Apparently my cat is no longer diabetic...

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Braden & Zoe

Braden & Zoe

Member Since 2018
So my 8 year old zoe was diagnosed just over a week ago with diabetes. I dont have the numbers but they were pretty high. last tuesday she stayed over night until wednesday as they got her adjusted on insulin. we had her on canislin. I had to give her .5ml twice a day. Over the course of the year i've been feeding Zoe Hill science perfect weight dry food for breakfast and friskies chicken pate wet food at night because she was having constipation issues earlier this year. After discovering you lovely people and learning a lot I tried to wing her onto just fancy feast pate. At the time the vet recommended that she still eats the dry food for constipation and that the low carb food was a good idea too.

So day 1 of her getting insulin Zoe decided that the dry food was no longer tasty and has not taken a single bite. So i decided i would feed her half a tuna sized can of fancy feast for breakfast and the other half for dinner. the first few days she would barley eat half of her meals. It had me concerned because i know canisilin is a pretty heavy insulin and that she should have a decent sized meal in her. I would sit on the floor with her. when ever she decided stop eating i would give her a minute and turn the plate and put it back in front of her and she would start eating it again. but for the most part she didn't have much of an appetite. so the first 3 or 4 days she just seemed very lethargic and just wanted to be by my side and sleep. getting a little concerned as i've been unable to check her glucose because the glucose machine i have is kinda old school and i was having troubles getting a decent sized blood drop, I decided to maybe put her back on the friskies wet food. shes been eating that a bit better then the fancy feast but i decided as we go down the road i would try only fancy feast again.

So the past week not much of an appetite and not much energy. Yesterday morning i put down half a can of friskies wet food pate and to my surprise she gobbled it down pretty good! then she went to the litter box. jumped in tried to poop and nothing. she started yowling at the top of her lungs, tried to go out of the box, nothing and jumped back in, in witch i gave her a reach around and massaged her belly to try and help pass. sure enough she pooped the most uncomfortable looking turd ive ever seen. it looked like 2 poops stacked ontop of one another. after she jumped out of the box and pucked the most puke ive ever seen her puke. after a couple minutes she seemed fine and happy. I decided it might be too risky to give her an insulin shot now. so i put down a little extra wet food and sprinkled a stool softener called miralax. So after talking to the vet about the whole morning ordel they told me i did the right thing and to give her the same level of insulin later that night and to continue with the lax on her wetfood for both breakfast and dinner.

Today was Zoes 1 week and to take her to the vet for them to check her curve. I dropped her off at 7:30am this morning. 10am my phone rings and its the vet. in a panic i picked it up. The vet informs me " Hello Braden. dont worry everythings ok with zoe, but i thought id phone and let you know that Zoe is no longer diabetic" she said her numbers so far were sitting at 3.3. thats not a good number but going forward no more insulin. also going forward we can most likely control her with diet being the low carb food. she said dont throw away the insulin and such as it could come back down the road but for the most part she is " no longer diabetic"

Is this too good to be true? I had her on the low carb for only a few days before i went back to friskies pate, and i also gave her some of the stuff with gravy a couple meals because i was worried about her appetite. Do cat usually bounce back after a week? am i one of the lucky ones? The vet also suggested going forward no more of the dry food and to keep sprinkling the miralax and her low carb breakfast and dinner, also suggested a 3rd meal because low carb. what are your guys thoughts, suggestions, other tips for keeping her in this apparent non diabetic state? the thing that confused me is how quickly this assumption is? they're testing her every hour on the hour today and maybe after only a few tests shes cured? for the record ive dealt with this vet for a lot of years. shes treated many diabetic cats in her years and i dont think shes one of those vets that doesnt know much about diabetes. I keep pinching myself to see if i'm dreaming. ive lost alot of sleep, stress and money in the past week!

thoughts?
 
Yes, many cats go into remission with a diet change to low-carb and some time on insulin. My Dulce whom I adopted as an untreated diabetic only needed about a month of insulin.
 
Keep home testing. Two weeks without needing insulin is considered remission. They can come out of remission so don’t assume without testing every so often. Crossing fingers he’s dirt controlled for you.
 
Pants went into remission almost immediately after starting Lantus in the summer of 2017. I don't know whether it was insulin or diet that did it. If this turns out to be remission, great. But I learned the hard way that you need to (1) continue testing; and (2) continue to factor the diabetes in to your kitty's medical treatment going forward. Infection and a number of medications can raise blood sugar and vets sometimes need reminding that a diabetic cat in remission is still a diabetic cat.
 
membeth said:
Pants went into remission almost immediately after starting Lantus in the summer of 2017. I don't know whether it was insulin or diet that did it. If this turns out to be remission, great. But I learned the hard way that you need to (1) continue testing; and (2) continue to factor the diabetes in to your kitty's medical treatment going forward. Infection and a number of medications can raise blood sugar and vets sometimes need reminding that a diabetic cat in remission is still a diabetic cat.
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thank you. so far she seems to be good. shes not drinking tons of water nor is she going to the litter box as much. she seems to have her appetite back. Going forward im just feeding her friskies chicken Pate for breakfast and dinner. She wasn't digging the fancy feast. ive gotten rid of her dry food. im hoping this effort will keep her in remission. Im still having troubles doing home testing with her. I don't know if the glucose machine i was given is just too arcadic or that i'm just having a heck of a time getting her to hold still long enough to poke her ear. my cat has very sensitive ears. if you gently touch them they twitch. ive been unsuccessful in getting enough blood that the glucose machine requires. after punching a couple holes in her ears with no luck she squirms out of my arms and suddenly im the worlds biggest villain until her next meal.
 
If she continues to have trouble pooping sprinkle a little MiraLax in her food. Dusty has to get some every meal otherwise he does the same thing, double stacked poops, howls, throws up and repeat... He's been on MiraLax for 5 years already and in remission that long too. Remember to stay away from dry or high carb wet food because you'll easily throw her off the wagon.
 
Yes he could be in remission but once a diabetic always a diabetic there's not such a thing like he's no longer diabetic, he will always be a diabetic just not an insulin dependent diabetic, so keep him on low carb food preferably wet and test him once in a while at least once a month or if he gets sick because a number of things could trigger high blood sugar numbers again and is better to catch it early

Actually giving him only wet food could help him with the constipation and you can add a bit of psyllium to his food or give him SEB to help with it if the problem is not too bad
 
Dusty Bones said:
If she continues to have trouble pooping sprinkle a little MiraLax in her food. Dusty has to get some every meal otherwise he does the same thing, double stacked poops, howls, throws up and repeat... He's been on MiraLax for 5 years already and in remission that long too. Remember to stay away from dry or high carb wet food because you'll easily throw her off the wagon.
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Thanks. I've been a little worried as i dont think shes pooped much since we had a constipation issue on tuesday. I've been applying miralax on her food since wednesday and i haven't seen that much poop in her box. she didn't eat much on thursday as she wasn't liking the fancy feast, so now that i got her back on friskies and been applying the miralax im hoping to come home to some health poops after work today. Its been a weird transition this week from her using the litter box several times a day to maybe once to twice? i live in a relatively small apartment. the cat box is within hearing range. she was always good about going in the morning about the time i wake up or right after breakfast. but i haven't heard that old familiar scratching noise in her box lately. i didn't have time to check her box this morning but im hoping she might have went some time in the middle of the night.

Ive already taken away the dry food and ive been told that friskies chicken pate is pretty low carb, and thats what she knows so im just going to feed her that for now on. truly amazing how bad dry food is yet the vets dont seem to mind it?
 
Earprick.jpg
Relion Prime meter is only $10 at the Walmart & the strips for testing $18 for 100 A lot of people use this meter

You need to hold the ear firmly & poke it by hand on the very edge.using a Lancet (the pen for testing isn't as accurate when trying to get the edge)

Use a folded piece of tissue behind the ears so you don't poke yourself & gently squeeze the ear AFTER you get the blood to stop it from bleeding.

The Kitties do get used to the test. My cat jumps up on the couch & waits when I call him ! (I always test in the same place,on the couch)

You should continue to test your cats Bg at least once or twice a week to make sure his Glucose isn't going up.

Your vet made a mistake. If a cat has diabetes he can go into remission (not need insulin) but he will "always still be diabetic". An infection or illness can bring it back.

It would be very helpful if you would take the time to read some of the information on the forums about diabetes & feeding low carb food. The more you know the better

Stay away from dry food. I've seen kitties go into remission when ALL dry food was stopped. It sounds like that's what happened to your cat.

I hope this information helps. Good Luck to you :) If you have any more questions you can ask any time.(there also lots of videos on YouTube showing how to correctly test Kitty's blood.)
 
My cat generally only poops once a day when healthy, so I wouldn't worry unless there are other symptoms. Pants had been peeing/pooping so much for so long that I was convinced something was wrong when she went into remission and started using the box less, but it was just that I had become so accustomed to her flooding the box and pooping a lot that her going back to normal seemed weird to me.

On the testing front, despite all the help from other folks on here, it took me several tries to learn how to do it. It gets easier with practice. Testing regularly will also make your kitty's ears bleed more readily -- apparently they grow more capillaries in response to the poking.

As to diet, one other thing to consider is that most commercial cat treats are very high carb, so if you give treats, something like tuna or freeze dried chicken or sandwich meat are good options.
 
A little pumpkin or squash added to the food can help with constipation. Also you can add a couple tbs of warm water to the wet food. My cat also went into remission with diet change.
 
Once a cat is a diabetic they are always a diabetic even though they don't need insulin any more. They are considered a diet controlled diabetic and kitty will always have to stay on a low carb diet to remain in remission.
Great news for you!
 
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