01/11 Chanel AMPS 341 Switching back to Lantus

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/01-09-chanel-amps-236-pmps-356.224063/#post-2507382

@Olive & Paula I wish I can say it is the food, but the fact is that even the old dry food does not stop her diarrhea and it is going on for the past 4-5 days including blood at times. The lip, at least for me, does not show much of improvement despite of the Zyrtec. She looks like her histamines are going crazy and affecting more than just skin and lip, even internal.
Nothing was new in the past week except the food and Levemir. The food has been switched to the old one and does not seem to do much good even with the help of antihistamines. That leaves Levemir as the next possible cause. I do not like it, but there is nothing else that could have caused all this and I cannot say something happened at the vet because the diarrhea was before the vet.

Switching back to Lantus...

 

Have you tried giving her some plain mashed pumpkin fur the diarrhoea?
If you used canned make sure there is nothing else added. If you make your own just add water, cook, drain and mash. Freeze in ice cube trays and use as needed. I found a teaspoon in food twice a day very effective.

 

Yes, I did that for the past 3 days. It does not work, it did not work before either. For Chanel pumpkin works only if she is constipated. I took off her schedule even the teeth brushing (with warm water) although I must say I am not happy of doing that. After following @Wendy&Neko to brush with a piece of gauze and warm water, her gums did improve considerably and her appetite was better (the chewing was more effective).
We do not change much in the house especially because of her. She always had the same bowls, same water, same food (the new food was also taken out but I doubt it is the food because she did not have it in a few days now and still I cannot say I see improvement). I do see however a lot of grooming and as mentioned before, bouts of diarrhea. If it were something of a different nature, she would not be able to get to the literbox in time....but she does.

 

I would see about getting some S. boulardii. It's a probiotic that does wonders for diarrhea. I use the ReNew brand and order from Amazon.

 

@Sienne and Gabby (GA) This one?
https://www.amazon.com/Renew-Life-A...words=ReNew S. boulardi&qid=1578753500&sr=8-3
I can try as long as it has nothing pork in it. We tried Fortiflora before and oh boy, that was a mistake. Her BM became bloody, that often it was happening.

 

I would see if you can track down a customer service number for the company. There's an 800 # on their website.

 

Or try SEB or bone broth. I think your making to many changes at same time and not giving enough time for it to work. Just my opinion.

 

Laura

I understand your frustration. I am only vaguely familiar with Chanel’s FD journey as I have glanced in on your condos from time to time.

However, I do not think changing insulins will resolve Chanel’s diarrhea. I agree with Paula that you have been making many changes and not giving them enough time. As well as not yet having exhausted other, IMO, easier options than changing insulins (s. Boulardii, SEB, slower food transition, re-visiting the vet, etc.).

It has only been about a week or so since you switched to Levemir. And you got a cycle of nice green numbers. Something is working in that front. That is why I don’t believe Levemir is the culprit. I also can’t see the correlation with diarrhea and Levemir aside from the timing. And there can be a dozen other things that started to happen at the same time that we weren’t even aware.

I urge you again to give Levemir some more time and treat Chanel’s digestive issues as separate from the dose/type of insulin.

Of course, this is only my opinion and you are free to change Chanel’s care in anyway and we will support you no matter what. I hope the s.boulardi helps!

 

For s.boudlardi, I use a brand called Florastor. I was recommended to give 1/2 cap twice a day for 3 days to attempt to resolve diarrhea. Then for maintenance, you can give 1/4 cap twice a day.

 

It is not only frustration, I am worried because the swelling of her lip while yesterday was more on the middle of the lip, today looks present in a much larger area, almost the entire lip.

 

Laura -

I don't know how effective allergy testing for cats is, but is that something you or your vet have looked into? Unless you want to go the route of an elimination diet and, frankly, I'm not sure what that involves with a cat, if there are less than obvious allergens that Chanel is responding to, maybe allergy testing would be a way to get ahead of this.

Do you know if your vet gave any consideration to whether Chanel has indolent ulcers? This is typically an ulceration on the lip but is also associated with skin sensitivities.

 

Channel has a history of diarrhea before the lev even started.

The lip I can't say. But unless you injected the lip, I don't see how it was caused by lev.

I think there are some food allergies involved based on all your posts.. You might want to think of the testing. Elimination diet is a long drawn out process, If she is having this much trouble now she could get worse while doing it. Doing the testing is the way to go.

 

@Laura & Chanel ,

Wish you luck. Zyrtec would not cause the bloating or gas. You need to stick to one insulin. Going back and forth will not help her at all.

When is the last time she was checked for worms? They can still get them even if indoor only.

Hope you get answers soon she is clearly not well.

 

Hi Sienne,
We went to the ER Angell Memorial in Boston last Sunday. It did not help much, to be honest. The MD did not even want to press a glass slide against her lip and examine it under microscope. Oh well..
She did the same tests Chanel had on Tuesday, the same week (the BG at the time was 248, pretty reasonable taking into account an 1-hour trip with the car). Not sure why, but the results came just the same. She gave us a Hills prescription dry food with approx 37% carbs saying it is also a great food to lower the diabetes values. I am not sure if I was looking that stupid or she was so out of it. However, it seems to work for Chanel's itchiness and she does not scratch herself that much anymore, so I am letting her having it...for now...
Long story short, we went there and came back the same way. I am not a vet and frankly I begin to feel restless around vets. So I took the matter in my own hands, especially after my husband's youngest daughter begged us not to take Chanel to vet anymore just to stress her. I decided that she has EGC and went with Zyrtec 5 mg BID. This is the 5th day I guess (not being able to get to my computer lately, still trying to be aggressive in finding the potential allergen) and I think her lip is looking better. I also decided that she will be on this medication for 10 days.
Meanwhile, that meant to give up Levemir (and I am so upset beyond words but in humans it is known for some side effects including swelling and the doctor said to remove all the changes made in the past 2 weeks), any other foods except her usual wet food from Fancy Feast and the dry food recommended by the vet. I also gave up my cosmetics, wondering that maybe the amla oil I bought for my hair 2 weeks ago may have had an impact on her going from my hands to her fur and her mouth.
Zyrtec is known to be beneficial in IBD in humans so it would not be a bad thing for Chanel to have it for 10 days. It might be that her on and off diarrhea to be a result of IBD and since the vets seem to believe this is only a human affliction, I surely hope my 'vet' gut made the right decision.
I bought an allergy test from 5Strands. I hope I did the right thing and maybe that will give me a hint of what is going on with her allergies and the things I may need to remove from our daily life. I know everybody says that allergy tests are unreliable, but if there is a little chance of getting some ideas, they may be more reliable than me eliminating everything. I mean even the literbox is plastic for God sake and sometimes she likes sitting in there (of course, the literbox is clean).
Unfortunately, the fact that she is eating dry food in higher amounts than before (those companies really cheat on getting them addicted) and being back on Lantus got Chanel back to 400s. The allergy test will most likely take 7 days to come back, meanwhile I will try to get her back to her usual 3-hour eating schedule for the nights (6 pm, 9 pm, 12 am, 3 am, and 6 am) and hope that she will be too full to actually eat much of the dry food.
She knows she is doing something wrong but she is guarding her dry food bowl with devotion and if she sees there is no danger to make it disappear, then she is actually very friendly.
I will be restart posting hopefully soon. For now, I want to focus on her and get her in a better place with her lip, her GI issues and the diabetes.
Thank you very much for suggesting the allergy testing, that might be a life saver

I cannot write much at this time, just saw the news of Boomer's passing and I am crying in my cubicle and missing Chanel

 

Laura, I'm sending you and Chanel tons of good luck vines.

 

@Sonia & Leo thank you so much, we need all the luck available out there. Your baby is a GREEN surfer, oh my. He is doing AWESOMELY, congrats

 

Sending prayers.