Hi! Diagnosed in March, lots of questions

Hi, everyone--my kitty, Misha (who is male...I know, bad name choice), was recently diagnosed. It was a surprise--he had been struggling with a bad coccidia infection, and his high blood glucose measurement came up in a routine panel. I've been following my vet's instructions since then--he started on 2 units of insulin, went down to 1 for a while, and I haven't given many shots over the last few days because his BG was less than 150 (the vet said not to give it below that).

I've always fed him a grain-free diet and tried to get him to mostly eat canned food. He kept having horrible itching and scabbing on his face and neck; when we finally realized that might be an allergy to chicken, we switched him to eating just rabbit, venison, and an occasional bit of fish. He seems to be doing well on that front, but I think the diabetes may have been caused by all the times he was on steroids (he's not overweight). The vet was also giving him an herbal medication for anxiety in a base that, as it turns out, is basically corn syrup--Lixotinic. So that probably messed with his blood sugar a ton. Obviously I feel horrible about probably being responsible for his illness.

I just recently discovered this board and all of the wonderful information and thought I would introduce myself now that I've had time to set up a spreadsheet (I have been keeping my own much-less-fancy one!). I wasn't aware of the possible protocols when this all started and thus haven't been following any.

I work full-time, and my husband attends grad school about an hour from here, so we are out a lot. I think it would be tricky to try to do tight regulation, but I really want to give Misha the best chance of going into remission. I think he may be headed that way, based on his recent numbers. And that's the source of my biggest questions:

1) How often should I be testing now? How often do I need to do a curve?
2) Is my vet probably right about not shooting if BG is <150? Misha's lowest measured BG has been 68, and he didn't seem hypoglycemic--but he often sleeps a lot, so it's hard to say.
3) How can I best try to help him go into remission? I am worried about missing all these shots and wonder if we should be going down to .5 units or something instead.

I'm wondering if I should be asking these questions in the Lantus forum/section, since that's the insulin he is on.

Thank you so much for this wonderful message board! I have been learning a ton here and have been inspired by the stories of other people and their cats! I was so scared at the start of this (and still am sometimes), but after lots of reading, I feel like Misha, my husband, and I can manage this together.

 

Oh--I should've said--since his diagnosis, he has only been on the most low-carb food I could find. Initially that was Fancy Feast, Fussie Cat's aspic flavors, and Evo for when he insisted on dry food during the night. The vet wasn't nuts about me putting him on raw food, given his recent very bad coccidia infection (from which we infer maybe his immune system isn't great)--but I now have him eating mostly Primal Nuggets, in the pork, beef and salmon, and venison formulations. (It's a freeze-dried raw food.) I know it would probably be better, in terms of water consumption, to have him on canned food (even though I do rehydrate the Primal)--but he frequently just won't eat it, no matter how many flavors I try. He lost a lot of weight at the start of all of this and wasn't eating, so now I'm afraid to mess with his diet to try to meet the goal of eating only canned...

 

Welcome! Your spreadsheet looks great, nice numbers! Yes, the Lantus forum will be the best place to get info about Remission. From the look of things though, you are well on your way. Good luck!

 

Welcome you and Misha!
There have been quite a few cases of steroid induced diabetes, but you are doing very well! The Lantus members can definitely help you out, as he may still need a tiny tiny bit of insulin. He is still doing very well without any. Non-diabetic cat will have a BG range of about 68-150 on the pet meter. Best of luck for remission!

 

Thank you both so much!