KLD
Active Member
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/12-13-emmett-ambg-83.296554/#post-3227923
Emmett continues to be a legend and an icon on his food trial.
Emmett continues to be a legend and an icon on his food trial.
12/14 Emmett AMBG 97 PMBG 74 (AT3)
- Thread starter KLD
- Start date
Christie & Maverick
Very Active Member
Looking good, Emmett 
Suzanne & Darcy
Very Active Member
Hello! I am really excited that our problem child, Emmett 
is doing soooo great! I’ve been keeping an eye on his spreadsheet. Way to go, Emmett!
is doing soooo great! I’ve been keeping an eye on his spreadsheet. Way to go, Emmett!
KLD
Active Member
Who would have thought this would be possible just a couple months ago!! I’m so proud of him and he feels sooo good these days. He’s back to being a total goof.Hello! I am really excited that our problem child, Emmett
Staci & Ivy
Very Active Member
Go Emmett! He’s doing so great
Wow - congratulations! I’m new to your journey, so was the transition to Lantus the big factor?
KLD
Active Member
For sure. Emmett was on Prozinc for 8 months and just never properly regulated, as much as we tried. I finally made the switch to Lantus and it was like a flip switched. I was just hoping Lantus would help lessen Emmett’s extreme bouncing, so how quickly he regulated was honestly unexpected.
I also wonder if Emmett had a couple protective factors. He is very young (he was 3 years old when diagnosed), and his diabetes had a clear cause (steroid use to treat a skin condition caused by an allergic reaction). He also has never had any of the big negatives like ketones (except at diagnosis) or pancreatitis (as far as I know).
That’s great. And you’re absolutely right. Whoever gave you that recommendation will be getting a nice holiday card this year…
KLD
Active Member
The frustrating part is that had Emmett seen his regular vet when he was diagnosed (I wanted to get him in ASAP and so he ended up seeing a different vet at the same clinic), his regular vet would have prescribed Lantus right away since she never uses Prozinc. (Prozinc is a great insulin, it just didn’t end up being the right one for Emmett). So I wonder if we could have saved ourselves 8 months of struggle. But it’s not useful to think about that too much.
But Suzanne was a massive help over on the Prozinc boards, and without this community I probably would have lost my mind months ago
Ouch, that’s a bummer, but I’m sure there are some positives you can draw from those days..
It’s interesting, I see you didn’t normally shoot under 100, and he took to the skips pretty well.
It’s interesting, I see you didn’t normally shoot under 100, and he took to the skips pretty well.
Christie & Maverick
Very Active Member
@Tim & Pookey K is using a pet meter so interpretation of numbers will be different
KLD
Active Member
Yes, though that is also on the pet meter, so those numbers are a bit higher than the human meter. That decision was more Emmett-specific because my gut was telling me he would go low (I was often using MC or HC to keep his blood sugar up). I would, generally speaking, still recommend people follow the protocols properly lol.
He did well with skipped doses on Lantus, but was usually a nightmare if I skipped doses with Prozinc (the first time I had to skip a dose because I wasn’t home to give him insulin or something like that, he ended up bouncing so hard his BG was over 700).
KLD
Active Member
I was literally just showing my mom his spreadsheet today because it still blows my mind.
Christie & Maverick
Very Active Member
I agree, it was interesting to see how little effects the NS had. At some point we were wondering when the other shoe would drop 
, but Emmett just seemed to click. Kind of fun to see Emmett showing off his moves. Says the outsider looking in
, but Emmett just seemed to click. Kind of fun to see Emmett showing off his moves. Says the outsider looking in
Oh my gosh about that Prozinc bounce. Thanks @Christie & Maverick for pointing that out. Very exciting about the food trial, I’ll be following!
KLD
Active Member
Can I admit I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop… lolI agree, it was interesting to see how little effects the NS had. At some point we were wondering when the other shoe would drop
Suzanne & Darcy
Very Active Member
KLD
Active Member
He got weaned off Atopica a few weeks ago. Honestly, I don’t think it really did anything for him. He still holds his paw up off and on. Not as bad as he used to though. I don’t see any lesions, but if there is anything there it could be hidden between the toes like last time. I do wonder if some of it is habit. I did find one food he loved that I thought was chicken-free actually had chicken further down on the ingredients list, so that was a fun discovery. I also wonder if he has sensitivities or allergies to other foods, because something he’s currently eating doesn’t seem to be sitting well with his stomach.
Suzanne & Darcy
Very Active Member
Shoot. I was hoping that the normalized BG might have helped the whole paw thing to clear up.
I am getting ready to start Atopica with one of my cats. I am nervous about potential GI issues. He has bad skin problems and is a young cat (Siamese.) Steroids don’t do much to help.
I am getting ready to start Atopica with one of my cats. I am nervous about potential GI issues. He has bad skin problems and is a young cat (Siamese.) Steroids don’t do much to help.
KLD
Active Member
The paw will forever be a mystery I think. On the plus side, his lip is no longer getting lesions. I wonder if he just keeps irritating the paw more because he has to walk on it.
Thankfully I don’t think Atopica ever gave him GI issues. Definitely not when he was on it. He got weaned off at the same time as starting Lantus, and while that was happening, he was a bit constipated, but that resolved on its own after a week or two. No idea if that was all coincidence.
Good luck with your boy! I hope it works better for you than it did Emmett lol
Suzanne & Darcy
Very Active Member
How did
you go about finding out that Emmett was allergic to chicken? I wonder if my boy is allergic to chicken. I suppose I could do a food trial on him. I bought some Dr. Elsey’s (wet) pork pate for another cat with IBD and it doesn’t have any other proteins in there but pork, I believe. I suppose I could give that a try. Food trials take so long…. Sigh.
KLD
Active Member
So, Emmett has never been a huge fan of chicken. Back when he used to eat dry food, the majority of the dry food he ate didn’t have chicken as the main protein (though it was sometimes further down on the ingredient list). The lesions would pop up about once or twice a year. Then his vet switched him to prescription food with a main protein of chicken. This was a few months before he went on steroids/developed diabetes. The lesions started popping up again. And then he got diabetes and was switched to the diabetes food (again, chicken) and fancy feast (a lot of chicken flavours). From them on, the lesions (particularly the lip) were constant. One lesion would finally go away and then another would immediately pop up. So it was easy for me to connect it to the change in food. I decided to cut out all chicken and the lesions on the lip stopped popping up.
His current paw issue popped up when I started giving him Merrick rabbit pate. This food was an old favourite but had been hard to find in stores for a while because rabbit is hard to find in stock a lot of the time. Suddenly, his paw was having problems again. I look at the ingredients list and sure enough, chicken is the third ingredient.
So essentially, I did do a little bit of a food trial, but not a very strict one.