Hi all,
My name is Stephanie and my cat Nirvana is diabetic. He is 12 years old, weighs 20 lbs and was diagnosed about a year ago.
At the time, his sugars were in the 500s. We switched to science diet m/d dry food and started Vetsulin at 2 units 2x/day. It took a couple months and he was up to 5 units 2x/day before he was regulated. Things were going great for about a month, until I woke up to him having seizure like activity (drooling, twitching, mouth open breathing, but still awake and responding to name). I rushed him to the emergency vet. He had a grand mal seizure shortly after arriving. His glucose was around 40 at the time. They gave him a sugar bolus. He stopped seizing and was brought back to me. They said he should be fine to go home, but wait to give insulin til we saw our normal vet in the am. He was acting fine at this point, but they rechecked his sugar before we left to be sure, and it was only 20. They gave him another sugar bolus and recommended he stay the night. Our vet opened in an hour, so they allowed me to take him home if I promised to take him to my vet as soon as they opened. I did and his sugar after one hour was still at 20 even though he was acting normal. They admitted him and he got continuous IV glucose for the day and he got to come home once he kept his sugars up for 8 hrs without glucose. At this point, it was the weekend and I was worried about having him home by myself without knowing his numbers and my vet being closed. So I bought a glucometer. His numbers varied between 50 and 80 all weekend without insulin. A fructosiamine check 2 weeks later confirmed that he was in remission and no longer required insulin. My vet advised me to leave some dry food out all the time to see if he could keep them up himself. He did and a few months passed. I continued to feed him the diabetic food and his sugars stayed stable. Suddenly he started drinking more and peeing more again. I checked his sugars and they were in the 300s. We restarted the insulin and he took about a month to regulate, but I was checking at home this time, too. They had me switch him to science diet m/d wet and that is what he had been eating when his sugars started dropping again. I contacted the vet. We reduced his insulin dose significantly and I was told not to give it unless his sugar was above 200 and to leave dry food out to snack on in case his sugars dropped too low. They also sent us to see a specialist. During this time, he would need both doses of insulin for a day and then none for 3 days, etc. Until eventually his numbers settled around 130 with no insulin. I also ran some glucose curves a couple weeks before his sugars dropped this last time. They ranged between 300 and 550 with 4 units of vetsulin 2x/day. The specialist said to hold off on insulin until he could "prove" he needed it (2 readings in one day above 300). At that time she wanted him to start on lantus 1 unit 2x/day. So, I had been getting readings right around 130 for about a month and then 2 days ago he had a reading of 193. Then it was 224, 277, 228, 157, 385, 327. And today I decided to do a glucose curve without the insulin to be sure. So far, we have 10am 398, followed by food, 12pm 442, 2pm 452, 4pm 422.
So, my main question is:
Has anybody ever encountered transient diabetes that functions in this way? My impression is that it is rare for it to keep recurring, especially with multiple bouts of remission without significant changes to diet or stress level.
Is there anything else that could cause this odd fluctuation? I am continually having to waste insulin, because he goes into remission right after I buy a new bottle.
A couple other things to know about him. He has always been a large cat. He has a Cobby build, so should be about 14 lbs, so he is also overweight. He has been on a diet of 1/2 cup of food a day for years leading up to this diagnosis with no weight changes. He has always eaten science diet lite dry food except for the 2 years prior to diabetes diagnosis, he was on science diet c/d and s/d for urinary crystals which have never recurred. Between him and my other cat, they currently eat 1/2 can science diet m/d wet and 1/2 cup science diet m/d dry 2x/day. There is always a little bit of dry food left when I feed them their next meal. Also, his sugars are generally not falsely elevated due to stress. At home, he lays on my lap purring when I prick him. He is also a certified therapy cat, so is very used to traveling in the car and being in public.
Any thoughts would be helpful. We should be starting lantus tomorrow.
Thanks!
My name is Stephanie and my cat Nirvana is diabetic. He is 12 years old, weighs 20 lbs and was diagnosed about a year ago.
At the time, his sugars were in the 500s. We switched to science diet m/d dry food and started Vetsulin at 2 units 2x/day. It took a couple months and he was up to 5 units 2x/day before he was regulated. Things were going great for about a month, until I woke up to him having seizure like activity (drooling, twitching, mouth open breathing, but still awake and responding to name). I rushed him to the emergency vet. He had a grand mal seizure shortly after arriving. His glucose was around 40 at the time. They gave him a sugar bolus. He stopped seizing and was brought back to me. They said he should be fine to go home, but wait to give insulin til we saw our normal vet in the am. He was acting fine at this point, but they rechecked his sugar before we left to be sure, and it was only 20. They gave him another sugar bolus and recommended he stay the night. Our vet opened in an hour, so they allowed me to take him home if I promised to take him to my vet as soon as they opened. I did and his sugar after one hour was still at 20 even though he was acting normal. They admitted him and he got continuous IV glucose for the day and he got to come home once he kept his sugars up for 8 hrs without glucose. At this point, it was the weekend and I was worried about having him home by myself without knowing his numbers and my vet being closed. So I bought a glucometer. His numbers varied between 50 and 80 all weekend without insulin. A fructosiamine check 2 weeks later confirmed that he was in remission and no longer required insulin. My vet advised me to leave some dry food out all the time to see if he could keep them up himself. He did and a few months passed. I continued to feed him the diabetic food and his sugars stayed stable. Suddenly he started drinking more and peeing more again. I checked his sugars and they were in the 300s. We restarted the insulin and he took about a month to regulate, but I was checking at home this time, too. They had me switch him to science diet m/d wet and that is what he had been eating when his sugars started dropping again. I contacted the vet. We reduced his insulin dose significantly and I was told not to give it unless his sugar was above 200 and to leave dry food out to snack on in case his sugars dropped too low. They also sent us to see a specialist. During this time, he would need both doses of insulin for a day and then none for 3 days, etc. Until eventually his numbers settled around 130 with no insulin. I also ran some glucose curves a couple weeks before his sugars dropped this last time. They ranged between 300 and 550 with 4 units of vetsulin 2x/day. The specialist said to hold off on insulin until he could "prove" he needed it (2 readings in one day above 300). At that time she wanted him to start on lantus 1 unit 2x/day. So, I had been getting readings right around 130 for about a month and then 2 days ago he had a reading of 193. Then it was 224, 277, 228, 157, 385, 327. And today I decided to do a glucose curve without the insulin to be sure. So far, we have 10am 398, followed by food, 12pm 442, 2pm 452, 4pm 422.
So, my main question is:
Has anybody ever encountered transient diabetes that functions in this way? My impression is that it is rare for it to keep recurring, especially with multiple bouts of remission without significant changes to diet or stress level.
Is there anything else that could cause this odd fluctuation? I am continually having to waste insulin, because he goes into remission right after I buy a new bottle.
A couple other things to know about him. He has always been a large cat. He has a Cobby build, so should be about 14 lbs, so he is also overweight. He has been on a diet of 1/2 cup of food a day for years leading up to this diagnosis with no weight changes. He has always eaten science diet lite dry food except for the 2 years prior to diabetes diagnosis, he was on science diet c/d and s/d for urinary crystals which have never recurred. Between him and my other cat, they currently eat 1/2 can science diet m/d wet and 1/2 cup science diet m/d dry 2x/day. There is always a little bit of dry food left when I feed them their next meal. Also, his sugars are generally not falsely elevated due to stress. At home, he lays on my lap purring when I prick him. He is also a certified therapy cat, so is very used to traveling in the car and being in public.
Any thoughts would be helpful. We should be starting lantus tomorrow.
Thanks!
