Biscuits on methyl B-12

[Karen & Biscuits]

Hi everyone! Sorry I have been MIA again for awhile. I've had so much going on I can't see straight. I've had a kennel full of sick kittens with upper respiratory infections (6 of them!), plus their mother and 2 of my ferals. It's been a battle to say the least but everyone is finally on the mend. I've just completed an online auction on my facebook page and I'm trying to finish up with shipping and now the holidays are upon us and I get to add that to the mix!
However...I have finally gotten Biscuits on Vitamin B-12 - the one recommended here by Vitacost. So far she is tolerating it very well. I got the one with 5000 mcg, so I started her with just half a tablet each day and after 2 or 3 days I gave her a full tablet with her breakfast, just crushing it up and sprinkling it into her food and mixing it up really well. She hasn't shown any signs of not liking it, so I'm thinking the flavor isn't an issue for her, thankfully! It's only been a week so at this point I'm not seeing any improvement in her neuropathy, but I remember some of you said it can take several weeks, so I'm just going to continue with it and hope for the best. I am also aware that her sugar needs to be better controlled and that's still an issue. My vet has approved for her to use Pro-Zinc BUT, when I applied to get it from Diabetic Cats in Need, they recommended Lantus or Levemir as a better option, which I'm fine with, but I'm still waiting on the vet to approve that part. I also have a ton of paperwork to locate and send to them, so that's my project for this week.
Her sugar numbers are slightly better at times, getting down into the 400's.
Here's the other thing. Some of you have recommended that I use the Reli-On Classic/Premier meter, which I purchased for her yesterday, as I'm almost out of the Alpha Trak strips. When I did a dual reading with both meters, it showed up as my vet said it would, with over 100 points difference between the two. The Alpha Track showed 442 and the Reli-On showed 367. Why? How do I know how to read the Reli-On correctly? The vet told me a long time ago with Skittles, that human meters are not reliable because of the giant point difference and that human and animal blood is made up differently, so to use an animal meter when possible. Now I don't know what to think. Obviously you have figured this out here, so please let me know how to get an accurate reading for Biscuits using the Reli-On meter. I was thankful to get a meter yesterday, as Walmart in our area has been out of stock on almost all diabetic supplies for a long time. The Premier and a few strips was all they had in stock yesterday, so I was lucky.

Anyway, I just wanted to update you on what's happening with Biscuits. I also wanted to add, that a friend of mine was the person who directed me to you, her name is Effie Weiss. She lives in Wisconsin and had a diabetic cat some time ago. Does anyone here know her or remember her? Just curious.

Looking forward to using the Reli-on meter, as it's much less expensive for the strips and I can stop rationing glucose readings now and get them more often, doing my own curve tests at home.
I hope you all have a blessed Sunday! Take care and stay safe!

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

The methyl-B12 does take a while to work. It will work better if numbers are better regulated.

I do have a couple of thoughts about your numbers.

• If you're signature is accurate and you're still feeding your cat M/D dry, it is causing the numbers to be high. The dry Hill's is very high in carbohydrates.
• Vetsulin is a harsh insulin and works rapidly. Please start getting a before bed test every night. You are missing half of your data without any PM tests.
• Prozinc and Lantus are both recommended by the American Animal Hospital Assn as appropriate insulin for cats. I suspect DCIN may have more access to Lantus.
• Biscuits is on a very high dose of Vetsulin. Was the dose systematically increased? If so, once a cat is at 6u of insulin, we encourage you to get your cat tested for a high dose condition (i.e., acromegaly and insulin auto-antibodies). It may explain why the numbers are high and not moving that much.

I would strongly encourage you to read over the dosing methods sticky on the Vetsulin forum. You are holing doses a bit longer than necessary and it may be contributing to the high numbers.