2/22 New Foster Manny - is he bouncing off of missed lows?

[Melanie and Smokey]

Hello! Long time since I have been to the boards. I stop by and read once in a while, but the kitties keep us SO busy.

Our new diabetic foster Emmanuel, or Manny, came to us right around Christmas time. We didn't really need another foster, but he probably would have been euthanized at the pound if we didn't take him. He is estimated over 10yrs old, had very severe eye disease and was diagnosed while still at the pound. They started him on 2U of Lantus b.i.d. and I think he may have gotten insulin sensitive being on too high of a dose starting out. The first test they took 4 days after starting him was 66.

So. He is a bouncer. He was terribly bouncy at first and seems better. But we've been at 0.75U for a while and he keeps seeing the 200s, but also gets to the 60s enough that I am not sure we should go back up when we aren't getting as many tests as we should. Normally I see that many 200s, I go back up. But does it look like we are just missing the low that is triggering the bounce and we should be lowering to see if we can avoid the bounce?

Manny's Spreadsheet

He is fed 4X - shot, +6, shot, +6. DM is the only thing that cleared up his SEVERE diarrhea so even though I don't particularly care for it, his food needs to be that. We tried many. He is a little over 9 pounds, should probably still gain a couple.

Manny after about 6 weeks of treatment for his eyes, ringworm, and diabetes

Manny at the pound.

 

[carfurby (GA)]

Bless you for saving Manny. He is so adorable. He is looking much better. Poor kitty. It does look like he is a bouncy kitty. With nadirs in the 60s, you don't have a lot of room for an increase. Are you able to do a curve one day and see if you can catch a lower number?

 

[Pamela & Amethyst]

God Bless

 

[Kris & Teasel]

Oh, that poor kitty! He looks SO much healthier now thanks to your care.

 

[Christie & Maverick]

Manny is a very handsome kitty, and so lucky to have found you! You know, the bouncing doesn't seem huge to me, but then I see larger overcorrections when my kitty hits lower numbers. I'm sure a few more experienced folks can offer some suggestions, but it seems the numbers are trending much better overall..that said, reading patterns in my own cat, let alone others, isn't so much my strong suit

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Hi, Melanie! Congrats on the very lucky foster kitty.

Have you tried a probiotic for Manny's diarrhea? Specifically S. boulardii is effective for treating diarrhea. Renew Life Ultimate Flora is the brand I use. You can start with 1/4 of the capsule and increase to 1/2 if Manny is still having problems. Tylosin, which is a prescription drug can also be helpful.

 

[Melanie and Smokey]

Thanks everyone! Manny is such a sweet boy and is a great foster! He is definitely a lot better than when we got him. I expected his higher numbers to settle out by now, but that might be my tight patience pants, I've always wanted perfection right away We have tried to find time to run curves with missing so many mid-cycle tests, but just haven't found gotten it done. Things are pretty busy around here and I don't often get much more than 3-5hrs of sleep. With 3 on insulin and Percy on some new meds that require us to test him more often to see if he is getting knocked out of remission, sometimes getting checks on everyone just isn't in the cards.

Have you tried a probiotic for Manny's diarrhea? Specifically S. boulardii is effective for treating diarrhea. Renew Life Ultimate Flora is the brand I use. You can start with 1/4 of the capsule and increase to 1/2 if Manny is still having problems. Tylosin, which is a prescription drug can also be helpful.

We tried a probiotic early on along with Flagyl and a variety of foods. Within 2 days of going on to the DM he had normal stool. Any time we've fed him anything else his diarrhea flares. It doesn't really make a lot of sense as there nothing special in the food for diarrhea, but since its diabetic friendly and works, we stick with it.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

I just went through some health issues with Gizmo. He was diagnosed with IBD. The S. boulardii really helped to clear up his diarrhea. I have a friend whose kitten has had problems with diarrhea for 3 years. They've tried everything. I'll have to ask her if she's tried DM (which I doubt). They are going to try a fecal transplant.

 

[SMM]

Bless you for taking him in.. All I can offer is support.....

 

[Melanie and Smokey]

Fecal transplant, yikes!

Our other two diabetic fosters, Tinkerbell and Percy, have both been diagnosed with IBD. Tinkerbell is on a pharmacy of meds, her diagnosis was actually triaditis. She quits eating, vomits, and gets diarrhea. Its went from every 3-4 weeks to the last one was about 3 months from the previous after a food change and med adjustment. She is on m/d food, flagyl EOD, forti-flora OD, and Cerenia EOD, B12 EO week. Percy the first vet thought a stomach mass, spread to the liver. Second opinion was no mass, liver was fine, possible intestinal lymphoma but likely confirming previous suspicion of IBD. We've tried him on d/d (the internists recommendation), m/d (his vets preference), but he still eats mostly FF. No diarrhea out of him though, just vomiting. He is also on a pharmacy of drugs as he gets skin masses too.

For Manny, I am sure there are other options that probably would work, but since this fixed it I didn't see a reason to go farther. If it had been a non-diabetic friendly food maybe, but it works for everything. Just a bit costly for future adopters.

This is the highest maintenance roster of diabetics we've had! Anikan is currently fighting something that makes him vomit, drool, not eat. Spent a weekend at the emergency clinic because his BGs got low and we couldn't get him to come up for anything. Pancreatitis maybe, but he's never quite coming out of it. Very similar symptoms to when ChrisFarley had the large cell lymphoma He's showing signs of fatty liver now from not eating enough.