feline diabetes

[quilbilly]

About two months ago one of our cats named Smoke started losing weight and became very lethargic. When it became extreme, we took him to the vet two weeks ago where he was diagnosed with feline diabetes. The vet prescribed twice daily insulin shots of a particular type of human insulin in a very, very tiny dose. The vet said that just a few years ago the diabetes would have been quickly fatal but this treatment is relatively new. The dose is delivered by a standard diabetic insulin injection pen using a rather long but impossibly tiny needle for the tiny dose. I can't even feel the needle entering the skin which is worrisome. One piece of good news is that our cat doesn't even feel the injection and just enjoys the extra attention while purring away. The other piece of good news coming from a veterinary website is that if the diabetes is caught early, a majority of cats in a study went into remission after only four weeks of injections.
If any my friends in this forum who have older cats with these symptoms, don't hesitate to get the cat to the vet and don't lose hope.
As an aside, as expensive as insulin is these days, the dose for a cat is so small that the injection pen holds as many as 300 (!!!) doses so the cost is manageable.

[Winger Ed.]

I hope for the best for ya.
I'm glad you're dealing with it. Pets give us their whole life in exchange for a little food and affection.
It tears me up that so many people find them disposable at the first sign of their needing a little extra care.

Most people don't realize critters have pretty much the same ailments as we do, especially as they age.

[XDROB]

I am a human with Type 1 diabetes. Insulin dependent. Use a pump to deliver the insulin. It's been 67 years and no sign of remission. Boy I wish. Good luck with your cat.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[GregLaROCHE]

Try feeding her more real meat instead of grain based food. It works for humans with type two.

[elmacgyver0]

We had a cat we kind of inherited from a friend that died.
Wonderful calico, I really miss her.
In her old age she developed kidney problems which we kept in check for a long time with a prescription diet.
Finally, her kidneys gave out and she became very sick, and the vet said we needed to put her in an overnight clinic where she would get constant care.
I went there the next morning and about soiled myself when I got the bill for one night, $600.00.
I called my wife and said, "I can't afford this", she was a very old cat and I had to put her down, even with the 24 hour care she probably would not have lasted another week.
Sometimes you need to make very hard decisions.

[T-Bird]

Ask your vet about changing diet, there are diabetic diets for cats. These are low carb, high protein, and in some cases have removed or reduced the need for insulin in my experience. In most cases the cat was overweight to start with, but unlike us, weight loss doesn't resolve the problem. Greg is correct, high protein, low carb is what they need this more closely approximates a cat's normal diet.

[Carrier]

Had a cat 20 years ago that was 7 years old and turned diabetic. Gave daily shots and he lived another 6 years.

[quilbilly]

Ask your vet about changing diet, there are diabetic diets for cats. These are low carb, high protein, and in some cases have removed or reduced the need for insulin in my experience. In most cases the cat was overweight to start with, but unlike us, weight loss doesn't resolve the problem. Greg is correct, high protein, low carb is what they need this more closely approximates a cat's normal diet.

That is what we are doing.

[hporter]

My cat was 15 years old when he was diagnosed as diabetic. My wife gave him the insulin injections daily and he managed to make it to 18 years of age.

You are right quilbilly, the needles are tiny and it can be hard to figure out if it went in our not.

The insulin treatments gave him a three year extension on life. And he enjoyed it up til the end. So it was a good thing, all in all.

[georgerkahn]

About two months ago one of our cats named Smoke started losing weight and became very lethargic. When it became extreme, we took him to the vet two weeks ago where he was diagnosed with feline diabetes. The vet prescribed twice daily insulin shots of a particular type of human insulin in a very, very tiny dose. The vet said that just a few years ago the diabetes would have been quickly fatal but this treatment is relatively new. The dose is delivered by a standard diabetic insulin injection pen using a rather long but impossibly tiny needle for the tiny dose. I can't even feel the needle entering the skin which is worrisome. One piece of good news is that our cat doesn't even feel the injection and just enjoys the extra attention while purring away. The other piece of good news coming from a veterinary website is that if the diabetes is caught early, a majority of cats in a study went into remission after only four weeks of injections.
If any my friends in this forum who have older cats with these symptoms, don't hesitate to get the cat to the vet and don't lose hope.
As an aside, as expensive as insulin is these days, the dose for a cat is so small that the injection pen holds as many as 300 (!!!) doses so the cost is manageable.

Many (those who don't have pets?) do not realize say, a cat, is NOT a cat -- but really a loved member of the family -- like a son, daughter, brother, sister... any/all 'cept an ex-wife. We lost Beauty but a few years ago, and in retrospect there's nothing we wouldn't have done to keep her (with her having a quality of life!) with us -- even, say, remortgaging the house so to do!
I am soooo happy you got a solution to your kittie's ailment -- and pray it continues to work! Bless you, too, for the care you are providing!!!

[T-Bird]

The other thing is stabilizing the VOLUME of food consumed daily if possible. This helps to minimize daily insulin requirement fluctuations. Also, be aware that there are some cats that the dietary change alone will be enough to treat the condition. I have had cats that were able to stop insulin, or drastically reduce the dose after being on the low carb diet for a while. Others have to stay on it but the diet makes them easier to manage.

[clum553946]

My calico was diagnosed with diabetes 7 months ago. She’s down to 1/2 unit of Lantus insulin twice a day. Two things that helped immensely is controlling her feeding times around the insulin injections and going to carb free food. The name of the dry food is: Young Again “Zero Mature” the wet is Tiki Cat succulent chicken & Tiki Cat ahi tuna recipe. I’m really hoping she’s getting close to remission as she has had zero urine glucose for about a month now.

[phantom22]

Some advice from a medic and an owner of a diabetic cat:

Get a feline glucose meter. It's a real pain to check their sugar as you usually have to poke them in the ear which they are certainly not a fan of. I would check it pretty consistently for a few weeks until you start seeing a trend in their readings. After that you don't have to do it all the time. If they start acting weird you should check it sooner than later.

Keep a syringe handy and some caro sweetener or some other kind of simple syrup. If their sugar gets low and they are still conscious you can squirt some in their mouth to get their sugar back up. If this happens DO NOT give any more insulin until you see a vet and see a vet as soon as you can so they can adjust the dose if needed.

If they become unconscious do not give them anything by mouth. In humans you would start an IV or give an injection of glucagon. An IV on a cat is not something most pet owners can do. Ask your vet about glucagon for emergencies, but I'm not sure they give that out or not. Obviously, get them to a vet immediately.

It will also help if the cat eats after giving the insulin. This will help prevent sudden and dangerous drops in blood sugar. As others suggested, ask what foods are best for the feline diabetic diet.

[quilbilly]

I want to thank everyone for your help. My wife took notes and sent me out on an expedition yesterday to look for the right foods for our newly diabetic cat, Smoke. We already have a couple winners that both cats like. We will be getting one of those glucose meters tomorrow and already have the reader since the laptop won't read the reader directly. The sad part for us may be that my wife won't be able to go to NCBS in Winnemucca this year (we usually make it a ten day adventure) if we Smoke still needs the shots twice a day. We won't lay that insulin shot project on our neighbor so my wife may go on her own trip later after I come back from NCBS while I give the shots.

[farmbif]

I wish your cat well, and you luck with it all.
I currently have 8 cats around the property, no mice, moles, voles or rabbit problems this year.

[BamaNapper]

We also had a diabetic cat. Everything I read said that diabetes can correct itself with diet and time. We also did the insulin injections a couple times a day and switched her to a high protein canned food. Her blood sugars were down to normal by the second vet visit. She was 8 yrs old and acting like a kitten again. Sadly, less than a year later she started to deteriorate and died within a couple weeks. The vet assured us her diabetes was under control right up to the end.

I do wonder why your vet would prescribe human insulin. Time to do some reading I guess. We used Petsulin. It's my understanding that the U-40 insulin for pets is more 'dilluted' and makes it easier to measure the small doses. We used the U-40 syringes and were nervous at first about injecting her, but she didn't mind it as long as there was a dish of food in front of her.

I hope your Smoke is around for a bunch of years.

[quilbilly]

Thanks again to all for their advice and well wishes for Smoke. We are almost 3 weeks into insulin injection and have been experimenting with better foods. Smoke is already feeling better, is more active as well as agile, and he is back to hunting voles in the yard.

[Moleman-]

My older sister got a cat in 1978. When she moved out it "became" my cat. Around 94 or so the cat started sleeping a lot. At first I figured it's a 16 year old cat, but made mention to it to my vet at the time who was also my best friends dad. He said to bring it in and sure enough the cat was diabetic. I had a prescription for the same needles and insulin that a person would get that was filled at a regular pharmacy. Always got the 3rd degree and they wouldn't let me have anything the first several years until they spoke to the vet, but eventually they remembered me "you're the guy with the cat right". Even using the small insulin needles you didn't fill the thing up very much.

Tested his urine for the sugar level which isn't very accurate because it only says what it recently was. If he needed a shot I'd give him some tuna or canned cat foot to keek him busy while pulling his back skin to sort of make a triangleish area up against his back where I'd give him the shot. He never felt it. Once I gave myself the shot and didn't feel it until I started to move my finger a little bit. Occasoinally hed be confused and meow nonstop, often getting trapped behind an open door.

Once when working 3rd shift I gave him a shot before going to bed only to be woken up several hours later to be told that he had died. Sure enough he was laying on the laundry room floor stiff and eyes open, but when I picked him up he had a heartbeat. Rubbed corn syrup on his gums and took him to the vet. He was moving a bit by the time we got to the vet and the vet gave him a shot of something that brought him back around to normal. Turns out for whatever reason he didn't eat the can of food I'd given him so when I gave him the shot it dropped his sugar level too low. The corn syrup in his mouth helped bring his sugar level up until my buddies vet dad gave him a big shot of something which snapped him out of it.

It sounds like the shots have become a lot easier to give and better testing measures than what I had to use. Our cat was pretty fat when he became diabetic and we put him on a diet which helped greatly by the time he was down to normal cat body shape. Controling his food intake reduced the frequency of shots needed to the point the last 4 years he only needed 1 or occasionally two shots a week where as before it was every 1-3 days. Tested him every day and otherwise seemed like a normal cat. Our cat lived to 21 almost 22 which is pretty old for even a normal cat. I'm sure with the advancements and ease of care your cat will do well.