Day 14 of No Insulin

[Genopher]

Stitchy was diagnosed on 09/26/19. I now believe he had steroid induced diabetes as he had a SUPER quick turnaround. Thank GOODNESS I started home testing or who knows how this would have ended up! Today is day 14 of no insulin. I have tracked his numbers (see my signature) but not as frequently as of late as our vet said to just watch for symptoms and give his ears a break. I tried to change him over from a free eating dry food kitty of 12 years to wet food only. Hence why I think his numbers dropped so low without insulin. I have since added back in Dr Elsey's dry since we could not get him to eat enough wet. I am still giving him half a can of fancy feast in the am and again in pm (with fortiflora sprinkled on to bribe him). His numbers are rising although still in normal range. Is this due to adding in those extra carbs? I never got a real sense for his BG patterns because I basically stopped giving the insulin the day I started testing at home! His highest was 99 (I just tested right now) but unfortunately I do not know for sure if he snuck in a few bites of kibble in the past 2 hours. TIA!

 

[Sandi and Toby]

Congratulations, that spreadsheet is a thing of beauty! As long as you stay "in the greens", I would be very pleased with that. You could start to vary your test times to get a better picture -- like whenever you are around in the middle of the day or right as you walk in the door from work. I wouldn't be to worried about when he's eaten last as long as you are still seeing numbers below 100.

You could be exactly right about the steroids. Our first diabetic was like that after getting repeated steroid injections for serious skin issues. He also went into remission, although to give you fair warning, he didn't stay that way. He was fairly unusual that he went in and out of remission about 5 times, needing to get back on insulin for about 3 weeks every 6 months to a year. So you should continue to test periodically. You can see what other suggestions you get from folks, but if it were me I would vary my test times, eventually you could probably switch to once per day, then once every couple of days, but I wouldn't suggest testing less than once a week. At least not for a little while.

And as long as you keep good solid pressure on his ear after testing, and maybe put neosporin ointment with pain relief on it once in a while, his ears should be fine. Vets tend to think it's a lot worse than it really is...they also like to say that you'll destroy the bond you have with your cat by testing too much, but I've found the exact opposite to be true

 

[JanetNJ]

Awesome!!!

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Great news

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Generally, once a cat is in normal numbers for 14 days, we consider your kitty to be in remission! So, congratulations!!

A few general reminders...
Keep your cat on a low carb, canned food diet. Tyler is in remission -- his diabetes is food controlled. He's not "cured." Test him at least once a month. If you start seeing numbers that are outside of normal range (over 120) for a couple of tests -- and I'd suggest testing over a couple of days if you see higher numbers -- then a vet visit is in order. Rising numbers can signal an infection or inflammation. Likewise, make sure to be attentive to Tyler's dental health. Dental issues seem to be the most common problem that throws a cat out of remission.

And finally, come back and visit and let us know how Tyler is doing.