Ozzy Pawzbourne
Member Since 2016
Hi All- My name is Joanna and my sweetheart 8-yr old Maine Coone Tabby named Ozzy was jut recently diagnosed with FD. We found about out his diagnosis after he was hospitalized last week for 4 days because he was in DKA. We had been concerned about his weight for awhile and had decided to put him on a diet about 6 months ago. We switched him to a half wet half dry food diet and we did notice that he started loosing a little weight but we thought this was normal because he had been eating less dry food and less calories overall. What we did not know, is that he probably already had diabetes at this point and his weight loss was obviously contributed to FD and not to the new diet we had him on.
If he had not been on a diet, we would have taken the weight loss as a serious indication and taken him to the vet. We love both our kitties dearly (we have another 13-yr old happy healthy tuxedo kitty named Figgie) and they are both part of our family. To learn that our beloved Ozzy had diabetes and was in critical condition in the hospital was absolutely heart breaking.
We now have had Ozzy home for 4 days since the hospital intervention and he is working on his recovery. I have been trying to find out as much as I can about diabetes and I am most particularly interested and hopeful in finding ways that we can reverse his diabetes. We now have him on wet food only. Since he is still recovering, he is not eating much, only about half his daily calories throughout out the day and only eats about .5-1 oz of food at each sitting. Our vet said this could be due to all the other medications he is taking including antibiotics and potassium supplementation.
His second day home, he seemed to start showing signs of improvement. But yesterday he looked really dumpy and laid in the same room and didn't really move around much. It was so hard for me not knowing if his sugars were high and that's why he felt awful or if it was due to all the meds he was on. I finally broke down and brought home a glucometer and tested his sugar. It was 348!! I immediately called the vet and asked if we should give him insulin, even though it was 4-5 hours before his next dose. He is on 2 units of Vestulin insulin 2 xs a day. We were told to only give him half his shot if he eats half or less than half of his food, so we had only been giving him 1 unit twice a day for the last couple of days. The vets office said not to give him any more insulin until his next dosage time and still to only give 1 unit if he does not eat much. They also said his sugars will be high until he is regulated and that we will only worry ourselves sick if we continue to home test. Doesn't part of regulating him include trying to keep his sugars in normal ranges? We wouldn't let our human family members walk around feeling dumpy with a BG of 348, so why should we let our fur babies?
We have been looking online at a lot of research and found the website YourDiabeticCat.com and learned about the protocol outlined by Dr. Hodgkins. We felt nervous about going against the vet's advice and gave him 1.5 units of insulin anyways (still less than the 3.5 units recommended by Dr. Hodgkin's protocol) and tested him again in 1 hour. His BG went down to 158 and within 20-30 minutes he was already looking like he felt better.
This morning he woke up with a BG of 206 and we fed him but he did not eat much. My husband dosed him with the 1 unit we were recommended to give him, but we are not sure if he actually injected him correctly (we are still learning - it's only been 4 days) because his fur was a little wet right after. I tested his BG 90 mins later and it is now 292. I am hesitant to give any more insulin because I am really not knowledgeable about all this and I definitely don't want to overdose him, I know the insulin has peak times and maybe it hasn't kicked in all the way yet. We have decided to wait about 6-8 hours and give him more if his numbers are still high. Do you think this is the correct thing to do? Or should we just wait 12 hours and give him the dose the vet recommends (1 unit if he eats half his food or less) even if his numbers are in the 300's again? Do you dose insulin based on how much a cat eats or based on his BG levels? I didn't see anything in Dr. Hodgkin's protocol that referenced insulin injections on how much food the cat eats, it was just based on BG readings. But maybe her protocol is based on cats who are eating normally and not ones who were just released from the hospital with life threatening DKA.
Sorry for the long introductory post - we are just confused and have been worrying ourselves sick over our poor sweet kitty.
I am interested in hearing about your thoughts related to Dr. Hodgkins protocol and success stories, and also if any of you went against the advice of your vet.
Thank you for reading and I look forward to learning a lot about FD from all of you!
For any of you who are interested in learning how much a 4-day stay in kitty ICU in a 24-hour vet hospital costs to treat DKA, it was $4800!!! All the more reason to treat FD before it becomes serious!
If he had not been on a diet, we would have taken the weight loss as a serious indication and taken him to the vet. We love both our kitties dearly (we have another 13-yr old happy healthy tuxedo kitty named Figgie) and they are both part of our family. To learn that our beloved Ozzy had diabetes and was in critical condition in the hospital was absolutely heart breaking.
We now have had Ozzy home for 4 days since the hospital intervention and he is working on his recovery. I have been trying to find out as much as I can about diabetes and I am most particularly interested and hopeful in finding ways that we can reverse his diabetes. We now have him on wet food only. Since he is still recovering, he is not eating much, only about half his daily calories throughout out the day and only eats about .5-1 oz of food at each sitting. Our vet said this could be due to all the other medications he is taking including antibiotics and potassium supplementation.
His second day home, he seemed to start showing signs of improvement. But yesterday he looked really dumpy and laid in the same room and didn't really move around much. It was so hard for me not knowing if his sugars were high and that's why he felt awful or if it was due to all the meds he was on. I finally broke down and brought home a glucometer and tested his sugar. It was 348!! I immediately called the vet and asked if we should give him insulin, even though it was 4-5 hours before his next dose. He is on 2 units of Vestulin insulin 2 xs a day. We were told to only give him half his shot if he eats half or less than half of his food, so we had only been giving him 1 unit twice a day for the last couple of days. The vets office said not to give him any more insulin until his next dosage time and still to only give 1 unit if he does not eat much. They also said his sugars will be high until he is regulated and that we will only worry ourselves sick if we continue to home test. Doesn't part of regulating him include trying to keep his sugars in normal ranges? We wouldn't let our human family members walk around feeling dumpy with a BG of 348, so why should we let our fur babies?
We have been looking online at a lot of research and found the website YourDiabeticCat.com and learned about the protocol outlined by Dr. Hodgkins. We felt nervous about going against the vet's advice and gave him 1.5 units of insulin anyways (still less than the 3.5 units recommended by Dr. Hodgkin's protocol) and tested him again in 1 hour. His BG went down to 158 and within 20-30 minutes he was already looking like he felt better.
This morning he woke up with a BG of 206 and we fed him but he did not eat much. My husband dosed him with the 1 unit we were recommended to give him, but we are not sure if he actually injected him correctly (we are still learning - it's only been 4 days) because his fur was a little wet right after. I tested his BG 90 mins later and it is now 292. I am hesitant to give any more insulin because I am really not knowledgeable about all this and I definitely don't want to overdose him, I know the insulin has peak times and maybe it hasn't kicked in all the way yet. We have decided to wait about 6-8 hours and give him more if his numbers are still high. Do you think this is the correct thing to do? Or should we just wait 12 hours and give him the dose the vet recommends (1 unit if he eats half his food or less) even if his numbers are in the 300's again? Do you dose insulin based on how much a cat eats or based on his BG levels? I didn't see anything in Dr. Hodgkin's protocol that referenced insulin injections on how much food the cat eats, it was just based on BG readings. But maybe her protocol is based on cats who are eating normally and not ones who were just released from the hospital with life threatening DKA.
Sorry for the long introductory post - we are just confused and have been worrying ourselves sick over our poor sweet kitty.
I am interested in hearing about your thoughts related to Dr. Hodgkins protocol and success stories, and also if any of you went against the advice of your vet.
Thank you for reading and I look forward to learning a lot about FD from all of you!
For any of you who are interested in learning how much a 4-day stay in kitty ICU in a 24-hour vet hospital costs to treat DKA, it was $4800!!! All the more reason to treat FD before it becomes serious!
