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R.P.

Member Since 2022
Hello everyone,

I'm new here although I've been reading through some of the threads for a few weeks now. My baby, Harlow, was diagnosed with diabetes on 7-21-22. He is 11 years old and I've had him since he was only a few months old. He's traveled across the country with me, was with me through a divorce, and we've experienced multiple traumas together. We have a very strong bond. He is not very friendly to other people which is why vets are usually impatient with him.

The first vet I took him to did not take the time to explain anything to me and suggested that I euthanize him and that would be the most humane treatment. I was very emotional and upset so I called another vet and they wanted me to come in right away. The vet I take him to now is a feline only vet, and she has been very knowledgable, helpful and communicative.

Harlow is starting to act more like himself. He started with 1 unit of Lantus, then 2 units, and now he is on 3 units 2x daily. The vet called me last week and informed me that his neuropathy may not improve although she has not lost hope yet. After looking around online, I found out about Zobaline and started him on it today. The vet has suggested 50mg of gabapentin to help with any pain he may have, but I have not been giving that to him as much. How do you all feel about gabpentin and is it safe to take with the Zobaline?

I want to get him into remission and I'm looking for any advice you all can offer. I have not started a spreadsheet because I'm not sure how it works. Right now I've only been checking Harlow's BG when we do a glucose curve, but I do those at home with the Alphatrak.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you!
 
Minnie had very severe neuropathy and she was on both a generic version of zobaline and gabapentin too. It’s totally fine to give him both. I will say that she didn’t start to improve until her diabetes was regulated. The best way to do that and the best shot at remission is if you monitor his bg by home testing. If you’ve been browsing the forum for a few weeks, you must have seen that we strongly recommend it. I can honestly say that it made all the difference in the world for Minnie and it saved her life. Lantus is a great insulin but we also don’t recommend increasing by 1 full unit as you may bypass the ideal dose all together. We adjust the dosing here by 1/2 units and towards the end Minnie was actually at 5.5 units. 6 would drop her too low and 5 was not enough. Would you be willing to start home testing Harlow daily?

btw, Minnie’s vet said best case scenario for the neuropathy was she’d recover 30% but Minnie’s neuropathy was 95% gone. She only had a slight residual arthritis on her front legs that was only noticeable when she was going up the stairs.
 
We have members here that can help you set up the spreadsheet. Honestly, if you’re already doing curves at home, daily testing shouldn’t be a big deal. We recommend testing before the insulin shot in the am and pm so you know if it’s safe to give insulin and then at least twice more during the day to try to catch how low the dose is taking him. You don’t need a pet meter. Most of us here use human meters because the test strips are much cheaper and when you’re testing 4 times a day the costs add up, but Alphatrak is fine too.
 
Ale & Minnie (GA) said:
Minnie had very severe neuropathy and she was on both a generic version of zobaline and gabapentin too. It’s totally fine to give him both. I will say that she didn’t start to improve until her diabetes was regulated. The best way to do that and the best shot at remission is if you monitor his bg by home testing. If you’ve been browsing the forum for a few weeks, you must have seen that we strongly recommend it. I can honestly say that it made all the difference in the world for Minnie and it saved her life. Lantus is a great insulin but we also don’t recommend increasing by 1 full unit as you may bypass the ideal dose all together. We adjust the dosing here by 1/2 units and towards the end Minnie was actually at 5.5 units. 6 would drop her too low and 5 was not enough. Would you be willing to start home testing Harlow daily?

btw, Minnie’s vet said best case scenario for the neuropathy was she’d recover 30% but Minnie’s neuropathy was 95% gone. She only had a slight residual arthritis on her front legs that was only noticeable when she was going up the stairs.
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Yes, I'm willing to start daily testing at home if it will help. I am a bit worried about changing dosages without consulting with his vet first. I understand there are experienced supporters on here, but the whole thing makes me really nervous. Maybe the longer I am on here, the more comfortable I will get. I do need support, that's for sure!
 
That’s totally fine and it’s normal. It took me a while to realize that as much as my vet knew, she still didn’t know enough as the folks here about feline diabetes. It will all start to sink in and make sense, but I have to honestly say that I wish I had to come to that realization sooner so Minnie could have recovered faster and not declined so much for so long. Anyway, I would suggest you talk to your vet about increasing by 1/2 units and not full units and daily testing. You don’t have the full picture of what the current dose is doing to him on a daily basis if you’re only doing a curve every week or 2. Just think about human diabetics. Do you think they’d ever inject themselves with insulin before testing their blood? They do it daily and cats need the same regimen. Minnie is an example of a cat that couldn’t be on 5 or 6 units. She had to be at 5.5. To be honest, if I had followed my vet’s dosing methods, she’d probably never have gotten regulated and perhaps the neuropathy would really only have improved by 30% as expected. Unfortunately if your cat has neuropathy, there’s too much sugar in his blood and it’s been there for a while so it’s now affecting the nerves. And the reality is that the nerves can only regenerate once they stop being bombarded by all the excess sugar.
 
Hello and i am so happy you are here! The members on this site saved my Landos life and i have a feeling you will find help for Harlow here as well. Everyone is fantastic, generous with their time and soooo knowledgeable. Lando was there for me during a divorce as well, so i get what you are saying. Keep asking questions! Read a lot and take care of yourself!
 
Welcome. When I joined I wondered why anyone would take advice from total strangers. I didn’t at first. Get your spreadsheet and signature set up. It’s a useful tool even if you don’t take dosing advice from us. My vet showed Max’s spreadsheet to all his vet students who spent a week with him. I’d suggest reading the dosing stickies too. Do you need help with the spreadsheet?
 
Hi and welcome to the group! Harlow sounds like a wonderful cat, let's see some pics! (upload function is broken, either drag-n-drop or copy/paste images into a post). My boy Hendrick had neuropathy as well, back in January. After about a month on Lantus he got a lot better.

I highly recommend picking a dosing method and following it, the dosing method of Tight Regulation was shown in one study to result in remission for 84% of the cats in the study.

When I learned that statistic, I knew that as much as I was scared and nervous about home testing and doing .25 U dose increments I had to put my fears aside and try it for my boy Hendrick's sake. I wanted the best possible chance of remission for him so I sucked it up and started following Tight Regulation.

6 months later Hendrick became a diet-controlled diabetic feline who no longer needs insulin injections!

Tight Regulation was developed and honed over time and was eventually accepted and published in scientific journals. My discussion with my vet went like this "so we are doing Tight Regulation now, thought you should know. Here, check out Hendrick's spreadsheet" She was extremely impressed and said that she has never ever had a cat owner go to the lengths we did except maybe 1 or 2 people with show cats. So many people just give up if their kitty gets diabetes.

Read more here about TR:

http://www.tillydiabetes.net/en_6_protocol2.htm
 
Welcome I felt the same way you did , if it wasn't for the members here Tyler wouldn't be in remission today . He's been in remission since 1-24 -21
We adjust doses by 0.25 units at a time. If you would like to set up your signature here are the instructions
To set up your signature which you will see is at the end of everyone's post in gray, click on your name up top and then tap on the word signature and add this information
  • Add info we need to help you:
    • Caregiver & kitty's name
    • DX: Date
    • Name of Insulin (do not include dose or frequency)
    • Name of your meter
    • Diet: "LC wet" or "dry food" or "combo"
    • Dosing: TR or SLGS or Custom (if applicable)
    • DKA or other recent health issue (if applicable)
    • Acro, IAA, or Cushings (if applicable)
    • Spreadsheet link. Please put the signature link on the bottom line of your signature information, on its own, so it is easy to find.
    • Please do not put any information about your location in the signature for security reasons. If you wish to add your country location, please add it to your profile.
Be sure to click the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom. If you need help urgently it is important we know these things at a glance. We don’t want to waste valuable time finding out information.

Take a look at mine
The spreadsheet is easier than it looks
Just some info about it look at mine at the end of my signature it says Tyler's spreadsheet to get a look at it, you can look at anyone's spreadsheet

About the spreadsheet
AMPS - means AM Pre Shot the first test you take in the AM ,you need to withhold food 2 hours before testing so it's not food influenced

Units is where you would put how much insulin you gave
+1 is one hour after giving insulin if you were to test then that's where you enter his _BG number
+2 two hours after giving insulin. ditto
+3 and so on until you get to PMPS - PM pre shot withhold food 2 hours before testing

+1 same as you do for AM cycle

We don't give times because we are all in different time zones that's why we use the + numbers
 
Welcome to FDMB!

Good job on finding a new vet! I've used cat only vets for a lot of years and appreciate their expertise. (And I really wonder when the last time a vet who recommends euthanasia for a newly diagnosed diabetic cat took a continuing education course was. Somehow, we don't tell human diabetics they have a fatal condition!)

First, and apologies to @Ale & Minnie (GA), we recommend that you change doses -- either raise or lower -- by 0.25u (not 0.5u).

I'm providing a link to a post on helping us to help you. It summarized a good deal of information and provides links on how to set up your signature and a spreadsheet. Perhaps more importantly, there's also a link on how to use the spreadsheet.

If you're wanting to do even more reading, you may want to take a look at the sticky notes that are at the top of the Lantus board. You may want to look at the information on dosing.

One question -- what are you feeding Harlow? Hopefully, your new vet has suggested a low carbohydrate canned food diet. If not, we have a lot of information on diet we can recommend.
 
Thank you all! I appreciate all your support! This is a lot of new information to take in. I will need help getting the spreadsheet set up, but I still have a lot to read on this site also.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Welcome to FDMB!

Good job on finding a new vet! I've used cat only vets for a lot of years and appreciate their expertise. (And I really wonder when the last time a vet who recommends euthanasia for a newly diagnosed diabetic cat took a continuing education course was. Somehow, we don't tell human diabetics they have a fatal condition!)

First, and apologies to @Ale & Minnie (GA), we recommend that you change doses -- either raise or lower -- by 0.25u (not 0.5u).

I'm providing a link to a post on helping us to help you. It summarized a good deal of information and provides links on how to set up your signature and a spreadsheet. Perhaps more importantly, there's also a link on how to use the spreadsheet.

If you're wanting to do even more reading, you may want to take a look at the sticky notes that are at the top of the Lantus board. You may want to look at the information on dosing.

One question -- what are you feeding Harlow? Hopefully, your new vet has suggested a low carbohydrate canned food diet. If not, we have a lot of information on diet we can recommend.
Click to expand...


I am feeding Harlow Purina DM canned food. The vet recommended which I was not happy to hear at first, but she answers all the questions I had and provided me with detailed information regarding research on the food. So, I've been okay with it. He seems to really like it and can't get enough. :)
 
R. Pretzer said:
Thank you all! I appreciate all your support! This is a lot of new information to take in. I will need help getting the spreadsheet set up, but I still have a lot to read on this site also.
Click to expand...
@R. Pretzer
I can tag Bhooma @Bandit's Mom to set it up for you but first you need to fill out your signature , I gave you the instructions on how to do it in my list #9 The post numbers are next to each post on the right hand side . It also explained how the spreadsheet works, it's easier than it seems . :cat:
@Bandit's Mom
 
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Diane Tyler's Mom said:
@R. Pretzer
I can tag Bhooma @Bandit's Mom to set it up for you but first you need to fill out your signature , I gave you the instructions on how to do it in my list #9 The post numbers are next to each post on the right hand side . It also explained how the spreadsheet works, it's easier than it seems . :cat:
@Bandit's Mom
Click to expand...

Thank you. I actually think I'm going to wait and just spend some more time reading through the threads on here and becoming more familiar with everything. When I'm ready to start with the spreadsheet I will let you know.

Thanks so much!
 
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