Happiness, and hope for others

A note for new people who are struggling after a recent diagnosis ... there is hope! Four months ago, my cat was diagnosed with diabetes. I was overwhelmed, but took the advice of the board members and was helped greatly by a local angel who held my hand through those hard early weeks. I picked Lantus as our insulin because I had heard it was one of the best at helping the pancreas to recover. I switched my cat to Evo's 7% carb food (yes, dry food, and yes, fed freely, even though many people recommended only wet food). I slowly brought my cat up to 3 units BID, and she started to stabilize after 3 months--and then, two weeks ago, she ended up in the hospital with severe hypoglycemia. It was scary, but it was also apparently her pancreas kicking back in. She's been insulin-free since then, and her blood glucose--all on its own!--dropped from the low 100s during the first week down to stable values in the 60s and 70s. I'm still holding my breath, but my vet is all smiles.

So there is hope! Even if, like me, you can't be the perfect diabetic cat owner. Do your best, switch your cat to the best low-carb food you're able to offer, encourage healthy weight-loss (my cat is 5 lbs lighter than at her diagnosis), monitor regularly, and sometimes the gods do smile :smile:

 

Thank you so much for this post and congratulations on your huge success! Our Nick was diagnosed just over four months ago too. We're not the "perfect" diabetic pet owners either, but he feels absolutely great (that is the most important thing to me, happy cat first, everything else second) and the treatment process has gotten much easier. I hope we get as lucky as you and your kitty did someday.

Can I ask, when mention you saw kitty's numbers "stabilize," what sort of numbers were you seeing and for how long were they at this stage before the hypo/remission hit? I'm just curious if there were any warning signs or how high kitty was before it happened.

Edited to add: Scratch that question above! I'm checking out your spreadsheet now. This is great info and very encouraging! :smile:

 

How awesome for you and your kitty!!

We are in the same boat. After C's initial dx, I didn't hometest and he was on insulin for 4 mos b4 his big hypo. Started hometesting, and found that his P kicked in; and now we're 16 days OTJ!! We are on lc now instead of wet mixed with dry d/m. As I switched their food, his #'s just keep leveling down!!

Keep your paws crossed that our kitties keep going on the ride to the falls!!