Not all cats will go into a diet-controlled remission, where insulin is no longer needed. For those that don’t, the goal of Tight Regulation (TR) is to keep them well regulated in normal blood glucose (BG) numbers, where they are healthy and happy!
Below, in alphabetical order (so there are no favourites!), are some stories of cats that are in a diet-controlled remission. Some were very ill before they started TR. Others had been diabetic for a long time.
All are in their owner’s own words.
We hope that by reading them you will see how much TR can help your cat…. as it has helped these cats around the world!
ALLIRA (Australia): Lantus
Allira is a ragdoll who was diagnosed with FD 5 June 2017 at the age of 12.5 years.
I took Allira to the vet when she had another bout of her reoccurring cystitis only to come home with a vial of Lantus in hand! I did have my suspicions that she may have diabetes as she had recently been drinking a lot of water…more than usual, to the extent that her lion’s mane would become saturated!
Allira’s diet was primarily dry food since she was a kitten…this was always highly recommended by the vets as a complete diet and according to them wet food was unnecessary. This didn’t sit well with me so I still gave her a small can of wet food a day but over the years she would eat less and less of it…basically she’d just lick up the gravy!
Due to her cystitis I eventually had her on Hills Vet Diet Feline Cd Urinary Care, again ‘highly recommended’ by the vet, and because that didn’t help I changed to Royal Canin Vet Diet Feline Urinary SO. Within a month of being on the latter she developed diabetes. I questioned the vet about the kibble as my instinct was telling me the FD was due to her diet…pretty much like type 2 diabetes is for humans, predominantly diet related. He insisted it wasn’t her diet and repeated the same sad tale about dry food being the best food for them!!!
So now our lives were going to revolve around administering insulin every 12 hours which proved to be very difficult when you are working long days! Also the vet was expecting me to just blind dose her which I also had issues with and promptly purchased a glucometer…I think he was surprised I was willing to test Allira myself! I was then told remission was very unlikely and this was how it was going to be…well that was all I needed to hear to prove them wrong…so the extensive research began!
…and this is where DCI comes in…one night I was feeling lost and didn’t know quite where to start…I typed into the Google search box “how to get my cat off insulin”…the link to DCI popped up! I’ve never been on any kind of forum before but was willing to give it a go, so I registered and asked for help…and this is when my amazing saviours entered our lives…I cannot thank you enough. Your advice and dedication to help the cats of strangers across the globe is mind blowing…your generosity of spirit will be with me forever!
With the help of the dynamic duo on DCI Allira did the detox and then started the TR. And now…for the news you have all been waiting for...Allira has been in remission ever since starting the TR and has never had to go back on insulin again!
I am sooooo happy and so is Allira…I can tell by the way she treats me…for the first time in her life she started kneading my tummy while sitting on the couch and she hasn’t stopped since…I have my cat back…the changes in her health and spirit have been extraordinary.
I will list for you all the benefits and health improvements since her diet change…
• diabetes in remission
• almost back to her healthy weight of 4 – 4.5kg (when diagnosed with FD she weighed 6.1kg)
• no longer snores (we can all sleep in peace)
• her nose, which was very dry for years, is moist again, this started within 2 days of stopping all dry food!
• her horrible thick dandruff has almost disappeared
• her fur is silky, clean, shiny and soft again
• her claws resemble healthy cat claws, before they were thick and flaky
• her body coat is slowly getting lighter, back to its creamy colour
• she plays again…she hasn’t wanted to play for the last few years!!!
• Allira’s cystitis reoccurred after 6 months instead of the usual 3-4 months and I’m hoping this becomes less and less frequent in the future!
Thank you so much DCI for all that you have done for us…..Allira, Izak and I are forever grateful!
BABY (UK): Canninsulin
Twenty five days to remission !
I started TR on the 31st December 2016 and Baby had his last Insulin shot on the 24th January 2017, for anyone reading this, you will notice the hardest part of TR is not practising it.
Baby is a 6 year old male who was diagnosed with Feline Diabetes on the 5th October 2016.
That night I searched online in a blind panic, I think I was probably in denial that this could be the correct diagnosis; he had never been ill in his life and I had only given my cat the best of everything as advised by a vet. All the searches linked with FD kept coming up with the TR protocol and dry food being associated with the condition – which made me feel even worse, as I then realised that my lack of understanding of felines had contributed to his diagnosis – the guilt I felt was tremendous.
His second trip to the vets, I was advised that the only thing I needed to do was buy the prescription FD dry food and Insulin – and to give him a shot every 12 hours every day with the vetpen. Even at this point I knew this wasn’t right as I had read a little on TR so I said that I would not be buying any food from them.
I asked them if there was any chance he could go in to remission, they told me it was very unlikely, so to accept I would be giving him the shots for life.
I found the DCI Facebook page, which I joined straight away; I was messaged instantly with words of support and given the link for the DCI forum. I asked so many questions so I could get this all straight in my head and read every success story on DCI.
Home testing did not start well for us at all, he fought me every step of the way. I watched videos and took advice but as much as I tried I couldn’t do it, so I paid a registered vet nurse to come to my home to do testing for curves and show me the technique – however she had trouble testing him too. This was a real low point for me, I was really stressed and was starting to lose hope as I knew this testing was essential to be able to start him on TR, and more importantly for me to be able to stop blind dosing without knowng if he needed his insulin shot or not.
DCI kept on supporting me, told me not give up on testing him and after a couple months of trying and not giving up I finally managed to get a few readings, but was not making much progress.
He started to decline very quickly, and then had a combination of choking while in a hypoglycemic state, horrendously I was watching him die in front of me, sheer blind panic. I grabbed hold of him and pushed his stomach, luckily the meat came out of his throat, he was rushed to the emergency vet.
Leaving him without knowing he would pull through was the hardest thing I had to. This was down to blind dosing, but from this point I swore I would never give him another Insulin shot without knowing his BG reading first – this could have been avoided.
This pushed me in to doing more and more tests, the more I did it the easier it became, then it just clicked and became no problem at all for us. He got some nice cooked chicken breast – while he was eating I got the tiny blood drop I needed, most of the time he never even noticed.
The morning we started TR, I was nervous but DCI was there every step of the way for me. Over the following 10 days and after adjustments to his scale he started to get better numbers, then on the 9th January he got his first “DD” number, they then kept on coming more and more frequently, the 18th January he started to stretch out his dosing time, going longer and longer until we got to 10:30 on the 24th January when he had his last shot.
Baby is now the cat he used to be, full of energy and life, charging round chasing shadows and toys, sleeping on my bed again, singing in the night, attacking me when I leave the house – I wouldn’t have him any other way.
My vet was so amazed when he heard the news and saw Baby’s log, that he asked me if he could share the notes & log with all his colleagues locally and specialists in the area… how could I refuse!
DCI have given me more than just support they have given me and my cat the chance to spend a lot more years together, living a normal life – I will be forever grateful to them for that !
CALIBER (Canada): Caninsulin
Caliber was diagnosed FD in march of 2017. He was 3 years old at diagnosis, now 4.
My vet put caliber on Caninsulin starting with 1 unit twice a day,his BG was 37, as well as Purina Pro Plan MD dry food. He was also diagnosed with a UTI and given an antibiotic shot.
We went back 2 days later for another BG reading and it hadn’t come down very far so he upped him to 2 units twice a day. We kept going back every two days for about 2 weeks until he was normalized.. he was getting 4 units in the am and 3 units in the pm.
My niece also had a cat that was diagnosed FD about a year before my boy was. so she suggested I join diabetic cat on facebook and read up on the protocol… so I did…
It took me awhile before I got a glucose meter to be able to test his BGs myself, as they told me I should on the forum. I got my meter on October 3, 2017 and I did his first bg test that evening. After about 6 tries I finally got enough blood on the stick for a reading. The next morning I tried to test again, but could not get a reading before Caliber had enough. So I dosed his as usual, now looking back I wish I had kept trying.
When I again tried testing him at +4 his BG was 2.6/47, and I was very concerned. I tested him again at 8 pm which was his normal time for a dose. His BG was 3.6/64. So I didn’t give him his dose. At this point I had not started his detox off of the vet hard food. He seemed to be going into remission on his own!
After that I was checking his BG at least 2 times a day, at dose time, and he was consistantly not needing his dose of insulin, I changed his food over to a low carb wet food on October 7 for his morning feeding…
I am so excited to say that he still is insulin free for over 2 weeks now… his BG has been very consistant lowest has been 3.4/61 to the highest 4.9/88.
I got really lucky with the fact that he was going into remission on his own, But I have learned how important self testing of BG really is… I can’t imagine what would have happened if I had just kept blindly dosing him.
I am so pleased with his progress!
CLYDE (Australia): Caninsulin
Clyde is an 8 yo male cat that we adopted from a pound with another kitten (female) when they were about 3 months old. I researched what the best food was for cats and Hill’s Science Diet came on top. So, I religiously kept buying the dry food for them believing all the claims being made by the manufacturer. They both looked well and healthy.
In May 2016, Clyde went through a procedure of cleaning teeth under a general anesthetic. They did various tests on him, including glucose. But I was told it was all normal. Then, a month or so late I started to notice that their litter boxes were quite wet. I took him back to the vet and he was diagnosed with FD in August 2016. At the vet, his BG was 22/396 as he was quite distressed. But when tested at home, he dropped to just over 10/180. Hence, I insisted on first trying to regulate the FD with a diet. My vet suggested administering insulin only when he was over 10/180 and then, re-test a week later. She also insisted on feeding him dry Hill Science Diet m/d (for diabetic cats). I however found a special raw diet for cats manufactured by a local pet food company and started feeding that at least once a day and then, feeding the dry food to satisfy my vet. Unfortunately, that did not work. HIs BG kept climbing and we had to start administering 1u of insulin twice a day, end of September. I was instructed to do a BG curve every 3 weeks. It was never satisfactory, BG kept rising and we ended up on 4u twice a day at the end of November 2016.
I started talking to the people on forum sometime after Xmas 2016 and once, Clyde and I were ready for the TR we got Clyde completely off the dry food and started feeding him only the raw diet. That was on 9th March 2017. Within less than 3 weeks, Clyde went into remission. The last time, he was given a needle was 29th March 2017! He has been well since and I now test him only once a week and he is doing extremely well. I will be going to once a month testing from June 2017.
He is also now being fed 4x a day, small portions of raw meat through an automatic feeder. And that’s all! He is happy and playful and looks very well.
I am so stoked that he has gone into remission so quickly. I now tell everyone who has a cat that they should NEVER feed their furry babies dry pet food.
Thank you so much for all your support,DCI! I would not have been able to do this without you.
DERBY (USA) : ProZinc
Derby came to live with us on January 17, 2015. We found her on Craigslist.
I believe it was her blue eyes that stole my heart. After we got her home, it took her a little while to adjust. Finally she started coming around. She is very loving and the ultimate lap cat. She is approximately 8 years old.
Derby never acted like she felt bad but we noticed she was drinking a lot more and peeing more. In mid February 2018, we took her in for a checkup. The doctor called and said she was diabetic. We went that evening to pick up her insulin, diabetic food (dry and canned) and needles. She had her 1st shot that evening.
I first tried giving her dry food mixed with canned food. Then she would only eat the dry food. Her symptoms were not getting any better. After a few trips to the vet every 10 day or so, to have her tested, her bg was still too high. I asked if I could test her at home. They said no because you had to get a vein. I was pretty upset because I didn’t know what to do to help her. I hated having to give her a shot and leave her because I had to go to work.
I searched on Facebook for possible groups about diabetic cats. I joined the DCI group and asked my first question. I was greeted by the most caring people. They actually understood what we were going through. They encouraged me to join the forum. There I met the people who help there, and found a world information.
Derby had her last serving of dry food on March 30, 2018. We started TR.
I started Derby’s log. Almost every day I would post her numbers. Each day someone looked at her numbers and offered me advice on dosing and checking her bg. They also explained what was happening. People offered encouraging words and answered questions.
After a little while, Derby’s numbers started getting better and she started going longer without needing insulin. Derby’s last dose of insulin was on June 23, 2018.
It was so wonderful to have everyone from DCI so excited to see Derby doing so well. Every day without a dose would get cheers, hoorays and celebrations. I have to admit, I couldn’t wait to get home just to get on the site to read the comments.
I just can’t say enough what this site has meant to me and how thankful I am. They take time out of their day to help so many.
DOES (Netherlands) : Caninsulin
Does (pronounce as Doose as in ‘Moose’ – it’s a Dutch name) is an 18 year old grey/white male. He is a runaway cat, he came to me on the day I moved into a new house, in a new town, now five years ago. He was my first friend in town, and looking back, I can say it was love on first sight for both of us . I managed to trace down the former owners, but they weren’t very keen on taking him back – they just didn’t seem to care much about him. This became clear also by the state I found Does in: lean, ravenous, and packed with flees. Without batting an eye, the owners told me they left him outside all winter long. Back then he was already fifteen years old, and in the years that followed up until now, I have learned that Does is a remarkably strong and resilient cat.
He is also a very cuddly and affectionate boy, and toughened by life, he does a very good job hiding any discomfort or pain. Therefor, it took me a while before I found out he had a very bad teeth condition. In May 2018, Does was diagnosed with FORL, a dental condition causing infection of the gums and erosion of the teeth. The local vet prescribed a treatment of prednisone for three weeks to still the infection, after which all his teeth -accept the canine and front teeth- had to be extracted.
During those three weeks of treatment, Does’ mood changed dramatically. He became very restless, anxious, and very unto himself. He couldn’t sit still for five minutes and was clearly feeling very uncomfortable. He also became very hungry all the time. A blood test on June 14 showed Does had FD. The vet wasn’t alarmed by it though, he said it was still ‘in an early stage’ and he advised me to come back with Does in two or three weeks to test his blood again. I already had my doubts about this vet, so that same evening I searched on the internet, reading everything I could find about Feline Diabetes and how to treat it.
I found a Dutch page that explained the benefits of Tight Regulation. Reading through the articles on that site, I quickly knew this would be the right treatment for Does. The following day I discussed my findings with the vet. He wasn’t familiar with TR, but, to my relief he was open to it and willing to help me getting started. But even then, he kept saying there was no hurry and I could wait another two weeks before start dosing insulin. He believed the prednisone was causing only temporary symptoms of FD.
In the days that followed, Does situation became worse. I felt desperate, wanting to help Does but not knowing how and where to start. I am sure there are many cat moms and dads who find themselves in the same situation: with their kitten diagnosed with FD, overwhelmed by the complexity of the disease, and just wanting the best for their cats but not feeling supported. One can feel very lonely in those circumstances. During this time I joined this forum, and I can’t tell how fortunate I have felt doing that. Immediately after my first post I felt a weight lifted from my shoulders. Just by being able to tell Does story, and by the caring and knowledgable responses I received soon after posting. Finally I had found a place where I felt confident I was able to help Does. I can’t tell how much the support from Jacqui, Bob, Lyse and others here has helped me, right from the beginning, in those crucial days when things just seem too much.
On June 23 2018, I moved Does to a 100% carb free diet (feeding him Animonda Carny and Bozita), hoping that this would lower his BG levels already. That didn’t happen though, so I took Does back to the clinic that week, hoping to finally get a vial of insulin. Does blood sugar was measured at 30 mmol/L / 540 mg/dl, and the vet finally provided me with insulin.
Does and I started with TR on June 28, and I posted his numbers here every day. After every post, members on the forum would look at the numbers too, and offered me advice on every detail: dosing, testing blood, drawing insulin, where to buy syringes…you name it and they had an answer :). They would also check with me at times when I didn’t have time to post immediately, just to make sure Does and I were still doing okay. Not to mention the encouraging words and the answers they gave to all the other cat questions I came up with.
After a little while, Does’ numbers already started getting better and he started going longer without needing insulin. Does last dose of insulin was on July 7, 2018 – 9 days after we started TR! The cheers Does and I received from everyone here on the forum were heartwarming.
Does has been doing well ever since his BG levels dropped to the ‘safe zone’. His teeth have been extracted on July 13. Though this was a painful and frightening experience for Does, he came out well and his teeth are healing very well. Again, I am amazed by his strength and resilience.
I can’t thank the people on DCI enough for the way they stood by me and Does during the different stages of FD, and for all the stories and information I was able to find here, which have also helped me tremendously in learning how to heal my cat. What started out as a daunting task – having to do blood tests and giving injections to an ill cat – has become an important journey of healing, of a bond between me and my cat growing even closer, and of feeling blessed to know a group of such caring people.
DORIS (UK) : Lantus
Doris is aged about 10 and we got her and her brother Boris as kittens. She has been very ill in the past with struvite stones, urine infections and possible pancreatits or urine infections. Just as I thought things were getting better for poor Doris she was diagnosed with possible FD at the vets on 28 February 2014 – I had taken her in to the vets as she was eating and drinking more and had blood in her urine.
My local vets made me feel it was the ‘end of the world’: all they kept saying was how much it would cost to treat Doris (wild numbers in the thousands of pounds a year) and how she wasn’t going to get better. I felt as though they were giving poor Doris a death sentence.
We had to leave Doris at the hospital that day as she was so ill. The first vet we saw when Doris was admitted was equally bleak and I went back home leaving her looking all forlorn with a drip in her leg crying because I was leaving her.
I spent the night surfing the internet looking for some miracle, and I found TR! And felt there was a glimmer of hope on the horizon – I’d never ever joined a forum before but signed up and thought “I have to try everything I can for my ‘little Dorritt’.
We were due back at the hospital the next day and I’d read all I could on the site. As luck would have it we saw a different vet, one who had looked after Doris before and her take was totally different. She prescribed Lantus and told us that TR was right, that we could do home testing and to use a human glucometer (no difference she said apart from cost – animal ones being more expensive). I mentioned low carb food and she gave me a list of supermarket and pet site ones – she stressed that it needed to be below 10% carbs which was just what TR advised.
From day one the welcome from everyone on the forum was wonderful – whatever stupid questions I asked there was always someone there to help and explain. Home testing was very difficult for me at first- but I had to keep reminding myself that I was doing it for Doris to make her better. With the help and support of the forum, I managed to test more and to do curves and mid tests.
We started TR on 2 April 2014. Doris started to respond, if it times she would do some wild zooms! Then, on 31 May 2014, 59 days after we started TR, I dosed her as usual…..and that was that, she hasn’t needed any insulin since! I cannot begin to tell you how overjoyed that makes me feel!
When I first started my journey, I never thought that I’d be writing this with tears in my eyes – tears of joy so different from those tears of despair I shed at the beginning!
I am so thankful for TR!
EDDY (Greece) : Lantus
Eddy is a long haired Greek Tabby cat. He is 12 years old and lives with us in a small rural village on the Greek island of Corfu.
He and his 7 siblings were found by my friend’s daughter on Easter Sunday 2003. They still had their eyes closed and where not weaned. Some “wonderful” person had dumped them beside a secondary road, leaving them to die. We took them in, I took 3, my Mum took 3, and my friend took 2. We had no formula, no syringes and all shops were closed for Easter.
My brother in law, who was visiting came up with a superb idea, condoms!
We filled them with half condensed milk, half water and punctured a tiny hole in the nipple bit with a pin. It worked beautifully; soon I had 3 tiny kittens each attached to their condom.
From the 8 we managed to get 5 through and Eddy was one of them. He was always an independent spirit and soon took over the house hold. Even Lucky my dog respected him.
It was early in the summer of 2014 when I noticed a change in him.
His usually beautiful long coat was looking unkempt, greasy and he did not seem to be cleaning himself. He was constantly hungry and I noticed that he was drinking a lot. He did not have much energy and was just not himself. But all this happened so slowly, it took me a while to become worried.
Our vet is 40km away in Corfu town and when I saw him next I mentioned Eddy to him. He recommended blood tests. Sure enough Eddy’s BG was HIGH, 366/20.3 to be precise.
There was just one problem, my vet was going away the next day for 5 weeks and would not be around to supervise any treatment with insulin. I knew nothing about FD then, just what I knew about human diabetes and did not feel in any way confident to treat Eddy without my vet being on Corfu.
We decided to try with a diet first, he recommended Hills diabetic kibble, and suggested I monitor the BG.
After 1 week there was no change, his BG was still high and I was very worried. Eddy seemed to have got more lethargic and unwell.
I started to roam the internet and found various websites. There I started to read about wet food and homemade food. I also learned how bad kibble is for cats and that the Hill’s diet kibble was just a waste of money and doing no good at all. I managed to get some homemade food with bones etc. made up and started him on it.
All the reading about FD, Insulin etc. was beginning to freak me out. Then I joined the FD forum and our fortunes changed. I posted my situation and the help and info just flooded in.
On July 29th 2014 we started with the dose recommended by my vet: I unit every 12 hours, using the Lantus pen that only let us dose in 1u increments. Eddy’s BG started to zoom up and down and I monitored him every 2 hours for the next 10 days.
Things were not ideal, but the folks on the forum were there to help us through. I managed to get the right syringes to be able to dose him with smaller increments, and with help and instruction from all the fabulous people on the forum, we got set into a dosing schedule and the right dosing scale for him and then things seemed to happen so fast.
I had the syringes and could dose properly on August 1 …. Eddy started to balance out and I gave him his last shot at midnight on August 11th 2014 – just 10 days later!
He happily eats the home made food I prepare using the recipe off the FD website. We have invested in a Meat grinder and make 2 month supply at a time and freeze it.
The other cats have been weaned off kibble and are on tinned wet food only.
Eddy is a happy cat now; his fur is once more beautiful and long and silky and he once again deserves his nickname “Fluffy” His energy level is high, he’s started to play again and has found a complete new lease of life.
I KNOW FOR 100% THAT NONE OF THIS WOULD EVER HAVE HAPPENED WITHOUT TR AND THEIR REVOLUTORY METHOD.
I am a complete convert and have spoken at length to my vet and other cat owners about TR.
I cannot express how much I appreciate and value the help, support, hugs, humor and advice I received and still receive from the members of the forum. They were always there when I was unsure, scared or lost, especially in the early days when Eddy’s BG was zooming up and down at an (to me) alarming rate.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
FRED (Netherlands): Caninsulin
In November 2017 we found that Fred (male, shorthair, 8 years old, neutered, 6 kg) was not quite himself, snotty nose and very lethargic. He also urinated large volumes, very diluted, it looked like water. As at first the other cat in the household was suspected, this delayed Fred’s diagnosis until 11 December. Urinalysis showed high glucose and the result of the subsequent blood test was Glucose 25,5 mmol/l (450 mg/dl) and fructosamine 720 μmol.
We were advised to start feeding Royal Canin diabetic dry & wet food and started with 0,5IU Caninsulin twice a day. Fred ate the dry food but the pouches were not his cup of tea… He also received antibiotics for his respiratory issue.
Within 2 weeks we went up to 3IU Caninsulin twice a day, glucose checks at the practice every 4-5 days (at 4 hours after his morning feed) but his glucose went up to 26,6 mmol/l (478,8 mg/dl). His respiratory problem cleared but the diabetes did not.
I started my own research on the internet to refresh my Feline Diabetes knowledge, I studied Veterinary medicine, with horses as my specialty so my cat days are a while back. I came across mentions of tight regulation and DCI and it was an epiphany, dosing before the glucose became too high and feeding wet, high protein cat feed was so logical from a veterinary perspective. The RC diabetic dry food was tossed out the window and we started on Animonda diabetic wet food (7,2% carbohydrates)
Next step was getting a glucometer and on 3rd Jan 2018 we started with TR. Fred was very patient allowing me to get blood samples from his ear, in exchange for a treat of course! We switched
Meanwhile he developed neurological symptoms (wobbly back legs, tripping, not being able to jump up the table anymore) so we started 1mg cyanocobalamin once a day.
With the help of DCI we navigated Fred’s blood glucose levels and within 5 days we dropped below 12 mmol/l (216 mg/dl)! And stayed below !
In the week that followed we narrowed it down to below 8 mmol/l (144 mg/dl) and the amount of insulin became smaller until we administered 0,375IU on 15th Jan. He has been between 4-8 mmol/l (72-144 mg/dl) since that day.
We are still keeping an eye on his glucose levels and all is still good more than 2 weeks after his last insulin administration!
Fred has improved enormously, he is bright, playful and energetic again.
So now we stay on low carb wet food and check his glucose periodically.
Absolutely amazing results, thank DCI for your help in achieving his remission!
I am writing up Fred’s case to share with other vets. I think this information is valuable enough to share with owners so they can make an informed decision on how to best help their diabetic cat.
GARC (Croatia): Lantus
It is never a good time to discover your cat is diabetic, but our timing was particulary a troubled one- I was packing myself to go on the seasonal work, everything already planned out in detail, when we noticed that Garc started drinking and peeing a lot more.
He is 12 years old male, prone to various kinds of health problems ever since we took him from the street in the age of 4 month. He have had very heavy mange when we found him, became very obese right after the castration, consequently ‘earned’ arthroses in the age of 5 (ever since was on RC dry ‘Obesity Management’ food), had constant immune problems…as he always tended to drink a lot, we checked his blood glucose twice before, but it was perfectly normal then. All his life visiting various veterinarians, no one told us of a possibility of a FIV virus- we had no idea that it exists, and when we finally came across that information, our vet told us that it’s useless to test him as there’s nothing to be done about it anyway, so we didn’t.
When we took him to see what was going on, it turned out that his blood glucose is very high, around 20. Our vet sent us to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine to an ‘expert for diabetes’ who will be able to find an optimal dose of insulin for him. We also confirmed our suspicion that he is FIV positive there, as their vets told us that we should know that for sure. He started of with 0,5 units of Lantus insulin every 12 hours (by that expert the smallest dosage possible), with the warning that it’s highly possible this won’t be enough and that we’ll have to increase it for half a unit every 3-4 days untill he reacts and his BG drops to normal numbers. He was also switched to diabetic dry food immediately. As my husband’s mother with whom we live is diabetic, I was already acquainted with more then the basis of that condition as well as with the testing equipment. Also, as I’ve been told that we’ll get more accurate values at home then in the stressed situation at the vet’s, I learned to do home testing, but did it relatively rare and always with great discomfort (the expert told me that I shouldn’t do it often cause it will ruin his ear blood vessels). My husband couldn’t be much of a help in any of these cause he really has kind of a problem with the needles.
In this point I was more worried how will I reorganise my staying while on the seasonal job than for Garc’s health- I’ve been told, and also thought myself, that we’ll find a right dosage for him to stay at low BG numbers, and that it will allow him to live a perfectly normal life only with the addition of insulin injected twice a day.
So somehow I managed to reorganize my staying and I moved to the coast with Garc. Only my expectations completely let us down- his BG was constantly rising, now often reaching the number 30/540 (twice going even over it) no matter the fact I was gradually increasing the amount of insulin given and pretty quickly came to 4 units. I was taking him to the vet in the new home town of ours, this vet swiched him from Lantus to Humulin, but nothing happened. I couldn’t get an explanation why therapy is not working, vets were saying that it might has to do something with him being FIV positive. Garc started looking more and more ill, and I fell into panick. I was searching the internet in desperation and came across one Serbian forum. A lady there was telling a similar story with her cat whom she suceeded to bring into remission, emphasizing the importance of a low carb food. I was thrilled, it really made sense and I became too optimistic. I ordered propper food by her advices and while waiting for it, started giving Garc only cooked meat. I was thinking that only with the change in food his BG will drop, but that did not happen. Finally, I decided to join the DCI forum as my new Serbian friend adviced, and one month after him being diagnosed with diabetes we started TR.
Due to the nature of my job I was lucky to be able to dose him every 10 hours. Immediately after introducing low carb food his BG started to drop from time to time, but still mostly stayed at very high numbers. When I saw that he is jumping again very high after a nice drop and staying high for several days, I started being anxious and discouraged, even though I was warned on the DCI forum that this ‘rebound’ is expected to happen. Only later I realised how impatient I was- around 20th day of TR, the proportion of the values changed, the low numbers showed more frequently; in the next few days he started prolonging his shots and than, 28.06. in 22.00, exactly 30 days after starting TR, he received his last shot!!! I couldn’t believe it, every next testing I expected high number, and it just didn’t show again!
I’m so grateful and always will be to the ladies on the forum for their warmth, patience, everyday guidance, optimism and commitment to what they do, as well as for all the important things I learned on DCI site. Above all I’m grateful for having my Garc back to us- we’ve lost a beautiful young male just in February due to the kidney problem and I really wasn’t ready to loose another of my friends yet. And I’m afraid that, if there weren’t for the DCI and TR, it would happen by now.
At the end, what seemed to be a death sentence was a blessing- if Garc reacted to insulin as expected, he would be injected twice daily to the rest of his life, and I would never discover the whole new world of what is good for cats and what isn’t!
GASTON (Serbia) : Caninsulin
Gaston is 10 years old black male.
In February 2016 he started to drink a lot of water, urinate a lot, and start loosing weight (from 9 kg to 6kg). In March we decided to test and his BG was 18/324, it was clear he has diabetes. This probably was because he had been put on steroids in December 2015 to help with some epilepsy that he has.
We started with Hills W/D (38 % carbs), one week after that his BG was 9,6/77 but two week after that it was 19/342 and the vet decided to start with insulin in April. We started with Caninsulin and he ate just dry food Hills M/D. He got inusline twice a day, on 12 hours. We did not test him at home and he get really high dose of inuslin. But his condition was getting worse and worse, continued to lose weight, all the time wanted to eat, and his mouth was constantly wet from the water, he had no peace day and night. I decide to buy Glucometar and measur Gastons BG, it was 27/486 in the morning! Then I started a detailed online research and luckily find DCI site and registered on the forum in May 2016
The first thing I realized is that immediately need to change his food, out dry food, and start low carb diet. Thanks to the excellent texts and guidelines both on site and on the forum , I realized the importance of DETOX process. I call my vet and told him that i need to start DETOX and that I want to try without dry food.
We start detox and in the morning, 24 hours after last dose of insulin and last meal of dry food his BG was 13/234!
It was clear that a change in diet has done a big change.Next step was to start TR,but there was a problem with syringes.
I live in a country where syringes needed for TR can not be obtained , not many online retailers in Europe deliver to my country.
While waiting syringes from Austria , which my friends had to purchase, Gaston eat just LOW CAB WET food (Integra, Bozita and raw meat) for which I received a recommendation on the forum, and day by day his BG was lower and lower, till one day it was 3,6/65. Fortunately , although I did not start TR yet, before each administration of insulin I measured his BG. After that he got just one dose of insulin on 5 June 2016.. Since that dose there was no more need for insulin, so I can say that Gaston is off insulin !!! His Bg is around 2,6-4/47-115!
I hope that our story will help those who read to understand in the first place the importance of dietary change (just to be clear on dry food and high dose on insulin Gaston BG was 27/486, and in 24 hours without dry food and without inuslin BG was 13/234!) and testing it at home, but then and TR!
I have no words to thank DCI! When I came here I was so lost, i did not understand nothing, my English is not great , in my country is was so difficult to buy all stuff that I need for Gaston and food etc. But thanks to the incredible patience and understanding, priceless information and insisting that everything is done according to the rules, from the people on DCI, Gaston is off Insulin!
I can not imagine what would have happened with him that if I had not find these place and the experience of the people here!
HAZZIE (USA) : ProZinc
Hazzard (Hazzie) is a beautiful white DSH neutered male. He has a little gray swoop on his forehead that was black when he was a kitten. Hazzie has just had his 15th birthday. Hyperthyroid was diagnosed in January 2019. He’d lost weight from 19 lb body condition 4 to 15.5 lb body condition 2. Once successfully medicated with methimazole he began gaining weight and I noticed polydipsia/polyuria. Successive vet visits asking for glucose testing met with little concern, until his BG was over 400…then they pulled me aside and gave me whispered news that my cat was diabetic. The vet tech had tissues in her hand (which she later confided were for the crying jag most people have when given that news.) I smiled and said “Finally, you guys get it. Now let’s move forward!”. Among other things, I’m a hospital lab scientist…I knew the signs of what I had been looking at for months already and was so glad we were all on the same page now.
Nearly every 2 weeks Hazzie’s ProZinc was being increased by our vet to where I was giving him 4 units 2x/day by August 22nd. He had gained weight of 0.2 pounds each month and was then 21.0 pounds with body condition of 5. This was very concerning to me, but not the vet. Hazzie’s BG readings had been increasing with the # of units given. Last visit with the vet Hazzie’s BG was 437. He had increased the amount of food he ate, and water he drank pretty much proportionally with the amount of insulin. At the end of August 2019 my vet went on vacation for 3 weeks, drew a fructosamine at that last visit and basically told me he didn’t know what to do at this point and raised his insulin dose to 5 units 2x/day. I never gave him that dose.
I felt in my gut that we needed to find a better way to manage Hazzie’s BG. In my search for answers I found the Diabetic Cat International Forum. I believed already that if his diet was restricted to the correct amount of calories, with the proper nutrients to bring him back to the proper weight and body condition that we could get remission. So that’s my furbaby’s story and is why we began working with with the people on DCI on August 24th.
We began feeding classic Purina pate with 4% or less carbs, though switched to Fancy Feast as it allowed for more variety and Hazzie seemed to like the larger variety of taste choices.
After detox I quickly began to notice an alertness in Hazzie that I hadn’t seen in months. The polydipsia slowed and then ceased. His bg readings were still showing a fair amount of instability and a couple of modifications were made to his scale.
Then on September 21st he began his first hover. I was ecstatic, and he was feeling so much better. I hadn’t realized how much I was hanging my hopes on that being the start of remission until the hover ended and I had to dose. One time and not even a full unit. We started again and he went immediately back into another hover. 10 days that time before a small insulin dose on October 8th to manage rising BG. Hazzie has not required insulin since that dose.
My beautiful boy went from a sickly cat being prescribed too much insulin to the strong, hard-working survivor he now is. He is playing again, grooming again, and interested in what’s going on around him. He is at slightly over 17 pounds with body condition 3. We are controlling Hazzie’s BG with small meals every 3-4 hours, though he has started letting me sleep for a 6 hour stretch at night. (which is much appreciated!) It’s a small price to pay to know he is healthy, and happy.
I truly believe that DCI and the people there helping saved Hazzie’s life. I cannot express my gratitude enough to you! And thank you to the other members for your support – your popping on to Hazzie’s forum board to say hello, welcome, and to extend moral support was a great comfort. TR is amazing!!!
JAX (USA) : Lantus
Little Jax’s struggle started when in April of 2015 I noticed he was beginning to walk down on his honches, lose balance, was urinating a lot more than usual, drinking a lot of water, and had very dry flaky skin. When I left for a weekend and came back to completely empty water bowls and urine outside of the litter box I knew there was an issue and I suspected diabetes.
I took Jax to the vet that week, the vet drew some labs and his blood sugar came back at 438. This confirmed what I had suspected and we began the treatment of his diabetes. The vet had prescribed 4 units twice daily with blind dosing.
I followed the vet’s recommendation for about a week while researching feline diabetes when I came across the TR Protocol. I was hesitant to check his blood sugars because I wasn’t sure how he’d react or to go against the vet’s recommendation. However, I purchased a glucometer with the idea in mind that I would check it if I felt I needed to.
Well, the day after I bought the testing supplies I fed Jax in the morning, gave him his 4 units, and 10 minutes later he was throwing up and extremely lethargic. I suspected hypoglycemia and I checked his blood sugar. He had dropped to 23/1.3! I decided at that moment that I could not as a nurse and pet mom treat him so blindly. I got him stabilized and joined the forum that afternoon.
The admins on this site worked tirelessly with me running curves, adjusting scales, and looking over number after number. He was so tolerant of the blood sugar checks that he even started sitting next to me waiting for his check at feeding time, he knew it was part of the meal time process. They also recommended that I start giving Jax vitamin B-12 methylcobalamin to treat his peripheral neuropathy. Within about 4-5 months of treatment his neuropathy was completely reversed. He was running, jumping, and walking as if nothing had ever happened! I knew we were onto something here.
Throughout the year we continued to adjust dosing of insulin, I checked his blood sugar 4 times a day and had him on a strict diet of only Fancy Feast Classics fed at the same times everyday. It was a lot of work but eventually became part of our everyday routine. I even bought an automatic feeder with an ice pack in the bottom so I could set it up for him while I was at work.
Cut to February 18th, 2016. Jax had his last dose of insulin and has been under 150/8.3 BS ever since. He is 100% back to his old self, his fur is completely soft and healthy, and we only do spot checks of blood sugar about once every week or two.
I promised him the day he had his hypoglycemic episode that I was going to get him into remission and with the help of the wonderful admins on this site I was able to fulfill this promise!
JESSIE (USA) : ProZinc
In 2010, my daughter, graduated and moved away for college. That Christmas, her gift to me was a tiny, loud-purring tan-orange kitten.
He is very attached to me; he is a cuddly, loving, gentle, chatty lap cat that wants nothing more than to be held and cuddled. He’s a little shy around strangers, but once he knows you, if you’re sitting, he’s on your lap. His favorite activity is to harass his 17-year-old sister, Snowball.
After returning home from a trip in February 2017, I immediately noticed how thin Jessie had become. Being away from him highlighted it, because I honestly hadn’t noticed he was losing weight. He’s always been rather small. I had noticed changes in the liter boxes, with large urine clumps. First I thought it was bad liter, and then assumed it was Snowball, because of her age.
At 6.5 years old, Jessie was diagnosed with Feline Diabetes 3/1/17. I was devastated yet somewhat relieved. I never suspected FD. I assumed it would be a tumor of some sort. Looking back now, I feel so stupid for not catching on sooner. Jessie’s energy had dropped. He took to lying around alone on a rug in the hallway. I just wrote it off to him being older and settling down. Diabetes is very prevalent in my family, so I know the symptoms; it just wasn’t on my radar for a cat!
Following doctors’ orders, he started insulin (ProZinc, 2u, 2x daily) with no change in diet. He was on a “high-quality” dry food. At the follow-up vet visits, Jessie he had lost even more weight and there was no improvement in urine output or energy. I was not satisfied. As is my nature, I took to Google and quickly found the FD protocol pages, devoured the info, changed food, and started on my own immediately. It made complete scientific sense to my logical left-brained self. I finally made my first post on 04/02/17 and found out I had made many mistakes, but luckily caused no adverse effects.
With the gentle, patient guidance of the wonderful ladies who give so selflessly of themselves here to this cause, I finally got properly started on the TR Protocol on 04/05/17. Jessie’s last insulin dose was May 17th, 2017 – my daughter’s 25th birthday – 43 days after starting TR.
At this writing, Jessie has been in remission 5+ months and counting with glucose readings between 65-85/3.61-4.72. He has regained all of his weight, plus some and has resumed his rude behavior toward his sister-cat. That’s OK, though because the change in food has made HER feisty enough to handle him. This protocol and subsequent education not only saved my FD boy, but gave new life to my non-FD old lady.
If you are unsure whether this is right for you, I do not have the words to encourage you strongly enough! No matter how difficult you find things at first, it will get easier and now that you know, you can’t UN-know. How can you walk away and not give this a try? I certainly couldn’t and I haven’t regretted it for one moment. This community is behind you. You’ve found the right place. Stop looking. Start doing. Best of luck and much love to you all!
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LOUIE (USA) : Levemir
Louie is a long haired gray tabby that i have had for about 15 years now- He came to me at about one year old.
He has had skin allergy issues off and on all his life, and he would get an occasional depo medrol injection or prednisone pills to treat the bumps and scabs. In May of 2016 he broke out badly, and took him to vet where he got a DepoMedrol injection—By the end of June he was diagnosed with Diabetes—I began giving him Prozinc and within a month he went into remission–YEAH!!!
But in May of last year (2 yrs. later), he had broken out horribly and we went to my vet—Despite my very strong objections to another DepoMedrol injection, I finally acquiesed and he got the shot…I think I was in denial for about 4 months, as I KNEW he was drinking lots more water and peeing LOTS!!! Back to the vet—Diabetes and very high BG’s–I was crushed, but what to do? I left and was very unhappy that my vet adamantly refused to believe that the steroid injection had instigated his diabetes again– Back on Prozinc, and I must say, I was really depressed.
Soon after, I found DCI, and they have became my heroes and support system. I truly don’t know what I would have done without them—I had read about E. Hodgins, veterinarian, and her Tight Protocol Regimen—My vet looked at me like I was crazy when I told her about it, so I just went on my merry way and began to follow instructions from the people at DCI—Took him completely off dry kibble, which he was not happy about, and began to search for the high protein, low carb tinned foods and I began home testing him several times a day.
He was back on Prozinc since Sept. 2018, and we decided in to switch him to Levemir at the beginning of December. By the 15th of March, he had his last shot of insulin!!!
I believe that there are a few factors that helped bring this about. I think changing his diet was paramount (and may be helping him with his skin allergy situation) , switching to Levemir, and ALOT of home testing, getting up at all hours and re-arranging my schedule for dosing etc., have all been factors in his amazing journey into remission.
I want to share Louie’s story so that you will not be discouraged—it DOES happen, and though I am over the top happy about this, I still test him every couple of days at least to check his levels. On the forum, DCI will be with you every step of the way. Please do not despair—changing the diet, changing the dosing and/or insulin if necessary, and home home testing will give you the very best chance at getting your sugar cat in the best possible health.
I thank DCI from the bottom of my heart for their kindness, support, and encouragement, esp. when I was feeling really down over things—Good luck to you and I wish you the very best!
LUNA (Argentina) : Levemir
Luna was diagnosed with FD at the end of March 2013, and was put on Glipizide (oral medication). It didn’t work and she started Lantus in May after having to be hospitalised as she was so dehydrated.
Ten days later we discovered TR and started the protocol.
Living in Argentina, we have a very limited choice of cat food – there are no low carb food available here. We mixed raw into the lowest carb food we have to bring the total amount of carbohydrates down as we waited for the right supplements to arrive from the US. Once they did, a month later, we were able to move her onto a 100% raw food diet.
Luna was very difficult to regulate on Lantus, and in October 2013, we decided to move to Levemir. She settled down quickly with Levemir – and had her last shot of insulin barely three months months later on 12 January 2014!
Luna’s vet lectures at the leading vet school in Buenos Aires. She was so impressed with Luna’s recovery that she now discusses Tight Regulation in her courses on Feline Diabetes….. and even invited Luna to make a personal appearance at one lecture to show just how healthy and well she is today…… Luna loved being star for the day!
If you are wondering if you should give TR a try, don’t: TR is THE chance to put your cat on the road to recovery and good health!
MLANIO (Poland) : Levemir
Early in October 2013, Mlanio, then aged 13, became a little less lively. Then I noticed that he began to drink quite a lot. He also seemed to be always hungry. The diagnosis, on 15 October 2013, was swift and we were sent home with a Lantus Solostar pen and the instruction to give Mlanio 9 units every day for a week and then to come back for another BG test. Of course there was the recommendation to put him on dry vet food for diabetic cats immediately.
When we got back home I turned on the computer and began to look around. I knew absolutely nothing about Feline Diabetes back then, but somehow I felt I needed to understand Mlanio’s condition before injecting him with what seemed to me an awful lot of a very powerful hormone. It didn’t take me very long to begin to feel that what the vet had told me wasn’t right. I wasn’t comfortable with blind dosing, I could see there were quite convincing voices against dry food, and I couldn’t find a recommendation for such a high starting dose anywhere
I started looking for a new vet. I also consulted a diabetic friend, who taught me what no vet would teach me: glucometers, lancets, ketones, urine strips, syringes, handling insulin, etc. – in short, all those practicalities I needed to know.
I did find a good young vet – one who approved of the low carb wet diet and the home testing. Mlanio was difficult to regulate, but was beginning to do just a little bit better on the 3 units I had been told to dose him, when gum disease caused his numbers to spike, and they stayed high even after the gum inflammation died down after treatment. We changed to Levemir, adjusted doses… but nothing worked.
My vet started out being reassuring, but without any improvement, eventually the dreadful words “insulin-resistant” and “nothing to be done” were uttered. I started consulting other vets again, but the result was the same. I started seeing the first neuropathy symptoms: he was no longer able to jump. He looked ill and sad. At that point I knew there was not a single vet in our (relatively large) city who could help us. I was entirely on my own and I was heart-broken.
And then one night, as I sat looking through various diabetic websites yet again, this time in languages other than my native Polish, my lucky star guided me to TR.
We started TR on 1 February 2014.
On Day 40 – 12 March 2014 – Mlanio, looking and acting as if he’d never been ill in his life, had his last shot of insulin.
It took TR just two weeks to bring Mlanio from the verge of critical condition to significant improvement, and just 40 days to take him off insulin altogether.
Mlanio is now a perfectly happy cat, whose well-being can be seen in everything he does. His eyes have the old twinkle back, his whiskers and his ears protrude defiantly, his coat is beautifully glossy and smooth, and the only thing that can ruffle his otherwise invariably excellent mood is the rain.
Meanwhile, our young vet and her colleague have become TR admirers. They have asked me to teach them what I’ve learnt, they no longer recommend high-carb dry food, and they know what to do (and what NOT to do) if another diabetic cat comes into their surgery.
Our TR saga resulted in yet another development: Mlanio and I have always been close ever since he was born under my kitchen table, but the bond that has formed as a result of my always keeping him close and testing him all the time is just incredible.
There are not many certainties in life, but this much I do know for sure: I was losing Mlanio, and losing him fast. TR has saved him. He has now enjoyed over a year of happy life, and it is nothing short of a miracle.
MR. MING (AUSTRALIA) : CANINSULIN
Mr Ming is 15 year old Burmese who came in to our lives as a 3 month old kitten, he had been purchased for an 84year old lady by her daughter after her husband passed away.
My husband had been to check on the lady when he saw Mr Ming, he came back to get me to have a look at this most beautiful kitten full of energy.
About 4 weeks later the lady contacted us to see if we would look after him until her daughter came to get him, we said we would, and asked her to talk to the daughter about how much for us to buy him. Which I am sure was Mr Mings lucky day as he had come to live with two cat lovers he being our 6th cat over our life together.
In February 2018 I took him to the vet as I was concerned with his health, blood tests were done for numerous things and it was found that he was diabetic. He was placed on 8u twice a day using U100 syringe after 4 weeks he was declared in remission.
In September 2018 he was again taken to the vet to find he was back to 23.0 mmol/L, approx 411 mg/dl which was what he was in February. He was placed on 4,4u (we used U100 syringes) twice a day I became concerned when he was very lethargic I was now testing him myself and found the reading getting more again.
I went back to the vet and was verbally abused that I had altered the insulin and was over feeding him. He was on Hills M/D dry and Royal Canine diet wet food. I came home and went net surfing where I found this marvelous group, who told me the insulin dose was to high to take him of the insulin for 24 hours also to take him of the vet food
I started the insulin at 2.0u twice a day for about 5 days with no marked difference to his readings until I took him of the Hills M/D dry within a week he had halved his BG reading, then he was taken of the Royal Canine diet wet and started to feed him Fancy Feast Classic Chicken and Giblets.
His last insulin was on the 9 February 2019 and BG averaging 5.0 mmol/L 94 mg/dl, he is at the moment being tested once a day at midday.
He is now a happy ,healthy looking and energetic cat who checks his territory out again each morning, returning home to his dads whistle when he is going to far down the paddock.
Thank you DCI – you have make us very happy to have our Blonde baby for longer, because I am sure he would not have been still with us!
SAMSON (USA) : BCP U100 Bovine PZI
My kitty, Samy, who is fifteen years old, was a feral cat the first ten years of his life. During those ten years, he came to me for food, but he would never let me touch him. One day my neighbor told me that someone in the park was planning on shooting Samy, and that’s when I quickly decided that I had better bring him into my home to stay.
A year after Samy came to live with me, it was obvious that he was not feeling well at all. He would sit on the sofa and move very little, and I just knew that he was preparing to die. I knew something was terribly wrong because Samy was drinking water in unbelievable amounts. I was buying ten pounds of litter every other day trying to keep up with him, and that is when he was diagnosed with a BG of 600. My vet prescribed one unit of Glargine twice a day, and she taught me how to test him at home. After several months she advised me to stop testing and just give him the shots. She said that it wasn’t necessary to be testing all the time. Later, I started getting some bad reactions, so I tested anyway.
After four years of this procedure, I finally asked if, in her opinion, Samy would ever have a chance of going into remission. She felt that he would not since it had already been four years, and that if they are going to go into remission, they usually do so very quickly.
After that news I decided to start checking out the web to see what I could learn. Fortune changed for us that night when I found TR. We started the TR protocol on April 11, 2015, changing to BCP U100 Bovine PZI, and with the guidance we got, we saved my kitty’s life. His last shot of insulin was on June 17, 2015.
If I hadn’t found TR, I am sure that Samy would very well be gone by now. I think it is more than remarkable that in just over 2 months, he is OTJ.
Now Samy’s eyes are bright, and he is a happy kitty again. Needless to say, I am over the moon happy and deeply grateful.
SEAMUS (USA) : Lantus
When I found DCI and TR, Seamus was at the emergency vet hospital where he’d just spent 3 days – my vet didn’t think that he’d make it through the first night.
In September 2014, I had taken Seamus to the vet for sinus problems. While there, we decide to do exam and bloodwork, as he is 12 years old, and was due in October.
All of his bloodwork was fine…. Except his glucose levels which were high: 360/20.3. We rechecked in 2 days and he was at 250/13.9, and then a month later. They were 322/17.9.
We had tried him on low carb food during the month, but Seamus is a very fussy eater and it took a look of patience to get him to try it.
My vets still didn’t start him on insulin – they said his numbers were not that high.
He was acting sicker and sicker, and was diagnosed with pancreatitis mid-November.
Finally, after Seamus was very bad after Thanksgiving Weekend at the end of November, my vet started him on Vetsulin. It didn’t seem to help him though, and his numbers spiraled out of control. He was getting worse not better, and I felt there was no hope.
That is when the final vet I saw – one I hadn’t seen in the practice yet – sent us to the Emergency Hospital…..
The new vet was great. She didn’t have any experience with TR, but was willing to work with me and learn along with me. She was a little nervous about it at first, but once she saw Seamus’ test log and the comments and help I’d been getting on forum, she became comfortable with it.
Seamus had been switched to Lantus in hospital, and started TR as soon as he came home. He responded almost immediately! He was only on ¼ of the dose he’d been put on at the hospital, but he started doing long runs – 24 hours – quickly. Within two weeks he was going 36 hours between shots….
… and on Friday January 16 2015, 23 days after we started TR, Seamus had his last dose of insulin!
Best of all today is how happy Seamus is! He is like a kitten again! He purrs all the time, wants to play ALL THE TIME ….and he even keeps his 6-year junior brother Barley on his toes! We have gotten closer than ever, and Seamus just purrs through testing times.
When I first got the diagnosis, I was devastated. I now look at it as a blessing! My boy is happier than ever, and, with all the help I’ve received on DCI, I now know so much more about how to keep him healthy, in every way!
And, my vet has been so impressed with what Seamus has done, that she shared his log with one of her techs, who has an FD cat! Hopefully her kitty will benefit from the wonders of TR too!
All I can say, is TR is THE ONLY WAY TO GO! It saved my sweet boy!!!
SMOKEY (USA): Levemir
Smokey joined DCI on February 17 2015. He was diagnosed in 2011. Smokey acquired us due to the fact that someone had abandoned him and while searching for his own survival he managed to go feral…not off the wall feral but feral none the less. Smokey was diagonosed diabetic 8 years ago….….and here he is…back to normal!
Smokey showed up in our yard in 2008 and lived across the street somewhere in the forest….he would just come to visit our yard and sometime tease our cats while they were on the screen porch. After a few weeks our cats liked Smokey to visit and they would all be calm and cool when he walked up on the porch….
My wife and I did everything to try to get friendly with him but no way…so, I began feeding him and eventually after many months we isolated our cats to another area of the house and opened the family room doors and in walked Smokey….Smokey was 4 yrs old when we took him in according to the vet….
Then came the day on November 6, 2011….I finally realized that someone was peeing huge pee balls in the litter box and noticed Smokey was going from water bowl to water bowl drinking up a storm….so I called the vet and in we went…..his blood glucose was 350/19.4 which to me meant nothing to us until the vet explained…..then came the treatment….buy some ProZinc and give him x-mg twice a day….once in the morning and once in the evening and come back in 1 month…. No testing, just be sure he eats before insulin injection.
Well, we could not regulate him…we would take him in and when she tested him would do a curve and wow…was he not well regulated. But she had no idea what his blood glucose was at home relaxed nor did she know what it was if he just ate or didn’t eat although she said make sure he eats first . Every time I gave him the insulin shot I didn’t know if he was going to drop dead since we did not know what his BG was…it was the dumbest thing I ever did…
This went on until I told my wife…there has to be a better way..we are going to lose him…he is a diabetic and is a ticking time bomb like this so I went on the internet and read about regulating a diabetic cat and how to test and selecting dosages etc etc and I met the person who had just starting DCI a few months earlier and she asked me if I would like to try to test and regulate Smokey and I said YYYYEEESSSSS!!!!!
My wife thought I lost my mind when I explained to her what I was going to do. My vet who writes the scrips for the insulin folded her arms across her chess , shook her head, rolled her eyes and said she never hear of such a thing…and Smokey was just looking at me with his big huge beautiful eyes saying GO FOR IT DAD….so we did on February 21, 2015.
Through the years Smokey could be a horror show…he would do better, have great numbers, and we would begin to hope he was finally getting well regulated. Then he would go up, down, sideways, you never knew what you were going to get when you tested him and most times I was afraid to look or was afraid AFTER I looked…and DCI would have to help us adjust what we were doing once again.
The gold star we gave him to wear when he was having really good runs….he was doing overtime and all was well….when he was all over the map the star came off and we would clean and shine it and hang up where he could see it but not to wear….the more I think of it I think it was for our benefit to do this since he didn’t have a way to control his blood sugar…..but he looked cool and he thought he was cool and that was what counted I guess….
I shared this story with the people helping us on DCI and anyone that would read Smokey’s posts and when he had great runs they would post gold stars on their messages and I would call Smokey to my desk and show him the stars on the computer, and he would just gaze at them and tap them with his paw…I guess the man likes his gold stars!!!! He had a little fun with his agony of diabetes.
My wife and I made our peace with diabetes and said well, Smokey was too old when he started insulin. and he started it the wrong way with the vet and wasted all those years with a traditional vet and he is now 15 years old…but we were committed to continue and never give up. We promised each other we would never look back and feel like we failed…I intended to take Smokey to the finish line one way or the other.
Then the day came and he took us to the finish line his way…about 2 months ago he started…..out of NOWHERE running longer and longer runs…then he hit 32 days…..WOW….we were dancing in the kitchen with him in our arms…but….this is Smokey we are talking about who has fallen off the wagon time and time again….and the next day booom….300’s in the blood sugar department….
The next run was even longer than 32 days and bang….boom right up again……
THEN came the next run…the one he is still on…+55 days and blood sugar of 85/4.72 !!!!!
Moral of the LONG SHORT STORY is…never ever give up on your champion…Smokey turned when least expected and without any sign or warning as was his M O….boom he took over the BGs and he went on his way to health…you never know when it will happen, or if it will happen but your perseverance is all your cat has and without you and your attentiveness to cure him he will wander by the wayside and go to his final sleep….so keep the faith and may God reward you and yours for one of the happiest days of your life….. you are in the best of hands and be thankful you found DCI…
DCI is the best support one could ever ask for…it’s a network of determined people doing all they can to make a diabetic cat whole again…the people helping us with the dosing adjustments and all the members were always there for us day and night….I could not ask for more and cannot thank all of you enough…
TUVI (France) : Hypurin Bovine Protamine Zinc
Tuvi had probably been FD for at least two years when he was adopted in September 2012. He had been taken in by a rescue group in London a little over a year earlier when his owners abandoned him . They had put him up on an internet personal ad site with “Diabetic cat for £1 or will put to sleep”!
They handed him over with an empty vial of Caninsulin…..
He had to take car, ferry, train and metro to get to me in Paris – and was none too happy about leaving the Sanctuary and the person he loved very much who had been taking care of him!! Testing him was a nightmare – it took 4 hours to manage the first test (and he was used to home testing!). He did settle down well after a few days though with a bit of perserverence!
We started TR right away: His food was switched from around 16% vet food to 5% low carb wet, and he moved from the 3.6u BID (twice a day) of Caninsulin he had been getting to Hypurin Bovine Protamine Zinc and the starting scale with its 1.00u as a top dose.
He did well immediately: 15 and 18 hour runs within the first two weeks with very minor adjustments to his dosing scale…. 24 hour runs his third week of TR. 35 hour runs started happening after 6 weeks… and at the beginning of November he managed close to +120….. in January he managed 6 days…
Towards the end of March he finally went off insulin….. to have to go on it again when steroids in eye drops pushed his BGs up again a month later.
He settled down after 5 days though, and his last shot was at 4h10 on Thursday 2 May 2013.
Today (April 2015), thanks to TR, he is happy, loving and energetic…. he acts more like a 5 year old than the almost 15 year old cat that he is!
… he also, if I can’t really put this down to TR – is now 100% bilingual too… seems you can absolutely teach a cat at least new tricks!
Tuvi is proof that it is never too late… that with the right protocol and with the right food, a cat that has been FD for a good 2.5 years or longer, can go into a diet-controlled remission!
ZEKE (USA) : BCP U100 Bovine Protamine Zinc
Zeke was tested at the vet on 2.18.16 and his BG at the vet was 366. My wife and I started the TR protocol on 2.25.16 using BCP insulin.
Our vet didn’t seem to thrilled with what we were going to do and it made us a bit nervous. However after 8 days of dosing insulin on the TR scale (instead of the blind dose every 12 hours) Zeke had his last insulin shot on 3/4/16!!
Zeke is now normally in the 60-90/3,3 – 5,0 range. He is playful again, affectionate and his fur and entire body look younger. I’m very thankful for this site. I’m also thankful for the help I received from members of this site. In my opinion the ‘TR’ protocol is very logical and it is quite easy to learn. We are so thankful Zeke is off insulin. We hope we have him for many, many more years. We learned so much and our cats will never eat dry food again.
Thanks DCI!
Join us on the DCI Forum to learn how you can help your cat to at least better health… and hopefully into a diet-controlled remission as is the case for all of the cats above!
Associated Articles:
- Feline Diabetes Treatment
- What is Tight Regulation (TR)?
- Testing your cat’s blood glucose at home
- Insuline & Storage/Handling
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