2/3-4 Andy - 298 pmps; 232 +6; 315 amps

Yvonne & Andy &BJ (GA)

Yvonne & Andy &BJ (GA)

Member Since 2015
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Ho-hum cycle! I wonder if we will ever achieve remission. At this point, I would be happy with regulation! Are there any known sugarbabies that were diabetic as long as Andy that actually attained :otj:?
 
NEVER LOSE HOPE! Some of us just take a longer route. My extra sweet girl took 3yrs, 7mos and 17 days to go into remission. I think the record though is held by Eliz's Bertie who went into remission after 11 years! The possibility of remission is never off the table and can happen just when you least expect it. :D
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
NEVER LOSE HOPE! Some of us just take a longer route. My extra sweet girl took 3yrs, 7mos and 17 days to go into remission. I think the record though is held by Eliz's Bertie who went into remission after 11 years! The possibility of remission is never off the table and can happen just when you least expect it. :D
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Thank you Linda - I had lost hope last year but am trying again. He is doing much better - but still loves those coaster rides!
 
Menace went up and down the dosing ladder more times than I care to count. Countless times I got a run of green that teased me into thinking maybe we had reached a turning point only to be disappointed again. I had pretty much given up hope too. My girl also has IAA, a high dose condition (highest dose was 16u twice daily), she was diagnosed at a very young age AND she was a kibble addict for over 2 yrs of our journey (there is no low carb dry food here in Canada) so the odds were stacked against us right from the get go. Suddenly, there was a streak of green which I figured was just another tease but it just kept coming until the SS was a sea of green. It was like someone flipped a switch overnight.

We all know there are no guarantees, but there is also no reason to think you can't get Andy into remission! :D
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
Menace went up and down the dosing ladder more times than I care to count. Countless times I got a run of green that teased me into thinking maybe we had reached a turning point only to be disappointed again. I had pretty much given up hope too. My girl also has IAA, a high dose condition (highest dose was 16u twice daily), she was diagnosed at a very young age AND she was a kibble addict for over 2 yrs of our journey (there is no low carb dry food here in Canada) so the odds were stacked against us right from the get go. Suddenly, there was a streak of green which I figured was just another tease but it just kept coming until the SS was a sea of green. It was like someone flipped a switch overnight.

We all know there are no guarantees, but there is also no reason to think you can't get Andy into remission! :D
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Thank you for sharing that - wow - 16u of insulin. We have been back and forth on vets and insulins. When I first adopted Andy they put him on 6u Lantus and could not get him stabilized. I started testing and eventually after a few insulin changes got him down. My new vet thought 6u was way too high considering he had no other underlying medical issues. We spent a long time then on pzi and then another new vet suggested Lantus again and here we are. Problem now is my current vet does not use Lantus and wants him on Novolin so we are on our own with Lantus. (All these vets were at the same practice which is large and good but in a rural low income area so vets come and go.)
 
Vets tend to go with what they know and what works best for their specific clientele. Being in a low income rural area means the vet may be suggesting Novolin because he's/she's found that is within the means of more of his clients. Lets face it, there is definitely a lot of sticker shock associated with Lantus (until you find out you can order from Canada) and the vets don't want folks to give up on their animals and ask to have them put down for no good reason due to costs. Then of course there is the tendency to go with what you are familiar with. Vets don't usually see a lot of diabetic cats unless they are a cat specialty hospital or a specialist so they aren't going to spend a lot of time researching and staying up to date on AAHA or ISFM guidelines for treating it. It's really too bad that more vets don't acknowledge that dealing with diabetes properly requires 24/7 hands on care and allow their clients to take the reins. It's also too bad more of them aren't familiar with FDMB because the amount of knowledge here is amazing. Most vets don't have a high opinion of any info you get off the Internet and for good reason in most cases, but if they took the time to learn from the knowledge available here, they'd be convinced and they'd all be better vets for their diabetic feline patients.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
Vets tend to go with what they know and what works best for their specific clientele. Being in a low income rural area means the vet may be suggesting Novolin because he's/she's found that is within the means of more of his clients. Lets face it, there is definitely a lot of sticker shock associated with Lantus (until you find out you can order from Canada) and the vets don't want folks to give up on their animals and ask to have them put down for no good reason due to costs. Then of course there is the tendency to go with what you are familiar with. Vets don't usually see a lot of diabetic cats unless they are a cat specialty hospital or a specialist so they aren't going to spend a lot of time researching and staying up to date on AAHA or ISFM guidelines for treating it. It's really too bad that more vets don't acknowledge that dealing with diabetes properly requires 24/7 hands on care and allow their clients to take the reins. It's also too bad more of them aren't familiar with FDMB because the amount of knowledge here is amazing. Most vets don't have a high opinion of any info you get off the Internet and for good reason in most cases, but if they took the time to learn from the knowledge available here, they'd be convinced and they'd all be better vets for their diabetic feline patients.
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Agree with all you said! Add to that - cats are not vetted as much in rural areas as dogs so priorities are different. Many people would just euthanize a cat if they found out it's diabetic. I got Andy from a shelter that did not have the resources to care for him. And I need to add that Lantus is really hands-on intensive vs the other insulins. I think vets would not think their clients would want to spend so much time with a cat. If I did not have this list, I don't think Andy would be alive today. And yrs ago, I was able to keep a sugarbaby alive for over 8 yrs with the help of this list through a few insulin changes so I know the value here. Thanks again!:bighug:
 
Yvonne & Big John & Andy said:
And I need to add that Lantus is really hands-on intensive vs the other insulins.
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Not sure I totally agree with that. Lantus when used properly using the dosing methods offered here, is more time intensive. But in the big scheme of things, insulin is insulin and has to treated with respect and the more you monitor no matter what insulin you are using, the better the outcomes and safety. People tend to think the in and out insulins are easier because there is no depot to consider but those insulins have a tendency to cause early, fast and dramatic drops in BG so they too need to be monitored according to pre-shot and nadir numbers to ensure, when those faster drops in BG occur, kitty is not in jeopardy of a hypo event. We tend to aim for tight regulation or something close to with Lantus which is more difficult to do with the in and out insulins for safety reasons and therefore vets direct their clients to aim for higher BG numbers with the In/out insulins which of course makes it look so much easier.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
Not sure I totally agree with that. Lantus when used properly using the dosing methods offered here, is more time intensive. But in the big scheme of things, insulin is insulin and has to treated with respect and the more you monitor no matter what insulin you are using, the better the outcomes and safety. People tend to think the in and out insulins are easier because there is no depot to consider but those insulins have a tendency to cause early, fast and dramatic drops in BG so they too need to be monitored according to pre-shot and nadir numbers to ensure, when those faster drops in BG occur, kitty is not in jeopardy of a hypo event. We tend to aim for tight regulation or something close to with Lantus which is more difficult to do with the in and out insulins for safety reasons and therefore vets direct their clients to aim for higher BG numbers with the In/out insulins which of course makes it look so much easier.
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I guess what I mean is the vets I know try to keep it as simple as they can. I.e., for pzi, vetsulin and Novolin, I was given instructions to only test once a day and based on a chart give the appropriate amount of insulin and otherwise just watch for signs of hypo etc. That's it. When my vets found out how much I actually do test, they are amazed and say good but they don't normally advocate that with other clients. I chose Lantus only because I had this board to rely on. I hope this makes sense.
 
Yvonne & Big John & Andy said:
I.e., for pzi, vetsulin and Novolin, I was given instructions to only test once a day and based on a chart give the appropriate amount of insulin and otherwise just watch for signs of hypo etc.
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That is precisely the type of ill informed vet advice that makes me shudder. They are trying to make things look simple for their human client but they are doing the cat no favours and if things should go south due to the lack of monitoring and dumb dosing according to a chart, the human client will suffer too possibly with a big vet bill or worse.
Its sad but true that the folks here are far more dedicated to their animals and willing to take that extra bit of time to ensure the safety and health of their pets than many folks are. I understand why vets do what they do, but I would like to see them advocate testing more and then back off if the CG starts to squirm too much rather than to just send everyone off with a bare minimum of instruction or warning. They are making assumptions about the CG that may or may not be true and I fear a lot of cats and CG suffer as a result.
 
MrWorfMen's Mom said:
That is precisely the type of ill informed vet advice that makes me shudder. They are trying to make things look simple for their human client but they are doing the cat no favours and if things should go south due to the lack of monitoring and dumb dosing according to a chart, the human client will suffer too possibly with a big vet bill or worse.
Its sad but true that the folks here are far more dedicated to their animals and willing to take that extra bit of time to ensure the safety and health of their pets than many folks are. I understand why vets do what they do, but I would like to see them advocate testing more and then back off if the CG starts to squirm too much rather than to just send everyone off with a bare minimum of instruction or warning. They are making assumptions about the CG that may or may not be true and I fear a lot of cats and CG suffer as a result.
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You said it so much better! The person I adopted my other diabetic from was not even testing at all. She was older so maybe her vet recognized that she could not do it. But I would rather that the vets give you the whole story and all the options and let you decide for yourself how much effort you are willing to make. :)
 
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