I am glad to have found this forum. I can personally relate to the raw emotions felt by those who care for a hard-to-manage diabetic cat.
My cat, Lila, is 10 years old. She was diagnosed with diabetes just after she turned 8 years old. She was never fat, has been kept indoors and has always been provided with high quality food. Her vet believes she is more of a genetic diabetic than a Type 2. Consequently, she's been super hard to manage. She has had six hospital stays -- 4 of which she was officially is DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis). While she has never shown signs, we have been told she also has IBD. Plus, suffers from bouts of pancreatitis (though the enzymes never show in her bloodwork).
This said, she went nearly 20 months without a hospital stay and actually was in a relatively good place during that time. In fact, she was doing so well last summer, we opted to have some of her teeth extracted in September '15. Since that time, she has been very up and down -- starting with spiking a fever in October '15 and going into DKA. Her protocol has been:
* Lantus (5 units twice per day)
* Budeconide (.025 units once per day)
I've just added:
* Pepcid (1/4 tab once per day)
* Potassium supplement, as needed
* Mertazapine, when she is not eating well -- though she didn't have much in those 20 months she did well
My suspicion is that the budeconide is creating some negative side effects. But I cannot tell for sure and am told she needs it because of the IBD. Has anyone used budeconide but ultimately had to stop or swap? Also, has anyone found that cutting back on insulin over time had a positive effect? As a side, Lila will absolutely not eat a high protein diet -- and now prefers tiny little snacks of treats and wet food. If not provided in this fashion, she entirely stops eating.
My house cleaner said to me this morning, Lila is not going to live much longer. That was difficult to hear -- vet said she was in relatively good shape last Saturday. But it's been a tough week including one overnight hospital stay on Tuesday -- stopped eating and started burning ketones.
My cat, Lila, is 10 years old. She was diagnosed with diabetes just after she turned 8 years old. She was never fat, has been kept indoors and has always been provided with high quality food. Her vet believes she is more of a genetic diabetic than a Type 2. Consequently, she's been super hard to manage. She has had six hospital stays -- 4 of which she was officially is DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis). While she has never shown signs, we have been told she also has IBD. Plus, suffers from bouts of pancreatitis (though the enzymes never show in her bloodwork).
This said, she went nearly 20 months without a hospital stay and actually was in a relatively good place during that time. In fact, she was doing so well last summer, we opted to have some of her teeth extracted in September '15. Since that time, she has been very up and down -- starting with spiking a fever in October '15 and going into DKA. Her protocol has been:
* Lantus (5 units twice per day)
* Budeconide (.025 units once per day)
I've just added:
* Pepcid (1/4 tab once per day)
* Potassium supplement, as needed
* Mertazapine, when she is not eating well -- though she didn't have much in those 20 months she did well
My suspicion is that the budeconide is creating some negative side effects. But I cannot tell for sure and am told she needs it because of the IBD. Has anyone used budeconide but ultimately had to stop or swap? Also, has anyone found that cutting back on insulin over time had a positive effect? As a side, Lila will absolutely not eat a high protein diet -- and now prefers tiny little snacks of treats and wet food. If not provided in this fashion, she entirely stops eating.
My house cleaner said to me this morning, Lila is not going to live much longer. That was difficult to hear -- vet said she was in relatively good shape last Saturday. But it's been a tough week including one overnight hospital stay on Tuesday -- stopped eating and started burning ketones.
