Scott and Miko
Member Since 2024
Hello, sorry for the long story, but my soul cat, Miko, has had a lot of medical problems and recently had a glucose reading of 471. I'll try to make this as short as possible while hitting the important notes.
We adopted Miko in 2008 when he was three years old. I bought what I thought was good food (expensive kibble) and he gained a ton of weight. He ended up weighing 29.5 lbs and the vet said he was diabetic. Rather than give him insulin, I switched him to wet food to see if his values would come down. It took almost two years to get him only on wet food but we did it. I tested his glucose at home during this time, and his numbers were normal pretty much the whole time.
He also has FLUTD. He's blocked several times (even on the prescription diet) and has need to be hospitalized. We found that Prednisolone worked to calm his bladder. Initially we only gave him the Pred when he was showing signs of blocking, but eventually it became 5 mg of Pred everyday for the last 10 years.
Since March of this year he has had a recurrent UTI. We were prescribed Orbax the first two times. They also diagnosed him with CKD based on his SDMA levels and later BUN levels. Phosphorus has always been in range. Glucose was slightly elevated (around 200), but that is normal for him at the vet so they weren't concerned.
Each time he tested negative for a UTI at the end of the meds, but a week later the infection was back. The third time we had a sterile collection at the vet. He is fractious at the vet so they told us to give him 100 mg of gabapentin the night before and the morning of the appointment. He suffered severe ataxia and couldn't stand on his own. We switched his to Royal Canin Renal E wet food for the CKD diagnosis. They cultured his urine, found ecoli, and switched his antibiotic to Clavacillian. He did not do well on the Clavacillian and quit eating entirely. The only food I could get him to eat was dry renal food. We took him off Clavacillian, back on Orbax, and he started eating wet food again. His back legs would work, but he was extremely wobbly and stopped doing stairs/jumping/etc.
Miko collapsed and we took him to an emergency vet where they diagnosed him with IVDD based on xrays. For two weeks we had another vet do home visits for laser treatment for his back. That seemed to make a slight improvement is his mobility and he seemed to be doing a little better.
We went out of town for one week and the person who fed him said that he was wobbly, but he was still moving on his own. They also said neither cat was eating very much and only pooped twice whil we were gone.
We got home on Saturday and noticed he was having a hard time moving. We gave him Miralax to see if he would poop (he did!). We also made the mistake of giving him 0.1 ml of gabapentin to see if it would help his mobility. He has been moving less over the last couple of days after the gabapentin, and now he can't stand or walk without me holding his hips straight.
I collected a urine sample yesterday, and there was a lot of blood protein, and glucose. The mobile vet did a laser treatment yesterday too, and I asked about diabetic neuropathy. They checked his glucose and it was 471. We had blood tests earlier today and the glucose was lower (320?). and have another appointment with the regular vet in a couple of hours.
Last night I rubbed a small amount of Mirataz on Miko's ear to help with his appetite. Today we bought low carb, low phosphorus wet food that he actually ate. We will continue feeding that food and discontinue the renal food. The vet advised us to start tapering off the steroid because steroids can cause diabetes. The rate they suggested is 2.5 mg per day for one week, then 2.5 mg every other day for two weeks, then nothing.
Some of my question are:
Is this the correct rate for tapering off long-term steroid use?
Is there anything else I can do right now? I ordered zobaline, but it won't be here until next week.
Can we expect Miko to regain the use of his back legs if we get the glucose under control? He did not have keytones in his urine.
I feel like a failure and I should have prevented this if I was a better pet parent. Any other words of wisdom/support/etc. are appreciated.
We adopted Miko in 2008 when he was three years old. I bought what I thought was good food (expensive kibble) and he gained a ton of weight. He ended up weighing 29.5 lbs and the vet said he was diabetic. Rather than give him insulin, I switched him to wet food to see if his values would come down. It took almost two years to get him only on wet food but we did it. I tested his glucose at home during this time, and his numbers were normal pretty much the whole time.
He also has FLUTD. He's blocked several times (even on the prescription diet) and has need to be hospitalized. We found that Prednisolone worked to calm his bladder. Initially we only gave him the Pred when he was showing signs of blocking, but eventually it became 5 mg of Pred everyday for the last 10 years.
Since March of this year he has had a recurrent UTI. We were prescribed Orbax the first two times. They also diagnosed him with CKD based on his SDMA levels and later BUN levels. Phosphorus has always been in range. Glucose was slightly elevated (around 200), but that is normal for him at the vet so they weren't concerned.
Each time he tested negative for a UTI at the end of the meds, but a week later the infection was back. The third time we had a sterile collection at the vet. He is fractious at the vet so they told us to give him 100 mg of gabapentin the night before and the morning of the appointment. He suffered severe ataxia and couldn't stand on his own. We switched his to Royal Canin Renal E wet food for the CKD diagnosis. They cultured his urine, found ecoli, and switched his antibiotic to Clavacillian. He did not do well on the Clavacillian and quit eating entirely. The only food I could get him to eat was dry renal food. We took him off Clavacillian, back on Orbax, and he started eating wet food again. His back legs would work, but he was extremely wobbly and stopped doing stairs/jumping/etc.
Miko collapsed and we took him to an emergency vet where they diagnosed him with IVDD based on xrays. For two weeks we had another vet do home visits for laser treatment for his back. That seemed to make a slight improvement is his mobility and he seemed to be doing a little better.
We went out of town for one week and the person who fed him said that he was wobbly, but he was still moving on his own. They also said neither cat was eating very much and only pooped twice whil we were gone.
We got home on Saturday and noticed he was having a hard time moving. We gave him Miralax to see if he would poop (he did!). We also made the mistake of giving him 0.1 ml of gabapentin to see if it would help his mobility. He has been moving less over the last couple of days after the gabapentin, and now he can't stand or walk without me holding his hips straight.
I collected a urine sample yesterday, and there was a lot of blood protein, and glucose. The mobile vet did a laser treatment yesterday too, and I asked about diabetic neuropathy. They checked his glucose and it was 471. We had blood tests earlier today and the glucose was lower (320?). and have another appointment with the regular vet in a couple of hours.
Last night I rubbed a small amount of Mirataz on Miko's ear to help with his appetite. Today we bought low carb, low phosphorus wet food that he actually ate. We will continue feeding that food and discontinue the renal food. The vet advised us to start tapering off the steroid because steroids can cause diabetes. The rate they suggested is 2.5 mg per day for one week, then 2.5 mg every other day for two weeks, then nothing.
Some of my question are:
Is this the correct rate for tapering off long-term steroid use?
Is there anything else I can do right now? I ordered zobaline, but it won't be here until next week.
Can we expect Miko to regain the use of his back legs if we get the glucose under control? He did not have keytones in his urine.
I feel like a failure and I should have prevented this if I was a better pet parent. Any other words of wisdom/support/etc. are appreciated.
