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Diabetic Kitty Goes Closed-Loop toward Safe Remission.

Grey cat in an outside enclosure - a "Catio", meouwing. Cat has a Continuous Blood Glucose monitor and an Omnipod insulin pump.
Buddy in his “Catio”, meowing, as is his habit. Buddy has a Continuous Blood Glucose monitor and an Omnipod insulin pump attached, and his blood sugar is fine.

Buddy has feline diabetes. This is about his treatment with an insulin pump and a CGM in a closed-loop system – aka an artificial Pancreas System.

Buddy was diagnosed with Type 2 feline Diabetes mellitus on February 24, 2023. 

That was a bit of a shock. Poor Buddy.

After some research, these were our short-term goals for Buddy’s treatment:

  • Maximize his chance to achieve remission
  • No severe hypoglycemias!
  • Minimize his risk of dying or of getting severely injured during a hypoglycemic event
  • Control to acceptable levels risks related to his treatment that could severely injure or kill him in all conceivable situations – including:
    • If he were to run away, 
    • When his Omnipod or any part of his closed loop system fails, 
    • When he does not eat
    • When he is home alone for a few hours.
  • Optimize Skin health
  • Optimize Mental health (feline and human …)
  • Minimize opportunities for human error (ideally – “Hands off, Human!! … as much as possible!”). 
  • Also:  Species-appropriate food and species-appropriate access to food, weight loss, a happy and relaxed kitty, and this not being a full-time job for his caregivers, who may want to leave for a weekend and may want to leave the cat at home. 

What we don’t want:

  • A stressed-out or unhappy cat, or human.
  • A sick cat.
  • A dead cat.

I also don’t want a pet sitter needing to give him insulin – I get anxiety imagining someone – anyone! – accidentally drawing up 2 units of U-100 long-acting Glargine insulin, instead of the 1 unit that is already almost too much for him. Or perhaps mistakingly injecting him with short-acting insulin. This is not hyperbole – last week, his ISF (Insulin Sensitivity Factor) was around 1,000 mg/dl/unit – this means that 1 unit of short acting insulin would drop his BG by around 1,000 mg/dl) :-o. 

Diabetic remission itself removes most of these hazards. If the kitty makes enough of his own insulin, and no one must give Buddy insulin, then no one can give Buddy accidentially too much insulin relative to what he needs, and he is unlikely to have a low blood sugar that can be dangerous and even kill him. 

But the way to get to remission is via insulin substitution during times he isn’t making enough of his own – “right” amount of insulin, active at the right time.

This is the story of Buddy.

Keep your fingers crossed for a happy outcome: Safe Remission!

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