Back after nearly 3 years OTJ

I was here very briefly in 2013 when Wiley was diagnosed with DM after a steroid shot for allergies. At that point, he was prescribed a fairly normal dose of 1u Lantus twice a day. We were very lucky that after only a month, he was OTJ! No one was really sure why he went into remission so quickly, but I kind of thought it might be that the steroid had diminished and he was able to stabilize. Obviously, I've never treated his allergies with shots anymore. Not worth it.

I gotta be honest and say that I never had very much luck with home testing during that month, and so I was bad about testing in the last couple years. Anyway, I don't know why the diabetes came back except that he is also having kidney issues, so maybe that is a trigger? Once they have diabetes, I assume that it might be easy for it to come back. Anyone have information on that? I'm pretty devastated and I feel like a bad caregiver since I wasn't monitoring his BG.

I have kept him mostly on the same diet that I started 3 years ago....except now I have to modify it again because of the phosphorous levels that are in the food he has been on. I just discovered that he needs to be on low phosphorous food for his kidney failure. I've bought a few of the Weruva and he seems to like it okay.

I plan to be much better about home testing now, no matter how hard it is. I finally had a successful test this evening, even though I've been trying for a couple of days (since he started back on Lantus). I just have to wrangle him and he hates it. He's even beginning to ignore his favorite treats because he has associated them with ear pricks.

I'm very frustrated, but I am so thankful for this amazing message board. You helped me so much last time, when I knew nothing about feline diabetes. I look forward to your support again.

 

Welcome back. It is good that you want to home test BG.Some cats go out of remission because of other health problem or just because they are cats.

 

Hi Jenny, welcome back. Have you tried desensitization with Wiley? Choose a spot to be the test spot, go there multiple times/ day, pet him, give him a treat and let him go. When he's comfortable with that, rub his ears, give the treat and let him go- no testing until you're both comfortable. Remember too, that you need to relax, Wiley can sense your apprehension and if you're expecting a fight, you'll get one. There's also the burrito method, where you wrap him in a towel(others can tell you more about that) and paw pad testing which works better for some cats.

 

I definitely need to do this. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

While you work on home testing, you might use the Secondary Monitoring Tools in my signature to help you evaluate how Wiley is doing. In particular, getting urine ketone tests will let you see if he might be in need of an urgent vet visit.