Oh for GoodYikes! Bowie is scavenging for cookie crumbs...and I have 5 year old twins

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Bowie S. B. Otch

Bowie S. B. Otch

Member Since 2016
Bowie just started on insulin right before Christmas (Prozinc, started at 3U, 2x daily, recently bumped up to 4U 2x daily two days ago). He's never been one to go around the kitchen floor looking to eat food off the floor. In the past we always had a bowl of crunchies (Purina) available for him during the day, with 1/2 can of FF salmon as a treat for him and his older sis Maggie (she gets fed upstairs since they have the house kind of split). Now, he's on a wet food, 1 can of Hills W/D diet every 12 hours, with 2 Tbs of W/D crunchies mid day as a snack. He wants more food and chases us in the kitchen, giving us pitiful "I'm starving" looks.

Last night, he jumped up to where his sister's crunchies had been hidden from him and gobbled them up while we slept. There is NO WAY Maggie jumped that high. She has always been terrible at jumping and does not like to jump. She's even bad at jumping on the bed.

Also, for the second time this week, I found him eating Christmas Cookie crumbs (from my messy 5 year olds) off of the kitchen floor. Trying to get my almost 6 year olds to understand what diabetes is, and how important it is to not leave crumbs about is challenging! We've been trying to get our little trolls to have good table manners for years. My son is hyper and gets up from the table ALL THE TIME, leaving food to fall. I'm trying not to freak my kids out too much, but this is life and death for Bowie. Eek!

Thanks for letting me vent. This adjustment period is hard, and it takes our whole family learning what we can and can't do anymore.
 
When their BG is high they're literally starving because lack of insulin prevents glucose from entering the cells (I think you said you're a biologist so you'll get this!). As his BG numbers come down this should improve.

Re feeding:
We recommend feeding only low carb canned food because almost all kibble is too high in carbs as well as being dehydrating. One of the very few kibbles that works for most diabetics is Young Again Mature Zero available online. Apparently they'll send you a sample to try. It's expensive but nutrient dense and you don't need to feed much. I don't have any experience with it because it's not available in Canada. Worth a try if Bowie is a kibble die hard.

There are grocery store brands of wet food such as Friskies and Fancy feast pates (not sauce or gravy types - carb heavy) that are fine for diabetic kitties. Prescription food is expensive and not necessarily better.

Removing all dry food from a diabetic cat's diet can sometimes have a significant effect on the BG numbers. Some people actually control their kitty's diabetes with diet alone but they are in the minority.
 
I do get that :) and I was trying to explain just that to my husband as Bowie tried climbing his leg to get at some chicken soup. DH couldn't understand why Bowie was acting so hungry only 3 hours after his big fat can of W/D wet food.

Now, he is MOSTLY on canned wet W/D diet which is a low carb, high fiber option. The doc OK'd a small smack of W/D dry crunchies for him mid cycle. The W/D is pricey and we are thinking of going to FF pates. Both cats LOVE FF Savory Salmon Feast. I think for now though, when he's first getting treated, I want to stick to the W/D, because my vet has seen a few cats remit on this diet.
 
Bowie S. B. Otch said:
I do get that :) and I was trying to explain just that to my husband as Bowie tried climbing his leg to get at some chicken soup. DH couldn't understand why Bowie was acting so hungry only 3 hours after his big fat can of W/D wet food.

Now, he is MOSTLY on canned wet W/D diet which is a low carb, high fiber option. The doc OK'd a small smack of W/D dry crunchies for him mid cycle. The W/D is pricey and we are thinking of going to FF pates. Both cats LOVE FF Savory Salmon Feast. I think for now though, when he's first getting treated, I want to stick to the W/D, because my vet has seen a few cats remit on this diet.
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Whatever works for you ... it's a process. :)
 
Bowie S. B. Otch said:
Now, he is MOSTLY on canned wet W/D diet which is a low carb, high fiber option.
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Actually, W/D is high carb....it's about 25% carb.....and the dry is even worse

If he likes the Fancy Feast Classics, they're a lot better for him than W/D but since they are low carb,(less than 10%) you want to make sure you're home testing Bowie first before changing foods

Dropping the percentage of carbs could drastically reduce the need for insulin, so testing is really important to keep him safe
 
Thanks Chris and China, she mentioned that W/D was higher in fiber than other ones. Interesting about the nutrition value and 25% being high carb for cat food. I noticed the FF was way very low on carbs from the links (Dr. Lisa's list). That and price is making me itch to switch, but I don't want to second guess what my doc is recommending for getting his diabetes to reverse. I am def waiting for more 28 gauge lancets before doing another BG curve and seeing where we are at. The first curve on Monday was kind of traumatizing because it was so hard to get enough blood for a test. When I changed his dose on Tuesday night, I made sure to stay up 5 more hours and check where he was before going to bed (I know, not perfect, but at least I felt better about going to bed knowing his BG was in the 230's). It's now Thursday pm, he's had a couple of days on the higher dose, and I am getting a bit nervous about dosing.

Thank goodness this is all coming during the break between semesters. My husband is mostly home with the kids so he can keep an eye on him.
 
With the W/D food you won't get the diabetes to reverse with that carb count. Now the D/M food pate not the one in gravy is much lower in carbs approximately 3-5%. Ask if that is appropriate. I don't know if other medical issues are in play or why they recommended W/D.
 
Can you husband test Bowie's blood sugar? If not, I would have to start to learn. He may need to test all of a sudden, if Bowie is acting strangely.
 
Woodseywife, the vet has seen some reversals with this food. I'm not saying it's definitely the best for the job, but I don't think she would make that up. I actually plan to ask her about the FF classics and if it would be OK to switch to that.
 
Good luck with getting your twins to help out in helping to make Bowie feel better. That's a challenge for sure. :cat: Not sure how you can get 5 year olds to realize that cookie crumbs and other human food can make Bowie feel sick. It's going to take time, just like it's going to take time to get Bowie's BG levels regulated and lower.

One reason vets suggest the W/d is because it's high in fiber (powdered cellulose - think sawdust or ground up paper) and is supposed to help cats lose weight. One contributing factor to diabetes is when a cat weighs too much, as more than 53-58% of pets in the USA are overweight.

Wink was 'prescribed' the Hill's W/d dry (37% carbs) and W/d wet by his vet. I was able to slowly switch him from the high carb food to eating low carb wet food and diligently home tested him. It was amazing to see how his BG numbers dropped and his insulin dose needed to drop dramatically too. It's one reason we highly recommend home testing before a food switch to a lower carb food is made.

Some cats do not like wet food or do not like the texture and are 'dry food addicts' like Wink was. I used all the tips and tricks in Dr. Lisa Pierson's Transitioning Dry Food Addicts to Wet Food article. It wasn't easy and sometimes I had a smorgasbord of 3 or more flavors for him to try. He hated fishy flavors, but decided that he liked the Fancy Feast Turkey & Giblets flavor. Now, he's gotten pickier and slower to eat but is still only on low carb canned food and has been OTJ for almost 4 years now.

It was NOT EASY to get him to make the switch from dry to wet food. It took persistence, patience and trying many different flavors of food, chip and dip method, gradually cutting back on the dry food every few days and increasing the amount of wet food and many other tricks. To this day, he loves finely ground up freeze dried chicken or beef liver or tuna flakes sprinkled on top of his food.

Good luck and remember that this is marathon, not a sprint. Changes often come in baby steps, not leaps and bounds.
 
Dyana said:
Can you husband test Bowie's blood sugar? If not, I would have to start to learn. He may need to test all of a sudden, if Bowie is acting strangely.
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This might be tricky for him for two reasons. 1) He's needle phobic and blood phobic, used to pass out from seeing a needle or blood draw. He's gotten over that quite a bit because he now has to inject himself two times a month with an immunosuppressant for arthritis, and they have to draw blood from him a few times a year to monitor for side effects. 2) The arthritis is also in his fingers, making them very swollen and sore, and hard to hold small objects. Some days, he struggles to open a plastic baggie, others, he's OK.

He is trying to learn to do the insulin injections. That's a big deal for him. The glucose measurements....We'll see. Little by little.
 
I don't see how but anything is possible. I think W/D is for weight management. You vet must be thinking if kitty loses weight his diabetes will disappear. Kitty should be ideal weight, but that food isn't the way to do it.
 
Bowie S. B. Otch said:
Now, he's on a wet food, 1 can of Hills W/D diet every 12 hours, with 2 Tbs of W/D crunchies mid day as a snack. He wants more food and chases us in the kitchen, giving us pitiful "I'm starving" looks
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The w/d wet food is too high in carbs for a feline diabetic. The w/d dry food is extremely high in carbs (closer to kitty cornflakes than a species-appropriate diet).

The dose increase and/or higher carb foods could be negatively impacting Bowie's BG levels, driving them higher. If this should prove to be the case then it is likely to worsen symptoms of polyphagia and PU/PD.

Bowie S. B. Otch said:
I want to stick to the W/D, because my vet has seen a few cats remit on this diet.
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At time of diagnosis the treating vet insisted that my Saoirse be fed w/d dry. I had done my basic research and I wanted to switch Saoirse to a wet, low carb diet but the vet in question adopted a 'my way or the highway' approach to diabetes management and ignored my wishes. (Frankly I considered it insane to recommend feeding a diabetic a diet even higher in carbs than Saoirse's previous dry diet.)

Saoirse started treatment on Caninsulin (a legal requirement in the UK at the time). Her initial dose was set at 1 unit BID on day of diagnosis. After a three-day hospital stay for curves and a transition to w/d dry food (must have seen me coming for miles :rolleyes:) Saoirse's dose was upped to 2IU BID. A week later they ran another curve at the practice (they refused to support my wish to home monitor BG). After less than 2 weeks on the w/d dry Saoirse's peak BG concentration had got worse so they upped her dose to 3 units BID.

Very shortly after diagnosis we moved to another practice with a far better handle on feline diabetes (one of our main vet's cats was diabetic). Their approach to FD treatment was much more in line with my research findings on best practice (wet, low-carb diet; home BG monitoring). Things started improving for Saoirse thereafter (especially with the education I was receiving here and through my other research).

To illustrate the difference between feeding w/d dry cf. a wet, low-carb diet here's a link to Saoirse's 2014 spreadsheet (BG ranges are colour-coded - see key at top of worksheet):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1W_6vprqOticH1qB5duGq911swDj32Qw2olXPsmQS3CM/edit#gid=8

The effects of w/d dry vs. wet, low carb food on BG levels is particularly clear in Saoirse's data because we hit a bump during her food transition which necessitated an immediate switch to wet, low-carb food (GI upset after spot-on treatment after which she refused to eat the w/d). Have a look at the dramatic differences in BG levels and insulin dose requirements before and after mid-July to see the real impact a wet, low-carb diet can make: the difference in Saoirse's BG levels before and after the diet change is striking.

The abrupt reduction in carb load (mid-July) required an equally abrupt reduction in Saoirse's insulin dose because she started seeing BG levels close to or within the normoglycaemic range within hours. Over the next few days her BG levels continued to improve - and on smaller doses (down to 0.5IU within days). A week later saw her almost in remission but, due to comorbid chronic pancreatitis, she needed to continue insulin treatment for a while longer.

I managed to build a case for Saoirse to be prescribed Lantus insulin (UK prescribing laws can be tricky in this respect) and for the rest of her initial treatment I followed the Tight Regulation Protocol: wet, low-carb diet; Lantus insulin; minimum 3 home BG tests per day; fine dose adjustments based on nadir BG. Within 3 months Saoirse achieved remission.

Your vet says that she has had "a few" cats achieve remission when being fed w/d as part of their treatment plan. This is not something to be impressed about. Studies have shown that newly-diagnosed cats treated with an ultralente insulin (Lantus or Levemir), eating a wet, low-carb diet and put on a program of tight regulation within six months of initial diagnosis may achieve remission rates of over 80%; see the attachment below for further details. (You can learn more about the Roomp-Rand tight regulation protocol here at FDMB; see the forum stickies at the top of the Lantus & Levemir Insulin Support Group board.)

Incidentally, as part of the initial assessment of Saoirse's case following our move to the new vet practice they consulted with an external feline diabetes specialist who, upon review of the BG data gathered while Saoirse was being treated using the w/d dry diet + Caninsulin protocol, pronounced my girl "a true diabetic" with "no hope of remission".

Obviously Saoirse didn't get the memo. ;)


Mogs
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Guys, as a scientist, I am SOOOOOO upset and disheartened by the paucity of research on this. I have searched pubmed and google scholar, and see what you mean by the studies indicating low carb is better than moderate carb/high fiber, but still the number of studies are amazingly small given how widespread the problem is. Seriously, there should be at least 10 studies with controlled diet and comparing the effects, and Dr. Bennett's study (quoted by Dr. Lisa Pierson) is the ONLY one with reasonable number of patients. I am so disheartened by this lack of replication.

Please don't get me wrong, I don't doubt Dr. Lisa Pierson's credentials, or think her explanations are quacky. It's just that I so truly wish there was more data for her and others to go on. I want to read the scientific literature on this topic, and I am hardly finding any that truly address the issue comparing high protein low carb/low fiber vs Moderate carb/high fiber diets like W/D.

I also don't want you all to think I am not respecting your advice and opinions that are based on real life experience. I am a newbie here, but I have also spent years as a researcher, knowing that knowledge is a process, we move by increments, and scientific studies need replication. Chat rooms, well, they are chat rooms and sometimes you can get advice based on little data. I am a natural skeptic, even as a kid, I was annoyingly questioning everything, this natural tendency has been strengthened by becoming a scientist. So please don't be offended on my wanting to check whether what is popular here, is backed up by scientific study.

A lot of studies just compare different carbohydrate sources on healthy cats- that's not informative. Very few studies focus on diabetic cats, and compare glucose control under different dietary conditions. It's absolutely mind boggling to me as a scientist that we have so little data. ECID, and some of the studies were based on 9 cats.The best study that I can see is by Dr. Bennet, which used 63 diabetic cats (only 15 female cats) randomly assigned to two groups. This means that only about 7 females were in each group.
J Feline Med Surg. 2006 Apr;8(2):73-84. Epub 2005 Nov 7. Comparison of a low carbohydrate-low fiber diet and a moderate carbohydrate-high fiber diet in the management of feline diabetes mellitus.

Oh for the research $, time, patient access to study this in more detail.
 
I did Mogs, and the thing is that this and other review articles all cite the same references, so unique study # is still small.

The evidence from this MB is anecdotal in some sense, but if you look at it another way, many of the members are taking glucose measurements, sometimes daily, and have years worth of info on what works and doesn't. How many new members come on here and switch from Vet prescribed foods like Hills W/D to FF or some other lower carb option? There are probably tens per year at a conservative estimate. The hard part of looking at the MB for scientific data, is that there are different glucometers being used, and different drug therapies. I think there's a data mining trove of information here, for those with programing experience, maybe enough data points to sort it all out. The other thing I worry about is bias. Say, someone comes on here, committed to following their Vets advice, and get all the messaging that their vet may be wrong about the recommended diet. That might turn off some of the people who come here, who just want to trust their vet,but not all. That means that the MB might be biased towards those willing to follow what their CG peers recommend vs. what the Dr. recommended. What is a newbie to do?

1) Follow the docs advice, after all, they are trained professionals
2) Follow the MB poster advice, after all, they are the ones treating their cats daily and there is a lot of success in glucose management here. Plus, the MB seems to be here day or night with really helpful/wellmeaning people.
3) Go out and do your own research on the web for peer-reviewed scientific studies.....and find out that there are so few. sigh....

Anyway, we back to the original topic, we are getting savier about making sure Bowie doesn't get contraband food via his sis, or Human sibs.
 
4. A combination of 1, 2, and 3 (with the emphatic caveat that reasoning must be used to judge soundness of assertions from both vets and message board contributors).

5. Trust your own cat's data. (ETA - and clinical signs.)

The only other thing I can think of to suggest to you is perhaps you might get leads on formal studies into the efficacy of w/d food in the treatment of feline diabetics (and remission rates if available) from your vet or from Hill's.


Mogs
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Bowie S. B. Otch said:
I did Mogs, and the thing is that this and other review articles all cite the same references, so unique study # is still small.

The evidence from this MB is anecdotal in some sense, but if you look at it another way, many of the members are taking glucose measurements, sometimes daily, and have years worth of info on what works and doesn't. How many new members come on here and switch from Vet prescribed foods like Hills W/D to FF or some other lower carb option? There are probably tens per year at a conservative estimate. The hard part of looking at the MB for scientific data, is that there are different glucometers being used, and different drug therapies. I think there's a data mining trove of information here, for those with programing experience, maybe enough data points to sort it all out. The other thing I worry about is bias. Say, someone comes on here, committed to following their Vets advice, and get all the messaging that their vet may be wrong about the recommended diet. That might turn off some of the people who come here, who just want to trust their vet,but not all. That means that the MB might be biased towards those willing to follow what their CG peers recommend vs. what the Dr. recommended. What is a newbie to do?

1) Follow the docs advice, after all, they are trained professionals
2) Follow the MB poster advice, after all, they are the ones treating their cats daily and there is a lot of success in glucose management here. Plus, the MB seems to be here day or night with really helpful/wellmeaning people.
3) Go out and do your own research on the web for peer-reviewed scientific studies.....and find out that there are so few. sigh....

Anyway, we back to the original topic, we are getting savier about making sure Bowie doesn't get contraband food via his sis, or Human sibs.
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The horrors of meta analysis ...
 
Bowie S. B. Otch said:
I did Mogs, and the thing is that this and other review articles all cite the same references, so unique study # is still small.

The evidence from this MB is anecdotal in some sense, but if you look at it another way, many of the members are taking glucose measurements, sometimes daily, and have years worth of info on what works and doesn't. How many new members come on here and switch from Vet prescribed foods like Hills W/D to FF or some other lower carb option? There are probably tens per year at a conservative estimate. The hard part of looking at the MB for scientific data, is that there are different glucometers being used, and different drug therapies. I think there's a data mining trove of information here, for those with programing experience, maybe enough data points to sort it all out. The other thing I worry about is bias. Say, someone comes on here, committed to following their Vets advice, and get all the messaging that their vet may be wrong about the recommended diet. That might turn off some of the people who come here, who just want to trust their vet,but not all. That means that the MB might be biased towards those willing to follow what their CG peers recommend vs. what the Dr. recommended. What is a newbie to do?

1) Follow the docs advice, after all, they are trained professionals
2) Follow the MB poster advice, after all, they are the ones treating their cats daily and there is a lot of success in glucose management here. Plus, the MB seems to be here day or night with really helpful/wellmeaning people.
3) Go out and do your own research on the web for peer-reviewed scientific studies.....and find out that there are so few. sigh....

Anyway, we back to the original topic, we are getting savier about making sure Bowie doesn't get contraband food via his sis, or Human sibs.
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How much of the whole body of medical knowledge for humans is based on clinical evidence versus randomized double blinded placebo controlled trials? I really don't think you'll find an approach that satisfies unfortunately. Even clinical trials have their limitations ...
 
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Just a thought. The Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire, UK, has a feline diabetes clinic and they do research. Maybe they might be able to give you some information.

I know that they were doing a Prozinc study 2 years ago. We had a couple of participants here. IIRC the RVC provided all the cats participating in the trial with Purina DM canned food and Alphatrak glucometers.

ETA: The University of Queensland in Australia might be worth an approach as well. (It's where Dr Jacquie Rand is based.)


Mogs
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I too am a scientist (well I'm an artist now but that's a long story...) and I agree there is a dirth of valid studies in the area of feline diabetes. But in the absence of those studies one has to look at the anicdotal evidence. There is a lot of it here. Take a gander at the remission lists here.

When my guy was diagnosed I found Dr Pierson's page and decided to try a low carb wet food and removed the dm dry the vet prescribed. His BG dropped more than 200 points over three days and he never needed insulin. This a dramatic response but I've seen similar here over and over. Unfortunately vets get little training in feline diabetes and much of their training in nutrition comes from the pet food industry. If you feel you want to feed prescription diabetic food then use purina dm canned. It is low carb. Apart from carb content, no dry is good for a diabetic since they need as much moisture as possible.

I've wondered if the use of high fiber/high carb food prescribed by vets has to do with the way FD has traditionally been treated using the older, harsher insulins, with the owners not testing and shooting blind. In that senario vets preferred that cats maintained a higher than optimal BG to prevent hypos. Just a thought.
 
Good points billysmom. Let's face it, where is the money for the research going to come from? Heck, I have a hard enough time funding studies relevant to mental health disorders that affect people. The pet food industry (probably the reason there are studies to look at different kind of carb sources), and it's like your doctor getting their education from a pharm rep telling you that their new formulation is better than their competitors.

The part about shooting blind and fiber with high fiber/high carb and the older harsher insulins makes a lot of sense. They probably had fewer hypo events with that type of feeding/dosing formula. The next time I can do a curve is this Sat, hopefully my 28 gauge needles will arrive today so I don't have to run out to the pharmacy tonight. I am going to see where he is at then, talk to my vet and discuss the food issue. I rather change his food than up his dose again. I just popped out of the lab to go buy food at the vet just up the street-it was $47 for a 12 day supply. That's $1378 a year! FF classics (even if he took 4 cans a day, I think it's one can per 3 lbs of cat) would be half of that. I want to do the curve based on what he has been eating the past two weeks. However, even if I change foods in the next couple of weeks, this W/D is higher in carbs, so it might be good if his numbers drop to low. Gah, and the semester starts next week, meaning DH will go back to teaching, and morning routine will be the mad dash for my kids to catch the bus, and me in my last year before tenure review. Eeeeek!!!!!! Deep Breaths, this is going to be OK, we'll see Bowie through this. I feel like if I could just get his blood easier, this whole process would be less stressful and simpler to manage. I think I got a bit traumatized by how hard the first dose curve was. I felt like I was torturing my baby.
 
billysmom (GA) said:
I've wondered if the use of high fiber/high carb food prescribed by vets has to do with the way FD has traditionally been treated using the older, harsher insulins, with the owners not testing and shooting blind. In that senario vets preferred that cats maintained a higher than optimal BG to prevent hypos.
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This.

This approach appears to still be prevalent in the UK. At the practice where Saoirse was first diagnosed my requests for advice on testing blood glucose and monitoring for glycosuria and urine ketones were met with not inconsiderable condescension and, on occasion, open hostility. When I asked the treating vet to recommend a glucometer for Saoirse she got quite angry and said to me that there was no point in her giving me any advice on meters because buying one would be a "waste of [my] money."


Mogs
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Oh that is awful Mogs! The meters are made so that just about any human can test themselves. Even the old meters. My Dad was older and had diabetes when I was a teenager. I used to help him to the lancets and glucose tests. I was about 13. This was the old tests were the drop had to land on the circle just right and it was a big drop. At least my vet is supportive of me doing the testing.
 
To be fair to the vets, they need to have knowledge about many diseases in a large variety of species. Also some may not want to overwhelm their patient's owners. There are probably people that would choose to euthanize their pets rather than test :(.
 
Can me a simpleton or just using common sense. 25+% carbs is like a person eating 1/2 loaf of bread or box of pasta. If you were diabetic, would you be doing that daily?

Studies are good but they end and in some cases old and never done again.

Here is real time 24/7 real life living it daily with hundreds of cats, not stuck in a cage with no stimulus, play, and other factors that affect results. Had my say - done.
 
Bowie S. B. Otch said:
Oh that is awful Mogs!
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Would have been even more awful if I had heeded her: I could have lost my Saoirse.

One evening, during the food transition and therefore not long after I started to home monitor BG, based on Saoirse's data levels I wanted to lower her dose. I rang the vets to advise them on her BG levels and to confirm the dose reduction would be OK. Our main vet was on holiday and one of the other vets in the practice advised me to hold the current dose and that it would be safe.

I found myself in a dreadful quandary: Saoirse's data plus the research I had done indicated a dose reduction was necessary for her safety but the vet had told me to hold the dose. I strongly disagreed with the vet's advice but, as a novice caregiver of a diabetic cat, I did not have the confidence to trust my own judgment and go against the vet. I gave her the dose. Saoirse had her one and only symptomatic hypo that night. Thankfully, because I had followed the recommendations I received here and at catinfo.org to home test, I caught the low and was able to intervene promptly to bring Saoirse back into safe numbers.

Following this incident I worked to better educate myself - here and elsewhere on the web - about FD management, insulin characteristics, dosing guidelines, etc. For a few weeks I continued to discuss dosing with our main vet but after that hypo episode I made my own dosing decisions based on Saoirse's data and what I learned. After a short time the discussions with our vet stopped because he could see from Saoirse's data that I knew what I was doing. He became confident of my ability to manage Saoirse's insulin needs safely and effectively and was content with just doing periodic reviews of her data. We developed a highly collaborative approach to Saoirse's treatment and, while initially he had some reservations about the frequency with which I tested, he soon came to appreciate the value of the data I gathered - and took great interest in it! It helped me to keep Saoirse safe (no more hypos) and also to greatly improve her regulation and quality of life. (My girl's spreadsheets are now the stuff of legend at the practice; they've never seen the likes of them before! :oops:)

(Not trying to bang any drums here; just wanted to share the story. :) )


Mogs
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I suppose it could be worse. Kitty could be nibbling on the kid's toes!

You could get little dogs. Theresa's dogs think they are permanently starving. So we have no crumbs on the floor. BTW, the dogs are not diabetic. But Leo our diabetic Acromegaly kitty - he does think he is starving all the time. Every time we go to the kitchen, he thinks it is meal time. You'll get partly used to it over time.
 
LOL JeffJ, My human daughter would LOVE a dog. She loves them. My furbaby daughter Maggie, would absolutely hate it. It took her a year or two to be OK with Bowie. We were not planning on any new cats with her in the house. She's best being a solo kitty, but Bowie purred his way into our hearts, BIG time. The thought that the neighbor's were moving and they didn't want him gave me chills. What would they do with him? Anyway, bringing droolers into the house would definitely be a catastrophic betrayal to Maggie. There are other reasons too, but that is a big one.
 
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