Zsofi & Zokni
Member Since 2020
Update: I've been monitoring his BG all day and it keeps dropping. He hasn't had a peak at all. Now it's 80 at +11... I don't know if I should shoot in one hour
Hi everyone,
I've been following this forum more or less since February of this year.
A bit about us:
Zokni is 8 years old, he is naturally a pretty large cat. He used to be overweight, some years ago probably around 22 pounds. He first lost weight when he had teeth problems, but this got resolved, around 4 years ago when they treated him (he now has 3 teeth left but he's doing great with that). I got separated 1,5 years ago and he stayed at my ex. I don't want to bore you with ALL the details, but I can't really say when he's state deteriorated, he eventually lost a lot of weight and developed neuropathy in his back legs, so the vet diagnosed him in January and was switched to Royal Canin diabetic dry food.
I transfered him into my care and started him on Lantus, 1.5 units in February. After the first check up, the vet increased it to 3U. I read about wet food and asked the vet but she insisted on the RC dry food. Nevertheless it was good, he started gaining weight at that point. Now he's at his best, if not a bit already on the chubby side, I have not been able to control his portions, due to my own weakness when he was begging.
Anyway, I recently decided to home test and look into the wet food topic. It was a bit tedious, as none of the brands in the tables I found were available in Spain, but did my own conversions, I figured even based on the manufacturer's figures, it would be better than nothing. Long story short, I got the new food yesterday and to check if Zokni would like it, I offered him a can of wet food at dinner. He devoured it. I also gave him dry food, because I was afraid of the sudden change, considering his pretty high dosage of insulin.
I also got the Aviva BG meter yesterday, so I tried doing a curve today but my first attempt at the AMPS 7am did not succeed (I had no idea how much blood would be needed, ruined like 5 strips between trying my blood and his and was finally interrupted by my 4 year old). However all the following tries were surprisingly easy. He doesn't love it, but will submit to it and I have already 2 measurements
It's so much easier than I thought...
Btw, for the neuropathy, I started giving him (human but without xylitol) methylcobalamine almost immediately as I'm vegetarian and always have some at home. His state at the time was: incredibly weak legs - almost no muscle but he managed a jump onto the bed about 1/2 the time with the help of his claws. I ordered the cat B12 (zobaline I think?) but due to Covid19, I think it's still in transit. During the first weeks/months, he was improving slightly but wasn't amazing either. One day this week I noticed he's running around like crazy, jumping up with ease about 3 times as high as the bed... So thank you all a lot for this advice, it was literally life changing for Zokni. (My vet tried to convince me to stop it but...you know)
Regarding the advice I need:
He loves the wet food but should I switch him cold turkey and if yes, how should I lower the insulin before even his first 100% wet meal? You'll see that his BG levels are not extremely high, I'm really afraid he will drop too much... We're on quarantine here and it's easter, no way I would find a vet to help...
Or should I rather give him a combination of wet and dry to begin with? Just to ease the transition on his body?
I'd love to hear your thoughts or how you did it!
Rgds
Zsofi
PS: I've attached some pictured of his evolution since January to right now
Hi everyone,
I've been following this forum more or less since February of this year.
A bit about us:
Zokni is 8 years old, he is naturally a pretty large cat. He used to be overweight, some years ago probably around 22 pounds. He first lost weight when he had teeth problems, but this got resolved, around 4 years ago when they treated him (he now has 3 teeth left but he's doing great with that). I got separated 1,5 years ago and he stayed at my ex. I don't want to bore you with ALL the details, but I can't really say when he's state deteriorated, he eventually lost a lot of weight and developed neuropathy in his back legs, so the vet diagnosed him in January and was switched to Royal Canin diabetic dry food.
I transfered him into my care and started him on Lantus, 1.5 units in February. After the first check up, the vet increased it to 3U. I read about wet food and asked the vet but she insisted on the RC dry food. Nevertheless it was good, he started gaining weight at that point. Now he's at his best, if not a bit already on the chubby side, I have not been able to control his portions, due to my own weakness when he was begging.
Anyway, I recently decided to home test and look into the wet food topic. It was a bit tedious, as none of the brands in the tables I found were available in Spain, but did my own conversions, I figured even based on the manufacturer's figures, it would be better than nothing. Long story short, I got the new food yesterday and to check if Zokni would like it, I offered him a can of wet food at dinner. He devoured it. I also gave him dry food, because I was afraid of the sudden change, considering his pretty high dosage of insulin.
I also got the Aviva BG meter yesterday, so I tried doing a curve today but my first attempt at the AMPS 7am did not succeed (I had no idea how much blood would be needed, ruined like 5 strips between trying my blood and his and was finally interrupted by my 4 year old). However all the following tries were surprisingly easy. He doesn't love it, but will submit to it and I have already 2 measurements
It's so much easier than I thought...Btw, for the neuropathy, I started giving him (human but without xylitol) methylcobalamine almost immediately as I'm vegetarian and always have some at home. His state at the time was: incredibly weak legs - almost no muscle but he managed a jump onto the bed about 1/2 the time with the help of his claws. I ordered the cat B12 (zobaline I think?) but due to Covid19, I think it's still in transit. During the first weeks/months, he was improving slightly but wasn't amazing either. One day this week I noticed he's running around like crazy, jumping up with ease about 3 times as high as the bed... So thank you all a lot for this advice, it was literally life changing for Zokni. (My vet tried to convince me to stop it but...you know
)Regarding the advice I need:
He loves the wet food but should I switch him cold turkey and if yes, how should I lower the insulin before even his first 100% wet meal? You'll see that his BG levels are not extremely high, I'm really afraid he will drop too much... We're on quarantine here and it's easter, no way I would find a vet to help...
Or should I rather give him a combination of wet and dry to begin with? Just to ease the transition on his body?
I'd love to hear your thoughts or how you did it!
Rgds
Zsofi
PS: I've attached some pictured of his evolution since January to right now
Attachments
Last edited:
