11/5 Beauregard - is he OTJ?

[Mystery]

Good morning, Lantus group. I hope y’all don’t’ mind my ProZinc kitty Beauregard dropping in for some opinions - Lantusland seems to be the busiest forum on FDMB! We’re wondering…is he or isn’t he an OTJ kitteh? He hasn’t had a single drop of insulin in over two weeks, but there are concerns.

Note that we use the AlphaTrak testing meter. If I adjust his test results for that by -30, his test results for the past 30 12-hour cycles haven’t been above the 140 mark. (Of course I’d like to see every single number around 90, but Boo just isn’t cooperating).

So, after a more thorough analysis of my notebook and his spreadsheet, I *think* I see a trend of significantly (but not dramatically) higher numbers right after he has his breakfast and dinner, and then coming back down into a ‘normal’ range fairly quickly. He eats more than half of his half-can of breakfast and dinner in about 30 minutes, then nibbles on the rest over the next few hours. He also gets some spoonfuls of treat food (Merrick's Cowboy Cookout - he totally loves that stuff) at lunch (most days, but sometimes I can't get away from the office at lunch) and then again before bed. Over the past few days, I’ve done more testing around feeding times but I fear it’s not enough data for definite conclusions, so we are wondering what others might think.

Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Dyana]

That spreadsheet looks pretty good to me (considering your are using the Alpha Trak), but I am no expert.
I would keep testing him daily for awhile. Maybe and hopefully, others will have more thoughts and opinions for you.

 

[Libby and Lucy]

it looks like he is pulling himself down fairly well. Sometimes with newly OTJ cats that are higher at "preshot" time, it can help to feed them a small snack at what would be about +8 or +9 to see if that helps bring that "preshot" number down. Based on his spreadsheet, I think it probably would work. Do you have a timed feeder?

It's not uncommon for a newly OTJ cat to take up to 4 hours for the number to come down after food. Usually that interval will get shorter as the pancreas continues to heal.

 

[Mystery]

That spreadsheet looks pretty good to me (considering your are using the Alpha Trak), but I am no expert.
I would keep testing him daily for awhile. Maybe and hopefully, others will have more thoughts and opinions for you.

We think they're pretty good too, with just a couple of exceptions, and even those he seems to have shrugged off with little effort. Those blips are just so puzzling to me, and kind of vexing.

it looks like he is pulling himself down fairly well. Sometimes with newly OTJ cats that are higher at "preshot" time, it can help to feed them a small snack at what would be about +8 or +9 to see if that helps bring that "preshot" number down. Based on his spreadsheet, I think it probably would work. Do you have a timed feeder?

It's not uncommon for a newly OTJ cat to take up to 4 hours for the number to come down after food. Usually that interval will get shorter as the pancreas continues to heal.

I'm hoping that I can get an auto feeder for him next payday. I'm certain he's getting a healthy amount of calories every day, but he's pretty much out of food for five to six hours at a time, and I'm very curious to see if having an extra snack between lunch and dinner, or dinner and breakfast, would influence those fluctuations. Unfortunately, that'll be another ten days or so - I'm just kind of poor at the moment (another frustration point). I think in the mean time I'm going to just do some spot-check testing? It seems kind of pointless to test multiple times a day when only ~10% of the test results in 15 days are slightly above normal range, and he self-correct within an hour or so.

 

[mybuddybinks]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

 

[Mystery]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Thank you so much, and purrs! We're cautiously optimistic, and realize that we still have to keep a close eye on the #s at least for a while (and of course forever too) so we are delaying the party plans for a few more weeks. Still, we're feeling very, very blessed and super fortunate to be where we are!

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

congratulations!

has anyone told you that once a kitter's been diabetic, they need to remain on low-carb food? just keep treating him like he's diabetic - he's just diet-controlled now. so glad for you!

 

[Mystery]

congratulations!

has anyone told you that once a kitter's been diabetic, they need to remain on low-carb food? just keep treating him like he's diabetic - he's just diet-controlled now. so glad for you!

Thank you!

Yes, I understand that he's always going to be a super sweet sugar kitty. Well, actually, he's not very sweet, but I think he's great anyway. Ha.

He's mostly been eating the canned Purina DM, and only because I bought a couple of cases of it the day he was diagnosed and didn't know anything about cat food then, so went with what my vet told me would be OK (and compared to the 38% carb dry food he'd been eating for years, yeah, the canned DM was way better). I also got a bag of the dry DM that day, and when I weaned him off of dry completely, there was another significant drop in his daily test results.

So, I'll be moving him to some other brand soon, something better quality and hopefully less expensive. We've been trying out some of the options on Binky's list that are 5% or less. He's really, really fond of Merrick's Cowboy Cookout which is 5% carb (from brown rice, not corn product), and one of the Wellness brands, the chicken one that is grain free one, and he liked that too. If we stick with either of those, it will be another decrease in carbs of 30-50% from what he's currently getting. I'm hoping that small change, in addition to getting an auto-feeder so he doesn't have to go that 4-6 hours with no food, will address the one glitch seem to still have going on - the increases in test results immediately after eating. I tested him tonight after his evening snack of Cowboy Cookout and there was a very negligible increase from the pre-dinner test. Nothing like what he goes up after eating the DM for dinner. I'm beginning to wonder if he has some kind of sensitivity to corn products. Things that make you go, 'Hmmmm."