JacksDads
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Link to 10/9: The first day of Jack's Insulin Moratorium
Yoshi here...
I'm very confident we have the best type of food for him: All the Primal Feline Formulas have 1% carbs - so if we wanted to lower his carb intake, we'd make the food ourselves - and that would only benefit us by 1%.
His gums have never been 100% healthy - he can't chew dry food very well, and most of the time just swallows it whole (if he gets his paws on it). So we can ask the vet on Friday to take a good look at his mouth, but there's not much left to do "dental" work on. Pat - does your regular vet do the dental visits, too?
And as far as infections - Jack got really sick in the beginning of the Spring 2010, and it took about 1 1/2 weeks of antibiotics, assisted feeding and sub-q fluids to nurse him back to health. We never got a diagnosis for what he had, but symptoms included reduced appetite and dehydration followed by wobbly walking followed by total loss of balance (and tilted head) and rapid eye movement (Like REM Sleep - but he was awake). The vet believed it was probably an ear infection accompanied by a possible bladder blockage that could have worsened it. (His glucose blood work was normal at that time). The vet also suggested that it could have been a brain tumor. So we compared the cost for treating an ear infection vs. a brain tumor - and decided to treat it as an ear infection. Whatever it was, he was healthy again (except for cocking his head 90 degrees occasionally) and went almost 1/2 a year before he started urinating excessively mid-summer- which led to his diabetes diagnosis in mid-August 2010.
So short story long, Jack's history shows that, yeah, he might very well have something else going on besides diabetes - and the vet we're going to see on Friday is the same vet that helped us treat Jack after he got the "Balance Sickness" described above. So she's familiar with Jack's history/recovery - and I'll mention to her the concern about a possible infection or inflammation that might be raising his numbers. I've started creating a list of question to ask the vet on Friday. I posted this list as a worksheet on Jack's SS. I added the question: "Was there a chance Jack's "balance sickness" was DKA?"
Yoshi here...
I thought that part of point of Jack's Insulin Moratorium experiment was to leave all conditions the same, except just stop the insulin - to see what Jack's body is doing - but it makes sense to space out his food to avoid DKA (and besides, Jack's pancreas will appreciate it). Jack's normal eating schedule was 2 ounces of raw food, twice a day. So we'll space that out to 4 meals - and give him 1 ounce of raw food each meal. The food comes in 1 ounce cubes, so 4 meals is an easy divide. The harder part will be coordinating our schedule to give him these 4 meals spread as evenly as we can throughout the day. We don't have an auto feeder yet - and if we get one, it can only be pre-loaded by a few hours, as raw food cannot be left out safely for longer than that. So an auto-feeder would only help us dispense one meal essentially.Libby and Lucy said:
I'm very confident we have the best type of food for him: All the Primal Feline Formulas have 1% carbs - so if we wanted to lower his carb intake, we'd make the food ourselves - and that would only benefit us by 1%.
So I just read a little about DKA, and though it makes sense we should be testing for ketones as DKA can be triggered by low insulin levels and hyperglycemia - catching Jack in the act of peeing may prove to be difficult - but we'll try to keep an eye out for it when he does go - and maybe try sticking a test strip in the litter after he goes. Funny coincidence - We actually have some Ketone urine strips on hand, because Jose and I were monitoring our own ketones as we adjusted to a healthier diet ourselves even before Jack got diabetes :smile: I read on petdiabetes.wikia.com that there is just one glucose meter on the Market - the Abbott Precision Xtra Meter that measures glucose and ketones. I need to talk to Jose first though about yet another monthly expense for Jack. How often do you suggest checking if he has ketones? Has anyone done the blood check for ketones before, and know how reliable it is?Libby and Lucy said:
From previous data, it looks like Jack either drops or jumps and doesn't "curve back" - To me, Jack's spot check history shows that he never has a jump and a drop in less than 6 hours - that's pretty unlikely, right? Any experts have a different take - maybe his data is too spotty to tell. I think the only day I see a potential "hill curve" (as opposed to just drop/jump) would be on 10/08 during the day.Libby and Lucy said:
So - Jose got Jack at a shelter in Chicago when he was an adult cat (so at least 3 years old) in 2006. The shelter got Jack from an anonymous person who dropped him off with no records. Jack arrived at the shelter with only a few teeth, and what looked like dental work done on him to remove the others. Jose was told the dental work wasn't done very well, which most likely messed up part of his right nasal passage causing his eye to chronically drip, has given him chronic random bouts of sneezing, probably causes him chronic gum irritation, and makes him act like he's been smoking something of the chronic variety - ok, ok - you're right - Jack doesn't smoke marijuana - but he does run in tight fast circles when he's really hungry! Back to Jack's teeth though...Pat+Raja+Shadow said:
His gums have never been 100% healthy - he can't chew dry food very well, and most of the time just swallows it whole (if he gets his paws on it). So we can ask the vet on Friday to take a good look at his mouth, but there's not much left to do "dental" work on. Pat - does your regular vet do the dental visits, too?
And as far as infections - Jack got really sick in the beginning of the Spring 2010, and it took about 1 1/2 weeks of antibiotics, assisted feeding and sub-q fluids to nurse him back to health. We never got a diagnosis for what he had, but symptoms included reduced appetite and dehydration followed by wobbly walking followed by total loss of balance (and tilted head) and rapid eye movement (Like REM Sleep - but he was awake). The vet believed it was probably an ear infection accompanied by a possible bladder blockage that could have worsened it. (His glucose blood work was normal at that time). The vet also suggested that it could have been a brain tumor. So we compared the cost for treating an ear infection vs. a brain tumor - and decided to treat it as an ear infection. Whatever it was, he was healthy again (except for cocking his head 90 degrees occasionally) and went almost 1/2 a year before he started urinating excessively mid-summer- which led to his diabetes diagnosis in mid-August 2010.
So short story long, Jack's history shows that, yeah, he might very well have something else going on besides diabetes - and the vet we're going to see on Friday is the same vet that helped us treat Jack after he got the "Balance Sickness" described above. So she's familiar with Jack's history/recovery - and I'll mention to her the concern about a possible infection or inflammation that might be raising his numbers. I've started creating a list of question to ask the vet on Friday. I posted this list as a worksheet on Jack's SS. I added the question: "Was there a chance Jack's "balance sickness" was DKA?"
Our neighbor was able to stop by and get the +5 reading for us yesterday :razz:Miriam and Putty said:
Libby and Lucy said:
Amen ta that, sistas! drinking24Kathy and Kitty said:
