2/18 Oscar

josette

josette

Member Since 2022
Hi I sent Oscar’s spread sheet to his internal medicine vet yesterday. Her assistant called and of course basically scolded me (I felt) since I upped him from the 7 units that she wanted him on for months. Didn’t like how he is fed small meals throughout the day. Insisting on only morning and night , saying the meals are spiking his glucose as cats are not like people. Told her I was not doing feedings twice a day. She said it takes a month after increase to see a difference.

I just knew how this call was going to go. Wants me to increase from 8.5 to 9 until I see her in April.

Oscar has had loose stinky stools and stinky gas so I have been giving him fortiflora for about 5 days now. Vet said to also give him 1/2 teaspoons twice a day of miralax.

So any and all thoughts would be appreciated.
 
Sorry, I didn't get Diane's tags, I just happened up seeing this. Tags are not the best way to get attention. Rather it's better to put a "?" prefix on the subject line and add a question summary.

OK first, Fortiflora is not a great probiotic. It's a single strain of probiotic, and not enough of them. Some people do use it has a flavour enhancer. For diarrhea, if it's that bad, s. boullardi is a good option. I gave Neko a people probiotic. More information on probiotics on the page on this website. Miralax is generally for constipation - it doesn't sound like that is Oscar's problem.

I'm sorry your vet isn't very helpful. Scolding you for increasing the dose, saying you did it too early, then wants you to increase again. :banghead: You need a new IM vet. Or the IM vet needs a new assistant. Sounds like they aren't very knowledgeable on diabetes. IM vets have to cover a lot of different diseases and animals, maybe endocrine conditions are not their specialty.

Has Oscar ever been tested for acromegaly or insulin auto antibodies? I think it's very likely he has some secondary condition causing insulin resistance and is the reason you haven't been able to get him into better numbers while on a higher dose. Since you are following TR, you need to increase every 3 days if he's not seeing any numbers under 200. You are holding doses too long, allowing insulin resistance to build.
 
Wondering if she said Metamucil? And I wrote it wrong

I read the article but I still don’t know what people probiotic to purchase. Which one do you use and where do you purchase it ?
 
If a kitty has IBD, Visbiome is a good product (buy online). If kitty has diarrhea, s. boullardi is a good probiotic. You can buy products containing s. boullardi on line or in vitamin stores. Florastor contains it and I've seen it in grocery stores. As far as general probiotics with L. acidophilus, there are a ton of them out there. Renew Life is one, I've given Natural Factors before. Again, shop in the vitamin aisle or on line. Just check the amount per the dosing on that web page.
 
So what I am reading about dosing is 2.5 CFU twice a day. However looking at some you mentioned they are way more than that. How do you determine the correct amount in those cases?
 
The quote from the article is
The important things to consider are the number of colony forming units (CFU) (an adult cat dose of a human probiotic is between 2.5 billion CFU and 20–40 billion CFU daily, depending on whether use is maintenance or therapeutic.
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and
The most proven bacterial probiotic strains in humans are L. acidophilus, L. rhamnosus (which colonize the intestines), and several strains of Bifidobacterium (which colonizes the colon). L. acidophilus is one of the few strains also studied in cats, and it did show significant benefit (35). So consider the mix of strains, bearing in mind that more isn’t always better, and be mindful of the “other” ingredients.
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Taking, just as an example, Renew Life Ultimate Flora Daily Care, it has 30 billion CFU, mostly in the categories of the strains suggested. It comes in a capsule. You could give part of a capsule, and I would err on the smaller amount to start and work your way up if needed. There are lots of other brands and makes out there, just take a look at what's easily available to you.
 
So I got the florastor today and just gave him half of the capsule. Thought I would start with that.

He is FIV positive. Could that affect his insulin resistance?
 
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