New to board - wondering how often remission occurs?

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rantho

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Greeting fellow feline diabetes board members.

I'm pretty new to feline diabetes - my guy "Boy" (yes, that's his name) was diagnosed in mid Oct with BG levels in the 400's and even over 500 at one point. Spent 3 days in critical care - then home and change from dry kibble to Purina DM or the recommended types of fancy feast and started with Lantis of 1 unit bid. First curve he was still around 400 at each measure - so up to 2 units bid. next curve, still in the 300's so up to 2.5 units bid.

Then - on Friday afternoon - I did a random check at +4 hours after infection and got a reading of 49. A second check 4 hours later (so +8 from injection) at 47 so I called the vet and they said bring him in to check there. Tested at the vet +9 hours post injection of 58. received a very detailed instructions on how to proceed (which I'll post separately in case they are helpful to someone else) but basically he's been in the 70's all weekend with no insulin (he was on Lantis). I'm curious to know how often cat's go into remission. I got a laugh out to first instruction on the printed list from the vet - "Boy appears to be trying to go into remission". We've been encouraging him to keep "trying" all weekend. Thanks for any thoughts on similar experiences. I don't want to get my hopes to high -- but I'm feeling pretty optimisitic - although i've found that blood testing and insulin injections are pretty easy to handle - our only problem has been that we travel a lot so have had to board Boy a couple of times already instead of leaving him with our neighbors. the attached photo is just after he got home from urgent care - all shaved and goofy looking.
 

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It is more common here than not, I would say. It may take months and even years for some, but lots of kitties go into remission. With Oliver, he was on insulin for 6 months, then off for a year. After that year, he died at 16 of heart failure. But, once a diabetic, always a diabetic. They shouldn't eat dry food or high carb food again.
 
Of the diabetic cats that Diabetic Cats in Need has placed in the last year, from situations with often sub-optimal care to situations with experienced caregivers, the remission rate has been about 70-80% within a couple months. And some of those cats never had more than a couple of shots of insulin after leaving for their new homes.
 
I can attest to at least one of those cats. I adopted Max from DCIN a little over a month ago. He had exactly 7 1/2 days of insulin. 5 days at Claudia's while we arranged transport, and exactly 1 and 1/2 unit here before going into remission.

Max is about 12 years old, was a Katrina cat, then went to Mass in the Boston area where he was adopted by an elderly lady. His new mom went to a nursing home and he was scheduled to be PTS, before I adopted him. He was 485 at dx, now he is constantly in the mid 40s to mid 50s. We have no idea how long he was untreated for his diabetes, but he was so matted he had to be shaved...He is the same cat that is on my avatar.

Mel & Max
 
You'll find a lot of cats (and their keepers) here who followed the protocol here and went OTJ (= off the juice, or no futher need for insulin). Stinky was above 600 at dx and was in remission 2 weeks later. I hope you have read the food chart and will go on an ultra-low-carb wet variety rather than stay on D/M. Sorry if this was already asked, but are you planning to lower the dose moving forward? I would highly recommend you considering it.
 
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