Sam & Esse
Member
Hello! 
It's been a while since I've posted a Sam update... along with cute Sam pics
Sam's doing well! Back on April 20th, he got terribly ill. We suspect he might have been poisoned, either unintentionally -- or intentionally -- by the folks next door we politely call "The Bad Neighbors." The vet diagnosed him with a fever of unknown origin; the dreaded FUO. It was a knuckle-biting week, with Sam going in for IV fluids every day to try to bring his fever down. There was Exorcist-levels of vomiting, uncontrolled diarrhea, the ooze that had to be bathed from his bottom that he had no control over...
But Sam pulled through!
Although he did briefly come out of remission. I restarted his Tresiba on 4-25, and by 5-11 he was once more OTJ. I was very glad to see that the Tresiba seemed to kick in immediately, unlike our first change-over from Lev back in 2018. Sam lost quite a bit of weight -- and he's making up for that, now
I really need to cut back his Friskie's pate consumption, but I'm also kinda hoping he'll build back up some muscle in his back-end. I know I'm not able to put on muscle while losing weight -- and I don't know if it works the same for cats, but I'll give him another few weeks before cutting back on his calories once more.
Here's some pics of Sam, and the two 'little' girls, Mia and Shadow. They love their Big Boy so much -- and Sam still hasn't gotten acclimated to there being kittens in *his* house.
Since Sam's illness, the rusting has come back with a vengeance. I've kind of given up on it, for now. He's still getting sores/crusting on his ears, and along his chin... I know it's not his food bowl, since Sam's been hand-fed since kitten-hood
I'm fairly certain it's from contaminated dust outside. I wipe him off every time we come in from outdoor play. And he doesn't appreciate losing his dust. At all 
And on a more scientific-y note:
Came across a fairly new study that was released back in April of this year.
The effect of Insulin Degludec on glycemic control in diabetic cats over a 12-month period
^ Link goes to nih.gov site
Looks like it was originally published in The Journal of Veterinary Medical Science in June. The study only included 8 cats -- 5 newly diagnosed, and 3 that were already on insulin but poorly regulated (1 Lantus, 2 Lev). Considering that it appears there was absolutely no home monitoring going on (!) it looks like all the cats did well on Tresiba. It was a very encouraging read
There was only 1 mild hypo event -- which seems like a small miracle with the lack of home testing.
My biggest take-aways from the study:
Improvement in serum GA was significant. ...I think that's a bit like the Fructosamine test? But not quite lol! At least the NIH claims serum GA is better than A1C -- for whatever that's worth
I think all the cats gained weight on Tresiba? Great for cats that are underweight -- not so great for chonkers like Sam
But this is something I noticed for myself when Sam first started Tresiba. So anyone starting or switching to Tresiba needs to be aware of this side-effect.
The researchers believe it may take a higher dose of Tresiba to achieve similar results to Lantus or Lev in regards to regulation. But the dose might be safer from life-threatening hypos than other commonly used insulins for FD; a much larger study will be needed to verify this.
All 8 cats in the study were on a dry food diet. If the results were this good with dry food, imagine what they might be like on a low-carb canned/raw diet
I do hope that other members of FDMB that haven't been able to regulate their cats with other insulins might consider giving Tresiba a try. Slowly but surely more research is coming out proving Tresiba is a perfectly good insulin for cats -- and that it can significantly improve regulation in cats that have had poor blood glucose control on other insulins.
It just makes me a bit blue, when caregivers haven't been able to regulate their sugar kitties for over a year, and seem to settle for, "Guess my baby is doomed to be bouncy." Tresiba is a newer weapon in our arsenal against FD -- not necessarily better, but newer -- and I think it's worth a shot if other insulins just aren't working.
Lots of love and hugs to everyone. Stay safe! And love and scritches to all the kitties 

It's been a while since I've posted a Sam update... along with cute Sam pics

Sam's doing well! Back on April 20th, he got terribly ill. We suspect he might have been poisoned, either unintentionally -- or intentionally -- by the folks next door we politely call "The Bad Neighbors." The vet diagnosed him with a fever of unknown origin; the dreaded FUO. It was a knuckle-biting week, with Sam going in for IV fluids every day to try to bring his fever down. There was Exorcist-levels of vomiting, uncontrolled diarrhea, the ooze that had to be bathed from his bottom that he had no control over...
But Sam pulled through!


Here's some pics of Sam, and the two 'little' girls, Mia and Shadow. They love their Big Boy so much -- and Sam still hasn't gotten acclimated to there being kittens in *his* house.
Since Sam's illness, the rusting has come back with a vengeance. I've kind of given up on it, for now. He's still getting sores/crusting on his ears, and along his chin... I know it's not his food bowl, since Sam's been hand-fed since kitten-hood



And on a more scientific-y note:
Came across a fairly new study that was released back in April of this year.
The effect of Insulin Degludec on glycemic control in diabetic cats over a 12-month period
^ Link goes to nih.gov site

Looks like it was originally published in The Journal of Veterinary Medical Science in June. The study only included 8 cats -- 5 newly diagnosed, and 3 that were already on insulin but poorly regulated (1 Lantus, 2 Lev). Considering that it appears there was absolutely no home monitoring going on (!) it looks like all the cats did well on Tresiba. It was a very encouraging read

My biggest take-aways from the study:
Improvement in serum GA was significant. ...I think that's a bit like the Fructosamine test? But not quite lol! At least the NIH claims serum GA is better than A1C -- for whatever that's worth

I think all the cats gained weight on Tresiba? Great for cats that are underweight -- not so great for chonkers like Sam

The researchers believe it may take a higher dose of Tresiba to achieve similar results to Lantus or Lev in regards to regulation. But the dose might be safer from life-threatening hypos than other commonly used insulins for FD; a much larger study will be needed to verify this.
All 8 cats in the study were on a dry food diet. If the results were this good with dry food, imagine what they might be like on a low-carb canned/raw diet

I do hope that other members of FDMB that haven't been able to regulate their cats with other insulins might consider giving Tresiba a try. Slowly but surely more research is coming out proving Tresiba is a perfectly good insulin for cats -- and that it can significantly improve regulation in cats that have had poor blood glucose control on other insulins.


