Lacy
Member Since 2020
Hi everyone. My name is Lacy and my cat is Saff (short for Sapphire). We've been on a rollercoaster since she was diagnosed in March. I'll give as much information as I can here while I work on getting the spreadsheet together. I'd love to hear thoughts on our experience so far.
We adopted Saff in 11/2018 as a rescue. There was no way to determine her age at the time. Two vets estimated 6 years old, another vet suspected she was closer to 10 years old at the time. So as of right now, we can only assume she is approximately 7.5-11.5 years old. She was very overweight when we got her and was tested for thyroid issues and diabetes, but everything came back negative. She does have Herpes which causes her to have some sneezing spells, but she has only had one upper respiratory infection that required antibiotics in the 1.5 years that we've had her. When she gets "sneezy" we give her a supplement, Viralys, with her evening meal for a few days until she recovers. She also has alopecia. She had many bald spots when we got her, but her hair growth has fully recovered at this point. She wasn't given any specific treatment for this. We believe it was stress induced and once she settled in with her new family, she recovered.
In early March 2020, we began to notice that Saff was drinking a lot, seemed significantly hungrier than usual, but also began losing weight quickly. Which didn't make any sense to us. She was eating and drinking more, but losing weight at the same time. Since she was so fluffy before, she looked healthier with the weight loss for a short period, but eventually we got worried. We got her to the vet and she was diagnosed with diabetes. They also tested for thyroid issues again and nothing came up.
Saff's glucose numbers at the time were in the upper 400s. We immediately began treatment with Glargine 1 unit twice daily. We also got a Freestyle Libre to check her numbers throughout the day. It only lasted a week, but numbers didn't move out of the 400s. Each week we would do a recheck with the vet and the dose would be upped slowly by 1 unit. We also changed her diet to Purina DM wet, 1 can in the morning, 1 can in the evening. After many weeks, Saff was up to taking 5 units of Glargine twice daily with no change in her numbers; they were consistently in the 400s. She was struggling to get urine inside the litter box, but she was close to it. She gained some weight after losing so much and was in a healthy weight range. She looked much better, but was still starving and drinking so much.
The vet decided to take another approach after little to no success with Glargine. We stopped the Glargine and used no insulin for 3 days. She then started Vetsulin 1 unit twice daily. Her numbers got into the 500s and she started having problems with incontinence. She was no longer even near the litter box and she lost a full pound. Last week the vet put her dose to 3 units of Vetsulin twice daily. Her last checkin was yesterday and she clocked in at 422. Since the increase, she has been making it to the litter box again, so that is an improvement. But, still starving, still thirsty.
Questions -
Testing. We used the Freestlye Libre twice. It is supposed to last for a 2 week period, but we only got it to work for 1 week each time. I recently purchased a human glucose meter, CVS Advanced ProHealth. I had the vet test it yesterday against their own testing and it was almost 100 points off. Their reading was 422, the CVS meter was 335. What are the at-home monitors that seem to work best for you? I would rather test her at home than bring her to the vet once a week for their testing.
Routine. We feed Saff twice at day at the Vets recommendation. Once at 9:00am, once at 5:00pm. We originally gave insulin about 15-30 minutes after her meals, but switched to doing every 12 hours - 9:30am and 9:30pm. Is this the route we should take? The vet mentioned we could give her a half can snack or dry food snack at lunchtime. We don't give her hard food since she's never done well with it, but will sometimes give her a mid-day snack. I'm unsure if this is helpful or not.
Any additional advice would be great. I just don't know what to do to help her. We've tried everything the Vet has told us to do without much luck. The only progress we've seen has been with her weight. Her numbers just won't come down. Hopefully we will see more success with Vetsulin.
We adopted Saff in 11/2018 as a rescue. There was no way to determine her age at the time. Two vets estimated 6 years old, another vet suspected she was closer to 10 years old at the time. So as of right now, we can only assume she is approximately 7.5-11.5 years old. She was very overweight when we got her and was tested for thyroid issues and diabetes, but everything came back negative. She does have Herpes which causes her to have some sneezing spells, but she has only had one upper respiratory infection that required antibiotics in the 1.5 years that we've had her. When she gets "sneezy" we give her a supplement, Viralys, with her evening meal for a few days until she recovers. She also has alopecia. She had many bald spots when we got her, but her hair growth has fully recovered at this point. She wasn't given any specific treatment for this. We believe it was stress induced and once she settled in with her new family, she recovered.
In early March 2020, we began to notice that Saff was drinking a lot, seemed significantly hungrier than usual, but also began losing weight quickly. Which didn't make any sense to us. She was eating and drinking more, but losing weight at the same time. Since she was so fluffy before, she looked healthier with the weight loss for a short period, but eventually we got worried. We got her to the vet and she was diagnosed with diabetes. They also tested for thyroid issues again and nothing came up.
Saff's glucose numbers at the time were in the upper 400s. We immediately began treatment with Glargine 1 unit twice daily. We also got a Freestyle Libre to check her numbers throughout the day. It only lasted a week, but numbers didn't move out of the 400s. Each week we would do a recheck with the vet and the dose would be upped slowly by 1 unit. We also changed her diet to Purina DM wet, 1 can in the morning, 1 can in the evening. After many weeks, Saff was up to taking 5 units of Glargine twice daily with no change in her numbers; they were consistently in the 400s. She was struggling to get urine inside the litter box, but she was close to it. She gained some weight after losing so much and was in a healthy weight range. She looked much better, but was still starving and drinking so much.
The vet decided to take another approach after little to no success with Glargine. We stopped the Glargine and used no insulin for 3 days. She then started Vetsulin 1 unit twice daily. Her numbers got into the 500s and she started having problems with incontinence. She was no longer even near the litter box and she lost a full pound. Last week the vet put her dose to 3 units of Vetsulin twice daily. Her last checkin was yesterday and she clocked in at 422. Since the increase, she has been making it to the litter box again, so that is an improvement. But, still starving, still thirsty.
Questions -
Testing. We used the Freestlye Libre twice. It is supposed to last for a 2 week period, but we only got it to work for 1 week each time. I recently purchased a human glucose meter, CVS Advanced ProHealth. I had the vet test it yesterday against their own testing and it was almost 100 points off. Their reading was 422, the CVS meter was 335. What are the at-home monitors that seem to work best for you? I would rather test her at home than bring her to the vet once a week for their testing.
Routine. We feed Saff twice at day at the Vets recommendation. Once at 9:00am, once at 5:00pm. We originally gave insulin about 15-30 minutes after her meals, but switched to doing every 12 hours - 9:30am and 9:30pm. Is this the route we should take? The vet mentioned we could give her a half can snack or dry food snack at lunchtime. We don't give her hard food since she's never done well with it, but will sometimes give her a mid-day snack. I'm unsure if this is helpful or not.
Any additional advice would be great. I just don't know what to do to help her. We've tried everything the Vet has told us to do without much luck. The only progress we've seen has been with her weight. Her numbers just won't come down. Hopefully we will see more success with Vetsulin.
I am going to try to answer all of your questions without overwhelming you, okay? If you need clarification on anything just ask.
Basically Lacy, lows numbers are important to know about - high is just high, you don't change how you handle it. 
I still don't think she was a good choice for Panic in the end, but she let me run the show and that's what Panic needed. If your current vet isn't willing to work with you about food/insulin changes, yes I would ditch. You hold the syringe, you pay for the food, you are in charge! 
It's not unusual but it is discouraging when the doctor doesn't know what they're talking about!