Diabetic neuropathy and still not being regulated.

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Randi & Effy

Randi & Effy

Member Since 2017
Hey guys
So last time I was on here I was asking for advice on stopping Effys diarrhea. I ended up going to the feline IBD facebook groups for help. After a few days of s. boulardii and the bland diet, I decided to take the leap and switch effy to raw feeding. I cannot believe what a difference feeding him raw has made. He's had the healthiest, big, sturdy poops ever since we made the switch. He also has stopped peeing around the house and is exclusively using the litter box*. Now that that's out of the way, I'm still struggling with getting him regulated. I haven't been taking his blood sugar most days because he blatantly does not feel good, but the couple times I have managed to do it, his numbers have jumped higher for some reason, even though feeding him raw has lower carbs than his previous diet. He's at his year mark of diagnosis, and I am unfortunately now noticing that his back legs are getting weaker and weaker. He's not totally walking on the entire back of his legs, but they are definitely lower to the ground than usual. It almost kind of looks like he's slipping as he walks as well. He's currently at 4.5u of lantus. Is anyone on here dealing with the early stages of neuropathy? What are you doing to help your sugar cat? Is there any stopping or curing it? Or is this only going to get worse? I don't know if I should keep upping his dose or test for resistance or what anymore. Just wanted to come on here and start a discussion, I guess.
 
Bama Kitty Mom (AL) said:
@Randi & Effy
Would you mind sharing what you are feeding on the raw diet? Bama is still having issues with constipation and hairballs? He’s not crazy about his canned food. I wonder if raw would work for him.
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I am exploring feeding raw also and Djamila told me about Food Fur Life that she uses. Check out the website and see if you think that might be helpful. http://www.foodfurlife.com/ I think the additive can be used in cooked meat also.
 
Bama Kitty Mom (AL) said:
@Randi & Effy
Would you mind sharing what you are feeding on the raw diet? Bama is still having issues with constipation and hairballs? He’s not crazy about his canned food. I wonder if raw would work for him.
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Yes! I started with Nature's Variety frozen rabbit, and I switch between that and Stella and Chewy's duck bits. He loves them both, but I know most of the raw feeding groups try to stay away from both of these brands because they contain a lot of real bone, and bone causes constipation. He did get constipated from the food, but to be honest, this is the only raw food my city has in any of our pet stores. I was going to try radcat until they announced they were going out of business. Now i'm looking into alternatives. But, I can say that I gave him 1/8tsp of miralax when the constipation started for a few days and then I switched to just giving him a daily probiotic and he hasn't been constipated or had terribly hard poops since... So right now I'm at the point of debating on even switching or just keeping him on this regimen we have going now since it's been working for us. The probiotic i'm using is vetriscience - they recommend half a capsule a day for cats but I give him the whole thing since my research has said to give them 10 billion cfu and the whole pill is only 5 in these. I have heard great things about food fur life and also EZ complete. EZ complete is the most popular i've found and you can literally just add it with water to any meat from the grocery store. I only resorted to the foods I have now because he cannot handle chicken or turkey, and the grocery store is kind of limited on proteins without those two. He does better with the novel proteins like rabbit and duck! I would highly recommend checking out this website if you want to start looking into raw! It has honestly been the best decision i've made for him so far! - Raw feeding for ibd cats
 
JanetNJ said:
Lantus. Zobaline is a tablet not a liquid.
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Okay just wanted to clarify, yeah we've been going in .25 increments, he's worked his way up to 4.5 now. They want to keep upping instead of switching insulins for some reason. I think the goal is to try and break through the wall before they suspect any acro.
 
Randi & Effy said:
Okay just wanted to clarify, yeah we've been going in .25 increments, he's worked his way up to 4.5 now. They want to keep upping instead of switching insulins for some reason. I think the goal is to try and break through the wall before they suspect any acro.
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Ok well then you're doing it the right way. Hope you find your breakthrough soon. I'm up to 7.5 and finally saw a blue last night.
 
JanetNJ said:
Ok well then you're doing it the right way. Hope you find your breakthrough soon. I'm up to 7.5 and finally saw a blue last night.
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Thanks for this, this made me feel SO much better. I was really losing hope being all the way up at 4.5 with absolutely no change, knowing there's people out there giving higher doses and seeing positive outcomes make me feel way less hopeless!!! wheeeew!
 
Randy,

Not sure of the vets thoughts of "breaking through before suspecting acro". Acro has been diagnosed in cats getting 1-2 units, rare but does happen.

Olive was on 7 units of lantus before we saw 1 blue number. Then have one blue every 3-4 days. See was on 8 units when switched to lev. No diagnosis of Acro yet.

Lev is started at a lower dose kitty was getting. So started lev at 5.25 units. Started having more blues but mostly pinks and red. Olive has all the symptoms of acro but one, the broad head even though it's out of proportion to her body. The vet was basing her non acro because Her head wasn't broad width. Her dose got as high as 9 units (now we had acro dx) even though she hit greens they were short lived. Still had to many pinks and reds. Her numbers just didn't settle down.

She continued to fluctuate between 8.25 and 8.75 units but not making any progress.

I guess my question is what is the plan when "you break through"? Does the vet think the dose that does is enough? And nothing else is to be done.

Some experts say any animal on insulin over 4 months should be tested for high dose conditions. Others say if animal is on 6 or more units they should be tested.

I don't understand vets thought process here. Effy was diagnosed 1 year ago, what is vet waiting for? It might be time to test for high dose conditions of another insulin such as levemir.
 
Olive & Paula said:
Randy,

Not sure of the vets thoughts of "breaking through before suspecting acro". Acro has been diagnosed in cats getting 1-2 units, rare but does happen.

Olive was on 7 units of lantus before we saw 1 blue number. Then have one blue every 3-4 days. See was on 8 units when switched to lev. No diagnosis of Acro yet.

Lev is started at a lower dose kitty was getting. So started lev at 5.25 units. Started having more blues but mostly pinks and red. Olive has all the symptoms of acro but one, the broad head even though it's out of proportion to her body. The vet was basing her non acro because Her head wasn't broad width. Her dose got as high as 9 units (now we had acro dx) even though she hit greens they were short lived. Still had to many pinks and reds. Her numbers just didn't settle down.

She continued to fluctuate between 8.25 and 8.75 units but not making any progress.

I guess my question is what is the plan when "you break through"? Does the vet think the dose that does is enough? And nothing else is to be done.

Some experts say any animal on insulin over 4 months should be tested for high dose conditions. Others say if animal is on 6 or more units they should be tested.

I don't understand vets thought process here. Effy was diagnosed 1 year ago, what is vet waiting for? It might be time to test for high dose conditions of another insulin such as levemir.
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Everytime I mention switching, it seems like she dances around it and mentions how Lantus is the most successful and blah blah, I truly think Lantus just might not be for him... They don't suspect acro at the moment but i'm assuming if we never break the wall and he starts getting into really high doses, she will probably push to test.
 
Could be vet doesn't know levemir is a possible option and is unfamiliar with it. Google it and print out what you find and give vet the info. Or possibly look for another vet.
 
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