Help, TJ has relapsed

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Kathy & TJ

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Hi,

Haven't been on for a good year. My dear TJ had been off the Vetsilun since Oct 2009 and I thought we beat this at least for the time being. But then in early February he started to increase his appetite and his thirst and his pee went up. I have 2 other cats and we took the dry food away about mid summer so that helped tremendously but then they all got so hungry. To the point that they attacked the flour jar while we were at work. So we now give them dry food and TJ is back on his insulin 2x a day 2 units. To start as he went back to the vet for the first time in 4months and registered 433 at 6pm at night without his dinner. Now he seems to be so much worse though, very lethargic and peeing so much.

I tried home testing to no avail as TJ and I did not see eye to eye as he smacked me more than I could get an ear or paw. So luckily I have a great vet who does spot checks every week now to see how he is. He is 11 years old this year. My vet also heard that there has been issues with the Vetsilun consistency. Any one know about this?
Looking for some feedback on this as I am all up for the battle again but can't take the dry food away it was just too hard on everyone.

Thanks for any feedback you can give me and TJ.
 
hey there, you posted in the Think Tank part of the board and unfortunately it is not visited too too much. I would advise to post on the Health section of the board so as to make sure your questions get answered.

if TJ has been checked out and has no other illness going on that is causing the higher BG (infection for instance), then the dry food is probably why he has relapsed and unfortunately you will have to either transition the cats away from it before another one develops diabetes or live with the higher numbers and dose accordingly. unfortunately also, being able to hometest is even more pertinent in that situation because of the highs and lows you most likely will experience.

and yes, the FDA has issued a warning on the Vetsulin and vets have been advised to move their clients off it and to another insulin
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Can you tell us what dry food? Is it at least a low carb, grain free formula? Diabetes is a life-long condition, and when the cat becomes diet controlled, strict adherence to keeping the diet low in carbohydrates is necessary to make sure the BGs stay in the range that insulin is not needed. If the cats are hungry, you can free-feed with canned food.

If you cannot check his blood, please get some ketodiastix and check his urine. I am concerned about his lethargy- please watch very carefully for ketones.
 
Kathy, I am sorry to hear this, but it does happen. Beau was OTJ for about 3 months and got into some dinner rolls. It sent him back to insulin for 9 days before I could get him back off insulin. And Jeddie, who was OTJ in about a day after I adopted him and changed his diet in back on insulin after 4 months OTJ and I can't seem to get him really regulated.

Both of these guys started out on vetsulin, but I switched them to levemir. I credit lev with getting Beau OTJ. In two years we were never even close with vetsulin, but 3 mos on lev and he was OTJ. I have seen first hand how much better this insulin is than vetsulin - and that was before the issues with vetsulin. I would never give another cat vetsulin unless it was the only insulin the cat was not allergic to or something and I had no choice.

I am assuming that you got fresh insulin, so it is probably the dry food. To be blunt, you are feeding your cats feline twinkies and seeing the results. I know they "love" it, but children love chips and cookies, but that is not a good reason to feed them those foods. I strongly urge you to work again at transitioning all the cats away from dry or at the very least feed only small amounts of something like Innova Evo and mostly wet food. Beau was hard to transition, but not as hard as others here have had to work with, and I got him off dry in about a month. It made such a difference in his BG numbers - about 200 points.

Look into switching to either levemir or lantus and working on the dry food issue. If you need help with diet chnages, post your problems with switching them here on Health - there are many people here that can help you with that.
 
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