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.
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