Brian
Member
Linus is 13 yr old domestic shorthaired neutered male, just shy of 15lbs and trying to lose weight down to 13~14lbs or so, he's been up to 23lbs in the past and the weight loss has been at a slow steady pace for a few years. Due to some allergy issues he's been on prednisilone, 5mg bid, and ceterizine, 5mg sid, for about a year and a half before the diabetes diagnosis near the start of December 2011. Total dry food addict as well.
The pred was likely the major contributing factor to the diabetes, but it's still preferable to what he did to himself without the pred. He had a blood test about a year before the diabetes, and was ~4.0 mmol/l and had BG in the 20.0 mmol/l range when first diagnosed, fructosamine 504, urine glucose 3+, and showed no clinical signs (in retrospect he may have had a poor coat condition) so we likely caught it reasonably early. We had managed to switch to 1/2 his daily food as Purina DM wet and 1/2 Royal Canin DM dry by the time we started Lantus about a week or so after diagnosis.
I was going on the vets advice the first few weeks before I found the Roomp and Rand tight protocol paper so the starting dose (2u bid) may have been high and I should probably have been testing more. We hit a problem as we finished the switch fully to canned foor (Purina DM and EVO 95% chicken) and had to drastically cut his insulin back to still be able to maintain 2 shots/day. He's been on .75u bid for just over 2 weeks now and is happily cruising between 4-7 mmol/l, which I'm totally happy with, staying at or near normal levels and refusing to go too low (my meter is a Bayer Contour).
No real questions at this point since he's cruising well. We've cut the pred down a week ago and all has gone well (hoping this new diet will help the itchy) and plan to lower it more (keeping a close eye on this potentially lower his BG and thus needing less insulin). Slow weight loss is going to be maintained until he subjectively 'looks right' and we'll shift to less DM more EVO for cost reasons (for the record he likes the DM as much as any other wet food-he tolerates them but would prefer dry). We may aim to try Atopica now if we can't ditch the pred, cost was an issue before but there's a generic version that's cheaper and if it helps get remission we will then save on diabetes supplies, so that'd be nice. Linus does handle all the needling and poking with pretty much no issues, so if this ends up being his life and we can't ditch the insulin, no worries.
Spreadsheet is below, World and US units on different tabs. Any comments are welcome.
The pred was likely the major contributing factor to the diabetes, but it's still preferable to what he did to himself without the pred. He had a blood test about a year before the diabetes, and was ~4.0 mmol/l and had BG in the 20.0 mmol/l range when first diagnosed, fructosamine 504, urine glucose 3+, and showed no clinical signs (in retrospect he may have had a poor coat condition) so we likely caught it reasonably early. We had managed to switch to 1/2 his daily food as Purina DM wet and 1/2 Royal Canin DM dry by the time we started Lantus about a week or so after diagnosis.
I was going on the vets advice the first few weeks before I found the Roomp and Rand tight protocol paper so the starting dose (2u bid) may have been high and I should probably have been testing more. We hit a problem as we finished the switch fully to canned foor (Purina DM and EVO 95% chicken) and had to drastically cut his insulin back to still be able to maintain 2 shots/day. He's been on .75u bid for just over 2 weeks now and is happily cruising between 4-7 mmol/l, which I'm totally happy with, staying at or near normal levels and refusing to go too low (my meter is a Bayer Contour).
No real questions at this point since he's cruising well. We've cut the pred down a week ago and all has gone well (hoping this new diet will help the itchy) and plan to lower it more (keeping a close eye on this potentially lower his BG and thus needing less insulin). Slow weight loss is going to be maintained until he subjectively 'looks right' and we'll shift to less DM more EVO for cost reasons (for the record he likes the DM as much as any other wet food-he tolerates them but would prefer dry). We may aim to try Atopica now if we can't ditch the pred, cost was an issue before but there's a generic version that's cheaper and if it helps get remission we will then save on diabetes supplies, so that'd be nice. Linus does handle all the needling and poking with pretty much no issues, so if this ends up being his life and we can't ditch the insulin, no worries.
Spreadsheet is below, World and US units on different tabs. Any comments are welcome.
. I'm aiming to fit a curve in today so wanted to give the ears a little rest. I've no worries they'll heal, but real estate is running low and he's been so predictable (<-well recognized recipe for complacency). Thanks for the gentle reminder though, I'll keep it in mind!
It looks like I may need to build something like it for my civvie kitty if I go to a timed feeder for the Poopmeister. Otherwise he'd feast and she wouldn't get much if anything. :sad: 