In Remission

I don't post here very much since we haven't had too many issues with Casper, other than at the beginning of the journey.

We had a scare Friday night when he went into a hypoglycemic state. I knew immediately what was going on and both my partner and I high tailed it over the the pet ER, luckily very close to home. He was exhibiting all symptoms one would associate with being too low; unsteady to the point of not being able to walk, widely dilated pupils (I didn't realize that they could be temporarily blinded by this!), not very responsive, and rather limp.

We offered some high protein kibble (Orijens) first, which he ate completely but, he then got "lost" walking away from his food bowl - stuck in a corner and couldn't figure out how to get out. That was the real moment when we knew something was seriously amiss. If he had not eaten the kibble we would have then administered Karo syrup but considering he ate the kibble well, we thought it might be over kill on carbs potentially.

Anyway, within 15 minutes or less we had him in good hands. They whisked him away to do all the usual testing and found levels of only 25. He responded quickly to dextrose and perked up substantially but we all agreed keeping him over night made sense.

In speaking with the vet on call, we went through his history of when the diabetes began and he seemed to believe, given all info, that he may have gone into remission without us being aware until that last dose of Vetsulin (3 units) was administered. Once it reached peak, or close enough (4 hours in) his body just couldn't handle it. We do not home test, as our schedule does not permit us to but he was being brought to the vet regularly for curves and was actually scheduled for another one in a week.

The next day, we picked him up - he was doing much better and, without insulin had normal readings. We took him to his regular vet to have a look over and she also seemed to think he was in remission, given that he became diabetic right after a steroid injection, his advanced age at diagnosis and, our strict adherence his food intake and injection schedule. She tested him again, and it was still normal.

Brought him back again Sunday (thankfully he travels well enough and is calm at the vet) and everything checked out normal again.

So, officially they have designated him in remission which is pretty awesome.

I would like to know, however, for those who had cats go into remission, how long it lasted. I was told it could be weeks or years which is rather vague. Obviously, hoping for years considering he eats a very high protein diet with minimal kibble.

 

I have had only one cat go int remission. Adopted him from a shelter about 2 1/2 years ago as an untreated diabetic. He went into remission in about a month and is still in remission. I test his BG about once a month

 

How wonderful to hear! That's a good amount of time.
We'll be bringing in Casper for testing this weekend and then I believe the vet said similar to what you're doing - every month or so. Thanks for replying, very appreciated.

 

Rocky went in remission twice while he was on vetsulin: first lasted one month and the second time it was 6 months.

 

How scary, what happened with the hypoglycemic but I'm glad he's consistently normal now! That's awesome!