of the words written on top of each other and it looks terrible :D I'm going to go add the trial now.
 
Should I be worried?

As you can all see Tootsie is doing amazing! His numbers are fantastic and everything is going well. His leg is still bothering him a little but he isn't howling out anymore when he jumps. But what I noticed is his urine output is still pretty large. I don't know if this is something to be worried about or what? He still hardly drinks the water from his bowls, if any and is getting 99% of his intake from the wet food and all the water I add to it (which is quite a bit) he isn't going in the box all day, its 1-2 pees a day and that's it. I'm thinking he is either peeing ontop of the same piles which is making it look big, or its from holding it practically all day before finally going which is causing such big amounts. What do you guys think?
 
Is it as much as it was before he was diagnosed? Right before diagnosis, there was so much pee in the litter box that I was starting to think my husband was using it to be funny (which would not have been funny at all). :D:eek:

What does he weigh? (I think this may have come up in one of the threads, but I do not remember. I'm thinking he is fairly large.) Mia NEVER drinks water. I add bone broth and water to every meal. She only pees a couple of times a day (maybe 3 sometimes), and she does pee quite a bit. She is a pretty big girl, 12 lbs. She probably pees about twice what Willow does... Willow only weighs, at most, 6lbs. I KNOW Mia's pee is fine because I just had a urinalysis done on Saturday.

If you do not see any other indications of there being a problem, I would just assume he 'makes big pee pee'. :smuggrin:
 
He is over 14 pounds. I don't think its as much as when he was diagnosed but honestly I've never paid close attention to the box because that's the husbands job hahaha. It very well may be that I'm just being overly worried and its normal for him to have big pees, but I always like to just double check and see what y'all think. I'll keep an eye on it the next few days and see if its just normal for him. And I'll keep doing those random test to check his levels throughout the cycles. I've been trying to reduce to to 1 check (sometimes none) in the middle of the cycles so that he gets a little break. He went through lots of pokes over the last few weeks with the way I checked him hahaha. Poor guy!
 
@FurBabiesMama yay! Thank you! He has been holding his numbers so good too! We got that 63 last night and I freaked out a little bit, lmao! I know that still a great number but we hadn't seen the 60s since the first couple of days. Our trip is exactly 1 month from his 14 day mark!

My next thing I need to plan for is how we go about testing after he is officially OTJ. Is there a protocol for that? Like how many times a week for so long? Then how many times after that time period? So on and so fourth? On the days that we do the random preshot checks do we still withhold his food 2 hours prior to what his "shot times" originally were?
 
At this point, no, you don't need to withhold food. And you can test at whatever random times of the day or night you want to. A non-diabetic should stay in good numbers all the time (except maybe at the vet ;)),

As far as testing, it's kind of up to you. Most folks will drop to testing a couple of times a week for a few weeks, then once a week, and after a couple of months, maybe once every two weeks. I would not ever go more than once every two weeks though. Diabetes can return if she gets into higher carb food (always research a food thoroughly before changing food, for the rest of her life), or if she ends up with a dental problem, UTI, or any other kind of infection/inflammation. And if it does come back, you want to catch it early and get her back onto insulin as soon as possible. If you ever get a number in the blues or yellows, you want to post here, grab tests for a few days in a row, and make sure that she either gets back into the greens, or gets on insulin.

Of course, I hope you'll still be posting on here anyway! It's been great to see you chiming in and helping other people! That's how this board keeps going.
 
Djamila said:
At this point, no, you don't need to withhold food. And you can test at whatever random times of the day or night you want to. A non-diabetic should stay in good numbers all the time (except maybe at the vet ;)),
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Well that's something new I just learned. I figured I would still need to test as I would if I were still giving him his insulin shots. At least that's how I have still been doing it during this trial. It will be nice to not have to lift his food at 5am now. I'll probably just check in the mornings still before his breakfast and before his dinner a few times a week and maybe some random test here and there then.

The dental problems scare me a little. He doesn't have any now but I really feel like all soft food would be worse for their teeth than if they had hard food. I know it is that way for dogs, is this not the case for cats? Is there anything safe I can give to him to help keep his dental good?

And of course I will be sticking around. I feel like we can all always learn from others and I enjoy passing on everything I have learned if I can :)
 
I actually just mentioned dental issues and food on my last post in this thread: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/pmps-lower-than-nadirs.198836/

Aside from giving them chunks of meat (raw chicken wings with the bones are actually recommended as a good "toothbrush" for cats), I'm not sure what else to give, but I know folks around here mention products from time to time. It might be worth posting on the Main Forum and asking for recommendations. i'm afraid I'm blanking right now on who has shared ideas about this. Although I think @FurBabiesMama may be using a supplement of some kind?
 
Actually, dry food isn't that great for their teeth. Dr. Pierson has a pretty good explanation on her website: https://catinfo.org/. Scroll down to the Dental Disease section (pretty far down the page) to see what she says.

We definitely hope you'll stick around! I love it when people stay and help out new folks...even just an encouraging word can be such a huge thing when you're new and scared. And the more people around here, the more they feel comfortable.
 
In addition to the 1-TDC, the dental specialist recommended PetSmile brushless toothpaste. It works with enzymes so you do not actually have to brush, just get it on the teeth.
 
Can you guys remind me when you can check the BG levels to see if the pancreas are working well? Is it like 1 to 1.5 hours after they eat? You want to check when the food is still in their system correct?
 
It depends on the cat, but at 1-1.5 hours, if they were going to have a food spike, that's when you'd see it. All of your numbers show that the pancreas is working. :D
 
@Djamila thank you! I'm just so use to seeing Tootsie in those 50 numbers so when I seen that 72 tonight I start to get worried, even though I know 72 is still a really good number. Just freaks me out and gets me all nervous and worried.
 
Lol...deep breaths! Very healthy cats will vary in their BG - they might be tired, energized, hungry, curious, scared, saw a squirrel, whatever...all kinds of things will make them gently move up or down. As long as he stays between 40-120, with most of the numbers under 80, you're good. No need to worry at all.
 
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