Welcome to the L & L Forums...Share a little about you and your kitty!

To spin off of Jill's post about our new L & L forum, let's all get to know each other a little better! It seems a little overwhelming to all of us right now, because let's face it, we're all comfortable with what we know, and this new forum is not what we know! There are no longer specific forums for TR and Relaxed members, but, we're in it together...we all have diabetic kitties who are on one of the L insulins, and we want nothing more than what is best for our furkids.

So...let's share. Tell us a little about yourself, about your kitty, about your goals and objectives with your kitty.

I'll start:

Trix and I joined FDMB back when she was diagnosed in early 2011. I was fortunate that she was easily well-regulated, but she was never interested in going OTJ. Then, in April 2014, she got very sick with pancreatitis - and at the same time, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 chronic kidney disease (out of the blue) and high blood pressure. Because she was barely eating, I wasn't giving insulin. She slowly got better (we're still seeing some lasting psychological effects of the p-titis), but so far - although she certainly "tests my patience" with lots of non-traditional OTJ numbers - she hasn't needed to go back on the juice. She's a very unconventional OTJ kitty, but something about the p-titis caused her to go OTJ! Despite the fact that she is no longer on insulin, I still haven't been able to stop posting....LL did so much for us, and we'd feel like we were leaving our family behind! On top of that, poor Trix still gets tested 3 times a day because her OTJ circumstances are so unusual and her numbers are not "traditional OTJ"...if she ever decides she needs insulin again, I want to catch it right away.

So that's our story....what's yours?

 

Hi Amy!

Clyde and I joined FDMB Sept 2013 right after he was diagnosed. I attempted to follow TR, and through lots of help and guidance of everyone on this board, he officially went OTJ on (US) Thanksgiving Day of that year. He stayed OTJ for almost a year and went back on the juice 2 days short of his one year anniversary. At the same time he went back on the juice he was diagnosed with heart disease.

Since then I've been working on getting him regulated and he's been doing pretty good. Most of his PS numbers have been in the blues and he has been spending more and more time in the lagoon during each cycle. While I would love to see him go back to the falls, I'm not sure that will happen with his heart disease.

 

Hi All

Java and I joined post his diagnosis in July 2014. Java was in severe DKA and we were told he might not make it. Being the ornery hairy little piggy that he his, he pulled through like a star, and is now on the road to regulation thanks to all the help we get on these forums. We are following TR in the hope of remission, and if not remission, lovely low numbers consistently. He's having more green in his numbers which is good but we're not quite there yet! Getting close though

Charlene and Java

 

hi everyone.
Tibbs & i joined in july 2014. he also almost died from dka but he pulled through after a week at the vet. i call him my million dollar kitty. i have 10 other cats besides him but he is the one that makes us go broke
he started as an OPC outdoor stray that we were feeding. one day a neighbor called and said he broke his foot. $2500 later at the emergency vet, he had 5 pins in his back paw and he was now OUR indoor cat forever. he then developed diabetes . we follow SLGS and he started to do well a few weeks ago and had a dose reduction that failed. i have not been able to get him back to better numbers yet. We rescue cats and currently have 9 indoor and 2 feral garage cats. Litter box cleaning and feeding should be a full time job around here

Nadine & Tibbs

 

I've actually been absent from the board for a couple of months (life interfering with time), so it was interesting to come back to a brand new board and to see the TR and Relaxed forums merged. I'll hold off on judgment on this because I'd like for it to be a good thing.

Michelangelo was diagnosed in October 2012 when he was only 6 months old a few days after he had gotten fixed and I noticed he was peeing a lot more and suspected a UTI. Most people, including my vet, thought he was like a "typical" diabetic kitten and would quickly go into remission once the UTI cleared up. Instead, my vet was shocked to discover through the fructosamine test that Mikey had been diabetic before the UTI and even before the neuter surgery, probably since birth. Which, if he was diabetic since birth would explain how I ended up with him in the first place: he was rescued from his feral colony because he was abandoned by his mom (who kept his brothers) and was so malnourished, he probably wouldn't have survived the weekend on his own. (As a side note, this is probably why there aren't more "Type 1" kitten diabetics; unfortunately, they probably die before diagnosis.)

Of course, me being an information junkie, the first mention of the word diabetes and I was already googling and researching it. I stumbled across here (as well as a few other boards that lacked in responsiveness) and started figuring things out and learning to home-test. Oh, home-testing! That was such a struggle for us in the beginning. Imagine trying to test a squirming, hyper, timid, feral kitten.

Mikey was on Lantus and I started out in the TR forum for the first year. The advice I was getting just never worked. He was as regulated as I could ever get him on Lantus and so I moved into the Relaxed Forum where I wasn't getting a lot of overly helpful people trying to help regulate a kitten that was never going to be regulated on Lantus. It was in the Relaxed Forum where I was encouraged to try out Levemir instead of Lantus and suddenly I had a whole new cat! Mikey's personality changed for the better and his numbers improved so much that he was finally "regulated!"

I know with him being diabetic since birth, Mikey will probably always be diabetic, unless there's a miracle cure. I'm okay with that. I knew what I was getting myself into when I first rescued him and was terrified that he wouldn't make it through the weekend. I was going to do everything I could for this tiny kitten to at least make his time here on earth as pleasant as possible, however long that might be. And I plan on having another 20 years with him.

I don't post many condos because at this point in the Sugar Dance, Mikey and I know pretty much what we're doing and most advice really doesn't pertain to him because he is a unique and speshul snowflake with both the type of diabetes he has and his young age. I used to offer support in Relaxed, but now with the board merger, I'll probably just leave the advice giving to all of the TR experts and stick with new members on the Main Health Forum.

 

We joined FDMB in 2011, a few months after our Zener was diagnosed. At that time, there was only one Lantus group. Zener was born with cerebellar hypoplasia and was the first kitty with CH, we were told, to be on the message board. We all learned a lot together. The knowledge and support here got us through, and we were lucky to have our guy with us for 3 and a half years. He crossed the bridge in Oct 2014 from intestinal lymphoma.

Anne

 

Mike, Gracie, and I became regular members in Sep, 2010 when Gracie was dx at 4 years old. Gracie was never a dry food kitty; she had a virus as a very young kitten which, we believe, contributed to her developing chronic interstitial cystitis. It potentially could have also made her prone to diabetes. Gracie was on lantus the first year and did so-so on it. We changed her to levemir in Sep, 2011 and she's done better. She is now 8 and although she did not go into remission as we had hoped, she is a healthy, playful, happy, sweet, loving, purry girl who adores her housemate and partner in crime, Tobey, and detests our weekly housekeeper, Lupita. Friday's are designated "Lupita Friday" in our condo where the "relationship" between the two continues to unfold and provides us all with a good laugh. We are very thankful to FDMB for without it and if we had followed the advice of our previous vet (who was awesome but not up on FD), we likely would not still have this happy, healthy girl with us.

 

oh that's what Lupita Friday is....LOL

 

Tess was Dx in January 2010. Our ex-vet put her on Vetsulin, said dry food was fine and nothing about home testing. When I went online to research FD and Vetsulin the first thing I saw was a video from the makes of Vetsulin saying to stop using immediately. When I could finally get to the vet (closed all weekend) on Monday he said the Vetsulin was fine only a few batches were involved. Not what the manufacture's press conference said, hence EX vet. We saw a new vet the next day!

Meanwhile, I found this Board. It has been a lifesaver for our little girl. With the information about FD from the Board and DR. Lisa Pierson's site we switched Tess to canned food and then to Lantus, not wanting to change both at once. There was almost an immediate turn around in her health. However, she is the Diving/Bouncing Queen. After a year on Lantus we tried Levemir to see if that would smooth out her very early dives and subsequent bounces. It has helped, but she is still a bouncy girl.

A year later her blood work showed early signs of CKD. Changing to a lower phosphorus food has kept things stable in that regard so far. If anyone needs LC and Low Phos foods, we have a tab on Tess' SS taken from Dr. Lisa's list.

After 5 years of treatment we know that Tess will never go into remission, but she is a pretty perky girl of 17, going strong and still up to whacking little white kitty butt (Emma ). We follow TR for the most part, though like most long timers here, we have found tweaks that work for Tess.

I feel very lucky that I have a DH (John) who is fully involved in the sugar dance. I don't know how those of you who are dealing w/ this alone do it, KUDOS to you.

BTW since our location no longer shows up under the Avatar, this might be a good place to mention it. We are on the Central Coast of CA, half way between LA and SF.

 

As a general FYI to all -
If you click on anyone's avatar, their "location" will appear beneath their name assuming they have put that information in their account.

 

I joined this past October when our Mikey was diagnosed. My DH Don noticed that Mikey seemed to be losing weight, and we both noticed that he was eat, drinking, and peeing a lot. I took him to the vet, and he was diagnosed and prescribed Lantus. Our vet is awesome, but he's used to having to plead with people to even give insulin shots, so he never even suggested home testing. Fortunately, I had known Marje for years from the Scottish Fold world, so I called her right away, and she told me to home test and sent me here. Mikey has proven to be very, very, very difficult to regulate. I'm very stressed about it, and I really think I'd have lost my mind if not for this group. Don and I also have a civvie named DK. I should add that I'm using TR, but Mikey's using NR, that's No Regulation.

 

Thanks for starting this thread Amy!

Neko got her diabetes Dx a little over three years ago. Prior to that she had been STARVING, no food on counters was safe including banana loaf, blueberry muffins and a baguette. She had been peeing a little inappropriately, but not a lot and she wasn't drinking a lot. I got b/w done as part of her regular wellness exam cause something seemed off. I started Googling right away. The vet put us on Caninsulin, though by that time I was pretty sure it was the wrong insulin. A couple of months later I got a locum vet to prescribe Lantus and he pointed me here, although I'd already been lurking. Then I found out I didn't need a prescription in Canada. Oh well!

After a few months of home testing on Lantus, posting in TR, and ditching the Freestyle meter that was misrepresenting the high numbers, it became apparent that Neko liked to drink more juice than most of the kitties on here. She had a dental (only had tartar), so there was wasn't any other likely reason for the dose than Neko having a high dose condition. After the vet humored me, we got the acromegaly and IAA tests done and the vet was way more surprised than me when they came back positive. At that point, I turned on the after burners, booked SRT for 3 weeks later, and after a three days of travel (9 hours each day), we arrived in Fort Collins and Neko had her stereostatic radiation therapy. Neko had her first ever reduction 2 days before the road trip and after SRT she spent the rest of the year tumbling down dose. She's fairly stable at around "normal" doses now. I did switch to Levemir in September 2013. I was desperate to try to change Neko's habit of bouncing during the day and going low at night and had tried everything else. She still prefers to go low at night after the insulin switch, but she's flatter now so I get more sleep.

Since Neko is an acrocat, my goal is not for her to earn reductions. Her blood glucose is driven by the hormones from the acro tumor on her pituitary gland and low numbers won't "heal" that. I mostly follow TR, though I'll hold a dose longer as long as it's getting her good nadirs. I want her to spend as much time as possible under renal threshold, and doses that get her into the 70's will do that.

I think the TR forum and help from Julie/punkin and others helped save my sanity the first year. There were hardly any people with high dose kitties posting when I started. Most of them had just gone off to a closed facebook group, but I believe in keeping knowledge open and the FB group had different thoughts on dosing that didn't make sense to me, so I stayed here.

Neko does show signs of acromegaly, primarily her arthritis and some soft tissue growth in the mouth. The SRT slowed things down, but didn't completely stop the excess growth hormone being secreted by the pituitary. Her acro pot belly is more noticeable this year. She was recently diagnosed with proteinuria, which is common with acrocats. In spite of all that, Neko can still be a purry girl. She loves sunny days when she goes out into our solarium and gets all toasty.

 

Simon and I joined in November of 2010 after Simon was diagnosed after we noticed he was peeing a lot and just seemed "off". I found this forum just in the nick of time. Our vet increased Simon's insulin from 1 unit to 4 units after doing a curve in her office. Luckily, I bought a glucometer, after reading all the information on the FDMB, and tested Simon before I gave him his evening insulin. He was already dropping to the 40's and I am convinced that if I had gone ahead and given him 4 units without testing him, he would have died overnight. Simon is a nervous kitty and I'm sure his BG was very high at the vet's office because he was scared. I changed to a feline only vet after that and have been educating my vet on the Protocol ever since (thankfully, he is very supportive of what I am doing).

Simon is 17 1/2 years old and will most likely be diabetic the rest of his life. In the beginning, he seemed like he might go OTJ, but it never happened. Simon has had 2 pancreatitis attacks since being diagnosed and the most recent one has been very challenging. He doesn't want to eat as much and I constantly have to make sure he is getting all his fuds. In addition, Simon was diagnosed with early stages of CKD last year and he receives fluids daily. He also has ear allergies that get worse during allergy season. Simon was rescued as a baby from a man that was going to "get rid of him". I also have a civvie, Missy, also a rescue and I can't forget my DH!

I know that without FDMB, Simon would not be with us. The wealth of information and the support of others is just amazing and life saving. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 

At this point, Gabby and I may be among those who regularly post who's been here the longest. Gabby was diagnosed after Memorial Day in 2009 and I found the Board a few months later. At the time she was diagnosed, Gabby was admitted to the kitty ICU with pancreatitis, hepatic lipidosis, and was in DKA. It was unclear whether she would survive. But, survive she did. The vet at the ICU started her on Humulin N and said nothing about home testing. He never taught me how to give an injection, either (probably due to my speaking fluent medicates). I learned about both by watching videos on YouTube and having a kitty who may not let a cat sitter touch her but will let me do pretty much anything to her. My regular vet and I had a long talk about switching Gabby to Lantus (she was all for it) and I handed her the Roomp & Rand protocol which is now the standard that they use in their clinic.

Early on, Gabby was crowned the diving diva. If anyone wants to see a SS where a cat starts a cycle in the 400s, drops into the 40s and then bounces back to the 400s, look at Gabby's SS from early on in our adventure. Through a great deal of persistence and guidance, Gabby's numbers steadily improved. We've been at this for too long to think that remission is in our future but she is a healthy and happy kitty (except when Gizmo is driving her crazy. There's more about her in our Profile that's linked in my signature. I've stuck around because I'm a firm believer in paying it forward. There are a lot of people, most who are no longer active members, who helped me to understand FD, Lantus, and Gabby on Lantus. It is a debt I am grateful to pay back.

 

Amy, this is a great idea to have an intro thread!

Cobb and I joined Thanksgiving 2013. He had been on Prozinc for about 6 months and we had just switched to Lantus about a month prior to us joining. We were dosing about 10units when we got here, and had not arrived at that dose safely. We cut back immediately and started aggressively dosing since he had since been on such a high dose.

After awhile, at the encouragement of those here, we had Cobb tested for IAA after his insulin needs continued to climb. We elected to not test Cobb for acro, even though I'd venture the majority of people here believe he has acromegaly. Cobb was positive to IAA.

We follow TR, but have tweaked it to fit Cobb's needs (ie. We take a reduction when he dips under 70). His highest dose was 31u of Lantus BID. We switched him to Levemir back in August, his IAA broke, and we are now down to 7u BID.

I know, without a doubt, Cobb would not be with us without the people here on FDMB and the support and encouragement we found here. We've been through several vets and finally have one that trusts what we are doing here.

I agree with Sienne, paying it forward is so important. I know that's why so many stick around even after their little ones have gone on to the Rainbow Bridge.

 

I can't take credit for the idea...it was Nadine's idea! I'm loving seeing all the kitty stories.....keep 'em coming!

 

I am a frequent lurker, but infrequent poster these days. My diabetic cat, Bear Man, died in 2010. He was diagnosed in 2007, and I found the OLD old FDMB (the ancient FDMB?) shortly afterwards, but lurked for a while until I was enticed to join the Lantus ISG. I found so much support there, not only for Bear Man's diabetes, but also for all of the other illnesses that he struggled with. Even though he passed away over four years ago, I can't leave the FDMB behind. Bear Man would definitely have been considered to be on a Relaxed protocol, if it had been called that back then. I was grateful that members on the board recognized and supported his unique needs (even his need to eat dry food). During my FDMB journey, I experienced first-hand the insecurity about posting in what seems sometimes to be a very closed group with a strange lingo, the difficulties involved in transitioning to new forums and new boards, and I often witnessed and participated in very heated discussions arising from diverse points of view. All I can say is that if you can stick with it for the sake of your cat, it is all worth it in the end. At least it was for Bear Man and for me. I know that this board extended Bear Man's life and changed mine, and for both of those things I will always be grateful.

 

All of our sugar kitties are gone or OTJ. I try to remain on the board to pay forward all the help I have received and to continue to learn and keep up to date.

Smokey and I joined the board in Feb 2010. Smokey had been diagnosed in Dec 2009 and though we had a great vet, her dose was getting up there and when she tested an 86 and they said come back in 3 weeks we got nervous about the lack of monitoring; so I went searching online for information and found FDMB. Smokey DID NOT like hometesting at first and many days were spent with her under the bed and me laying on the floor beside it crying. Her ears adjusted, which was very good because she came tripping down the dosing scale pretty fast and was off of insulin about a month later. She went back on insulin about a year and a half later, likely due to a large mass attaching her pancreas to her intestines. In 2012 we found mammary cancer in Smokey and she developed CRF and CHF. We won the fight against the mammary cancer, but lost the balance between CRF and CHF the day after Christmas that year and had to say good bye.

In Jan 2014, a young energetic Cecil came into one of the shelters I volunteer at. He lost weight quickly and they found him to be diabetic. We were dealing with health issues at home with our own cats and still had 2 undersocialized fosters we took on the year before, so I did not immediately step up to foster Cecil. He became very ill and I was afraid the shelter would give up on him so I talked to the shelter manager, got him switched to Lantus, and we took him into foster in April. On the Lantus, out of the stress of a shelter life (he HATES being locked up) and with the removal the last of his dry food, Cecil came off of insulin so fast I never got a chance to set him up on FDMB. I don't know if Jason and I slept for those first 2 weeks! Cecil is still with us 8 months later if someone is looking to adopt a sweet, playful orange sugar cat!

In September the other shelter I volunteer at found out one of the cats at the shelter was diabetic. We were so very full at home after adopting our two undersocialized fosters, still having Cecil, and having brought home another shelter cat for a break. But I couldn't leave a diabetic in the shelter (where meds are given very erratically because its all done by volunteers and I found Science Diet dry food still in his kennel when I went to check him out ) so ChrisFarley came home with me. They'd started Chris on Vetsulin and though I did not like it, I decided to give it a try to see how it worked for Chris and to learn more about it. We didn't make it many days before the high preshots with steep drops had us switching him to Lantus. He was a little tougher nut to crack, feeding schedule played a HUGE roll in Chris's treatment. Two months later he was OTJ and has remained there for about a month and a half now. ChrisFarley is still with us if anyone is looking to adopt a big snuggly black sugar cat I call him my big bear and he loves to snuggle and hug.

We followed tight regulation for all of the cats for the most part. Smokey's numbers remained higher towards the end and looking back we probably should have increased her dose even though she was already getting so much. Cecil, we reduced more quickly than protocol calls for, but we were just trying to keep him safe and get some sleep He is a great example of what a difference removing hard food can make! ChrisFarley I held the dose on a little longer before reducing trying to get rid of his blues (that totally disappeared after his OTJ trial!) Chris is a great example of how feeding can be used to flatten out a cat and bring the preshot numbers down.

So you won't see a condo from us because the boys are OTJ. But we will be around to offer support

 

My 1st diabetic was Spitzer. He was on Lantus, then ProZinc, and then some combinations due to comorbid conditions with erratic food intake, vomiting, and diarrhea. An excruciating saddle thrombus resulted in the decision to euthanize him; no cat should ever suffer that much pain.
My 2nd diabetic is Gracie, who is on ProZinc. She was going to be euthanized unless someone took her. I wasn't awake, thought they were asking for transport help, and said yes. She runs on about 0.8 to 1.0 units of ProZinc BID.

 

Vyktor was dx in Nov 2011 after I noticed him drinking more. Vet advised not to treat him because his numbers weren't to0 bad and he was old anyway (he was only 15!). I didn't accept that and began researching myself. I began to home test and swapped his food from the canned cereal he'd been getting to low carb. Unfortunately we started out with the freestyle lite meter which was giving lower readings than it should have done and next thing I knew he was on death's doorstep hospitalised with DKA and triaditis.

I had interviewed the local vets by then and found him a better one than the moron who thought he should remain untreated but they didn't use Lantus at that time (they do now ) and started him on canninsulin. He came home a few days later and after a week I took him back armed with my spread sheet. They agreed that the canninsulin effect wasn't what we wanted to see and agreed to prescribe him Lantus.

My research had shown me that with his recent diagnosis the tight regulation protocol was the way to go to give him his best chance of remission so I put myself and my boy into the hands of the wonderful people here and off we went. The vet was nervously keeping an eye on his spread sheet (which they loved) but soon agreed that what we were doing was good stuff and left us to it.
A little under four months and one dental later and we were OTJ He's been OTJ for 2 3/4 years now and recently had some massive dental issues without relapsing. I'm hoping he's one of the lucky few kitties that has been cured (using TR on a newly diagnosed cat 85-90% will get remission within a few months and of those cats about 30% will be cured). I still test him every week and will do for the rest of his life, if it ever does come back I want to be right on top of it. Also he kind of likes it, he sees the meter and starts purring because he knows that means treats!

Recently one of my Mum's cats (Purrdy) was diagnosed. I'm so glad that I've been there done that because this time I knew straight where to come and what to do and have been able to help Mum immensely, e.g. by insisting that she not increase from one to two units as the vet asked! She had even done a BG test once before (some of you may remember the murder scene incident teeheehee - poor mum first try she hits the vein and there's blood up the walls, over the couch, everywhere but she got the test!)

Unfortunately we live on opposite sides of the country so I can only be there by phone but Purrdy is being very sweet about it all and is happy to be a pin cushion for the treats. He was caught very early by blood tests taken for another issue and I'm hoping for a relatively easy remission for him and Mum (anti-jinx).

 

I, also started posting when the OLD old FDMB was around. J.D. was diagnosed in the summer of 2005. He was started on PZI and was up to 5 units (or more, I don't exactly remember) BID, by the end of that year.

On December 21st of 2005, he developed ketones and I came home from work one day to him barely moving. He was taken to the local ER where they diagnosed DKA, and because they were only open on weekends and nights back then and it was a Wednesday, he had to be moved to a 24 hour hospital that day (which was 1.5 hours away), and so I drove him in critical condition in rush hour traffic to that hospital. He made it.
He spent from 12/21/05 through 12/30/05 (eight and a half days) hospitalized at the University of Pennsylvania School Of Veterinary Medicine. All I cared about, all I thought about all day, every day, even at work, was going to visit him for that 20 minutes they allowed, every day, in the hospital (and there was lots of snow on the ground that year). They never did find any infection, but every day, he got a little teeny tiny bit better and he went from Critical Care to ICU, to CCU to IM (if that's the right order?) and after having a tube in every leg and a couple of blood transfusions (when we learned he had a very rare blood type of AB), eventually, he was able to go from just barely lifting up his head, to lifting it up, to sitting up, to grooming himself and using the litter box, to climbing into my lap when I went to visit him, and they said he could go home as soon as he eats on his own. Well, he would not eat the entire time he was hospitalized. I brought him his regular food, his favorite foods, his treats, nothing. Eventually they let me take him home with a feeding tube. He dispensed with that after being home only a day and a half, and started eating on his own. He was 11 years old then.

I started lurking on the OLD old FDMB, and soon had the U Penn vets convinced to try him out on Lantus and we switched over early that year. In 2008, I was messaging with a member of the forum, and learned on my own, with his guidance (over the phone) to home test. It was so hard to do at first.
It wasn't until early 2009, that I started posting on the forum.
I have seen many kitties and their care givers struggling and then getting it. I have learned a lot. I have seen many people and kitties come and go, and I have seen many "miracles" happen, and unfortunately being on the forums this long and getting close to the people and cats, I have also felt a lot of sadness as kitties have passed on over the years, and people have disappeared for unknown reasons. I try to sneak a peek of spreadsheets sometimes, of people that quit posting, just to see how their cats are doing.

J.D. developed early kidney disease about 3 years ago. It never progressed much, and with the sub Q fluids he was getting the last few months, all of his kidney values returned to normal range.

He had two dentals, the last one being when he was 18 years old. He had an echiocardiogram done then and another one done a few months ago (with no changes seen) and the vet said he would be so happy to have a cat with a heart like that at 20 years old.
He had xrays that showed nothing wrong with his heart and lungs, but alas, he was old and he passed on recently. He was like 100 in human years, and I guess it was just time.

We grew such a deep bond between us for the last 20 years and especially the last 9 years that he was diabetic. He was always by my side, and he followed me every where, and every night he slept either on my chest or above my head, or across my face. We went for walks several times a day outside (to help with his arthritis) and I took him on vacations with me twice a year (7 hour drives to Pittsburgh PA, and 6.5 hour flights to where my Dad lives in Stockton CA). All the veterinarians just loved him because he would be so relaxed, or would act so relaxed.
His BG numbers were always all over the place, but we did get down to 1/2 unit BID of Levemir, and quicker bounces.

J.D.'s loss from my life is still so raw for me and so very new, but I am slowly, very slowly getting better, and this forum (and the one before it and the one before that) has been such a big part of my life and my "family" for so long, that I keep checking up on people and their kitties, and keep trying to help out, when I can.

Ginger was 62 tonight I have been trying to get a BG test from her for two days and finally succeeded.
I'm glad she's not diabetic. She continues to scratch and loose her hair as she has for the past few months, but I am hoping we won't have to resort to steroids to help her. She is very slowly becoming used to our new life without J.D., too.

 

Our journey here started when Tiger got her diabetes Dx in early February 2014. She had been peeing and drinking excessie amouts of water, plus losing weight a a frightenng speed. It was discoverd that in addition to FD. she was also Hyperthyroid. She received Radio i131 in March 2014. Our vet at the time put her on Purina DM wet, trying to see if food could help her FD. Early April 2014, Tiger became terribly ill- vomiting blood, lethargic, non-appetant and losing even more weight- she was hospitalized for 41/2 days, and insulin treatment started. That is how I found this forum, researching Dr. Lisa Pierson's site for hyperthyroid and diabetes. In May 2014, my DH had a stroke- to say it was unexpected would be the understatement of the century! He is fit, young, healthy, thin, his doctors were incredulous. Lucky for me, it was mild but did leave him with some limitations to work out- so Tiger's care is in my hands, he still does everything he can, but her care and FD is up to me to deal with. In July 2014, we discovered that Tiger's thyroid was non-functioning, which is a chance you take with the radio-iodine treatment. She was put on levothyroxine and for some weird reason, I discovered my thyroid is non-functioning at that same timeso we have that in common! About that same time, we also discovered that she is in the early stages of CKD- this condition is often masked by the hyperthyroid condition but after treatment becomes exposed. I do not regret the i131 treatment at all- there are the worst consequences from the lifetime of Tapazole that I would have been expected to give to her! Finally, in October 2014, Tiger was hospitalized with pancreatitis- vomiting blood, lethargic, non-appetant and on a Sunday morning no less! That was our first time to find that Everett has a pretty good ER vet for emergencies- Tiger has taught me so many life lessons!

With each one of these crisis diagnosis, I have found solace with the wonderful members of this forum- truly, I have felt like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown with each vet visit, but the help I get here has helped me cope!

I don't post as often as some on TR because frankly, Tiger may never become tightly regulated, she takes ECID to new extremes! I try as best I can to follow the protocol though and I had to learn everyhing I could to give her insulin and keep her safe and comfortable for whatever time I have left with her. The fact that members here have held my hand and kept me from losing my mind while teaching me how to function, was an unexpected bonus!

I have enjoyed reading everyone's stories- thanks Amy and Nadine for starting this thread! I understand some members are hesitant to stick around with this new format, but it is clear to me from this thread that we have more in common than you know and if you just give it time you will realize the beauty of this forum is the people!

 

Shadow was dx'd in July 2012. I found this board the next day and jumped in with both feet. I couldn't sleep for worrying about her so I read everyone else's condos for hours every day and night for 3 1/2 months. I wanted to learn as much as I could as fast as I could so I could figure out how to apply it to her.
She was on insulin for 100 days and went otj on Oct 31, 2012. ( Yay!)
I couldn't have done it without the tight regulation forum, especially Marje ( big hug!)

She had the ball broken off of her left femur when she was 5 months old..... my then 6 yr old daughter rolled off the bed on top of her .
We thought we were going to have to pts and didn't want our daughter to think she had killed her cat. So she had surgery to clean it all up and remove the ball. She has developed severe osteoarthritis in the last couple of years..... lots of modeling in the x-rays..... the specialist thinks it would probably be harder on her to go back in and try to clean it up then to leave it be. There are even fragments now floating in her thigh.
She also had/has FORL - feline odontoclastic resortive lesions- which needs x-rays to see the fine cracks in the teeth. Teeth have to be removed when they crack.
The pain she has in her hip and her teeth issues are probably what led her to become diabetic.
She never was much of a dry food kitty.... she wants it in her bowl so she can ignore it.

She is still otj.... still being checked .... and now diagnosed with very likely intestinal lymphoma. Her pylorus is extremely thick and her two lymph nodes by her spleen are visible.... ( and normally they shouldn't be visible )

She has been thru so many surgeries, hates the vet, that even the vet and the specialist think it's better to let her just enjoy her life as it is.... and not put her thru
numerous invasive tests. They feel pretty sure it's lymphoma... but we just don't know if its fast growing or slow.
I wish she could be around 20 years but right now , I'm just wishing to make it past her 14th birthday on April 27.

Her numbers kept rising after she went otj until we x-rayed her to figure out the arthritis issues..... which is when we saw what a mess her hip had become in 12 years. Once I got her on minimal pain meds, and adequan shots for the arthritis, her numbers went back down under 100 and pretty much stay there all the time.

I stay around to pay it forward and help others. And remission isn't permanent. I remember how overwhelming it all was, thinking I couldn't do it, my fear of needles, and now it's old hat.
I want newbies to know, they can do it and we will all gladly help as much as they want..... or don't want.
We are a family here....and I like many others will probably still be around when Shadow crosses over the bridge.

 

Thanks for this thread. Max was diagnosed the end of November 2013 after having chronic pancreatitis for about 4 years. I noticed he was drinking water and thought it was the beginning of kidney disease. My elderly mom went into the hospital a few weeks later. I was determined not to test at home so was going to my vet every few days. He had a nadir of 60 so my vet stopped his insulin hoping he was in remission. Max had been eating only canned food since his first pancreatitis episode but it was lower phosphorus higher carb as he was 16 and I was hoping to prevent kidney disease. After three weeks off insulin we had to restart it. Max also has high blood pressure controlled by amlodipine. I think he might have arthritis as he won't try to jump but my vet doesn't think he does. He has been a very bouncy kitty but now I think is pretty tightly controlled. He has gained close to 1 1/2 pounds since diagnosis but he just won't move much. Maybe he would need less insulin if I could get him to lose a little weight. I'll keep trying.

 

Like many of you, I am confident the LL folks saved Punkin's life. He was diagnosed in Dec 2010, started on Prozinc and we arrived here in February 2011 when the vet switched him to Lantus. Shortly after we arrived there was a thread about syringes, and in the conversation I mentioned that we were using u-40 syringes. Someone asked me some questions, and shortly Libby arrived on the scene to educate me about what that meant. Turns out that using u-40 syringes meant that punkin was getting 2.5x as much insulin as if we'd been using the u-100 syringes that Lantus needs. So instead of getting about 3u he was actually getting about 7u.

It was no surprise to have him test positive for acromegaly in June. I joined the facebook acro group briefly but was uncomfortable with what I saw, so returned to LL, did my own research on acro and with the help of experienced people here, learned what we needed to know. We opted to have Punkin treated with Stereotactic Radiation Therapy at Colorado State University in September. That story is here, if anyone is interested: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/srt-to-treat-acromegaly-punkin-9-2011-csu-presentation.52744/. Including Punkin's famous Cheeseburger picture: "I SAID 2 CHEESEBURGERS, EXTRA RARE!"



At the time of the SRT Punkin was at 15.5u and climbing steadily. He dropped considerably after the SRT but never went OTJ. Punkin passed away May 2013, but not from acro or diabetes, probably cancer. I miss him every day - he had a purr that could be heard from the next room and he loved to snuggle. I used to hold him on my hip while i walked around like he was a toddler. We had rescued Punkin from the humane society where he had sat in a cage for about 4 months. When we got him home he spent the next 6 months either behind the fridge or the washing machine. When he finally relaxed and bonded with us, it was something extraordinary. My brother-in-law never understood why we took such pains with Punkin's care and told me "there are 100 more just like him at the pound." But there weren't - Punkin was a unique cat with psychic abilities. hahahaha.

I've stayed around to help others, especially those with high dose kitties, because I am full of gratitude for the help that I got for punkin. It gave us another 2.5 years that we wouldn't have had without LL.

At our house now, we still have Anya, who was Punkin's "wife", and in August of 2013 we made a trip to the humane society and came home with another orange boy, Frodo, and a tuxedo boy, McGee. Frodo has such an appetite and is such a big kitty that I sometimes wonder if i should test him for acro. He's always cruising for food and definitely not a lap cat. McGee is the sensitive one who wants to live on my lap. Anya is a bit bent out of shape that we brought these guys home, but just yesterday I saw her lick McGee's paw, so perhaps there is still hope that she'll accept them. You never know.

 

Wow, what a great idea this was, Amy, to start this thread!
My experience with FD began in the Dark Ages: late autumn of 2005. Stu (our 9/11 kitty, adopted shortly after 9/11 in 2001 at the age of 4) was peeing excessively. He was diagnosed in early January, 2006 and prescribed 2 units of PZI Vet (a U-40 insulin that has since been discontinued). He had been a dry-food addict and was switched to DM wet (which he tolerated, but liked DM dry better; I fed him both). I was taught how to give insulin shots. We lived in NY City then, so it was relatively easy to take him to the vet every few weeks to be tested. None of the vets said anything about home testing. I kept track of his "progress" by measuring the amount of water he drank!! Long of the short is: we shot insulin "blind" for 4 years. When my husband retired and we moved to northern NY State the vet here didn't see any reason to change what we were doing, so we were still shooting blind. Stu's dose kept being raised by that vet, however (up to 5 units bid), and when it was no longer possible to get PZI Vet (late in 2009) Stu was switched to Lantus. This had fateful consequences: Lantus is a "depot" insulin, but the vet wasn't aware of that. Stu was tested (at the vet's every 2 weeks) and dosed as if Lantus were PZI Vet. We got up to 7 units bid when Stu crashed. Not having any medical knowledge, but being an experienced researcher in my field, I found the FDMB on the Internet. If it had not been for the wonderful people on this board, Stu would not have made it as far as he did. We struggled to find the right dose throughout the first half of 2010 and did pretty well. But then came a double-whammy diagnosis of CKD and HyperT. Stu lost a lot of weight in summer 2010. We made arrangements to have the I-131 treatment for HyperT at HypurrCat, the excellent clinic of Dr. Mark Peterson. But it turned out that Stu was too weak to go through with it. We brought him to an excellent vet hospital near Dr. Peterson's clinic for tests. The presence of cancer cells in his bloodstream and his generally awful condition convinced us to let him go. Now our big little guy--once the Head Chef of LL--is preparing delicious treats for all of our GAs with his pal Mannie in their "Two Chefs' Kitchen" at the Bridge.

Enter Rusty. I was keeping up with the Lantus forum, missing Stu, when I saw on the Diabetic Cats in Need website that Rusty was looking to be re-homed because he needed to be the only cat in the household. The situation and timing were perfect for us. The story of Rusty's journey in a car-relay transport through Canada at Thanksgiving 2010 is in Rusty's profile (in my signature) and in several of my posts on the old board. No one knows the story of Rusty's early years: he was found in the fall of 2008 wandering the streets of Plymouth MA and tested diabetic at that time. His age was estimated to be 10 or 11, so that would make him about 15 or 16 now. He was a very lucky kitty to have been fostered for several years by Claudia and well-regulated by her and by Phoebe. Rusty, as a long-term diabetic, is probably not going to go OTJ and we do our own modified version of the TR protocol. He is doing pretty well, but suffers from chronic congestion. He has a good vet who leaves us entirely alone when it comes to feline diabetes.

We consider the L&L forum to be our family and have learned so much here in the last 5 years. Now we are starting our 6th year on the board and want to thank everyone for being here for us.

 

Bump...I know we have other caregivers and kitties we'd like to meet!!

 

I so admire those of you who intentionally go out and adopt an FD kitty. Wow!

 

I joined FDMB in Nov. 2012, shortly after Ripley was diagnosed with FD at age 14 ½. She had eaten dry food most of her life (I didn’t know any better), and switched to wet food after diagnosis. I was very lucky: she was so easy to test from the beginning, and she often maintained normal-range numbers. She quickly grew to actually enjoy our T/F/S routine. Ripley was diagnosed with anemia shortly after her FD diagnosis; then we started fluid treatment for CKD in Feb. 2013. Her CKD eventually caught up with her, and I helped her cross in Dec. 2013.

Because of the support of so many wonderful people here, my girl experienced a vibrant 13-month period. Taking care of her was an amazing experience, and one that I will always hold in my heart.

I lurk here often, and try to give support and cheers when I can. I am so thankful for this community; it is truly unlike any other.

 

This is great, I really like reading how long people have been doing this dance either to the regulated or OTJ beat... we have some serious experts on this board!!

Lee Lu is 13 yrs old (born in 2001), and was dx in Oct 2013 when she was drinking a lot of water and excessively urinating. I can't remember her exactly initial readings but they were in the 500s. We went with Vestilin first, got up to 9 units x2 daily and while she was better, definitely not stable (still in the 300-400s) while feeding Purina DM wet & dry. We moved Lantus in March 2014. I had a similar situation as Julie when we were actually dosing her with the wrong syringe at first as we used the same ones with Vestilin. YIKES. Finally got her off dry altogether around the same time, no more all you can eat buffet, and moved from Purina DM, BFF wet food pate styles, and now to Friskies pate (seafood and poultry).

You can checkout her SS for historicals. She's been bouncing as of late, oddly enough since we started new batch of Lantus from pens, and we are not used to that. I decided to reset her to 0.50u for at least 6-8 doses, but she's been in the pinky-reds and mama don't like that, so we moved to 0.75u as of this morning, and probably to a skinny 1.0u by the end of this week. Except for the occasional urinating outside the litter box, and still too much input and output, her behavior is great, just like pre-dx. Eats, purrs, happy, sassy-mouth (talkative), even lost a little weight (which is good, she was heavier than she should be).

I started out trying to do curve tests once a month in April once we moved to Lantus, and I've been doing consistent AM and PM test starting in Nov.

One light bulb moment I had is the talk of stress induced diabetes. Just before Lee Lu was dx'ed, my live in LTR boyfriend and I broke up and my mom died. We adopted her together in 2001, and now I'm thinking the breakup and other stresses could have been contributing factors. The new LTR boyfriend and I have settled in since July, and she seems to be doing better in the last couple months.

Would love people to review the SS to give me some insight. I'm thinking that her sweet spot dose is 0.75-0.80 unit, close to 1u.

Oh - we have two non-sugars too - Buddy (born in 2008) and Abby (born 2010), both all black I hired Abby for a playmate for Buddy, after Lee dislocated her hip in 2009 and was ready to retire... Buddy was (and still is) a rambunctious boy!

 

I joined FDMB in November....first of all just reading posts. Silver was diagnosed in Sept and we first of all tried a diet change to Purina DM dry which didnt work so he was put on insulin. My vet started him on 1u once a day then 2u twice a day and I blindly followed vet advice while getting advice here to drop to 0.5 u twice a day. Took a few weeks before I decided to ignore vet advice and follow FDMB. I couldnt understand how a vet who was trained could know more than pet owners with no training (sorry FDMB!). Once convinced it took only TEN days to get my boy into good numbers and another FOURTEEN to get him OTJ entirely. I am still picking myself up off the floor at how quick that took. Still not sure how it happened that I went from daily pinks and reds to greens almost overnight.

I sent Silver's SS to the vet once he was OTJ and she has not responded to me. I dont think she liked being wrong but had I followed her advice and gone to THREE units he would be dead. So I am grateful to the FDMB for saving Silver's life.

 

Your start sounds eerily similar to mine. I'm ashamed to admit...I found FDMB the week Cobb was initially diagnosed and started insulin in April of 2013. I didn't join until November of 2013.

Why??

This. Exactly. And my vet touted that she was a FD expert. She went to a whole week long conference about it! She was initially open to emailing back and forth with me and I would ask her questions about what I read here. She would always have a response about how that wasn't right. Who was I to question?

After 6 months on Prozinc with numbers that didn't budge from over 500, I told my DH that I was going to join and see what these "crazy cat people" had to say. This was our last ditch effort and if by January Cobb's numbers weren't looking any better, we would discuss the "next steps." After I made the switch to LC and presented my vet with bad, but improving numbers and told her everything I had learned in my crash course, she suddenly wanted to start charging me $50 an email. (We are now on our 3rd vet since then...back to Cobb's original vet who is out of state, but who looked at my SS and said, you know more about FD than I probably ever will, see you at your next annual appointment."

Didn't mean to write another essay, just part of our story that I tend to not post often because I know I should have been here long long ago!

 

I think a lot of us are in the same boat. Vets are trained. They are supposed to know. Right? Well wrong. They have to know all animals and all illnesses and while they can be helpful, most don't know. If you're lucky you will get a vet who is open to your input. Mine was to a point. She would make comments like "I cant believe Silver is letting you test so much" . I didnt respond. I didnt want to go against her as she is the one who is physically here and who I would need to turn to in an emergency. So I suggested that she "allow" me ten days to try the SLGS protocol. She agreed. In that ten days he came from reds to greens. So at that point she emailed me and said the protocol "seemed to be working" so I continued. Fourteen days later at OTJ I emailed her my spreadsheet again, informing her I had taken him off insulin and he was doing very well. She did not respond.

 

What an awesome thread!

OMGoodness, what to say about Mannie.... DX'd in May of... what year was that??? 2008. It seems so long ago. I remember the date 5/11, insulin started 5/14 the day of my birthday. In thinking back it was amazing that we survived that first year and a half. We relied on my vet, who was just, well, so not in the know. Awesome vet, but just not great with FD. We floundered for over a year and a half before finding the board. After three hypos, and no home testing, and and and and.... I ran into a co-worker at work, on the day after another nasty hypo, who introduced me to the Board, and the rest is history. This placed saved by boy... literally. I honestly believe that if it weren't for all here Mannie would not have made it much longer. I began to learn here, which began an incredible journey for me and Mannie. That in turn lead to my educating my vet on Lantus, home testing, the values within. Mannie began to prosper, thrive, and be the kitty he was before FD came into the picture. It never really mattered to me if he ever made OTJ. I was just elated that I had my boy back, one very happy, mellow, nanner loving kitty! I can still remember the day when my vet told me that his FD was in my care, I knew more than she did, and that she was there to support whatever decisions I made. I can think back on the almost five years that Mannie was a FD kitty which such warm rewarding feelings: Team Mannie. What a bond all of this gives us with our sugar cats. Mannie survied nearly five years with FD, before a multiude of other illness toook him from us, at age 16. Those were in many respects thet best 5 years of my life.

 

I hear ya, Michelle. FD is a disease that takes away from us, but it also gives the most incredible bond with a cat that i think could ever be possible. A mixed blessing if there ever was one. I wouldn't trade that 2.5 years with punkin for anything.

 

Some things make me love my vet even more! From the second I started home testing in Feb 2010 to when we let Smokey go in Dec 2012 I dropped a spreadsheet off at my vet's every week and she called me to discuss how things were going with Smokey and what to do with her dose. Never once did she hint at charging me. Granted we spend a lot of money at our vet's, but they have always phone consulted as part of the treatment of our cats. One of the vets and a tech even came to our house to put Smokey to sleep when they don't do in-home euth services because it was best for her.
You all have some crappy vets!