Sandycat
Member Since 2023
Hello everyone,
I've been browsing the forum on and off for the last month or so and have really appreciated some of the threads so thought I would sign up. I'm Anne and my 8 year old DSH, Sandy, was diagnosed with diabetes at the end of May. His story is a long and convoluted one so I'll try and give a condensed version here!
I adopted Sandy when he was 2.5 from a rescue. They found him stray and he had demonstrated significant skin allergies so the rescue had put him on steroid tablets (prednisolone), and he has been on those for several years at varying doses (typically 2.5-5mg a day) on vet and specialist dermatologist advice at the time. We identified some food allergies but struggled to keep him on a hydrolysed diet; we additionally identified dust and pollen allergies.
In November last year he got really poorly and was hospitalised for some time, was initially diagnosed with dry FIP but subsequently found to be hepatic cholangitis, which was succesfully treated with antibiotics. During this time his steroids were reduced to 0.25mg a day and his skin disease flared up as a result. The dermatologist then put him on a very high dose of steroids - 12mg a day at one stage - for about two months, and we believe that during this time, he developed diabetes, but the symptoms were not obvious because they are the same, in many cases, as the side effects of high dose steroids - increased hunger, thirst, etc. We also noticed that he was a little less steady on his feet but thought this was just part of his recovery from his illness. We also introduced Apoquel (off label) with the goal of reducing his steroids.
In May his movement worsened very quickly. On one day he lost the ability to jump. The next day he was wobbly on his feet and the third day he was barely walking at all. At this stage I took him back to the vet hospital and he was hospitalised for another 10 days while they diagnosed diabetes, and diabetic polyneuropathy in particular. He was started on ProZinc 2 units twice a day. During hospitalisation he was brought down to 0.25mg prednisolone a day.
We got him home in early June and since then he has improved significantly. We have removed the steroids completely and we are just about managing his allergies on Apoquel, and have also got him eating a hydrolysed diet (Hills z/d dry - not ideal for the diabetes, but necessary for the chronic skin issues). We are monitoring him continuously with a Freestyle Libre devide and his blood sugar has been coming down steadily. We have been at 0.5 units of ProZinc twice daily for just over a week now, so it looks as though he may be going into remission. Yesterday at shooting time (8pm) his blood sugar was only at 8, so I decided to skip the jab; he has had his morning jab and I'm waiting for a callback from the vet to confirm what we do next.
However, his polyneuropathy is continuing. It has improved significantly - he can move around the house, into the litter tray etc, but he is still wobbly and can't jump. I am giving him Zobaline with the hope that it will help him heal, but am aware this can be a slow recovery process and he may never recover his full movement.
That's it in a nutshell! I'm going to look at the spreadsheet next - my main concern at the moment is avoiding a hypo as his blood sugar comes down, but I am watching him like a hawk!
I've been browsing the forum on and off for the last month or so and have really appreciated some of the threads so thought I would sign up. I'm Anne and my 8 year old DSH, Sandy, was diagnosed with diabetes at the end of May. His story is a long and convoluted one so I'll try and give a condensed version here!
I adopted Sandy when he was 2.5 from a rescue. They found him stray and he had demonstrated significant skin allergies so the rescue had put him on steroid tablets (prednisolone), and he has been on those for several years at varying doses (typically 2.5-5mg a day) on vet and specialist dermatologist advice at the time. We identified some food allergies but struggled to keep him on a hydrolysed diet; we additionally identified dust and pollen allergies.
In November last year he got really poorly and was hospitalised for some time, was initially diagnosed with dry FIP but subsequently found to be hepatic cholangitis, which was succesfully treated with antibiotics. During this time his steroids were reduced to 0.25mg a day and his skin disease flared up as a result. The dermatologist then put him on a very high dose of steroids - 12mg a day at one stage - for about two months, and we believe that during this time, he developed diabetes, but the symptoms were not obvious because they are the same, in many cases, as the side effects of high dose steroids - increased hunger, thirst, etc. We also noticed that he was a little less steady on his feet but thought this was just part of his recovery from his illness. We also introduced Apoquel (off label) with the goal of reducing his steroids.
In May his movement worsened very quickly. On one day he lost the ability to jump. The next day he was wobbly on his feet and the third day he was barely walking at all. At this stage I took him back to the vet hospital and he was hospitalised for another 10 days while they diagnosed diabetes, and diabetic polyneuropathy in particular. He was started on ProZinc 2 units twice a day. During hospitalisation he was brought down to 0.25mg prednisolone a day.
We got him home in early June and since then he has improved significantly. We have removed the steroids completely and we are just about managing his allergies on Apoquel, and have also got him eating a hydrolysed diet (Hills z/d dry - not ideal for the diabetes, but necessary for the chronic skin issues). We are monitoring him continuously with a Freestyle Libre devide and his blood sugar has been coming down steadily. We have been at 0.5 units of ProZinc twice daily for just over a week now, so it looks as though he may be going into remission. Yesterday at shooting time (8pm) his blood sugar was only at 8, so I decided to skip the jab; he has had his morning jab and I'm waiting for a callback from the vet to confirm what we do next.
However, his polyneuropathy is continuing. It has improved significantly - he can move around the house, into the litter tray etc, but he is still wobbly and can't jump. I am giving him Zobaline with the hope that it will help him heal, but am aware this can be a slow recovery process and he may never recover his full movement.
That's it in a nutshell! I'm going to look at the spreadsheet next - my main concern at the moment is avoiding a hypo as his blood sugar comes down, but I am watching him like a hawk!
and then we stopped the pred. Shen was pre-diabetic I guess and the pred tipped him over the edge.
). It’s great that your vet is on board with you. I’m also hoping for a remission but I’m content with him being regulated on a micro dose too, so long as he doesn’t have any clinical symptoms. I’ve read that rushing into remission by dropping doses too quickly or dropping the insulin altogether sometimes makes it easier to come out of remission so I’m taking it slow.