Restate of the Cats
Once we found out that Gateway was diabetic, we immediately switched his diet to one very low in carbs. This is arguably more natural for a cat anyway, and something we had contemplated doing before but didn't realize was necessary.
We'll have his blood sugar retested in a couple days but the change must have helped somewhat, in that his drinking has returned to normal. However the vet indicated that polydipsia+polyuria usually develop abruptly rather than gradually over time, and to me that suggests there is a threshold level of blood sugar above which they occur. If that's true then the remission only says the blood sugar has dropped below that threshold level, but not necessarily to normal.
We do have a blood glucose meter but neither of us can figure out how to get a few drops of blood out of the cat without giving up much larger quantities of our own.
I've also decided what supplements to give him; now I just have to work out *how* to give them. (And with some of them, how to get them.)
Depending on how his blood sugar stabilizes with diet and supplementation he may or may not need to go on insulin. The vet's opinion was that cats invariably end up on insulin, so we're prepared for that outcome. On the other hand I'll wager the vet hasn't treated a cat whose owners are willing to go to the lengths that I am. I won't resist insulin if it is necessary (hyperglycemia is bad bad news), but I'm not yet convinced that it will be required.
We'll have his blood sugar retested in a couple days but the change must have helped somewhat, in that his drinking has returned to normal. However the vet indicated that polydipsia+polyuria usually develop abruptly rather than gradually over time, and to me that suggests there is a threshold level of blood sugar above which they occur. If that's true then the remission only says the blood sugar has dropped below that threshold level, but not necessarily to normal.
We do have a blood glucose meter but neither of us can figure out how to get a few drops of blood out of the cat without giving up much larger quantities of our own.
I've also decided what supplements to give him; now I just have to work out *how* to give them. (And with some of them, how to get them.)
Depending on how his blood sugar stabilizes with diet and supplementation he may or may not need to go on insulin. The vet's opinion was that cats invariably end up on insulin, so we're prepared for that outcome. On the other hand I'll wager the vet hasn't treated a cat whose owners are willing to go to the lengths that I am. I won't resist insulin if it is necessary (hyperglycemia is bad bad news), but I'm not yet convinced that it will be required.