Has it been two months since my last blog about Heisenberg's health? It has! (And there were only eight posts in the last two months. Meh. I've been busy.)
But I've been delinquent in posting about the goober and that's especially a shame because we had good news. The funny thing is I posted that last post on August 17th. Well, that 21st was his monthly "glucose curve" where I checked his glucose level every two hours for twelve hours. Now remember, I said something from 80 - 170 mg/dL was "normal" for cats and he was considered "managed" at numbers around 250. Well that Friday his numbers were between 67 and 88. Yes that's right his numbers are now low. See cats can go into spontaneous remission from diabetes and just start producing insulin again. Nobody really knows why.
So yeah, he hasn't taken glipizide for about two months now. I still spot check him occasionally and I haven't seen anything higher than 87 mg/dL in that time.
He still had the neuropathy walk and I eventually asked the vet about it (and about the possible vertebrae fusion). What they originally said is that any treatment for that would interfere with the glipizide and we couldn't do that. So now he's on a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory called Metacam. Metacam is a scary thing to Google for felines: it's not approved for cat usage in the US, and it can cause renal failure. So I watched him really carefully as we started him on it. It definitely makes a big difference in his gait. He's not walking like he did last year but he's faster and more agile on the Metacam than not.
Just to keep the roller coaster going last week he started peeing inappropriately again, and I immediately thought "Well crap, that could be renal issues with the Metacam" so we took him into the vet Saturday so they could get a urine sample and do some tests. Word is that he's doing just fine, all of his levels are what we want to see and he can stay on the Metacam. So he's just peeing on the floor to spite me. (sigh) I did rearrange his access to the litter box to see if that made him happier, we'll see over time.
Anyway, the main takeaway is that he no longer has diabetes which is good. He's on a medicine which has been bad for some cats and you can find plenty of anecdotal evidence about cats who couldn't take Metacam on the internet. But that's not science, and my anecdote is that he seems to love taking the Metacam - he'll even come over and sit in my lap while I'm obviously holding the syringe (it's a syrup that you squirt into his mouth). He's got stable levels in his blood and he's been taking it long enough that it was going to cause problem it would have by now. We still have to keep a close eye - if he got sick from something else that could break the equilibrium and then we could have trouble. But for now he's a solid little guy and he may not have to go back to the vet for another four months. Which is a good thing.
But I've been delinquent in posting about the goober and that's especially a shame because we had good news. The funny thing is I posted that last post on August 17th. Well, that 21st was his monthly "glucose curve" where I checked his glucose level every two hours for twelve hours. Now remember, I said something from 80 - 170 mg/dL was "normal" for cats and he was considered "managed" at numbers around 250. Well that Friday his numbers were between 67 and 88. Yes that's right his numbers are now low. See cats can go into spontaneous remission from diabetes and just start producing insulin again. Nobody really knows why.
So yeah, he hasn't taken glipizide for about two months now. I still spot check him occasionally and I haven't seen anything higher than 87 mg/dL in that time.
He still had the neuropathy walk and I eventually asked the vet about it (and about the possible vertebrae fusion). What they originally said is that any treatment for that would interfere with the glipizide and we couldn't do that. So now he's on a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory called Metacam. Metacam is a scary thing to Google for felines: it's not approved for cat usage in the US, and it can cause renal failure. So I watched him really carefully as we started him on it. It definitely makes a big difference in his gait. He's not walking like he did last year but he's faster and more agile on the Metacam than not.
Just to keep the roller coaster going last week he started peeing inappropriately again, and I immediately thought "Well crap, that could be renal issues with the Metacam" so we took him into the vet Saturday so they could get a urine sample and do some tests. Word is that he's doing just fine, all of his levels are what we want to see and he can stay on the Metacam. So he's just peeing on the floor to spite me. (sigh) I did rearrange his access to the litter box to see if that made him happier, we'll see over time.
Anyway, the main takeaway is that he no longer has diabetes which is good. He's on a medicine which has been bad for some cats and you can find plenty of anecdotal evidence about cats who couldn't take Metacam on the internet. But that's not science, and my anecdote is that he seems to love taking the Metacam - he'll even come over and sit in my lap while I'm obviously holding the syringe (it's a syrup that you squirt into his mouth). He's got stable levels in his blood and he's been taking it long enough that it was going to cause problem it would have by now. We still have to keep a close eye - if he got sick from something else that could break the equilibrium and then we could have trouble. But for now he's a solid little guy and he may not have to go back to the vet for another four months. Which is a good thing.