? Markies and Silvina´s presentation

Dear people.

This is our presentation, Markies and mom.

Markies is a 9 years old cat who was adopted from the PASPCA about 5 years ago. At that time I was living in the US. I am originally from Argentina. We came back to Argentina about 4 ½ years ago.

Markeis is a very stressed cat. He usually is scared to people and stress has had a huge impact in his health. About one year ago (April 2014) Markies had a hiperglucemia episode.

At that time we went through a very hard time. Due to a bad storm we had a flood in our apartment- That situation lead to maintenance people coming in and out from our apartment, then people inside repairing the roof and Markies simply collapsed. He started with a tonsil problem. I took him to the vet and he received steroids. A lot of issues started at that moment or better said, were identified at that moment (bronchitis, restrictive cardiomiopathy, fatty liver, tonsil problem and high glucose).

He was taken to the vet several times since at the very first moment they didn´t check his GC and he was miss diagnosed. He then stopped eating and had to be hospitalized. His blood work was horrible and his high glucose was only considered as a stress episode, so he received only Metformine and was not indicated using any insuline. He was on DKA for some days, stopped eating for 7 days, lost weight (he lost about 4.5 pounds). He was forced to eat by tube and he survived.

He was discharged and there was no indication of insuline at all. They even didn´t tell me to check his glucouse. So Markies diabetes went undiagnosed.

Eight months after this, we moved from apartment which was again a very stressful situation for Markies. One day I realized he was too hungry, desperate for food and that he lost weight. I took him to the vet and his clucose was very high. They told me he needed to be hospitalized to make a glucose curve to confirm the diagnostic of diabetes, and they did. He was diagnosed with diabetes in January 2015.

Since then, I visited many many doctors. None of them know anything about diabetes, not even about how to feed a diabetic cat. He ended being hospitalized in three different places. We had a very tough moment in one of those places. They refused to give him oxygen, he was having breathing problems. I got really mad, wanted to take Markies to another vet and as it was late at night they wouldn´t allow me to take him. I threatened them to call the police and they gave me Markies as if he was a potatoe bag, they took of the IV very rudly causing damage on his leg skin. Fortunately, I took him that night to the place he was hospitalized for more than a week which fortunatelly was an excelent place.

He was on DKA, was forced to eat with tube, and he survived again. When all this started in January after some ultrasounds and XR's I discovered that Markies had pulmonary oedema (caused by his heart problem), his pancreas seemed chronically inflamated and he still had fatty liver. He also had (and still has) a bad sore due to a Baytril shot.

When all this started, and time passed by, I had to overcome the preasure of eutanasia not only from family members, but also from some vets as I was not able to afford all the cost of his treatment and hospitalizations.

I never thought of this option. I started selling personal stuff and searchingo for help all over, through my friends, on the internet, neighbours, etc.. I am still struggling with money but fortunately I was able to receive monetary help from people, including help from Diabetic Cats in Need (DCIN) who created a fundraiser for Markeis. But expenses keep happening and the fight continues.


Today Markies glucouse is still uncontrolled (after 3 months of treatment). He was on different types of insuline, since everytime he was hospitalized the clinic used their protocol insuline.

He still has that sore opened, he has otitis which required drops with steroids (Im no longer giving him this drops). He is on BARF (and some times, few times dry food). He is on Lantus (3 units) and Corriente (which would be similar to Rapid – U40) to bring back his glucose since he never gets to shot times with good numbers (at shot time he is usually above 400). Some times he vomits (about once a week).

Fortunatelly I joined some diabetes groups in facebook who guided me all this time. I really need help from you guys. I am planning to change from Lantus to Levemir since people told me it was great and since Lantus seems not the best for him. We tried one called Novomix but it didn´t work (it´s a mixture between Rapid and long lasting).


Today my main concern is the following:

- his sore that is still open and doesn´t heal

- his liver which blood work showed very bad numbers

- his pancreas and possible pain

- He has been using antibiotics for months due to his sore, isn´t it bad?
- How all this impacts in his glucose.
- Everynight he is very very hungry. He demands food desperately.

Sorry for the lengh of this presentation!!!

 

Can you provide more info on this sore? It may be an indicator of other problems. What do the vets says about it
It appears that you are home testing. If so then it would help us if you record your BGs, does, insulin and other information in a spreadsheet that can be viewed by others here. He is how to create that spreadsheet
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...te-a-ss-and-link-it-in-your-signature.130337/

 

Welcome to FDMB.
Check out Cat Info for feline nutrition info and for a recipe to make home made raw food. Maybe some of the low carb foods on the list are available in Argentina, too.

 

Welcome Silvina,
I'm sorry to hear that you and Markies are having such a bad time. It sounds like you are doing absolutely everything you can to help your sweet kitty. You might want to look into using raw honey for his open sore. I'm including some links with more information. It's important to remember that it must be raw, unprocessed honey, not the regular liquid kind. There is one type called Manuka honey that seems to be especially effective. I hope this helps!
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...0/the-natural-way-to-speed-wound-healing.aspx
http://phys.org/news/2013-02-manuka-honey-door-effective-treatment.html

Joan

 

Pure crystallized sugar packed in the wound can do the same things. It draws out the moisture in the wound and creates an environment that is hostile to infection.

 

First of all, thank you so much for answering!!! Im not familiar with forums, I am more a facebook person so I didn´t even know there were answers.
I will take some time to read and to answer.
Ive been struggling with Decision Making. This is because I belong to different groups and other forum too, and all of them use their own spread sheet, also they have their own insuline protocol so it has been very difficult for me to decide what group, protocol, follow.

Also It´s impossible for me to have three different spread sheets.. I will try to do all that is required to this forum.

Just give me little time to gather all the info.

Will get back to you later.

Thank you!!!

Hope I can set up this messages so I can receive a notification on my email, that will help me check for answers and postings. If anybody wants to help me with this, I will appreciate it very much.

And excuse me for my bad spelling!! Im native Spanish speaker so English is not a strenght.

Kind regards.

 

Let´s start.

About his sore, it´s healing, little by little. I stopped Baytril (pills) since he was taking it for a long time and I´ve been told that long term Baytril could bring bad side effects. So I´m now putting a spray which has antibiotic (Rifocina) and some times using something called Platsul A, which has vitamins A and D, Silver Sulfadiazina (It´s something close to colloidal silver but not the same), also something called Dimecaina which is like Lidocaine for pain. I would love to find Colloidal Silver, but we don´t have this in Argentina.

Having said that, today Im not so much concerned about this soar. It´s still a threatened since it´s still open, but closing and looks better than before. I guess I could prepare an album with it´s development.

About using sugar, we already did and it´s impossible for him not to take out the bandage and lick the sugar. He actually did and his GC went to the sky. I rather don´t take this risk again. I wouldn´t do this with honey either. But really appreciate your recommendations. Also, bandages are very stressful for him, so I rather don´t use them any more. Anyway, if I see that his sore is getting worse, I will start with bandages again.

Yesterday and the day before yesterday, he had a bad diarrhea and vomits. I got really scared since this was his first episode after his hospitalizations. But then talking with a sugar cat mom, I discovered it could be due to his food. I gave him plenty of salmon, and salmon has lot´s of fat, which I shouldn´t use, considering his fatty liver and pancreatitis. It was a bad mistake that I should never commit again.

I do actually need to read more about BARF and start doing things better. Also need to know all about nutrients and learn how to find them in natural food, since we don´t have any type of cat food supplements in Argentina. We may have some nutrients (like vitamins, aminoacids, etc.) but for humans, and usually mixed with others that may not be ok for cats. This is something I´m commited to investigate, I actually opened a facebook group to spread the word about BARF in my country since it´s not well known here. On the other hand imports are closed so finding nutrients in natural food is a must for us.

About the spread sheet it will take me some time. I will try to do it. But I still need to make a decision on what group to follow, what protocol to follow, etc.. Ive been told about tight regulation, but then someone told me it was not a good idea, considering Markies other issues and delicate health condition. But I have no clue on what means Tight Regulation and I don´t even know other protocols, so I would love to read more about this or if any of you can take some minutes to explain this, I would really appreciate.

This was one of the most difficult issues for me and still is. I appreciate all the people that is trying to help me but some times advices are very different from each other and some times I don´t know which opinion is correct, or what to do. May be they are all correct, but still don´t know which to follow. In the middle, there are the endocrinologists who have their own protocols, their own insuline indication, etc..

But I want to feel myself what´s the best thing to do, so that´s why Im also joining this group, and also I need to feel supported, need to feel there is someone there to help me, specially in difficult moments.

My only concern is that in crisis situations, forums don´t work for me (I don´t know how to use them, I need something easy to reach and to use) so I hope I can use the Facebook group at least for crisis or difficult situations (for example yesterday´s Markies diarrea).

Keep you posted. Will try to do the SS.

Sorry again for the lengh of my postings!

Silvi

 

There are different tight regulation protocols for different types of insulin. There is one developed by research for Lantus, described in our Lantus forum here. That would be the one to follow, as the one by Hodgkins is specific to shorter acting insulins with no carry over.

If you stay logged in to the message board and post in Feline Health, most times during the day, someone will post back, just as they do on Facebook. Additionally, there is a 911 icon you can select in the title section of your post. The most important info for you is How to Handle a Hypo, which you'll want to read over, print out, and have the supplies needed should you ever observe warning signs.

The way we indicate our glucose tests is as follows:
AMPS = morning pre-shot test
PMPS = evenin pre-shot test
+# = any test taken # hours after the insulin shot; a test 6 hours after a shot would be +3