Hello

Hello all. I'm new to the forums and I'll be hitting up the FAQ pages to try to keep our little guy as healthy and happy as we can.

We saw the usual signs, excessive water consumption, frequent trips to the litter box, etc. A trip to the vet and Scotty was diagnosed about 3 1/2 months ago. He's not responding to insulin, he has lost a lot of weight and has low energy. Scotty is a senior cat, 16 - 18 years old. (Not quite sure, he was a rescue.)

He's been a vibrant energetic cat all of his life, and it's hard to see him the way he is now. Obviously his age as much to do with him slowing down, but he has really lost that vitality over the last few months. To be quite frank, there have been three nights that we said our goodbyes because we didn't think he'd be with us in the morning.

Now that the sad part is over, here's what we've done so far: When he was diagnosed, he was in the mid 500s GL. He started out on 2 units of Vetsulin. That didn't work (his GL rose to mid 600s) and the vet upped the dose to 3 units. After several weeks of little to no change, they did a curve. They were able to get him to upper 300s in the office. Still no change. We were able to get him to mid 300s for a few weeks, hoping to see that cliff drop-off, but it didn't happen. Yesterday he was 320 and the vet suggested we switch insulin. Last night and this morning we have dosed 2 units of Novolin. We have also switched him over to wet food (using Dr. Pierson's chart). We're feeding what everyone else is... FF Classics, etc.

Our vet is very open to home testing and has made him her "project." She has had many diabetic cats in through the years, and they've all responded well. Our guy? Not so much.

So, we're kind of at our wits end. I feel like we're just delaying the inevitable, and we're all pretty tore up about his situation. Hopefully we can get him to rebound soon.

Thanks for listening,
Ken

 

Oh, you made me cry. I am so thrilled when I hear about a Vet that wants to work with you and encourages you to home test.

Get well informed from this forum and please hang in there. Hopefully you will find what works. Patience please.

I also had to change insulin.

 

Welcome!!

They do get back to their usual selves once regulated so hang in there.

It would help if you could share with us your test results, there is a spreadsheet we use (this is the link http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/) and let us know if he has any other health issues, also I suggest you post your questions in the main health forum so that more eyes can catch it

 

Welcome Ken. You are in the best place you can be to help your kitty hopefully get regulated and feeling a whole lot better. It may be that the Novalin is not the right insulin either, but there are alternatives. Explore the board, post in the Main Forum so that more eyes can see and you can get more response. When you can, please create a signature so that your kitty's information is available to all members. Here's a link to how to do that: Create a signature
I wish you all success with helping your fur kid

 

Welcome. I am surprised he went from one short term insulin to another. ProZinc or lantus might be a better choice. If you set up a spreadsheet we can give dosing advice.