New (ish) diagnosis

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Ruefrex

Member Since 2014
First of all, although this is my first post I've been reading the board (and other sites like Catinfo) since my cat Travis was diagnosed, so thank you VERY much for all of the fantastic information! Travis (he's 11) was diagnosed three weeks ago. I'd taken him in for something else (a cyst that turned out to be benign) but wanted to get blood and urine checked because he'd been drinking more and peeing more. Lucky for me that I did that! Now, the vet DID have me put him on a senior diet back in January because he'd gained a little weight. I'm wondering if this contributed to the diabetes, since he'd really been fine before that.

The vet (who's been marvelous, BTW, always accessible by e-mail and phone) put him on one unit of Lantus twice a day. I also spent forty bucks on the Purina DM dry food (siiigh). Travis isn't a wet food fan, and I'd been giving him half a can of Fancy Feast and the dry food at night. But when I found Catinfo, I decided to try switching him to wet food, just to see if that would make a difference (I did check with the vet, too). I switched him that weekend and combined with the insulin, started to notice a reduction in drinking and peeing. HE wasn't very happy about it, but eventually his tiny cat brain forgot about the dry food.

I got the AlphaTrak2, stuck the poor cat full of holes, and finally got to where I can usually get a sample the first or second time. I did a glucose curve at home ten days after the diagnosis. While I could have left him at the vet for the day, there was no way. He gets WAY too upset and I wanted to make sure the readings wouldn't be affected by that. E-mailed with the vet all day and given the readings, he didn't get any insulin that night. I continued to check on the schedule the vet wanted, and he hasn't gone above whichever number the vet would give me (adjusting downwards, I suspect, given the readings). So he's been off insulin for a week and a half, and today the vet said to go to once a week readings.

While I am relieved, I also want to be prepared. I've read a little about remission, etc, and I don't want to get complacent with him. I also don't want to get overloaded with info. I'll probably check more than once a week just for my own sanity. Just curious to hear from others who've been in this position about what I can expect. How long can he reasonably stay off insulin? Is there anything else I could be doing to ensure that?

I really appreciate this community. The food guidelines alone have been amazing. I always have my food list with me now!

Thanks in advance for any advice you guys can give me...

:-)

Kay
 
While I am relieved, I also want to be prepared. I've read a little about remission, etc, and I don't want to get complacent with him. I also don't want to get overloaded with info. I'll probably check more than once a week just for my own sanity. Just curious to hear from others who've been in this position about what I can expect.
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Hi Kay and sugardude Travis and welcome to the message board.

How long can he reasonably stay off insulin?
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ECID. Every Cat is Different. My Wink has been diet controlled for 13 months now. Hillary's Maui was OTJ for 4+ years. That means their BG readings on a human meter were consistently between 40-120 mg/dL.

Is there anything else I could be doing to ensure that?
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Watch his weight, keep up the low-carb food, be careful of steroids, get any dental work done as needed, be aware when he is not acting right and maybe do a few more tests. Loss of remission (diet controlled) is usually caused by pancreatitis, hyperthyroidism. overweight. A 4th cause that we have seen here on the message board is dental disease.
 
See my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for a bunch of ways to stay on top of your cat's health, not just the diabetes.
 
Thank you guys so much! I'm printing out the monitoring tools. The vet hasn't had me testing his urine (the cat's, not the vet's) but I'll ask him about that. I'm also going to get a scale so I can weigh him. He was a little overweight in January. When I took him back three weeks ago he had lost a pound. He looks like he's at a healthy weight but I'll keep monitoring that. I think now that he's off of dry food, that will be easier. He's never had his teeth cleaned but the vet said they look good so far. I did get a cat toothbrush to try. We'll see how THAT goes!

Really appreciate the fabulous advice. It also helped when I was struggling with trying to get a glucose reading from the ear. My cat is a friggin' saint.
 
Ketones are the most important thing to test. It indicates fat breakdown for calories which can mean not enough insulin is available. Too many ketones may signal diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a potentially fatal, expensive to treat complication of diabetes.

Note that urine testing only tells you what has happened since the previous void, not what the glucose or ketone level in the blood is. There are some ketone blood testing meters (ex Nova Max0; these tend to have pricey test strips. They are most worthwhile when a cat has already had a DKA episode.
 
I asked my vet about monitoring the ketones and he said that it's not necessary unless Travis gets sick all of a sudden. And when I took him in I did get a blood and urine culture done. I'm bookmarking all of this, though, for future need. I always want to DO something but it seems like doing the glucose tests, keeping him off the dry food and monitoring weight, water intake and urine output seems to be the best thing to do at the moment!
 
I would return the dry food to the vet and say he won't eat it. They will take it back and refund you (manufacturers guarantee)

Tips to stay OTJ

We say a cat is in remission if the cat can maintain BG levels for 14 days between 40-120 with most of that spent under 100. However, please keep in mind that once a diabetic always a diabetic.

1. Never feed dry - not even treats. If you change wet food types, be 100% sure the new food is also low carb and same low carb % as your current food. Some cats are very carb sensitive and an increase from 3-6% to 8-10% can spike the BG’s. Don’t feed if you aren’t sure!
2. Weigh every 2 weeks to 1 month to watch for weight changes. Too much of a weight gain can cause loss of remission.
3. Measure blood once a week, indefinitely. You want to catch a relapse quickly.
4. No steroids or oral meds with sugar - remind your vet whenever giving you any medication. Always double check.
5. Monitor food intake, peeing and drinking. If increasing, a sign of losing remission.
6. Regular vet checks for infection such as dental , ear or UTI. And get them treated quick!

If he does fall out of remission you need to be more aggressive and resolve issues/ back on insulin as soon as possible as the window for a second remission is tight if any.

Wendy
 
Thank you, Wendy! I did buy a scale and will be weighing him. I am absolutely NOT giving him anything dry, and the only food I'm buying is from the list on this site. I'm using the AlphaTrak2 and at the moment, the vet has me checking once a week and I'm to let him know if the number goes above 150. I'm going to alternate checking in the morning and at night twice a week for now. I really appreciate all the fantastic advice. Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope I don't need you guys <g>. My vet seems pretty convinced that this is temporary, though, so I'm staying especially vigilant. But I know we caught it early and I'm wondering how many cats stay on insulin because they're also eating the diabetic dry food.
 
Ok then I revise my tips since the alphatrak measures differently - instead of 40-120 , its 80-160

It depends on what caused the diabetes in the first place and how diligent you are whether the remission lasts. Fingers crossed - and if he does creep up again you need to get on top of it asap as a second remission is hard to achieve and requires very aggressive dosing.

Wendy
 
Thanks! I don't know how long he's been diabetic but I started noticing him drinking and peeing more about a week or so before I took him to the vet (for something different, but thank God it showed up or I don't know when I would have taken him). In January, the vet had me change him to a senior diet, which basically just meant getting the senior dry food. He'd gained a little weight (not obese but definitely needed to lose). So he was on that for about six weeks and then I noticed the water change. He hasn't been sick, and his teeth are fine.

I'm curious about whether or not the senior dry food caused it, or contributed to it. I'm hoping that he hasn't been diabetic too long, which I would expect gives him a better chance at remission. Now that I know what to look for, and what to feed him (not to mention the fact that I can test his blood at home), I'm hoping to be able to catch it ASAP.

I did have one question about the food. I've been feeding him the Fancy Feast classic but am also trying out TikiCat and some of the other brands on the list. Is it okay to go back and forth like that? They're all 5% carbs and under but some are lower than others. Do I have to stay strictly to one percentage? I'm not going to feed him anything about 5%, just to be on the safe side!

:-)
 
Sure it's ok to feed a variety of the low carb foods from the catinfo.org food chart. You said you were going to try to stay with 5% carbs and under. As long as you try for the foods 5% and under, you should be fine. Some cats can be a bit more sensitive to some of the higher carb foods, so if you decide to expand your selection of foods to the 6-10% carb range, you might want to test a bit to see what effect if any those slightly higher carb but still acceptable foods have on your kitty.

You said he was a bit overweight, and all the vet journal studies I've read indicate that as a major factor in insulin resistance and leading to feline diabetes. Good job on planning to get your kitty Travis to lose a bit of weight. That is sure to help him not only with the diabetes but with his overall health.
 
Just a note on pet foods: manufactures change batch components all the time, with certain ranges of the ingredients. This means that the food tables are from a single point in time and you can expect some variation batch to batch.

Check batch numbers regularly so that if you're feeding the same food, yet numbers jump up OR down, you may be able to identify what food may have contributed.

Also, sometimes a batch will make certain cats ill, even when it appears OK. Mel [MommaOfMuse] had nearly all of her cats become ill on a bad batch of food just this past winter. I had it happen a couple years ago, when I still had Spitzer.
 
That's scary about the food. I'll make sure to check. And he HAS lost weight. But now I am worried. My vet wants me to check his glucose once a week but I want to check more often. So I checked Saturday and it was good. I checked it just now and it's 174 (this is with the AlphaTrak). The vet wanted me to check again in 12 hours if it goes above 150. Does this rise ever happen with remission? He's been doing SO well and I'm just gutted by this...
 
He is an only cat, so he doesn't have access to anything. He is a nibbler, though, and he had some food left in his bowl so maybe he ate something too close to the test? I don't know if that would matter. But I tested him again in the morning and it was 95. The vet said to just keep him informed if it goes up that high again, and then to test 12 hours later. I know he's being cautious and doesn't want me to give him insulin if it's going to go down again. I'm still new at this and don't know what kind of fluctuations to expect, but I think it's good that it went down in the morning? I did have a total freak-out moment this morning, though. I'm sure this has happened to others. I got an error with the test strip, thought I'd just put it in wrong, then finally got it to work. And the number was 670! I hyperventilated, then decided to try it again and that's when I got the 95. I hadn't gotten a defective strip yet. That was terrifying!

So I'm hoping that the 174 number was just a momentary thing. This is NOT a fun rollercoaster, as I'm sure everyone on this board knows. I do watch him like a hawk, much to his chagrin, and he's just doing everything he normally does. Frankly, I'm shocked he's eating the canned food. I wish I'd known about all of this sooner and feel bad that I didn't check and just fed him dry food.
 
yeah today I got a 140 AMPS for Bailey which is low but I had a feeling the meter didn't get enough blood - which it seemed to think was ok though. So I tested again and got 405 . So best out of three and I tested again - 396. So the first time it really didn't have enough blood. Sometimes too much blood can be an issue too.
 
I'm using the AlphaTrak2. Is that an issue with the AlphaTrak? It just beeps at me and I thankfully release the kitty. I had SUCH a rough time (which from reading this board is pretty common) doing the testing at first. I punctured the heck out of his ears. But now I can usually get it on the first try, or at least by the third <g>.

I got the meter about five days after he was diagnosed and just did a once a day testing to get ready for Glucose Curve Day. He was at 327 on the first test, and then every day after that was lower. Five days after the first test I gave him his morning insulin and then started the curve. He hasn't had insulin since (almost three weeks now). His readings have ranged from 60 to the scary 173, but have usually been in the low 100s. He does tend to come out and nibble so I'm never sure how much he's had when I test him but it doesn't seem to be going up. Just tested him and it was 91.

I'm trying to find some kind of a pattern here but I think I'm out of luck! I know that for the AlphaTrak, 150 is basically the highest you want to get. But when he got the 173, the next time I tested him 12 hours later it was 95, so at least that pancreas is earning its keep!
 
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