Website saved my 13 yr old Maine Coon Mac!

Our beautiful 13-year-old Maine Coon male named Mac was diagnosed with feline diabetes on July 9th of this year. The diagnosis was confirmed with a fructosamine blood test. Mac had been exhibiting what looked like neurological issues for several weeks, but he has arthritis so we thought he was just “aging.” He started walking on his ankles, which was odd. He was eating well, drinking normal and urinating normally so we didn’t think it was serious. He began to decline and was having more trouble walking and when he walked, he walked in an S shape and he sat down to rest frequently. We took him to the vet who suspected diabetes and they ran a battery of tests and did x-rays to the tune of $500. His test results came back the following week. He was prescribed insulin, 3 units once per day following a “good meal.” I had this nagging feeling about the insulin treatment and I wanted to better understand this disease in felines and did not want to give him insulin without testing his blood at home in a non-stressed environment before administering anything they could potentially put him into hypoglycemic shock. I stumbled on your website that night and read for hours. I immediately got up and removed the dry food bowl. We were already feeding only grain-free wet food morning and night, but Mac really liked his dry food in between his wet food breakfast and dinner and late at night. As a replacement, I popped a whole fryer chicken in my pressure cooker and cooked it for 40 minutes with a natural release and allowed it to cool. I put it in the refrigerator and the next morning I de-boned it and ran it through my food processor, turning it into “chicken crumble,” which I packed up and stored in the fridge & freezer. Mac generally would eat his kibble midday and again late in the evening, and often through the night. He is a little overweight, although he is a large breed cat. In the afternoon when he would wander out meowing I would give him three heaping teaspoons of the ground chicken mixed with hot water. He devoured it! Again, when he wandered out later in the evening, as I was going to bed, I loaded his food bowl with four heaping teaspoons of ground chicken to last him through the night. He really didn’t seem to miss the kibble at all. I went on Amazon and bought a iPetPro glucose tester kit for $99 (don’t waste your money they’re garbage). I also ordered the U40 syringes I would need to administer his insulin, which I had not given him yet. I decided to keep an eye on him and had eliminated the only source of carbs he was really getting until I could test his glucose levels. My husband happened to have a Freestyle Lite glucose tester because he “was” pre-diabetic and was monitoring his blood sugar so when the iPetPro monitor showed up we tested Mac’s blood with both monitors 2-4 hours after he had eaten breakfast ever day. After 10 days of tracking and logging I averaged the results. What we noticed was that the Freestyle Lite monitor was far more consistent than the iPetPro tester, however, the Freestyle Lite was reading on average 43 to 48 points below the iPetPro monitor. We decided to stick with the Freestyle Lite tester and monitor because of its consistent readings and the lancet pen was far superior. I added 50 points to whatever the monitor reading was to ensure that Mac remained within normal feline glucose ranges. It is now the end of August, Mac never had a single dose of insulin, eliminating his dry food immediately and replacing it with home-cooked unseasoned chicken, keeping him on his assorted grain-free pate canned food AM/PM stabilized his glucose and reversed his diabetes. It has taken the better part of two months, but he is no longer walking on his ankles. He’s far more stable overall, not walking in an “S” formation and getting around much better. We test him once a week now and we have a fructosamine test done at the vet every 30 days until he reaches 90 days with stable glucose. The last test he had was within normal range. His coat looks better than it has in years. What I read and the actions I took as a result of reading for hours on this website saved my cat. He is actually healthier today than he was before he had diabetes and his sister has lost 1.5lbs and looks great too! I had no idea how detrimental dry cat food was. I’ve owned cats my entire life and they have all eaten dry food in addition to canned food (although I did switch to grain free canned food many years ago as I am aware cats are carnivorous). I will never feed dry food again. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

UrbanUtah said:

Our beautiful 13-year-old Maine Coon male named Mac was diagnosed with feline diabetes on July 9th of this year. The diagnosis was confirmed with a fructosamine blood test. Mac had been exhibiting what looked like neurological issues for several weeks, but he has arthritis so we thought he was just “aging.” He started walking on his ankles, which was odd. He was eating well, drinking normal and urinating normally so we didn’t think it was serious. He began to decline and was having more trouble walking and when he walked, he walked in an S shape and he sat down to rest frequently. We took him to the vet who suspected diabetes and they ran a battery of tests and did x-rays to the tune of $500. His test results came back the following week. He was prescribed insulin, 3 units once per day following a “good meal.” I had this nagging feeling about the insulin treatment and I wanted to better understand this disease in felines and did not want to give him insulin without testing his blood at home in a non-stressed environment before administering anything they could potentially put him into hypoglycemic shock. I stumbled on your website that night and read for hours. I immediately got up and removed the dry food bowl. We were already feeding only grain-free wet food morning and night, but Mac really liked his dry food in between his wet food breakfast and dinner and late at night. As a replacement, I popped a whole fryer chicken in my pressure cooker and cooked it for 40 minutes with a natural release and allowed it to cool. I put it in the refrigerator and the next morning I de-boned it and ran it through my food processor, turning it into “chicken crumble,” which I packed up and stored in the fridge. Mac generally would eat his kibble midday and again late in the evening and often through the night. He is a little overweight, although he is a large breed cat. In the afternoon when he would wander out meowing I would give him three heaping teaspoons of the ground chicken mixed with hot water. He devoured it! Again, when he wandered out later in the evening, as I was going to bed, I loaded his food bowl with four heaping teaspoons of ground chicken to last him through the night. He really didn’t seem to miss the kibble at all. I went on Amazon and bought a iPetPro glucose tester kit for $99 (don’t waste your money they’re garbage). I also ordered the U40 syringes I would need to administer his insulin, which I had not given him yet. I decided to keep an eye on him and eliminated the only source of carbs he was really getting until I could test his glucose levels. My husband happens to have a Freestyle Lite glucose tester because he “was” pre-diabetic and was monitoring his blood sugar so when the iPetPro monitor showed up we tested Mac’s blood with both monitors 2-4 hours after he had eaten breakfast ever day. After 10 days of tracking and logging I averaged the results. What we noticed was that the Freestyle Lite monitor was far more consistent than the iPetPro tester, however, the Freestyle Lite was reading on average 43 to 48 points below the iPetPro monitor. We decided to stick with the Freestyle Lite tester and monitor because of its consistent readings and the lancet pen was far superior. I added 50 points to whatever the monitor reading was to ensure that Mac remained within normal feline glucose ranges. It is now the end of August, Mac never had a single dose of insulin, eliminating his dry food immediately and replacing it with home-cooked unseasoned chicken, keeping him in his assorted grain-free pate canned food AM/PM stabilized his glucose and reversed his diabetes. It has taken the better part of two months, but he is no longer walking on his ankles. He’s far more stable overall, not walking in an “S” formation and getting around much better. His coat looks better than it has in years. What I read and the actions I took as a result of reading for hours on this website saved my cat. He is actually healthier today than he was before he had diabetes and his sister has lost 1.5lbs and likes gray too! I had no idea how detrimental dry cat food was. I’ve owned cats my entire life and they have all eaten dry food in addition to canned food (although I did switch to grain free canned food many years ago as I am aware cats are carnivorous). I will never feed dry food again. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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Beautiful
I love your testimony. Thank you for sharing. I still haven't found a wet my kitty will eat. He liked FF PATE for about a week. I'm reading lists of other acceptable one and will reach out for free wet samples to try. He likes young again and it has greatly improved his overall health, but a nice wet would be better. I wish they had a wet version.

I would just like to add, that at no point was Mac’s glucose above the feline normal range once we began testing him a couple days after the dry food was removed and the test kit had arrived. Had I administered three units of insulin, he could’ve very well gone into hypoglycemic shock or potentially died. Because of this website I held off and made sure to test his glucose before administering insulin, I am so glad I did because he ultimately didn’t need it.

Your experience is just the reason we stress home testing. It's the best, if not the only way to know if it's safe to give insulin.

When Mac was diagnosed, was his fructosamine in diabetic range? If so, it was likely that he was diabetic. However, 3.0u of insulin is a lot bigger dose than what we recommend when first starting out. That's especially the case if your cat was on a diet that included dry or other high carb food and you make the switch to a low carb diet.

Congratulations on having a kitty that's in remission (or maybe wasn't really diabetic)!

He was definitely in diabetic range on his initial fructosamine test. His glucose was also high at 399 the day we took him to the vet, but our vet explained that elevated glucose levels measured at the time of a stress event like being in the vet’s office can be misleading and he recommended the fructosamine test, which we had done. Normal feline range is 143-373 and his result on July 6 was 505. On August 8th we had him tested again and he was within “upper normal” range at 348. We are having him tested again on September 8 and again in early October to insure his fructosamine levels stays within normal range. We also continue to test him at home once a week using the Freestyle Lite meter.