RaeAnn, first I want to tell you that I doubt that there is a typical process of remission. Our beloved felines are anything but typical! Our experience of remission was purely by fortune, ignorance, uncertainty, and the grace of the Great Cat Spirit!
Idjit was diagnosed on April 3, 2018 because he was peeing everywhere, drinking copious amounts of water and eating a great deal of food. He tested at 382. We blanched and said "now what?" Got an Rx for Lantus vial, we didn't know about or were informed about the pens. We were taught to roll the vial, and shoot any excess over the 1 unit back into the vial. We were told to inject 1 unit once a day, in the AM. We were sold syringes that only measured in one units for twice the price we would have paid at Walmart. We were told to wean him off dry and get to an all wet diet, and were sold the Hill's DM dry and wet food. We were told to test, but only midday, 2 or 3 times a week, and to buy an AlphaTrak pet meter.
Ok, gathered our wits up enough to pay the bill !!*#@$$$$ and bring Idjit home. DH goes to buy the Lantus: $$$!!! I about fainted!
I ordered the AlphaTrak 2 from Amazon, and had to wait for delivery. We started mixing the dry with the Hill's dry, and lowering the amount he got daily, plus increasing the amount of canned. Idjit did not like the Hill's canned at all, so we gave him the Friskies pates that we had on hand. We had been feeding the higher carb Friskies with the delicious gravy and just set that aside. I injected 1 unit of Lantus in the am and hoped for the best.
I found FDMB and started reading, joined and started posting. I was advised that we should be shooting twice a day, not once. So we needed to find syringes with 1/2 unit markings. I called and asked the vet about the dose and the syringes. Response was that the one unit worked well enough and was more convenient for the pet parent, and she wasn't aware that there were 1/2 U syringes.
Meanwhile, we had rec'd the pet meter, and tried to test. It was awful. We needed to find a better way, and we retreated to the kitchen and managed to begin to learn to test. We thought we should try to save some $$, since we had already spent so much, and we would do the curve ourselves. Wrong, we were still pretty poor at testing, so back to vet Idjit goes.
4/11/18 Curve results: 196 104/114 87 87 128 152 so the insulin and diet change are having an effect. But more $$$
And Idjit's numbers are just getting better and better. Diet change completely accomplished, no more dry, all low carb wet food. I still needed 1/2 U syringes. Sent DH to Walgreens to get, he got the wrong kind, and I didn't realize. I thought I was shooting 0.5
but I tested at +6 and he was at 60, not critical but frightening. Members here talked me through it! Rattled me good.
I consulted vet, she gave me a sliding scale for shooting, members here said no, no, no. But don't shoot under 150. Other input was to shoot a drop. I finally got the right 1/2 unit syringes, they are in the closet, unused. You can see from the ss how it went, I did not shoot anymore. I was afraid to, it had only been approximately 2 weeks and we were still not terribly educated or very good at testing.
I know now that I should have continued with micro dosing, I wish I had. The remission was so fast I wasn't sure what was happening, and I hope and pray that it's a good strong one. Idjit seems fine, no diabetes symptoms and his tests are excellent.
In a nutshell, Idjit's was OTJ in a month. Amazing to me, simply amazing. That's our story.
I wish you good fortune, I hope Big Hoss gets to the Falls and we have one big huge party. (Idjit loves to dance!)
I'm not getting my hopes up yet, but he's been steadily coming back down since his vet visit.
