? New to Site - Some advice and opinions please

[Brian (Jessie's Dad)]

I just found this site and wondering if you all might be able to help (wish I knew about this site sooner)

Child (so, I refer to her as my child) Name: Jessie
Age: 9.5 years old (June 14th is her B-day)
Diagnosis: July 20th, 2021
Dosage: 2 Units Prozinc, Twice a day 12 Hours apart (5:45am/5:45pm)
Symptoms at Diagnosis: Excessive drinking and weight loss
Since Diagnosis: She's been on 2 Units x 2 times a day
Diet changed to 5/8 cups of Dry Purina ProPlan DM Dietetic Management and 1 Can of Hill's Prescription Diet Glucosupport split between the two feedings.

When she was first diagnosis - I was going for monthly bloodwork for the first 3 months, Now I go for bloodwork every 3 months. At each follow up I keep being told she's well managed and to continue to do what I've been doing. (They actually wanted to change the last interval to 6 months, but I requested if we stay on the same schedule)

Jessie went in for her bloodwork prior to NYE and today I received a message (by the time I returned that call, office was closed)

The message I received was to reduce her insulin to now 1.5 units x twice a day - and for a re-check of bloodwork in 4 weeks --- Should I see this as a good sign?

After reading the post on here and seeing so many people with such great success - I was wondering do you think I can get Jessie to remission as so many of you have, or is it too late as she's been diagnosis for now a year and half and has been on insulin for so long?

I would appreciate any advice ---- also wanted to say how amazing some of you are....Thank you for helping so many of us with our furry loved ones.

When I do speak to my Vet (probably in 4 weeks; when I get her blood drawn) I'm defiantly going to tell her about this site -- this is such a great resource for us parents with furry children with diabetes - it should really been given out to newly diagnosis patients - it gives people such hope I know when Jessie was first diagnosis it was the worst feeling and so difficult.

Thanks again,
Brian

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi Brian and Jesse and welcome to the forum. I’ll answer your questions first.

The message I received was to reduce her insulin to now 1.5 units x twice a day - and for a re-check of bloodwork in 4 weeks --- Should I see this as a good sign?

That message is telling you that the dose was too high and needs reducing.
I would not leave my cat for 4 weeks without getting the blood glucose rechecked after reducing the dose as I would want to know that the new dose is not too low a dose or too high a dose.
If I were you I would seriously look at home testing the blood glucose which all of us do here. It takes away all the guess work, and only testing every couple of months is certainly taking a risk that the BG could drop too low during that time. By the time a cat is showing signs of a hypo, the BG is dangerously low.

I was wondering do you think I can get Jessie to remission as so many of you have, or is it too late as she's been diagnosis for now a year and half and has been on insulin for so long?

It’s not too late, but I don’t think you will get Jesse into remission on the food you are feeding her at the moment.Those dry foods are high carb. It’s like feeding a human diabetic an ice cream and chocolates diet.
You need to swap to a low carb wet diet, I will post a link below, but before you do that you will need to be home testing the blood glucose as the swap can drop the Bgs by 100 points. And unless you are testing , you will run the risk of a hypo.
We can help you with that.
FOOD CHART look for foods that are under 10% carbs. Around 5 to 7% carbs is best.

HELP US HELP YOU. This link has information about the spreadsheet, signature , hypo kit and intern useful information.
Please make sure you have a hypo kit set up.

HOME TESTING HINTS AND LINKS

Bron

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

The dry purina pro plan diatetic food is 18% carbs which is high carb. And they are marketing it on the bag of food as low carb! And suitable for diabetic cats!
That is outrageous and dishonest at best!

Low carb food suitable for cats is up to 10%
Medium carb is 11-16%
High carb is 17% and over.
The medium and high carb foods should only be fed if the BG is dropping too low. We use it to bring the BG up higher…imagine what it does to your cat if you are feeding it all the time.
We have some cats here who can be diagnosed diabetic but a change of food can lower the BGs to a point where they do not need insulin and go into Remission. But they have to stay on a low carb diet for the rest of their life.
Vets get their nutritional training from the big food manufacturers who promote their products.
There is nothing special at all about the prescription foods..
Have a look on the back of the bag at the ingredients. The first several ingredients are carbs and there is no mention of meat at all. Cats need meat, not carbs.
Please do make sure if you do a swap to a suitable food for a diabetic cat, that you are home testing first to keep Jesse safe.

 

[Hendrick Cuddleclaw]

Hi Brian, fellow Cat Dad here my name's Kyle. Bron is amazing and you can take that advice to the bank -- my 10-year-old boy Hendrick was diagnosed a year ago tomorrow and the people at this site helped me get him into diabetic remission following the Tight Regulation dosing method. You are in the right place, these people are like a life preserver thrown to a drowning person. Real life heroes.

I'm not one of the experts just someone who has been through it with his kitty, but I am happy to help with anything I can. Just trying to pay it forward, as I owe a debt I can never truly repay. My boy is happy and healthy!

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Welcome to FDMB!

I'm going to jump on the home testing bandwagon. I'd like to put this in a somewhat different context. I'm assuming you know someone who is diabetic. Chances are they are testing their blood glucose level several times a day, may have a continuous glucose monitor, or an insulin pump. In other words, they pretty much know if their levels are too low or too high and they adjust their insulin accordingly. It's no different with cats. The only way you know if your cat's blood glucose numbers are in a safe range is to home test. You need to know whether it's safe to give a shot or if you need to bump up your cat's numbers with food. I can't imagine a pediatrician telling parents to not test their child before giving insulin. It just doesn't happen and if it did, I would hope the pediatrician's malpractice insurance was paid up.

As Bron noted, the "prescription" diabetic food is not really prescriptive. The pet food manufacturers recently lost a class action suit for calling their foods "prescription" when, in fact there's nothing in the food that is specific to a particular illness. It is clearly false marketing to call a food diabetic when it's high in carbohydrates!

The highest chance of remission is within the first year since diagnosis. However, there have been members here whose cat has gone into remission after 2 or 3 years. I do think it will take a different approach to managing Jesse's diabetes than what you've been doing. We have a much greater hands-on approach. There's no guarantee that even with being the most diligent caregiver on the planet that your cat will go into remission but the possibility exists.

 

[Elizabeth and Bertie]

I was wondering do you think I can get Jessie to remission as so many of you have, or is it too late as she's been diagnosis for now a year and half and has been on insulin for so long?

Hi Brian, my first diabetic, Bertie, actually went into remission after nearly 11 years on insulin! That's very unusual. But, never say 'never'....
My current girl, Bonbon, was adopted as a recently diagnosed diabetic and went into remission about 8 months later. That is more 'typical'. The first months to a year seem to be the most likely 'window' for remission. But some cats do go into remission much later on. ...She came out of remission after a year though and is back on insulin now (and concurrent health issues make another remission very 'unlikely').

Bonbon was on a dry high carb diet (a so called 'prescription' diet) when I adopted her. When I switched her to a low carb wet diet her blood glucose dropped dramatically, and her insulin dose had to be reduced by half from 3 units to 1.5...
As said above, it is super important to be testing blood glucose at home before reducing the carb content of the diet. The insulin dose may well need to be reduced; too much insulin causes hypo...

The keys to the best chance of good blood glucose regulation - or remission if you are lucky - are essentially the same;
- An insulin that enables good control of blood glucose. (Prozinc is a good insulin.) And if the current insulin isn't working well enough for the cat it may be possible to try another.
- Low carb diet. That's less than 10% of calories from carbs (and many cats seem to do better on no more than around 4 - 6% calories from carbs).
- Hometesting of blood glucose.

'Hometesting' can sound a bit daunting at first (well I certainly thought so ). But please be reassured that 'most' cats can be tested, and 'most' caregivers can learn to do it. Of course, there are some exceptions. But it is well worth trying to learn to hometest because 'chances are' you will be able to do it just fine. And the benefits are considerable....

Many of us use ordinary glucose meters that human diabetics use.
If you're willing to give hometesting a go you will find lots of advice and support here about how to do that.

Eliz