12/2 Olive went to the new vet today | Feline Diabetes Message Board - FDMB
Hi gang. As promised, here are the newest results with Olive since going to Cindy's holistic vet on the 2nd. It's a lot to take in.
Yes,
trial day 4! 
The biggest news is that the vet originally had us giving Olive .06 once a day which was supposed to go for an entire week on trial, however, she dipped too low for what the vet wanted and so we ended up having to skip the insulin altogether. For 3 straight days she went without insulin and her numbers were FABULOUS. I haven't had time to enter those into her SS yet. Maybe later today or tomorrow. Keep in mind that ECID so what is working for Olive may not stand true for other cats, but for Olive, anything below 100 and she just doesn't do well. She's squinty eyed, lethargic, and doesn't want to purr or play and just isn't herself. This was one of the largest factors in why the vet thought she stopped wanting to eat because her BG was simply too low for HER and was making her feel sickly. I've kept a strict journal and have recorded everything over the last 4 days and Olive does indeed become a happy cat again, purring, scent marking, and lovingly playful when her BG is between 100 and 200. In the last 36 hours she's actually climbed out of the below 100 range with her highest being 195 this morning. She was her old self again at these numbers and I tell you, it did our hearts good to see. Normally, those numbers would make me run for a higher dose of insulin...but as we discovered, and I'll share with you, higher numbers doesn't always mean a bad thing.
Over these days we've finally gotten Olive to eat ON HER OWN and yesterday was the first day in weeks that she not only ate on her own, but her total caloric intake for the day as well!
The vet was so in-depth with Olive and going over her labs with a fine-toothed comb that she discovered a few startling things. Keep in mind I won't get to talk to her again until tomorrow to see what her findings will be on how Olive has done in the last 4 days, but as of the vet visit she said she wasn't CONVINCED (her exact words) that Olive was even a diabetic. I know for you all reading this you are going "huh?" She said she'd been observing Olive for an hour on her table and that, paired with all my log entries and the lab work, makes her think that Olive might have been misdiagnosed. She said that many things effect the BG and look similar to diabetes. She said it could have been a PLETHORA of things from a sex hormone, to a pancreatitis attack that she no longer has, to a benign tumor on her pituitary gland. There's a lot of tests you can run until you figure it out, if you have the money, which we don't. Simply said, she said Olive just isn't fitting the picture of most diabetic cats. So until she has enough information to go with, she wanted to keep Olive on .06 once a day and not twice, (just in case she truly is diabetic) but that if her BG didn't rise over 150 she didn't even want us to give her insulin at all.
Reason the BG is set at 150 is another piece of this equation. I wanted an unbiased feedback...like those double blind studies, so since 9/28 I didn't record in Olive's SS that I was starting her on a native remedy called Glucose Ensure. I knew they said it could take 4-6 weeks to even begin to see some results, but we kept her on it faithfully...a half pill twice a day. Little by little her BG was going down. The vet had never heard of Glucose Ensure but since it's holistic she was most interested, especially since her BG numbers were going down in correlation with the time frame those were to begin to kick in. When she looked at her hard copy journal she took notice that whenever Olive's BG was rising, we'd give that pill, (it's a 12 hours pill twice a day) and about 2-3 hours later it would drop her BG MOST of the time. So during this trial phase she said to keep giving her those pills. During this trial she reached her highest, which was 195 this morning. I gave her the pill since it was time for it anyways, and 2 hours later she'd dropped to 163 and 2 hours after that to 78! This has been the pattern. All without insulin. So right now it's anybody's best guess if Olive is truly a diabetic or not. They told me they consider a diabetic "controlled" between 100-300 which I was blown away by. And now that I know ECID and some do better at higher numbers, that has really given us some great info because we have indeed noticed how much better she is overall at higher numbers and these numbers are perfectly SAFE to stay in. I'm letting you all know this just so you can be aware that ECID in how they respond to insulin and their personal BG comfort levels. I almost gave her the insulin when she nearly reached the 200 mark, knowing the vet said to give her insulin TWICE a day if her BG rose between 150 and 200. But since Olive wasn't even on insulin once a day, I held off this morning, knowing I was going to be giving her the Glucose Ensure 2 hours later. Her numbers dropped to 163 2 hours later and that, topped by the Glucose Ensure, it dropped it right down to 78 and again, I was thankful I hadn't jumped the gun with an insulin injection.
And here's another thing...she did admit that Olive is a bit of a mystery as NONE of her labs correlate conclusively to anything that would be standard. After realizing they might have misdiagnosed her diabetes, she didn't take the former vets words for it now and did her own examination into her labs everywhere else and once again said she wasn't CONVINCED Olive was now a kidney cat either. Yes, her levels are elevated, but the other vet had said she was in advanced KD which she said she clearly was NOT. So she has her remaining on the KSG for this elevation and the fact the herbs in it are so good in general that even if she was totally fine the KSG would only benefit her.
She's taken her the Pepcid twice a day and down to one with hopes of being able to totally get her off, (she said it's not good long term despite what vets say) and has added a holistic whole body herb to her daily routine, which I haven't started yet. I was waiting for her to be totally back to normal eating before I began since it has to be taken on a full stomach.
So there you have it. Our hopes is that Olive will be able to continue OTJ. She said you really have to LISTEN to YOUR cat and wait for them to tell you what they need and not a scientific paper or what vet's went to school to tell you is what should be. Since we started listening to Olive, she truly is telling us a lot. I'll keep you updated, but I'm not going to use the treads until the updates so as to keep them free for the cats who truly need them right now.
GlucoEnsure™ - Supports Glucose Levels Already in Normal Range (nativeremedies.com)
Whether or not she's truly diabetic, I know first hand how it drops the BG, so it might be worth a try for you too. Just gotta give 1/2 a sprinkle capsule twice daily and do NOT stop it. Keep going for a minimum of 6 weeks and at that point you should start noticing a drop too. We sure did! If your cat doesn't like the taste, which Olive doesn't, then instead of sprinkling into their wet food, it only takes 4 small drops of water to turn it into a paste that rolls up into a small pea-sized ball easily and you just drop it into their mouth like a regular pill.
Hi gang. As promised, here are the newest results with Olive since going to Cindy's holistic vet on the 2nd. It's a lot to take in.
Yes,
trial day 4! The biggest news is that the vet originally had us giving Olive .06 once a day which was supposed to go for an entire week on trial, however, she dipped too low for what the vet wanted and so we ended up having to skip the insulin altogether. For 3 straight days she went without insulin and her numbers were FABULOUS. I haven't had time to enter those into her SS yet. Maybe later today or tomorrow. Keep in mind that ECID so what is working for Olive may not stand true for other cats, but for Olive, anything below 100 and she just doesn't do well. She's squinty eyed, lethargic, and doesn't want to purr or play and just isn't herself. This was one of the largest factors in why the vet thought she stopped wanting to eat because her BG was simply too low for HER and was making her feel sickly. I've kept a strict journal and have recorded everything over the last 4 days and Olive does indeed become a happy cat again, purring, scent marking, and lovingly playful when her BG is between 100 and 200. In the last 36 hours she's actually climbed out of the below 100 range with her highest being 195 this morning. She was her old self again at these numbers and I tell you, it did our hearts good to see. Normally, those numbers would make me run for a higher dose of insulin...but as we discovered, and I'll share with you, higher numbers doesn't always mean a bad thing.Over these days we've finally gotten Olive to eat ON HER OWN and yesterday was the first day in weeks that she not only ate on her own, but her total caloric intake for the day as well!
The vet was so in-depth with Olive and going over her labs with a fine-toothed comb that she discovered a few startling things. Keep in mind I won't get to talk to her again until tomorrow to see what her findings will be on how Olive has done in the last 4 days, but as of the vet visit she said she wasn't CONVINCED (her exact words) that Olive was even a diabetic. I know for you all reading this you are going "huh?" She said she'd been observing Olive for an hour on her table and that, paired with all my log entries and the lab work, makes her think that Olive might have been misdiagnosed. She said that many things effect the BG and look similar to diabetes. She said it could have been a PLETHORA of things from a sex hormone, to a pancreatitis attack that she no longer has, to a benign tumor on her pituitary gland. There's a lot of tests you can run until you figure it out, if you have the money, which we don't. Simply said, she said Olive just isn't fitting the picture of most diabetic cats. So until she has enough information to go with, she wanted to keep Olive on .06 once a day and not twice, (just in case she truly is diabetic) but that if her BG didn't rise over 150 she didn't even want us to give her insulin at all.
Reason the BG is set at 150 is another piece of this equation. I wanted an unbiased feedback...like those double blind studies, so since 9/28 I didn't record in Olive's SS that I was starting her on a native remedy called Glucose Ensure. I knew they said it could take 4-6 weeks to even begin to see some results, but we kept her on it faithfully...a half pill twice a day. Little by little her BG was going down. The vet had never heard of Glucose Ensure but since it's holistic she was most interested, especially since her BG numbers were going down in correlation with the time frame those were to begin to kick in. When she looked at her hard copy journal she took notice that whenever Olive's BG was rising, we'd give that pill, (it's a 12 hours pill twice a day) and about 2-3 hours later it would drop her BG MOST of the time. So during this trial phase she said to keep giving her those pills. During this trial she reached her highest, which was 195 this morning. I gave her the pill since it was time for it anyways, and 2 hours later she'd dropped to 163 and 2 hours after that to 78! This has been the pattern. All without insulin. So right now it's anybody's best guess if Olive is truly a diabetic or not. They told me they consider a diabetic "controlled" between 100-300 which I was blown away by. And now that I know ECID and some do better at higher numbers, that has really given us some great info because we have indeed noticed how much better she is overall at higher numbers and these numbers are perfectly SAFE to stay in. I'm letting you all know this just so you can be aware that ECID in how they respond to insulin and their personal BG comfort levels. I almost gave her the insulin when she nearly reached the 200 mark, knowing the vet said to give her insulin TWICE a day if her BG rose between 150 and 200. But since Olive wasn't even on insulin once a day, I held off this morning, knowing I was going to be giving her the Glucose Ensure 2 hours later. Her numbers dropped to 163 2 hours later and that, topped by the Glucose Ensure, it dropped it right down to 78 and again, I was thankful I hadn't jumped the gun with an insulin injection.
And here's another thing...she did admit that Olive is a bit of a mystery as NONE of her labs correlate conclusively to anything that would be standard. After realizing they might have misdiagnosed her diabetes, she didn't take the former vets words for it now and did her own examination into her labs everywhere else and once again said she wasn't CONVINCED Olive was now a kidney cat either. Yes, her levels are elevated, but the other vet had said she was in advanced KD which she said she clearly was NOT. So she has her remaining on the KSG for this elevation and the fact the herbs in it are so good in general that even if she was totally fine the KSG would only benefit her.
She's taken her the Pepcid twice a day and down to one with hopes of being able to totally get her off, (she said it's not good long term despite what vets say) and has added a holistic whole body herb to her daily routine, which I haven't started yet. I was waiting for her to be totally back to normal eating before I began since it has to be taken on a full stomach.
So there you have it. Our hopes is that Olive will be able to continue OTJ. She said you really have to LISTEN to YOUR cat and wait for them to tell you what they need and not a scientific paper or what vet's went to school to tell you is what should be. Since we started listening to Olive, she truly is telling us a lot. I'll keep you updated, but I'm not going to use the treads until the updates so as to keep them free for the cats who truly need them right now.
GlucoEnsure™ - Supports Glucose Levels Already in Normal Range (nativeremedies.com)
Whether or not she's truly diabetic, I know first hand how it drops the BG, so it might be worth a try for you too. Just gotta give 1/2 a sprinkle capsule twice daily and do NOT stop it. Keep going for a minimum of 6 weeks and at that point you should start noticing a drop too. We sure did! If your cat doesn't like the taste, which Olive doesn't, then instead of sprinkling into their wet food, it only takes 4 small drops of water to turn it into a paste that rolls up into a small pea-sized ball easily and you just drop it into their mouth like a regular pill.
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