CCG
Member Since 2019
Hi all,
Thanks in advance for reading our story and offering advice.
I am posting about my 11 year old baby, Ty, who was diagnosed with diabetes in February of this year (2019). We took him in after he suddenly was clumsy/unable to use his hind legs (which we now know is diabetic neuropathy).
Ty has had two (4-5 day) stays in the emergency clinic because of DKA in the last two months. He is currently back home now and seemingly doing well, but I am posting to get advice. We are doing EVERYTHING we can to help him, and both veterinarians he has seen don't have much more information to offer us. I will now tell his story and am hoping that others have been in a similar situation and might be able to offer guidance. Between these two stays and his other visits/routine care, we have now spent over $10,000 in the last several months and financially we cannot afford for this to happen again. I can't stand the thought of putting my baby down if this happens again - especially for a theoretically "treatable" condition - so all thoughts are appreciated.
Upon original diagnosis, our family vet recommended that he start on 1 unit of insulin 2x/day. We started on Humulin N. He had no ketones at the time of diagnosis. At this time I did not know that I could monitor his blood sugar, etc. at home, so we mainly monitored clinical symptoms (his neuropathy, frequency of urination, amount he was drinking and how much he was eating). He did not seem to be doing much better so the vet recommended we increase to 2 units 2x/day. We went on like this for awhile, seeing some? improvements (not many) until all of a sudden in late April. We left for a short, four-day vacation and one day into it our pet sitter called and said that Ty was lethargic, vomiting, and not eating. She took him into the vet office and they found that his ketones were high, so she immediately rushed him to an emergency clinic near us. He stayed for five days and the bill was nearly $6,000. But, his ketones were gone.
After the emergency visit, an internist who started seeing him (works at the emergency hospital) made a few recommendations in conjunction with our family vet. First, we started him on Lantus (glargine) instead of Humulin. Second, we went back to 1 unit 2x/day. They suspected that Ty's glucose levels had been too high for too long and ultimately led to ketones. They also suspected that we were giving him TOO MUCH insulin and that his body was responding by spiking his blood sugar to try to avoid hypoglycemia. Ty seemed to be doing OK, but his clinical symptoms weren't significantly better. At this point, I also started checking his blood sugar at least 2x/day and testing for ketones once a week (urine strip). We did a glucose curve at home 14 days after he was released from the hospital and both of our veterinarians became slightly concerned that the "somogyi" effect was occurring -- same thing, that we were potentially giving him too much insulin. After this, we reduced his insulin dose to 1 unit, 1x/day (morning).
After this reduction, Ty seemed to be doing much better. Drinking less, urinating less; his neuropathy wasn't gone, but improved. He wasn't totally back to his old self, but as close as we had seen him since diagnosis. My husband had even commented that he seemed much better.
I tested for ketones last Sunday, and the test was negative. We had a normal week. Ty's blood glucose levels remained anywhere from high-200s to mid-400s. We were told this is OK as long as clinical symptoms seemed better. Then, out of nowhere, I woke up on Friday morning at 5am because he was vomiting bile. He seemed lethargic. He would still eat a bit and drink, but it was a very sudden shift in his behavior. I immediately suspected ketones and kept an eye on him throughout the day. I wanted to rush him in, but since we had just spent all of our savings, I decided to monitor for a little bit. He wasn't improving. By Saturday morning I was able to get a urine analysis done and his ketone levels were high. I took him into the hospital and he stayed until Tuesday. They were again able to reduce his ketone levels to negative, but we again paid close to $5,000 for his care. The veterinarians taking care of him have not been able to diagnose any underlying disease that could be leading to the rapid development of ketones -- he has a heart murmur, but no underlying heart failure, no kidney failure, no cancer. He had an abdominal ultrasound and his liver was slightly enlarged but they attributed that to the diabetes. They said it was possible that there was an acute case of pancreatitis, or some kind of GI flare-up that caused ketone development, but that was just speculation because they WEREN'T seeing anything else. But they couldn't offer much else and told us to keep doing what we are doing.
All of that said, we cannot afford for this to happen again. Ty is my baby, and I want to do everything that I can to help him. I cannot stand the thought of putting him down, especially when he is only 11 years old and seemingly doesn't have anything else "more serious" going on than diabetes, which should, theoretically, be manageable. We are keeping our regimen as it is for now, but I am so worried about this happening again. Is there anything else that could be going on with him that I'm missing? Is there anything else that I could be doing to help him?
Thank you.
PS - Some additional details:
-Ty eats Fancy Feast (classic pate) at 7am and 7pm. I have been giving him 1 1/2 to 2 cans per meal and he will usually eat all of it. He has never really been overweight and has lost a lot of weight because of the diabetes (he is down to 9.7 pounds; his healthy weight is probably in the 12-13 range).
-I give Ty his insulin 20 minutes after breakfast every morning. He is a true trooper and is SO good about letting me check his sugars and give him his shot.
-I have been checking for ketones every week, but am going to change that to every other day for now.
-We have two other pets (a cat and a dog, both healthy) in the house. They all get along and have co-existed for years together.
Thanks in advance for reading our story and offering advice.
I am posting about my 11 year old baby, Ty, who was diagnosed with diabetes in February of this year (2019). We took him in after he suddenly was clumsy/unable to use his hind legs (which we now know is diabetic neuropathy).
Ty has had two (4-5 day) stays in the emergency clinic because of DKA in the last two months. He is currently back home now and seemingly doing well, but I am posting to get advice. We are doing EVERYTHING we can to help him, and both veterinarians he has seen don't have much more information to offer us. I will now tell his story and am hoping that others have been in a similar situation and might be able to offer guidance. Between these two stays and his other visits/routine care, we have now spent over $10,000 in the last several months and financially we cannot afford for this to happen again. I can't stand the thought of putting my baby down if this happens again - especially for a theoretically "treatable" condition - so all thoughts are appreciated.
Upon original diagnosis, our family vet recommended that he start on 1 unit of insulin 2x/day. We started on Humulin N. He had no ketones at the time of diagnosis. At this time I did not know that I could monitor his blood sugar, etc. at home, so we mainly monitored clinical symptoms (his neuropathy, frequency of urination, amount he was drinking and how much he was eating). He did not seem to be doing much better so the vet recommended we increase to 2 units 2x/day. We went on like this for awhile, seeing some? improvements (not many) until all of a sudden in late April. We left for a short, four-day vacation and one day into it our pet sitter called and said that Ty was lethargic, vomiting, and not eating. She took him into the vet office and they found that his ketones were high, so she immediately rushed him to an emergency clinic near us. He stayed for five days and the bill was nearly $6,000. But, his ketones were gone.
After the emergency visit, an internist who started seeing him (works at the emergency hospital) made a few recommendations in conjunction with our family vet. First, we started him on Lantus (glargine) instead of Humulin. Second, we went back to 1 unit 2x/day. They suspected that Ty's glucose levels had been too high for too long and ultimately led to ketones. They also suspected that we were giving him TOO MUCH insulin and that his body was responding by spiking his blood sugar to try to avoid hypoglycemia. Ty seemed to be doing OK, but his clinical symptoms weren't significantly better. At this point, I also started checking his blood sugar at least 2x/day and testing for ketones once a week (urine strip). We did a glucose curve at home 14 days after he was released from the hospital and both of our veterinarians became slightly concerned that the "somogyi" effect was occurring -- same thing, that we were potentially giving him too much insulin. After this, we reduced his insulin dose to 1 unit, 1x/day (morning).
After this reduction, Ty seemed to be doing much better. Drinking less, urinating less; his neuropathy wasn't gone, but improved. He wasn't totally back to his old self, but as close as we had seen him since diagnosis. My husband had even commented that he seemed much better.
I tested for ketones last Sunday, and the test was negative. We had a normal week. Ty's blood glucose levels remained anywhere from high-200s to mid-400s. We were told this is OK as long as clinical symptoms seemed better. Then, out of nowhere, I woke up on Friday morning at 5am because he was vomiting bile. He seemed lethargic. He would still eat a bit and drink, but it was a very sudden shift in his behavior. I immediately suspected ketones and kept an eye on him throughout the day. I wanted to rush him in, but since we had just spent all of our savings, I decided to monitor for a little bit. He wasn't improving. By Saturday morning I was able to get a urine analysis done and his ketone levels were high. I took him into the hospital and he stayed until Tuesday. They were again able to reduce his ketone levels to negative, but we again paid close to $5,000 for his care. The veterinarians taking care of him have not been able to diagnose any underlying disease that could be leading to the rapid development of ketones -- he has a heart murmur, but no underlying heart failure, no kidney failure, no cancer. He had an abdominal ultrasound and his liver was slightly enlarged but they attributed that to the diabetes. They said it was possible that there was an acute case of pancreatitis, or some kind of GI flare-up that caused ketone development, but that was just speculation because they WEREN'T seeing anything else. But they couldn't offer much else and told us to keep doing what we are doing.
All of that said, we cannot afford for this to happen again. Ty is my baby, and I want to do everything that I can to help him. I cannot stand the thought of putting him down, especially when he is only 11 years old and seemingly doesn't have anything else "more serious" going on than diabetes, which should, theoretically, be manageable. We are keeping our regimen as it is for now, but I am so worried about this happening again. Is there anything else that could be going on with him that I'm missing? Is there anything else that I could be doing to help him?
Thank you.
PS - Some additional details:
-Ty eats Fancy Feast (classic pate) at 7am and 7pm. I have been giving him 1 1/2 to 2 cans per meal and he will usually eat all of it. He has never really been overweight and has lost a lot of weight because of the diabetes (he is down to 9.7 pounds; his healthy weight is probably in the 12-13 range).
-I give Ty his insulin 20 minutes after breakfast every morning. He is a true trooper and is SO good about letting me check his sugars and give him his shot.
-I have been checking for ketones every week, but am going to change that to every other day for now.
-We have two other pets (a cat and a dog, both healthy) in the house. They all get along and have co-existed for years together.
