Potential remission? Low dose or no dose?

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Lucy

Member Since 2012
Hi everyone,
About 6 weeks ago my cat was losing weight, ravenous and extremely thirsty. The vet got a bg of 440. We put her on 1 unit of lantus twice a day. After about 10 days her bg was 135-394. After another week it was 137-373. Then I started spot checking a couple of times a week. Her high was 282 a week ago but yesterday it dropped to 189 (after a low of 41!). The vet had me drop her to a half unit of lantus. Pre-shot this am was 189 (same as last night pre-shot after full dose).

She is back to her normal appetite (and weight) which might help explain the lower numbers. She isn't ravenous.

I am going out of town for 2 nights. My sister is good at giving her shots but I don't want to ask her to take blood. How fast can remission happen? Should I leave her on half dose while I am away or no dose?
 
Since you are a newbie you should move over the tight regulation. You can get some very good info there. It seems as if your cat is responding to the insulin and food change. Did you change your cat over to the canned? That will bring her glucose down pretty quickly. Some cats take longer to go off the juice some less time. My Samwise went off the juice in the first month, due to food changes I'm sure. Please tell your sister getting a drop of blood is no big deal. Very easy in fact. But if she feels to squeamish about it by all means have her give the shots but I'd lower the dose to half a unit myself if it were my cat. Good luck with your kitty! :smile:
 
Thank you for your response! Yes, she has been eating mostly canned these past 6 weeks and free feeds a dry diabetic prescription food. I hesitated the tight regulation because I am at work during the peak in Lantus. We just decreased from 1 unit to .5 this morning. I am supposed to give the vet her bg numbers again today (pre-shot and peak). Maybe she will have me leave the half dose while I am gone.

My sister wouldn't mind taking the blood but she has two small children. It is difficult for her to get away long enough. Besides, my little cat sure fights the blood tests! I am pretty good at it now but the moment she knows it is coming.. sheesh..
 
Lucy said:
she has been eating mostly canned these past 6 weeks and free feeds a dry diabetic prescription food.
Click to expand...
Even the so-called 'diabetic prescription' dry foods that the vets push on newly diagnosed kitties are still far, far too high in carbs. Dry food is unhealthy, unnecessary and a wholly inappropriate diet for any cat; let alone a diabetic one. Read more about this and other aspects of feline nutrition here: http://www.catinfo.org/ the site belongs to Dr Lisa, she is a vet who posts on this forum, and is a well respected source of info in the area of feline diabetes nutrition.

It sounds like you're very nearly there with getting your kitty into remission, it could be the only extra thing needed is to remove the dry food entirely.

However, I would NOT recommend doing this (or making any changes at all to your kitty's diet) until you come back from your time away from home, for obvious reasons.

Post again upon your return, and you will receive advice on transitioning your kitty off dry food altogether. It will be important to test blood glucose throughout the transition, as you may well find that your cat's need for insulin drops dramatically upon the removal of dry food from her diet. This could be all that is needed to get her off the juice completely, and into a state of diet controlled remission.

H
 
Thanks! I find it difficult to take the dry away since she was a free feeder her whole life but maybe I will try it since her weight is back up. She only likes the wet straight out of the can. According to the online calculator, the dry food she has is about 10% carbs while the wet food is about 5%.
 
Which prescription dry food is it?

Freezing wet food mixed with a little water into one of those soft ice cube trays (or those soft rubber muffin/ fairy cake trays) can work very well for free feeding cats. As it melts gradually, they get the food throughout the day. And it keeps it nice and moist and fresh also.

My Cleo is a free feeding grazer also, and she will not eat wet food that had been out for more than an hour or so. This freezing method has worked well to keep her eating small amounts often, which is good for her, when there's no-one in to feed her.

When you get back from your time away from home (or now, if you like), post a new thread in the Health forum and include a link to this thread. That forum (as well as the Lantus Tight Regulation forum) gets much more traffic than this one. And the Health forum is a good place to introduce yourself and your cat when you first start posting.

H
 
Thanks for the tip! She is on Hill's M/D low carb, weight loss diabetic. She eats wet food 2-3 times a day. She just tested at 64 peak insulin so the vet is taking her off insulin while I am away for two nights since my sister can't watch her as closely as I can. I will give her .5 tonight then check her bg wednesday evening before another shot.
 
When Sam was first on insulin and was having a hard time getting off the "kitty crack" I would crush his dry food into a powder and sprinkle it on the canned. That way he was getting a bit of both and then he went completely off the dry. I did cactch him a couple of time eating dog food but after I took that away, he quit and now eats his wet.

The Hill's DM is still to high in carbs for your diabetic cat. At least your vet sounds well informed about the disease. Some just can't get off the dry prescription foods since it's a money maker for the clinic. (some clinics)
 
Ok, so, I think that she will suddenly have no insulin for a few days, that I will take away the dry food, forcing her to eat the wet. My sister will replenish the wet food three times a day. Hopefully that will help counter the lack of insulin.
 
Just the no insulin sounds okay. If she stops eating tell your sister to give her powered dry on top of the wet. That should start her off. Don't freak out if the BG is high when you get home, high is better than low. Just test give her the .5u if she needs it but don't give more than that. Good luck! :smile:
 
I am having a similar experience with my cat, and hoping he also may be going into remission. He's regularly getting numbers around 100-150, and is currently on about 0.1u Lantus (after I tried diet change for 3 weeks his numbers reduced but not low enough so he was started on 2u last week, which I thought was way too high, and he had a mild bout of hypo his 3rd day in which I realized after he had a ravenous appetite, shaky leg, bought a Relion BG meter and his BG was 47. I started him back up at 0.5u after skipping a shot and have gradually reduced it over the past week based on BG readings).

He also lost a lot of weight, and actually lost his appetite too. He went from eating about 1.5oz some days and now he's up to about 7oz as his appetite is returning, I've been feeding him the low carb Fancy Feast Wet only just to get his appetite going and seems to be working. Also, I removed the dry food completely! I'm pretty sure high carb dry food is what caused his disease (he wasn't getting much wet food, just Purina ProPlan Selects Dry Chicken/Brown Rice prior to his onset of excessive urination/drinking followed by weight loss from 18lb to 12lb, he's a maine coon, larger than average cat). Instead, I found some low carb treats called Beefeaters (he loves the chicken) and Purebites...they are dehydrated cat treats that are okay for diabetic cats. I've been giving him about 8 or so per day to add some more calories and try to get his weight back up. Here's a good list of low carb treats: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9172

Just be careful if you do eliminate the dry food altogether make sure to keep an eye on the BG as you will most likely need to reduce the insulin as the BGs become more stable. Good luck! :)
 
Well, after 3 days of no insulin after dangerously low numbers, her bgc was higher than it was at diagnosis. We have her back on .5 unit.
 
Sounds like she just needs to get regulated with the insulin and she could still go OTJ. Diet change and low dosage will work, have faith.
 
Hi again,
It is day 7 now without insulin. Her numbers just started to creep back up but I am still hopeful for remission. :)
 
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