Meow Meow was diagnosed as diabetic on April 1, 2004 at her dental. Before we could even get settled on insulin shots, etc. she suffered from ketones and was admitted to the emergency hospital on April 4. She spent the day at the regular vet on April 5, and then got to come home.
We tried various insulins:
- Humulin N (4/6/04 - 4/21/04),
- Humulin L (4/21/04 - 5/18/04),
- Humulin U (5/18/04 - 9/4/04), and
- PZI-Vet (U-40, by Indexx, 9/4/04 - 1/1/05).
Toward the end, when nothing else seemed to work, I shot a "sliding scale" based on preshot BG. My goal was to get her peak in normal range, as when her BG's got to normal range, they tended to "linger" there a bit. That was the closest I could do to "tight regulation" as I'm away from home for work long hours.
With the help of a low-carbohydrate diet, Meow Meow has been "off the juice" (no insulin) since 1/1/05! Yippee!
Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with kidney disease in January 2005. She sees a nephrology (kidney disease) specialist, and is on several medications (Benazapril, Renegel, Citrolith, Ferrous Gluconate, and Omega fatty acids) as well as subcutaneous (sub-q) fluids. She also gets acupuncture treatments. Her kidneys have remained stable so far (as of January 2006).
Meow Meow was hospitalized again suddenly in August 2006 with congestive heart failure. We tried to stabilize her condition, but were unsuccessful and Meow Meow left us on August 25, 2006. Her diabetes and kidney insufficiency were well-controlled to the end, but her poor little heart gave out. I miss her greatly.
Further Reading[]
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