MelanieJTN
New Member
Gizmo was diagnosed about 2 months ago and was quickly regulated on PZI (within a week). For the last month, he's been doing great (PS readings of 100-150) on 0.4U of PZI every 12 hours; we were even able to occasionally skip a cycle because he never got above 150. Despite my home monitoring and sharing my logs with him, the vet did a fructosamine test last week, and the result was 306. I think he said 201-301 was considered normal for a non-diabetic cat, and he said that he's never seen a result this good on a diabetic cat. He couldn't believe Giz was being regulated on such a low dose. He's also never had an educated owner doing home testing and feeding an all wet food diet thx to the support of this wonderful group. I felt like Gizmo was well on his way to remission, and the vet agreed that his pancreas must be healing.
Then, last Thursday, something really odd happened - he had diarrhea before bed. Overnight, he had diarrhea 4 more times and vomited a large amount. The next morning, he was wobbly and wouldn't eat. He always eats. So even though this numbers were good, off to the vet we went. The vet did blood work, urinalysis, and even a urine culture. Everything was normal. They gave him something to stop the diarrhea, fluids for dehydration, and appetite stimulant. The vet suspected pancreatitis but didn't do an ultrasound or the blood test for pancreatitis. They sent us home with fluids, which I'm comfortable giving, some additional appetite stimulant, antibiotics (in case the urine culture showed something) and no real answers. He did mention that Giz needs a dental cleaning and a possible extraction which I scheduled for 4 weeks later. Urine culture results came back today and were negative. The next day, Giz was back to his old self, and his BG was in the 150 range again.
Two days after the vet visit, his BG started climbing - readings in the mid 200s. 4 days later, he had his highest BG since the week he was diagnosed - 424. At that point, I increased his dose to 1u and that dropped him a little too low, so for the next week, I gave between 0.6-0.8u depending on the reading. He seems to respond better to consistent dosing rather than variable, so I stuck with 0.6u for 4 days. But that's giving him very high AMPS readings of 350-400, and PMPS readings of 200-280. Tonight, his PMPS was 319, so I'm going to try several days at 0.8u. I've also decided from what I've read here that he needs that dental sooner instead of later so will call the vet tomorrow to get that done ASAP.
So the advice my vet is giving for the dental is to give the PM shot as usual, fast after midnight, and no food and no shot the morning of the dental. Honestly, I have no confidence in my vet at this point when it comes to diabetes management, so I just want your advice on dental protocols for diabetic cats. Also, are there preferable antibiotics to use with diabetic cats?
I have read everything I can find on pancreatitis, including the sticky here, and am finding it very limited. I suspect that Gizmo's diabetes may have been brought on by pancreatitis that subsided allowing us to get great BG results on such a small dose of insulin. I suspect that this recent episode was a flare up of what is now a chronic pancreatitis, resulting in
much higher BG needing more insulin to regulate. I have ordered slippery elm powder (to make the syrup) and milk thistle along with FortiFlora. I am going to talk to the vet about an ultrasound and the specific blood test for pancreatitis to confirm the diagnosis. But I'd love to hear anyone else's experience with and tips around managing chronic pancreatitis and whether or not my theory sounds crazy.
Thanks,
Melanie & Gizmo (TN)
Then, last Thursday, something really odd happened - he had diarrhea before bed. Overnight, he had diarrhea 4 more times and vomited a large amount. The next morning, he was wobbly and wouldn't eat. He always eats. So even though this numbers were good, off to the vet we went. The vet did blood work, urinalysis, and even a urine culture. Everything was normal. They gave him something to stop the diarrhea, fluids for dehydration, and appetite stimulant. The vet suspected pancreatitis but didn't do an ultrasound or the blood test for pancreatitis. They sent us home with fluids, which I'm comfortable giving, some additional appetite stimulant, antibiotics (in case the urine culture showed something) and no real answers. He did mention that Giz needs a dental cleaning and a possible extraction which I scheduled for 4 weeks later. Urine culture results came back today and were negative. The next day, Giz was back to his old self, and his BG was in the 150 range again.
Two days after the vet visit, his BG started climbing - readings in the mid 200s. 4 days later, he had his highest BG since the week he was diagnosed - 424. At that point, I increased his dose to 1u and that dropped him a little too low, so for the next week, I gave between 0.6-0.8u depending on the reading. He seems to respond better to consistent dosing rather than variable, so I stuck with 0.6u for 4 days. But that's giving him very high AMPS readings of 350-400, and PMPS readings of 200-280. Tonight, his PMPS was 319, so I'm going to try several days at 0.8u. I've also decided from what I've read here that he needs that dental sooner instead of later so will call the vet tomorrow to get that done ASAP.
So the advice my vet is giving for the dental is to give the PM shot as usual, fast after midnight, and no food and no shot the morning of the dental. Honestly, I have no confidence in my vet at this point when it comes to diabetes management, so I just want your advice on dental protocols for diabetic cats. Also, are there preferable antibiotics to use with diabetic cats?
I have read everything I can find on pancreatitis, including the sticky here, and am finding it very limited. I suspect that Gizmo's diabetes may have been brought on by pancreatitis that subsided allowing us to get great BG results on such a small dose of insulin. I suspect that this recent episode was a flare up of what is now a chronic pancreatitis, resulting in
much higher BG needing more insulin to regulate. I have ordered slippery elm powder (to make the syrup) and milk thistle along with FortiFlora. I am going to talk to the vet about an ultrasound and the specific blood test for pancreatitis to confirm the diagnosis. But I'd love to hear anyone else's experience with and tips around managing chronic pancreatitis and whether or not my theory sounds crazy.
Thanks,
Melanie & Gizmo (TN)