Introducing Bama

[Bama]

I signed up for FDMB as soon as the vet suspected Bama might have diabetes but I have been a lurker until now.

Bama is a 11 year old DLH. I adopted Bama as a kitten from a veterinary clinic in August 2003. Her mother was brought in as part of the trap neuter release program while she was pregnant and they were able to socialize her and her kittens enough to adopt them all out. Bama is a sweetie but she is not the brightest... I've come to find there are benefits to living with a dumb nice cat. She doesn't get into much trouble and it's pretty easy to outsmart her when necessary. :lol: Everyone loves her, even her vet, and she never gives anyone any trouble.

Bama had the obvious signs for diabetes but my husband and I only realized it after her diagnosis. She was drinking and urinating more but we brushed it off and attributed it to the super low humidity in the winter. She also looked like she had lost some weight but she recently had a lion cut and we thought that was why she looked smaller. She has been overweight for years and her max weight was 17-18lbs. She has been on a diet without much success so weight loss would be welcomed. I took her to the vet when she suddenly had no interest in food, she has always been obsessed with food so this was a big red flag. Our vet was pretty sure it was diabetes and the urine/blood test results confirmed it.

Bama was diagnosed with diabetes on 3/12/14 and was started on ProZinc that evening.

As I got Bama eating again with the help of insulin I started to change her diet from Purina DM dry to wet food and settled on Fancy Feast classics as it has helped so many diabetic kitties before her. She prescribed Purina DM dry in 2011 for colitis.

After a few weeks Bama started to feel much better and started acting 5 years younger. She went from not wanting to play with a toy if it went out of reach to jumping and pouncing and practically doing backflips. She is also doing a much better job at grooming herself, she has had problems in the past due to her size.

Bama is looking like she might be able to go OTJ very soon! Fingers and paws crossed! Changing her diet has helped immensely. I think the combination of diet change and weight loss has helped her get to a point where she is starting to be able to regulate herself.

I know some of the things I have done so far with her treatment were not ideal and perhaps a bad idea but I'm still trying to find our way. Our vet is much more familiar in diabetes in dogs than cats so while he has been helpful some of his recommendations have not been as helpful as the information I found at FDMB and the other sites that have been suggested here. The good news is our vet is very open to new information and truly cares for all of the animals he sees.

Thank you for all of the help you have unknowingly provided us!

-Liz

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

What a great job you have done! It is always nice to know that lurkers do use the protocol and that it works! Her numbers are looking very good! It may be that she continues to drop, which would be wonderful. For reference, we consider a cat in remission if they range from 40-120 for two weeks, without insulin.

If she sneaks up into the 140 and higher range, it may be that you will need to give her mini doses. That are easiest if you switch to U100 needles so you can shoot doses like .2, .4 or even .1 You can use your U40 ProZinc insulin with U100 needles by using a conversion chart:

Conversion chart

Here is some info on mini dosing:

When your cat is consistently in numbers too low to shoot at shot time and in numbers in the 100 range and below during the cycle, you can consider micro dosing. This process should be guided on the forum by experienced members and will require more frequent testing.

You may be shooting at times other than the 12/12 schedule, when the blood glucose levels rise enough to require a small dose of insulin. You will need to pick a number somewhere near the 150 range at which you will plan to shoot, being sure that the number is indeed rising. The dose at these low numbers will vary with each cat and its patterns, so advice should be solicited. But you may be considering doses below .25 and even considering a “drop” of insulin. At this point, U100 needles and the conversion chart will be necessary.

It is important during this period to offer small frequent meals. You may want to experiment with the lowest carb foods to help bring down the numbers, staying away from seafood more than once or twice a week.

Another thing that can sometimes help is to feed small mini meals, to help support her pancreas. An automatic feeder can be helpful for this.

Congrats on your fast path to remission and I hope she continues on this lovely blue and green path!

 

[Bama]

Bama is pretty good about regulating her food into mini meals by herself but sometimes she is better than others. I will switch her to a more regulated mini meal schedule until she stabilizes.

I haven't done any research on mini dosing yet, I will head over to the PZI forum to learn more.

Thank you!