Cody 5/16 1st ever negative urine glucose strip

For those of you who are new, Cody has acromegaly, a pituitary tumor, and is therefore dosed differently than normal diabetics.

Ok, don't want to talk too loud, but I'm pretty happy about the last couple weeks, especially the last 2 days! It may be just a tumor/hormone ramp down (acromegaly is unpredictable and fluctuates for no particular reason) or maybe the new food recipe. For those of you that have researched nutrition and make your own food, I'd be interested in your opinion of the ingredients. I know a steady diet of fish is frowned upon, but I have my reasons. This is a recipe for about 2+ days. I feed 1/4 cup every 3-4 hours (daytime).

3 5.5oz cans of Purina DM (5% carb according to J & B )
1 5.5 oz can 100% salmon (Before Grain?) I added this because I'm testing my theory about the possibility of vit D helping tumors, insulin sensitivity and immunity in cats, like recent studies have suspected that it does in humans. oily fish is a major source.
1 hard boiled egg (Vit d in the yolk, and good protein)
1/3 cup chix breast mush (gently boiled, blended and frozen into mini muffin tins)
1+ tsp miralax (for his megacolon)

Anyway, I was pleasantly shocked to see our first ever (in 3 years) green number yesterday, and today I randomly caught a trip to the litter box, and the little glucose test strip stayed green- also a first in 3 years. Now I have seen better numbers since I hit around 13units, so maybe thats it also. Also (knock on wood) no dog food mishaps recently. FYI, vit D is a fat soluble vit and can be overdosed, so I'm sticking to food sources only-NO supplements.

 

yeah CODY! and i have no idea about acro or cushings kitties or the kind of doses you are shooting but it is a joy to see a sea of green is'nt it?
btw, where do you high dosers post? is there a seperate room for that?

 

Well its kind of lonely being a prozinc acromom. I may be about the only one. I post here in pzi sometimes and high dose forum sometimes, but that isn't too well traveled. Most of the other acromoms use lantus or levimir, and post in lantus land. I'm just a rebel. I really just wanted to see if I could get him better on PZIR.

 

don't be lonely, come hang out here. we can learn from you too. LL has gotten so big we have become a mere spec on the map. wish some of the former pzi'ers now on lantus would stop in....we need the experienced eyes.
anyhow for now :RAHCAT :RAHCAT :RAHCAT
lori
and tomtom

 

That a boy, Cody!!!! :RAHCAT

 

I'm interested in Cody's history. What test was done to determine he has acromegaly and what symptoms was he having that made them test?

 

There is a separate insulin support group for "high dose" kitties which has info in the stickies about the various high dose conditions and how to test for them. rather than retyping, please read viewforum.php?f=12

Cody had been insulin resistant for 2 1/2 years -we never saw a BG number under 120, rarely ever saw a number under 250, 'curves' were high and flat (shallow nadir) at high doses, never saw a hypo. Cycled through several insulins at lg doses and never got regulated, developed difficult megacolon, which led led to an US, which showed enlarged organs/heart trouble. When I started posting here in Jan 2010, I was encouraged to test, which I eventually did in Jan/Feb 2010. You can look at our profile also.

Generally, kitties who require more than about 6u 2x/day should consider getting tested. Possible as many as 1/3 of feline diabetics test positively according to a recent study. MANY vets think it is extremely rare, so most resist testing as a waste of money. Testing is only done at Mich State U lab, and total cost is usually over $200 depending on your vet (shipping, testing, blood draw etc).

 

I read Cody's profile - as I was reading I realized I had read it earlier. You've been through a lot with him, seems like much of it was before you found this forum.

I've been so busy trying to figure out what I'm doing -- pretty much sticking to the PZI forum -- and never thought of venturing onto any of the other forums. So I followed your link and spent a little time over there educating myself on the acro kitties and their problems.
After reading so much about the high doses the acros need, it was encouraging to read about Boo and Black Kitty being able to get off insulin. There's hope ~

One thing I was wondering about was whether there are similarities between acromegaly in humans, such as large features, and I found out about that.

Anyway, then I followed another link and veered off and was reading about the needed supplies/donations, the foster kitties, etc. The support system here just can't be beat. I'm so thankful to everyone who participates.

 

Whatever the reason, I am very happy for you and Cody. I hadn't heard that about vit D, but it looks like a good plan for you. I hope these good numbers continue.

 

Like I said, it just a theory/question of mine about the vitamin D in kitties. (no proof or studies) There are a LOT of recent studies about vitamin D in humans and my DD wrote a paper/presentation on the topic recently, which got me wondering if there is any correlation to kitties. I found out cats DO NoT synthesize it in there skin from the sun, so had to be food, and there aren't a lot of food sources, but oily fish (salmon herring, ...) egg yolks, liver, are the primary ones (& enriched dairy and cereals which would be HC)

Its really a pretty interesting thing in humans - google search vitamin d & diabetes, or vit d & immunity, (or alzheimers or MS or asthma, or cancer, or obesity or seasonal affective disorder or the flu, or osteoporosis) and you will find correlative studies which compare the health of folks with and without vit d deficiency. And the deficiency is epidemic (sunscreen, sedentary indoor lifestyles, vegetarians, folks in northern latitudes)

 

I do read here a lot, but I don't feel that I have much to contribute as far as dosing advice because I have never used Prozinc, only Idexx. I'm also not very experienced as Buzz was only on Idexx for 4 months. Frankly, I'm terrified to give someone incomplete/inaccurate advice, so I generally don't. I also find myself getting confused because my mind is so used to how Lantus works that it's difficult for me to get back in PZI gear. I know it's hard right now because Gator and Joanna aren't as active as usual. I will do what I can, but I hope you understand why I am hesitant. It's not because I don't care, just that I want to be sure the advice I am giving is good so I only chime in when I am really sure of something.

I saw you asked in Ele's condo the other day about Lantus dosing on such low #s. It has to do with the way the insulin works. A "shed" is built up, and that shed has to be full before any of the exogenous insulin can be used by the body. Jojo explained it much better than I can. You can read her explanation here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=150

So basically, it is a totally different ballgame than PZI and it took a LOT of getting used to for me. Hope that helped!