Question for those whose cats went into remission...

I'm just looking for some different anecdotes from folks whose cats achieved remission. What did that process look like for your cat? Was it sudden - almost from one injection to the next? Or was it a slow process? If it was slow, how long did it take and how did it happen? Did your kitty's BG numbers just slowly keep getting a little lower at shot time and you kept reducing doses till he didn't need it anymore? Big Hoss is finally responding really well to the insulin and is down 1.5 units from his highest dose. His curves are staying quite flat and in a really good range. He feels FANTASTIC. My vet and I are both hoping he may be trying to head toward remission. Of course, I know that's not a given. He may never achieve remission. But I'm just curious what the process of remission looked like for all of your cats. As silly as this sounds to ask, will I recognize it if it starts to happen?

 

In Dusty's case it seemed like the initial insulin dosage was too high and it caused me to skip the evening shots even as I came down in dosage. It was to the point where within a week I just stopped insulin and he stabilized at a normal BG. Besides starting insulin I had switched to Fancy Feast pates. Dusty's case may have been a strange one, maybe he just had a transient case of diabetes. He was just like every diabetic cat, ravenous, thirsty, loss of weight, and terrible fur. 5 years later he's still in remission and still just eating FF pates.

 

My girl had IAA so I expected that I would suddenly have her running down the dosing scale with some speed. She was also a kibble addict who took forever to recognize that wet food was edible. When I thought her IAA was breaking I still didn't see an immediate and rapid change in her dose requirements. Once she finally realized wet food was acceptable her dose decreased but I again expected an abrupt change but we went up and down dosage wise for awhile. Then suddenly last summer, it was like someone flipped a switch and her spreadsheet became a wash of green. The tsunami of green continued as I kept reducing her dose till Voila she was in remission.

 

My guy was very quick. He was diagnosed with BGs in the 400's. Once we shifted to only low carb wet food, it was literally one day he was on insulin the next he wasn't. The day before he stopped insulin he had two hypo episodes, his lowest BG was 39. Thankfully, he made it through no issues. He kept remission for over 10 months until recently when the vet gave a steroid injection for a UTI. This caused very high BGs. We've been on 0.5u of insulin this week and just today he hit a 67 BG at +3 hours. And tonight for his PMPS he was 163!! I'm not getting my hopes up yet, but he's been steadily coming back down since his vet visit.

 

I backed my boy down a little more than maybe I should have but he was starting to hit BG numbers like 61 just a few hours into his cycle and since I'm gone for 12 hours during the weekdays and can't stay up with him all night (as I've done several times now and it's KILLING me), I backed him off a little. I just felt like he was getting too low for my comfort zone when I couldn't be here to monitor him. He's still hitting greens during his cycles, but he's mostly staying in a range of about 80 - 120 or so. Does anyone know if I still have a chance at getting him into remission? In other words, does he have to be 100% in green numbers all the time to have a chance at remission or is there still a chance he could still keep coming down and earning more dose reductions? I'm new at this (he was diagnosed on Oct. 5th) and I just don't know whether I'm giving him the best chance at remission.

 

RaeAnn, first I want to tell you that I doubt that there is a typical process of remission. Our beloved felines are anything but typical! Our experience of remission was purely by fortune, ignorance, uncertainty, and the grace of the Great Cat Spirit!
Idjit was diagnosed on April 3, 2018 because he was peeing everywhere, drinking copious amounts of water and eating a great deal of food. He tested at 382. We blanched and said "now what?" Got an Rx for Lantus vial, we didn't know about or were informed about the pens. We were taught to roll the vial, and shoot any excess over the 1 unit back into the vial. We were told to inject 1 unit once a day, in the AM. We were sold syringes that only measured in one units for twice the price we would have paid at Walmart. We were told to wean him off dry and get to an all wet diet, and were sold the Hill's DM dry and wet food. We were told to test, but only midday, 2 or 3 times a week, and to buy an AlphaTrak pet meter.
Ok, gathered our wits up enough to pay the bill !!*#@$$$$ and bring Idjit home. DH goes to buy the Lantus: $$$!!! I about fainted!
I ordered the AlphaTrak 2 from Amazon, and had to wait for delivery. We started mixing the dry with the Hill's dry, and lowering the amount he got daily, plus increasing the amount of canned. Idjit did not like the Hill's canned at all, so we gave him the Friskies pates that we had on hand. We had been feeding the higher carb Friskies with the delicious gravy and just set that aside. I injected 1 unit of Lantus in the am and hoped for the best.
I found FDMB and started reading, joined and started posting. I was advised that we should be shooting twice a day, not once. So we needed to find syringes with 1/2 unit markings. I called and asked the vet about the dose and the syringes. Response was that the one unit worked well enough and was more convenient for the pet parent, and she wasn't aware that there were 1/2 U syringes.

Meanwhile, we had rec'd the pet meter, and tried to test. It was awful. We needed to find a better way, and we retreated to the kitchen and managed to begin to learn to test. We thought we should try to save some $$, since we had already spent so much, and we would do the curve ourselves. Wrong, we were still pretty poor at testing, so back to vet Idjit goes.
4/11/18 Curve results: 196 104/114 87 87 128 152 so the insulin and diet change are having an effect. But more $$$
And Idjit's numbers are just getting better and better. Diet change completely accomplished, no more dry, all low carb wet food. I still needed 1/2 U syringes. Sent DH to Walgreens to get, he got the wrong kind, and I didn't realize. I thought I was shooting 0.5 but I tested at +6 and he was at 60, not critical but frightening. Members here talked me through it! Rattled me good.
I consulted vet, she gave me a sliding scale for shooting, members here said no, no, no. But don't shoot under 150. Other input was to shoot a drop. I finally got the right 1/2 unit syringes, they are in the closet, unused. You can see from the ss how it went, I did not shoot anymore. I was afraid to, it had only been approximately 2 weeks and we were still not terribly educated or very good at testing.
I know now that I should have continued with micro dosing, I wish I had. The remission was so fast I wasn't sure what was happening, and I hope and pray that it's a good strong one. Idjit seems fine, no diabetes symptoms and his tests are excellent.

In a nutshell, Idjit's was OTJ in a month. Amazing to me, simply amazing. That's our story.
I wish you good fortune, I hope Big Hoss gets to the Falls and we have one big huge party. (Idjit loves to dance!)

 

We kind of lucked out. My Zoe got diagnosed in early October. We got her on .5 twice a day. I discovered this place and spent hours taking in the knowledge. Through out the first week my cat didn’t have much of an appetite. I was feeding her dry and wet food at the time but decided to cut the dry food out, witch was fine as she wasn’t eating it. I had to keep reminding her to eat before her insulin shot.

After 1 week of taking insulin I had to take her to the vet for her one week curve. Dropped her off for the day and several hours later the vet phoned me to tell me that she seems to be stable now. So we stopped giving her the injections! I’ve continued to not give her dry food and only wet food. It’s been a month and she’s been like a new cat! She’s full of energy, being playful, and back to her cuddly self. Only downside is she waking me up disquietingly early for food since she doesn’t have dry food to crunch on at night but no more guzzling of water or peeing giant clumps!

 

Now that Hoss has been under the renal threshold for over a week, he feels like a new cat. He's playing again, has a lot more energy. No more drinking and peeing massive amounts and his appetite is back to a normal amount and not constant ravenous eating. We had to get him up to 4.5 units for his "switch" to be flipped and he finally started really responding well to the insulin and getting down into blues routinely and now down into greens every day too. I'm just so paranoid about him going hypo when I'm not home that I'm not willing to gamble on a higher dose to get MORE greens every day. I'm not sure if that's the right decision or not but him dropping into the low 60's early in his cycle right before I went to bed a couple times was enough for me to back off a bit. Plus his pre-shot numbers are now usually around 100 or just a little over and I'm still giving him 3 units, which is nerve-wracking enough!

 

I've always wondered if my accidental high dosages (per vet) without going hypo somehow woke up his pancreas. Hope Big Hoss can do it and I hope my Dusty and others stay in remission. We just don't know what will happen tomorrow.

 

We are not in remission, but have barely started our first trial. I find this thread really interesting! Thanks for asking this! And thanks all for replying!

 

I see by your signature that you're on SLGS for Big Hoss, then kitty would earn a reduction at 90 according to the info posted in the yellow stickies on the forum homepage for Lantus. Glad he's doing well. And I sure understand being worried about hypos.

 

He had a couple pre-shot BG values at 74, 80, etc. That's when we started reducing doses! Talk about freaking out. My vet told me to go ahead and shoot, but we cut his dose way back on those nights. It was terrifying to give him ANY insulin when his pre-shot was at 74. But I just kept telling myself, "You're shooting off his nadir, you're shooting off his nadir..." The problem is, sometimes his nadir is at +12 or even +14!!!! And sometimes it's at +5. They don't make this easy, do they?

 

I'm pretty new here too. But I've heard others suggest getting bg readings at +10 and +11 when there's a low cycle so you can tell if the bg is past nadir and rising to see if it's safe to give a shot. You sure don't want to shoot a 74 when he's dropping! As you've mentioned and experienced nadir can be at +12. I'm lucky that my kitty only had one time like this, her nadir is very early, usually +3-4 (means I get to sleep most nights). It's ok to skip shots- the most important thing is to keep kitty safe.

 

Several times lately Hoss is still dropping at +12, +13 and even +14. But not always. That's one of the reasons I'm being abundantly cautious with him. There's no rhyme or reason to when his nadir will be. Makes it extremely scary sometimes to know what to do.

 

Houston had a hypo event due to overdosing. After he survived that the ER Doc recommended trying to maintain by diet & that worked for nearly 6 mos. This past wk he has started acting off, losing weight & I started testing him again & his # was double what it should be. Unfortunately we are going back to insulin in the am. Going to start with a low dose of 0.5 BID & see how that works.

 

@ReaAnn & Big Hoss If you are following SLGS, Hoss' dose gets reduced when he gets a reading below 90 and he was at 68 last night at +4. That would mean your new dose should be 2.75u. While some kitties do have a later nadir on Lantus, the late nadir can also be indicative of the dose being a bit too high. You shot 3u again this AM on a pre-shot of 108 so it would be a good idea to get a +3 if you can and see where he's headed. Tests around +3 can often tell you if it's going to be an active cycle.

 

It’s going to be active. He just tested at 52 at +4. Just gave him some higher carb food to slow down the drop. I’ll be testing every 15 min to half hour now to watch and I have plenty of high carb options in my hypo tool box if needed. Definitely dropping his dose tonight!!!!!

 

You got this. If you need any assistance, post a 911 but you caught him before he went too low so I doubt you'll have any problem getting him up a bit.

 

Thanks so much! He’s come up a good bit. Currently at 89. Now testing every hour. So do you think .25 reduction is enough tonight?

 

Dulce took two weeks to go into remission. I adopted him as an untreated diabetic. It was gradual lowering of BG
It took Nala about 4 months to go into remission. It was abrupt. One evening he did not come for her evening treat. I found her hiding and acting strange. Her BG was Lo (<20 USA)

 

Sorry for the delay. Just seeing this now. Hope I caught you in time.
Yes I think the 0.25 reduction is enough for now. Try to get a test at +2 or +3 to see what Hoss is up to and a before bed tonight to get a better idea of how the dose is working for him.

 

with my 2, I switched then from the dry food their vet put them on to Fancy feast/friskest pate and within a month they were in remission. I noticed they needed less and less insulin. Skittles ( one in profile pic) was in remission almost 2 years, got a tooth infection and feel out. I really thought he was going back into remission last week because he would go almost 2 days at time without needing insulin BUT this week he is awful! Last night for his PMPS he was 489 and his AMPS he was 451! I think he is bouncing. Im getting ready to post a thread about him hoping someone can help me

 

Vet called and wanted me to drop him a half a unit so that’s what I did. He stayed quite low all day. Getting ready to get a +2 on him in a few minutes.

 

Hoss is looking good! Good luck with the reduction. Fingers crossed!

 

From what I've observed here over the years 'many' cats who go into remission will do so within the first few months. There seems to be a group of cats who only need a switch to a low carb wet diet and a short spell on insulin. And cats on all insulin types have gone into remission during this period.
But every individual story is different. Some cats start out in very high numbers (and may even be sick with DKA), some have lower numbers. Some cats may have a steady drop into normal numbers when they start insulin. Some have very variable blood glucose levels initially; and some may even 'bounce' all the way to remission...

Cats do certainly go into remission later on also, many months or even years later. Sometimes a food change or insulin change makes all the difference.

My own cat was insulin-dependent for almost 11 years and needed less and less insulin over time. He finally went into remission just over a year ago.

Eliz