Remission

[lolondon]

My cat is going through remission, so I am about to stop giving her insulin. I plan to continue to check her blood levels, how often should I check it?

 

[Georgette and Clare]

Hi lolondon,

Congratulations to you and your cat!

Generally when we post a question on the board, we put a question mark as a Post Icon. To do this, go to your original post (that's the only one that causes an icon to show up on the list), and at the top of the screen where you see the Post Icons: select the one that looks like a ? inside a circle.

Best Wishes,

Georgette and Clare

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

For a cat to be considered in remission, they would have most of the blood sugar tests under 100 on a human glucometer, and everything under 120.

From the TR Protocol yellow starred sticky:

Remission:
From Tilly's Diabetes Homepage:
Phase 5: Remission

"14 days without insulin and normal blood glucose values. Most remission cats are able to stay in the normal range all of the time (50 to 80 mg/dl), although there are a few cases of sporadic higher and lower BGs. Don't stop feeding low-carb and try to avoid cortisone if possible. Test the cat's BGs once per month.

Approximately 25% cats that achieved remission using this protocol relapsed and required insulin again (frequent causes are hyperthyroidism or bouts of pancreatitis). Therefore, it is important to keep your diabetes kit up-to-date. Then you can react immediately by giving insulin and home testing. Importantly, the sooner you react to a relapse (i.e. preventing hyperglycemia and initiating other necessary veterinary treatment), the more likely a second remission will become.

The longer a cat has had diabetes, the less likely it will go into remission. Many long-term diabetics get stuck in Phase 3 or 4. Yet there is a benefit of using this method for such a cat as well: keeping the cat's BG levels as normal as possible is much healthier for it long term. Insulin requirements will often decrease to very low levels too."

We usually suggest people test once a day for the 2 weeks after stopping insulin, then once a week for a while, and once a month forever. It's not uncommon for a cat to come out of remission, so you want to stay on top of that.

If you want help looking at your kitty's blood sugar numbers and determining if s/he's ready for an OTJ trial (remission trial), just say so. I hope you're right - that's pretty exciting!

julie

 

[rhiannon and shadow (GA)]

Looks like this is your first visit....

How have you determined remission..... are all your bg tests under 120 ( on a human meter , that is)


My cat has been in remission for almost 2 years...
Early on, I checked every few days.... then once a week... then once every other week.....
but even 2 years later, I'm still checking.....at least once every 2 weeks.... sometimes a little more.


The earlier you catch any rising trends , the better to get right back to remission status.
May your cat have a long remission..... :mrgreen:

 

[Shawna & Davidson (GA)]

Hi.......

If your cat is in remission then you are NOT injecting insulin of any type and only when that stops and BG levels are low are you considered in remission. Davidson went OTJ Apr 15th and continually has very low BG tests and only last month did I move to twice a month testing, and like most will test when he seems off - just to make sure. So far so good, however like any disease Davidson is still considered Diabetic and I believe after 5 yrs of being in remission can I then say he is no longer considered diabetic.............still a long way away.

Keep monitoring your cat, make no changes in his diet and hopefully you'll no longer have to give him insulin.

Good luck!