PaigeE
Member Since 2023
Hi all! I have been meaning to make this post for the past month or so. A few months ago I posted about my cat Leo, who had been recently diagnosed as diabetic. Here’s the link to my original post: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/should-i-get-a-2nd-opinion.274159/
The gist is we had been going to the vet constantly and it was a few months after his diagnosis, his blood sugar was still unregulated despite being on a very high dose of insulin. The vet had done a couple curves on him but we were mostly going on spot checks and the vet was saying that even accounting for him being stressed at the vet, his BG levels were still really high which led us to 5.5 U of ProZinc twice a day. And his neuropathology was pretty bad. The last vet visit I had reported some symptoms had somewhat improved but they checked his BG and it was 350, and so they told me “Well if you’re happy we’ll keep him on his dose and come back in 3 months.” Well I was NOT happy which led me to this message board. I got the suggestion to immediately start home testing and that he was possibly on too high of a dose. Of course getting home tests was difficult at first but in no time both my husband and I began to nail it. None of his at home BG readings were as high as we saw at the vet and we began slowly lowering his dose. Ugh it made me so upset thinking all that time he was probably getting too much insulin and his BG was likely too low very often (even if we had never noticed any physical signs of it)!! I had still been giving him a small amount of kibble and we ended up cutting that out as well and now he’s strictly on wet food.
I’m so happy to report that Leo is doing very well! His usual preshoot numbers are between 95-120 and we give him the smallest amount of insulin. The highest we have seen in the past couple months is 140. To be honest I have not kept up on recording his numbers but we ALWAYS test before giving insulin and as I said his numbers are normally within the same range. I know with diabetes things can randomly change, so of course if that happens I would go back to recording and doing additional tests to have data to look at, but as of now he seems pretty stable. And his neuropathy has DRASTICALLY improved. He is not 100% normal but back to jumping onto things he couldn’t before and getting into stuff he shouldn’t lol. I used to be able to put his sisters food up on a higher surface (since he gets meds in his) and now that doesn’t work anymore since he can get up to wherever she can.
I just wanted to say thank you and show my gratitude for this place and all the people who gave me advice and helped me get started on managing his diabetes ourselves. We are astounded at how much he’s improved and so grateful our boy is doing much better. He’s back to his pushy, demanding attention self, getting into trouble and I couldn’t be more grateful! Now when we get his testing supplies out he comes running into the kitchen and lays down, patiently lets us get his test done. We would not be at this point if I hadn’t come here. And I know if things ever change and we start to struggle I can come here for advice. Thank you all so much for helping my Leo boy get better!!! We would not be at this point without you all and wanted the people who helped to know how much of a difference you have made in our lives
The gist is we had been going to the vet constantly and it was a few months after his diagnosis, his blood sugar was still unregulated despite being on a very high dose of insulin. The vet had done a couple curves on him but we were mostly going on spot checks and the vet was saying that even accounting for him being stressed at the vet, his BG levels were still really high which led us to 5.5 U of ProZinc twice a day. And his neuropathology was pretty bad. The last vet visit I had reported some symptoms had somewhat improved but they checked his BG and it was 350, and so they told me “Well if you’re happy we’ll keep him on his dose and come back in 3 months.” Well I was NOT happy which led me to this message board. I got the suggestion to immediately start home testing and that he was possibly on too high of a dose. Of course getting home tests was difficult at first but in no time both my husband and I began to nail it. None of his at home BG readings were as high as we saw at the vet and we began slowly lowering his dose. Ugh it made me so upset thinking all that time he was probably getting too much insulin and his BG was likely too low very often (even if we had never noticed any physical signs of it)!! I had still been giving him a small amount of kibble and we ended up cutting that out as well and now he’s strictly on wet food.
I’m so happy to report that Leo is doing very well! His usual preshoot numbers are between 95-120 and we give him the smallest amount of insulin. The highest we have seen in the past couple months is 140. To be honest I have not kept up on recording his numbers but we ALWAYS test before giving insulin and as I said his numbers are normally within the same range. I know with diabetes things can randomly change, so of course if that happens I would go back to recording and doing additional tests to have data to look at, but as of now he seems pretty stable. And his neuropathy has DRASTICALLY improved. He is not 100% normal but back to jumping onto things he couldn’t before and getting into stuff he shouldn’t lol. I used to be able to put his sisters food up on a higher surface (since he gets meds in his) and now that doesn’t work anymore since he can get up to wherever she can.
I just wanted to say thank you and show my gratitude for this place and all the people who gave me advice and helped me get started on managing his diabetes ourselves. We are astounded at how much he’s improved and so grateful our boy is doing much better. He’s back to his pushy, demanding attention self, getting into trouble and I couldn’t be more grateful! Now when we get his testing supplies out he comes running into the kitchen and lays down, patiently lets us get his test done. We would not be at this point if I hadn’t come here. And I know if things ever change and we start to struggle I can come here for advice. Thank you all so much for helping my Leo boy get better!!! We would not be at this point without you all and wanted the people who helped to know how much of a difference you have made in our lives
