Nancy K
Member Since 2016
Thought I’d give an update on Kohl and also say ‘thank you’. I can’t express how incredibly helpful this forum has been. What a great resource – thanks so much !!
I posted an “intro” when Kohl was first diagnosed (8/11) and I was in panic mode. I also was not happy at all with the vet clinic on several counts but in the end I had a phone chat with the vet tech and decided to go in and get trained on the testing and insulin injection and learn what they recommended. That was on a Friday (8/19). Both Kohl and I did okay at the appointment and I was relieved to see that his BG was down to 325 from the 510 he got at his checkup on 8/9.
Still, when we got home from the vet clinic, we were both totally stressed and I didn’t think I’d get any sleep for worrying I might not give him the right amount of insulin. So I decided to just chill out and give him lots of pets and reassurance. The next morning I planned to start the routine but still just couldn’t face the idea of starting every morning with the poke-food-shot routine. So we had a big chat and I had a big think about it all. I know this probably wouldn’t work for everyone, but even though I had been trained and spent $300. on insulin (!), I decided to take a risk and ‘go off-road’ for a few weeks to see if there might be any improvement with a Lo-Carb Partial-Fast diet. The previous night, I’d happened onto a youtube video by Dr Jason Fung about reversing diabetes in humans using that method. I thought maybe it would work for a kitkat. Also, in favor of trying this route was the fact that Kohl’s check-up test results all indicated that he was perfectly healthy except for the high BG level plus I'd seen improvement over the previous 7 days when I’d been gradually changing his diet from dry food to lo-carb wet food. I was still free-feeding during that week and supplementing his new wet food with the familiar Taste of the Wild dry food he'd been getting for about a year. Before that I always free-fed Purina dry food.....now thinking that was not such a great idea :-(.
So, even though I felt nervous about it, starting with the morning after our vet training session, I did not start the insulin and began to only fed him 2x per day with grain-free lo-carb wet food. I had gotten a variety of different kinds at All The Best Pet Shop. He really likes Tiki Cat, did okay with Weruva and some others. Basically he was eating on the schedule he would have with the insulin only I could be a little looser if my schedule demanded it.
More difficult was mastering the testing process. I’m only now feeling more confident about that. At first, it was operator error with the meter or the process; and several times I’d get a blood droplet and he would pull away just at the wrong moment and the drop would smear on my finger. I tried a couple of times with a friend to help hold him but that stressed Kohl out even more. Lots of days were going by but I was determined to try to maintain as calm an environment for him as possible reasoning that if ‘vet-stress’ can increase BG #’s up to 100 points, then probably a calmer environment in general would be a help. After a few days on the new regimen, he began to improve in small ways: no more excessive water drinking was the first thing I noticed. He was sleeping all day outdoors day and night in the nice weather and coming in for his 2 meals. After about a week he was looking waaay better and more alert. Then he began to spend more time indoors and his appetite and weight were both good.
After about 2 weeks, he was looking even more alert and grooming himself more each day. Still no excessive water drinking and no peeing outside the box. At Day 22, I was astonished to see that he was seeming like his old self and even acting frisky !! I finally managed to get a fasting test done that day and he was at BG of 105 !! I could hardly believe it ! I was worried it might be a fluke or incorrect reading so I just kept going with everything I was doing. Day by day, he kept seeming better and better, looking shiny and having energy again. Yesterday was Day 33 and we managed another test (after 9 hrs fasting). He was at BG 100. That made me feel more confident that he was indeed getting much better just with the food change, the fasting (apparently that’s when the pancreas can make and store more insulin if the beta cells are not too far gone), the low-stress environment and, of course, lots of good pets and love xoxo.
Next, I plan to test after some meals to see how those numbers look and get his teeth tended to once I find a new vet. Again, I know this may not work for other kitties, but if they aren’t dealing with a bunch of other health issues, it might be worth a few week’s trial run. I’m so relieved and totally thrilled to see Kohl feeling so much better and wanted to share about our journey so far. I will keep testing and at least I know where to turn and what to do now if things take a downturn which I hope they don't ! Again, thanks so much for all the help and resources.. It's reassuring to know you're here
.
I posted an “intro” when Kohl was first diagnosed (8/11) and I was in panic mode. I also was not happy at all with the vet clinic on several counts but in the end I had a phone chat with the vet tech and decided to go in and get trained on the testing and insulin injection and learn what they recommended. That was on a Friday (8/19). Both Kohl and I did okay at the appointment and I was relieved to see that his BG was down to 325 from the 510 he got at his checkup on 8/9.
Still, when we got home from the vet clinic, we were both totally stressed and I didn’t think I’d get any sleep for worrying I might not give him the right amount of insulin. So I decided to just chill out and give him lots of pets and reassurance. The next morning I planned to start the routine but still just couldn’t face the idea of starting every morning with the poke-food-shot routine. So we had a big chat and I had a big think about it all. I know this probably wouldn’t work for everyone, but even though I had been trained and spent $300. on insulin (!), I decided to take a risk and ‘go off-road’ for a few weeks to see if there might be any improvement with a Lo-Carb Partial-Fast diet. The previous night, I’d happened onto a youtube video by Dr Jason Fung about reversing diabetes in humans using that method. I thought maybe it would work for a kitkat. Also, in favor of trying this route was the fact that Kohl’s check-up test results all indicated that he was perfectly healthy except for the high BG level plus I'd seen improvement over the previous 7 days when I’d been gradually changing his diet from dry food to lo-carb wet food. I was still free-feeding during that week and supplementing his new wet food with the familiar Taste of the Wild dry food he'd been getting for about a year. Before that I always free-fed Purina dry food.....now thinking that was not such a great idea :-(.
So, even though I felt nervous about it, starting with the morning after our vet training session, I did not start the insulin and began to only fed him 2x per day with grain-free lo-carb wet food. I had gotten a variety of different kinds at All The Best Pet Shop. He really likes Tiki Cat, did okay with Weruva and some others. Basically he was eating on the schedule he would have with the insulin only I could be a little looser if my schedule demanded it.
More difficult was mastering the testing process. I’m only now feeling more confident about that. At first, it was operator error with the meter or the process; and several times I’d get a blood droplet and he would pull away just at the wrong moment and the drop would smear on my finger. I tried a couple of times with a friend to help hold him but that stressed Kohl out even more. Lots of days were going by but I was determined to try to maintain as calm an environment for him as possible reasoning that if ‘vet-stress’ can increase BG #’s up to 100 points, then probably a calmer environment in general would be a help. After a few days on the new regimen, he began to improve in small ways: no more excessive water drinking was the first thing I noticed. He was sleeping all day outdoors day and night in the nice weather and coming in for his 2 meals. After about a week he was looking waaay better and more alert. Then he began to spend more time indoors and his appetite and weight were both good.
After about 2 weeks, he was looking even more alert and grooming himself more each day. Still no excessive water drinking and no peeing outside the box. At Day 22, I was astonished to see that he was seeming like his old self and even acting frisky !! I finally managed to get a fasting test done that day and he was at BG of 105 !! I could hardly believe it ! I was worried it might be a fluke or incorrect reading so I just kept going with everything I was doing. Day by day, he kept seeming better and better, looking shiny and having energy again. Yesterday was Day 33 and we managed another test (after 9 hrs fasting). He was at BG 100. That made me feel more confident that he was indeed getting much better just with the food change, the fasting (apparently that’s when the pancreas can make and store more insulin if the beta cells are not too far gone), the low-stress environment and, of course, lots of good pets and love xoxo.
Next, I plan to test after some meals to see how those numbers look and get his teeth tended to once I find a new vet. Again, I know this may not work for other kitties, but if they aren’t dealing with a bunch of other health issues, it might be worth a few week’s trial run. I’m so relieved and totally thrilled to see Kohl feeling so much better and wanted to share about our journey so far. I will keep testing and at least I know where to turn and what to do now if things take a downturn which I hope they don't ! Again, thanks so much for all the help and resources.. It's reassuring to know you're here
.
Dental is at the top of the list right now along with finding a vet I like/trust.....fingers crossed...I have a couple of leads !