Wow. That is a lot for you to take in. Yes, I do disagree that he does not need insulin. I disagree about the kidney disease because it is better/easier on Snowball’s kidneys for his glucose levels to be in normal numbers. It is not true that a cat with kidney disease cannot get better BG numbers. Just a look at my own sweet Mr. Darcy’s numbers in his last year of life (2021) shows that a cat can be in very good BG numbers with kidney disease. My poor baby’s kidneys were trashed by his Acromegaly. His kidney values were literally off the charts at the end of his life, but he was getting pretty decent BG numbers — and that was for an acromegaly cat. Acromegaly causes extreme insulin resistance. Anyway, I feel really sad for you about being told that his kidney values have gotten worse. I hate that. I know you have read a lot on tanya’s site and that you are doing the SUC therapy.
With regard to Corky, he does actually need the insulin. If Maria stopped the insulin, Corky would go back up into high numbers. I have worked with Maria and Corky since the very beginning. She does hope for remission, but Corky is not there at this point. If Corky were in remission and still receiving a dose of 1.5 units, he would be going hypo all the time. If Corky were headed for remission, what we would expect to see would be that he repeatedly would drop below his reduction point (50) and each time he would then earn a reduction. His dose would go down and down, and he would keep on earning reductions until he was at the drop dose and finally we would do an OTJ Trial (off the juice, as in, no insulin.). When a cat is able to stay in all normal BG with zero insulin (normal BG being 50-100-ish or little higher than 100 for a pet meter) for 14 days, we consider that cat to be in remission or a diet-controlled diabetic.
I’m going to tag
@Marje and Gracie on this thread because I believe she will have some valuable insights.