Doing a little better

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Cherie Hogan

Cherie Hogan

Member Since 2016
I am having some success with the dose increase with Riley. Through 5 doses at 1.5 units his numbers have come down from constant 'hi' readings at 1 unit to the mid to upper 400's at 1.5 units. Pilling him vs. mixing Zobaline into his food has yielded better results with his hind legs. Mixing 'The World's Best Cat Litter' into the 'Fresh Step' helps to keep the litter friable and way less apt to stick between his toes. It also keeps the pee from sticking to the bottom of the litter box. The lower numbers have decreased his appetite but he is still drinking lots of water. Thanks to Marje for her help and others for suggestions and support which I'm sure I will still need a lot of. Happy New Year to all.
 
Hi Cheri
That is great to hear! I am so glad you are starting to get better results and the Lantus us starting to help! I found pilling Gus with the Zobaline worked better for him as well. I was really consistent and it resolved his neuropathy with time.
I am really happy for you!
Happy new year to you and Riley!
 
So glad that he's a little perkier today. You must be SO relieved!!

Did he get a shot the night of the 26th, or was that when you were gone and maybe you skipped a shot? Can you put either the dose or "skipped" in the dose column, just to help keep the picture clear? It can make a difference in deciding what to do with the dose. When we're looking at when to increase the dose, we count cycles. There is usually a minimum of 4-6 cycles on each dose, and if a dose is skipped the cycle count begins over. Not sure if that makes sense, but that's why it's important to record the dose if it's given, or write "skipped" if he didn't get any insulin.

Looking at the spreadsheet I wanted to mention that you don't have to write the "@+2" or "@+4" when you record the test. The cell is for that time, so we know what the time is by the cell that is used. If only the test number is entered then it will automatically assign it a color. That's why your spreadsheet doesn't have color for the past few days.

You're getting a great handle on all of this. It's like a college crash course and we've all been through it! It's very intensive to learn all of this at the beginning and you're doing a great job. Hang in there. It only gets easier - truly.

The 1.5u is getting him at least into the 400's now. Do you think you will be able to get a test this evening? If you have 4 consecutive cycles at the 1.5u with at least preshot tests + one mid-cycle test (just means in between the shots, doesn't need to be +6) in each test you might be able to go ahead and increase his dose in the morning to 2.0u. What do you think about that?

Sounds like the Young Again food is pretty important for Riley. I think most people feed their cats at least 4 times a day regularly - we always did. Feeding a diabetic cat more often is one way to help smooth out any blood sugar ups and downs. Cats feel better if their blood sugar is flatter. If Riley is grazing that's fine.

Glad you're able to get the Zobaline down, however it takes. People typically have found it takes about a month for the neuropathy to improve. It's great stuff!

Hope you're having a great day!
 
For the tests that are off the hour you can manually add the appropriate colour by clicking on the drop down next to the symbol that looks like a little paint can being tipped. It's in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Please test before every shot. It's the only way you know whether it's safe to shoot. Riley will come down and you really don't want that to have happened without your knowledge...

Red is better than black Riley but pink is also better than red and so on - keep heading in the direction you're going and you're going to feel better and better :cat:
 
julie & punkin (ga) said:
So glad that he's a little perkier today. You must be SO relieved!!

Did he get a shot the night of the 26th, or was that when you were gone and maybe you skipped a shot? Can you put either the dose or "skipped" in the dose column, just to help keep the picture clear? It can make a difference in deciding what to do with the dose. When we're looking at when to increase the dose, we count cycles. There is usually a minimum of 4-6 cycles on each dose, and if a dose is skipped the cycle count begins over. Not sure if that makes sense, but that's why it's important to record the dose if it's given, or write "skipped" if he didn't get any insulin.

Looking at the spreadsheet I wanted to mention that you don't have to write the "@+2" or "@+4" when you record the test. The cell is for that time, so we know what the time is by the cell that is used. If only the test number is entered then it will automatically assign it a color. That's why your spreadsheet doesn't have color for the past few days.

You're getting a great handle on all of this. It's like a college crash course and we've all been through it! It's very intensive to learn all of this at the beginning and you're doing a great job. Hang in there. It only gets easier - truly.

The 1.5u is getting him at least into the 400's now. Do you think you will be able to get a test this evening? If you have 4 consecutive cycles at the 1.5u with at least preshot tests + one mid-cycle test (just means in between the shots, doesn't need to be +6) in each test you might be able to go ahead and increase his dose in the morning to 2.0u. What do you think about that?

Sounds like the Young Again food is pretty important for Riley. I think most people feed their cats at least 4 times a day regularly - we always did. Feeding a diabetic cat more often is one way to help smooth out any blood sugar ups and downs. Cats feel better if their blood sugar is flatter. If Riley is grazing that's fine.

Glad you're able to get the Zobaline down, however it takes. People typically have found it takes about a month for the neuropathy to improve. It's great stuff!

Hope you're having a great day!
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Sometimes, I am not able to reply in the proper place and don't know why. I hope you get my answer. I corrected Riley's ss. I never missed a dose on the 26th. He is not doing better today. Right back up at HI. There are times, in fact, most of the time when I believe the Lantus isn't doing anything for him. He is like a zombie who pees the litter boxes full, all four of them several times a day, my house is completely tracked up with kitty litter that sticks to his feet, he stares off into space, and sleeps. I am beginning to think this is nothing but torture. He is just a shadow of the cat we love. It isn't fair to him. He is stuck with needles at least 4 to 6 times a day. His ears are red. What kind of life is this? I wish I could believe that he could get well and if he wouldn't have been so healthy to begin with he couldn't have hung on this long. It's been months now with no relief for him. I am happy for even a little progress but then that tiny step forward becomes a giant step back...just like tonight. He has been on 2 units of Lantus before and he was miserable and howled all night long. What to do???????????
 
Vyktors Mum said:
For the tests that are off the hour you can manually add the appropriate colour by clicking on the drop down next to the symbol that looks like a little paint can being tipped. It's in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Please test before every shot. It's the only way you know whether it's safe to shoot. Riley will come down and you really don't want that to have happened without your knowledge...

Red is better than black Riley but pink is also better than red and so on - keep heading in the direction you're going and you're going to feel better and better :cat:
Click to expand...
 
I answered the post above. Another setback. I could tell he was not doing well and he tested hi again! Very discouraging. When is enough enough?
 
Gussie's mom said:
Hi Cheri
That is great to hear! I am so glad you are starting to get better results and the Lantus us starting to help! I found pilling Gus with the Zobaline worked better for him as well. I was really consistent and it resolved his neuropathy with time.
I am really happy for you!
Happy new year to you and Riley!
Click to expand...
 
I got my hopes up only to have them dashed again. Came home tonight and one look told me he was not doing well. Tested hi. I am thinking Lantus is a waste of time.
 
No results. This happened before. He would do better for a cycle and then go right back up to hi and stay there. Maybe Lantus just isn't working for him.
 
Really? Why is it normal? I am afraid I let my emotions loose.

I will test several times tomorrow. First test is 9am.

Thanks for your advice.
 
Sending hugs Cherie..this IS a tough dance, one with forwards and then discouraging seemingly backwards movement. The thing is, it is Rileys body trying to adjust to a new hormone and that is never a smooth path. It's not like when we take an antibiotic or something, it's not a snap! knock that body chemistry right into whack. It's fits and starts, the body trying to figure out how it's supposed to react and then hopefully settling in and getting used to what numbers are really supposed to be Rileys normal. Along that way there will be times when you have to keep going up in dose with the protocol till you hit that magic dose for Riley. That in and of itself is hard as the caretaker or Bean.
What we call Normal is what you are seeing, the cat going up and down. It helped me to try to think of it as the hormones it is, and the body trying to make sense of it...
With insulin, since the cat is used to protecting itself by learning to recognize hi numbers as "normal", when you start to push the numbers lower with insulin the body freaks out, thinking the cat is going hypo ( which it is not) and releases a bunch of counter hormones. What the protocol does by carefully adjusting the dose is allow the insulin time to build in the body ( the way Lantus works) and gently pushes the cat to spending time in progressively lower numbers so the cats body learns not to freak out when the numbers are lower. Along the way there will be times Riley's numbers go high after spending some time in lower numbers. His body is going Whoa! What was that!
But, he will start to get used to lower numbers and will hopefully spend less time bouncing up higher and more time cruising along in lower numbers.But this insulin needs consistency and patience to work as it's designed to bring down Riley's numbers...both hard to find I know, we all know your frustration and send encouragement:bighug::bighug:
 
Gussie's mom said:
Sending hugs Cherie..this IS a tough dance, one with forwards and then discouraging seemingly backwards movement. The thing is, it is Rileys body trying to adjust to a new hormone and that is never a smooth path. It's not like when we take an antibiotic or something, it's not a snap! knock that body chemistry right into whack. It's fits and starts, the body trying to figure out how it's supposed to react and then hopefully settling in and getting used to what numbers are really supposed to be Rileys normal. Along that way there will be times when you have to keep going up in dose with the protocol till you hit that magic dose for Riley. That in and of itself is hard as the caretaker or Bean.
What we call Normal is what you are seeing, the cat going up and down. It helped me to try to think of it as the hormones it is, and the body trying to make sense of it...
With insulin, since the cat is used to protecting itself by learning to recognize hi numbers as "normal", when you start to push the numbers lower with insulin the body freaks out, thinking the cat is going hypo ( which it is not) and releases a bunch of counter hormones. What the protocol does by carefully adjusting the dose is allow the insulin time to build in the body ( the way Lantus works) and gently pushes the cat to spending time in progressively lower numbers so the cats body learns not to freak out when the numbers are lower. Along the way there will be times Riley's numbers go high after spending some time in lower numbers. His body is going Whoa! What was that!
But, he will start to get used to lower numbers and will hopefully spend less time bouncing up higher and more time cruising along in lower numbers.But this insulin needs consistency and patience to work as it's designed to bring down Riley's numbers...both hard to find I know, we all know your frustration and send encouragement:bighug::bighug:
Click to expand...
 
Cherie Hogan said:
Really? Why is it normal? I am afraid I let my emotions loose.
Click to expand...

We all understand Cherie!! Our furkids mean the world to us and we want them cured yesterday!!! As Les has said, it's not something that we can fix quickly though.....they didn't become diabetic quickly and it just takes time to gain any semblance of control

If you're able to test tomorrow, I'd go ahead and increase his dose to 2U

If you can get the PS tests in and at least 1 other test (preferably 2....one mid-cycle on the AM cycle and one "before bed" on the PM cycle), you could increase his dose every 6 cycles (Tight Regulation)

It's hard to see those high numbers on the meters.....We totally get how you feel and just want to help :bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
Chris & China said:
We all understand Cherie!! Our furkids mean the world to us and we want them cured yesterday!!! As Les has said, it's not something that we can fix quickly though.....they didn't become diabetic quickly and it just takes time to gain any semblance of control

If you're able to test tomorrow, I'd go ahead and increase his dose to 2U

If you can get the PS tests in and at least 1 other test (preferably 2....one mid-cycle on the AM cycle and one "before bed" on the PM cycle), you could increase his dose every 6 cycles (Tight Regulation)

It's hard to see those high numbers on the meters.....We totally get how you feel and just want to help :bighug::bighug::bighug:
Click to expand...
 
I am reluctant to go to 2 units. I know you all know way more than me but I know he was absolutely miserable, lethargic, stumbling, when he was at 2 units before. It's what the second vet had him at. His numbers dropped to 173 once and were always in the high 500's and above when we were 'vet' testing two to three times a week for about five weeks before I learned to home test. In fact, he was so miserable we stopped giving him any insulin because we were absolutely sure he was dying. Stupid, I now realize but he was really going downhill fast.
 
Gussie's mom said:
Sending hugs Cherie..this IS a tough dance, one with forwards and then discouraging seemingly backwards movement. The thing is, it is Rileys body trying to adjust to a new hormone and that is never a smooth path. It's not like when we take an antibiotic or something, it's not a snap! knock that body chemistry right into whack. It's fits and starts, the body trying to figure out how it's supposed to react and then hopefully settling in and getting used to what numbers are really supposed to be Rileys normal. Along that way there will be times when you have to keep going up in dose with the protocol till you hit that magic dose for Riley. That in and of itself is hard as the caretaker or Bean.
What we call Normal is what you are seeing, the cat going up and down. It helped me to try to think of it as the hormones it is, and the body trying to make sense of it...
With insulin, since the cat is used to protecting itself by learning to recognize hi numbers as "normal", when you start to push the numbers lower with insulin the body freaks out, thinking the cat is going hypo ( which it is not) and releases a bunch of counter hormones. What the protocol does by carefully adjusting the dose is allow the insulin time to build in the body ( the way Lantus works) and gently pushes the cat to spending time in progressively lower numbers so the cats body learns not to freak out when the numbers are lower. Along the way there will be times Riley's numbers go high after spending some time in lower numbers. His body is going Whoa! What was that!
But, he will start to get used to lower numbers and will hopefully spend less time bouncing up higher and more time cruising along in lower numbers.But this insulin needs consistency and patience to work as it's designed to bring down Riley's numbers...both hard to find I know, we all know your frustration and send
Click to expand...
 
Cherie Hogan said:
I know he was absolutely miserable, lethargic, stumbling, when he was at 2 units before.
Click to expand...

That's also one of the problems with hormones of any kind.....just because they acted one way "before", doesn't necessarily mean they'll act the same way the next time

The numbers he's in are really too high....getting them down into better numbers will eventually feel more "normal" for him and he should perk up

You could go up to 1.75 instead, but with numbers that high, the protocols all say to go up by .5 each time until you're getting nadirs in at least yellows
 
If it were me I would go up, trying to get the numbers down. I totally understand why it is scary given how you saw him being before.
I don't know if anyone else shared but some cats, Gus was one of them, respond kind of like they are stoned is the best way I can put it, when they first start insulin. I think it makes them feel pretty weird. That went away fairly quickly but Gus did also react to insulin when I increased his doses at first. His symptoms were similar to what you describe.
 
Ultimately the decision is yours, Riley is your cat and you hold the syringe and know him best. We can only share info for you to make your own choices with for your cat. And know that you are supported either way. :bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
Well he tested HI again this morning 2.5 hours before his next shot. I will go up to 2 units today as I am home most of the day and will be able to test. Marje cautioned that, when raising the dose, I should be testing.

I don't know exactly how the threads work but when I reply to one does every one else see my response? If so, I want you and everyone else to know how much I appreciate the advice. I just want my cat to be healthy again.
 
When you post, we all see it. Don't worry about how you are posting. Anyone helping you has the burden on them to read through everything you say so their advice is appropriate. You don't have to quote people or reply to each one separately. Experienced people try to track new people in the beginning so we can help them learn what they need to know. If you do want to quote someone, you can reply on the same post just by putting your cursor after the end of the quote and typing there. It's not essential, I'm just telling you in case you want to know how to do it.

I think the most important thing you can do right now is to get at least 4 tests every day - but spread out over the 24 hours. I can't emphasize that enough, because one of they key points to understand about cats on insulin is that one single lower number can determine his blood sugar for the following 3 days. Just one. That doesn't mean that you have to test hourly, but you can't assume that just because he was high for the previous cycle that he will continue being high. We have seen other cats just like Riley. His situation isn't unusual.

It is not unheard of for a cat that has gotten used to being in high numbers to be able to stay there most of the time and just barely touch down into lower numbers and return to high again. We've seen cats go from 400 to 40 in 4 hours and be back at 400 by the next preshot. Without the mid-cycle test there would be no way to know that the cat was at 40 during the cycle.

But you don't want to overdose him by raising the dose without being certain there aren't lower numbers in there. If Riley were mine, I would not increase his dose without a minimum of four 12 hour cycles at a dose, and with a preshot test and one mid-cycle test in each of those cycles. I don't think that's safe.

Because Lantus dosing is based upon answering the question "how low can this dose cause my cat's blood sugar to go?" it's really important to know if Riley is going lower for a short amount of time and then bouncing, resulting in most of his numbers being high. If a dose can get him to 40, even if it's just for 1 hour, then you don't want to increase the dose because you are seeing a sea of black numbers. The 40 drives the show and would tell us that his dose is actually too high. The 40 would tell us that his body is pumping out hormones and stored sugars to keep him from a hypo - what we call a bounce. Bounces can last as long as 3 days. I don't KNOW that he's bouncing. I can't tell at this point. It could be that he needs more insulin, but this is why figuring out if there are any lower cycles in there is so important.

At this point I don't think you need to set an alarm if he is high and check multiple times during the night. I'm looking at the night that you checked multiple times and he was over 500 all 3 times. Just get a test before you go to bed - if it's under 300 then I would test again, but if it's over 300, then get a good night's sleep and check him again before his am shot.

I'm concerned that this will come across as lecturing, and I definitely don't mean it to be. I'm just trying to educate you about the most critical aspects so you can help Riley. It's tricky to learn it all and we've all been through it. I think of it as a college crash course in Feline Diabetes 101!!

For today, if he is over 400 at a test, I'd suggest waiting 4 hours or so before testing again.

Has anyone suggested that you check for ketones? When a kitty is high like this, it's good to check for them daily. You can buy ketostix at any pharmacy and stick one in his urine stream. You want to follow the directions for timing on the bottle exactly. The color will continue to change as time passes, so it's important to not have it go over the suggested time.

Hang in there - this is a marathon and Riley will get better. One step at a time. Keep asking questions if things aren't clear! No one minds, and no one is offended if you question their advice. It's important for you to understand things so that you can make your own choices.
 
Hey Cherie, my cat Uncle was just diagnosed in October. It took me a while to process all of the info (still learning more too) that was given to me and available here in the stickies. It took Uncle a while to start to respond to the insulin and not hang out in the high numbers so much. Like Julie said "hang in there" it takes a while and it's a learning curve for us too. Speaking of Julie, there was a lot of REALLY good info in her post. I read it twice. That's some good stuff!
 
julie & punkin (ga) said:
When you post, we all see it. Don't worry about how you are posting. Anyone helping you has the burden on them to read through everything you say so their advice is appropriate. You don't have to quote people or reply to each one separately. Experienced people try to track new people in the beginning so we can help them learn what they need to know. If you do want to quote someone, you can reply on the same post just by putting your cursor after the end of the quote and typing there. It's not essential, I'm just telling you in case you want to know how to do it.

I think the most important thing you can do right now is to get at least 4 tests every day - but spread out over the 24 hours. I can't emphasize that enough, because one of they key points to understand about cats on insulin is that one single lower number can determine his blood sugar for the following 3 days. Just one. That doesn't mean that you have to test hourly, but you can't assume that just because he was high for the previous cycle that he will continue being high. We have seen other cats just like Riley. His situation isn't unusual.

It is not unheard of for a cat that has gotten used to being in high numbers to be able to stay there most of the time and just barely touch down into lower numbers and return to high again. We've seen cats go from 400 to 40 in 4 hours and be back at 400 by the next preshot. Without the mid-cycle test there would be no way to know that the cat was at 40 during the cycle.

But you don't want to overdose him by raising the dose without being certain there aren't lower numbers in there. If Riley were mine, I would not increase his dose without a minimum of four 12 hour cycles at a dose, and with a preshot test and one mid-cycle test in each of those cycles. I don't think that's safe.

Because Lantus dosing is based upon answering the question "how low can this dose cause my cat's blood sugar to go?" it's really important to know if Riley is going lower for a short amount of time and then bouncing, resulting in most of his numbers being high. If a dose can get him to 40, even if it's just for 1 hour, then you don't want to increase the dose because you are seeing a sea of black numbers. The 40 drives the show and would tell us that his dose is actually too high. The 40 would tell us that his body is pumping out hormones and stored sugars to keep him from a hypo - what we call a bounce. Bounces can last as long as 3 days. I don't KNOW that he's bouncing. I can't tell at this point. It could be that he needs more insulin, but this is why figuring out if there are any lower cycles in there is so important.

At this point I don't think you need to set an alarm if he is high and check multiple times during the night. I'm looking at the night that you checked multiple times and he was over 500 all 3 times. Just get a test before you go to bed - if it's under 300 then I would test again, but if it's over 300, then get a good night's sleep and check him again before his am shot.

I'm concerned that this will come across as lecturing, and I definitely don't mean it to be. I'm just trying to educate you about the most critical aspects so you can help Riley. It's tricky to learn it all and we've all been through it. I think of it as a college crash course in Feline Diabetes 101!!

For today, if he is over 400 at a test, I'd suggest waiting 4 hours or so before testing again.

Has anyone suggested that you check for ketones? When a kitty is high like this, it's good to check for them daily. You can buy ketostix at any pharmacy and stick one in his urine stream. You want to follow the directions for timing on the bottle exactly. The color will continue to change as time passes, so it's important to not have it go over the suggested time.

Hang in there - this is a marathon and Riley will get better. One step at a time. Keep asking questions if things aren't clear! No one minds, and no one is offended if you question their advice. It's important for you to understand things so that you can make your own choices.
Click to expand...
 
I definitely don't think you are lecturing me. If anything, I learn more from each post. I was very optimistic over his lower numbers and then discouraged when they went back up again. Today, I noticed he was weazing a little and his purr sounded kind of garbled so I started him on a course of amoxicillan. I will get four tests tomorrow and test for ketones. Thanks all for the advice.
 
Hang in there, this is a frustratingly two steps forward one back kind of dance...it is hard to get hopes up only to have them feel dashed..that's where getting those tests in helps, then using the data on the spreadsheet you can start to see that there is change in what his body is doing even tho on the surface that's hard to believe..
:bighug::bighug::bighug:
The pros here can see patterns we don't even know to look for...
Hugs of encouragement to you. :bighug:

I know this seems another strange inverse thing but as you test his ears more, Riley will not mind it as much.( and you won't feel so bad doing it either). Gussie got poked ALot, because I'm a person who needed a lot of data, I am a fill in the blanks kind of person and his SS shows that. He got to where he barely cracked an eye most of the time and to this day comes up the ramp ready to be tested as he knows it's the drill before he eats.
Every time I felt badly I told myself I'm not poking him to be mean, I am poking him to be able to keep him safe. That helped me to feel better about what I was doing.

Give Riley a scritch for me:bighug::bighug:
 
Agree with Barbara, Julie is able to explain things really well, I re-read her explanations all the time still..and often cut and paste them to share too!
Lots of this stuff starts to make a lot more sense as you experience it. Why I read a lot of ongoing condos, so I could see how it applied as it was playing out as folks were being helped. The other point to share is that there are no bad or dumb or questions you should not feel ok to ask, if you wonder it or are needing to know please feel free to ASK. :bighug: There is literally a whole world full of experience here :bookworm: and there's not much you can't find really useful help with and support for dealing with among the folks here.:bighug::bighug:
We all know your frustrations first hand, it comes with the diagnosis our cats receive...but we also know the gift of fellowship here:bighug::bighug: so again welcome and I'm really glad you are hanging in there
 
I hope someday he will no longer need insulin. Is that a pipe dream now that his numbers have remained high for so long? I was SO confident I could have him all straightened out simply by switching his diet. Instead, he has gotten worse and then finally leveled off to just lethargic. Poor Riley doesn't know what has happened to him. Are there ever any cats who come off insulin permanently? Has this ever been done simply through diet by anyone on this forum?

Thanks again for all the help!
 
Yes, absolutely, there are cats that come off of insulin permanently. We've had lots of cats go OTJ (Off the Juice) - although none recently. Sometimes we'll have a bunch in a row. Their subject lines will have a countdown in them up to day 14 "OTJ Trial day 1", etc. Whether or not a cat can go OTJ depends on why the cat is diabetic.

My cat, punkin, became diabetic because he had a tumor in his pituitary gland that put out a growth hormone. That hormone makes it so that the cat's own insulin isn't sufficient. In a recent study, one in 4 cats have this tumor - these cats only go off of insulin if the tumor goes away. Punkin's highest dose was 15.5u per shot. We had him treated with radiation to kill the tumor and he dropped down under 5u, but never went off. Cats need as much as they need - so we let our testing tell us what to do with the dose.

Some cats become diabetic because their diets are inappropriate, or they are too fat. Some cats become diabetic from being given steroids.

Often no one can pinpoint a cause for the diabetes. Sometimes a short course of insulin and a change of diet is sufficient. Even if a cat becomes diet-controlled and doesn't need insulin, they are still considered diabetic. They still have to eat low carb canned or raw food the rest of their lives, still need to avoid steroids if at all possible.

Most of the time the cause isn't obvious. The treatment is still correcting the diet, increasing exercise (which makes the cells more receptive to insulin), and giving insulin. None of us can know if Riley will be able to go off of insulin or not. The recent high numbers alone wouldn't prevent it.

I have one more link for you to read - it's about New Dose Wonkiness and bouncing. Explanations of these two things that cause high numbers - and in both cases don't mean that the cat needs more insulin. Read the first 2 posts in that thread.

Regarding his ear - we used Neosporin ointment with Pain Relief every night. It takes out the owie and it will basically heal the ear overnight. I've heard of a couple of cats having reactions to the neosporin but most seem to do fine with it. I tried it on my foot where the cat ran across it and the stuff is amazing. It might help Riley. One time I had to test punkin something like 20 times in a day because he was skating in low numbers, and his ear was like new the next day. Vets always commented that they wouldn't have known that I hometested his ear. We only used his right ear because I'd scarred his left one while learning. It's important to apply pressure after you poke long enough for the bleeding to stop so it doesn't bruise or scar. I think Marje gave you the link to Testing and Shooting tips and this tip is included in that. You might look there for other ideas to help Riley too.
 
My Gabby most likely became diabetic due to a bout of pancreatitis. The pancreatitis effected the beta cells where insulin is manufactured. Unlike with humans, with cats, sometimes, the beta cells heal and the cat goes into remission (OTJ) and become "diet controlled." In other words, your cat's pancreas is making insulin but you don't want to rock the boat by giving your cat high carb food.

Julie has done a great job of providing you with much of the basics. The amount of information that you will absorb, especially at the beginning of managing Riley's diabetes, is overwhelming. That's what we're here for. We're all too familiar with what it's like in the beginning -- we're worried sick about our kitty, want to do what's best, sometimes get conflicting information from a vet vs what you may hear from members of this Board, and we're swamped with information to the point of not even being able to formulate a coherent question. The good news is that you will absorb all of the information and this will all become second nature.

I don't think Julie mentioned this but one aspect to dosing is a basic rule, the dose is what your cat needs to get the numbers into a good range. Please don't get stuck on an arbitrary amount of insulin. Because a dose didn't work (or worked too well) in the past, doesn't mean it won't be a "good" dose now. This is especially the case if you are following a dosing method and raising or lowering the dose systematically. It's to unusual to see that a vet has been a little too aggressive with a starting dose. If you read through the information on the Tight Regulation Protocol or the Start Low Go Slow method, you'll see that the starting doses are much lower than where you were with Riley.
 
I noticed that you said you started a course of amoxicillin. I just wanted to check as to whether it is a liquid suspension, because those often contain sugar. Just trying to think iut loud for any thing that could be working against you that you may not have thought of.

And...Hang in there! We all understand your frustration, and are hear to talk you down "off the ledge" when you are emotional and feeling overwhelmed, or to provide as much technical advice as you need.

Best,
Sandi&Whisper.
 
Hi
You will see that my cat Gus is OTJ or off the juice. We landed here pretty early on but worked the protocol, and followed the advice and recommendations here to the tee. I tried to be super consistent as the insulin does best that way.

A lot of times I really did not understand why I was being advised to do something so I asked a lot of questions, some many many times. It is a lot like being in school for me, sometimes teachers could explain something and to me it might as well have been in Latin, made no remote sense to me. So would I ask again and another teacher would explain the same thing but in a somewhat different way..eventually I understood what they were trying to explain to me..

Same thing here..Keep asking and reading and following condos until it starts to make some sense. For me as I've mentioned I read a lot of other people's condos (threads) and followed them as they got help. It for me was like seeing a diagram of how the protocol and steps to keep the cat safe were laid out. It also prepared me for when I needed help!

I tried to learn as many explanations as I could find in the hopes that something would start to stick as my brain was pretty well mush and confused. Tho sometimes I had to just trust that they were the"pros" at this ( my words because to me they are pros) and would not tell me to do something that would be dangerous to my cat. I had to let go of the reins.

It was very tough. And at times very discouraging that progress was not instantaneous..I wanted to fix Gus right now. It got better when I accepted it's a long journey with a windy path and we settled into a routine with each other.
It did forge an incredibly close bond with my cat. He knew he was getting to feeling better and he got used to the routine.

And yes there was a fair amount of laughter along the way...

Hang in there, it will get easier..right now it's like being dropped totally jet lagged into a foreign country with a different time zone, language, food, customs, everything! Makes your head spin and hurt Soon however you wI'll feel like a native tho I know that's hard to believe tight about now...
 
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