Diabetic Cat (1 Viewer)

[Anthony Martino]

Recently one of our cats was diagnosed with diabetes

The vet showed me how to give him insulin shots and we started gradually switching the diet to one that was better

We had a sensor installed that allows us to use our phone to get his glucose readings

When the vet did his the first time he was at 550!!!

I've been frustrated because the reader only goes to 400, and aside from a few readings in the high 300's, he was always off the charts high

We started with 1 unit of insulin, then 2, this morning the vet had us bump him to 3 units

Plus yesterday was the last day of the old food as well as he transitioned to the new stuff

Finally today we're seeing numbers in the 200's. Still lots of work to do, but feels good to see progress

 

[buzzmonkey]

 

[joker80]

A lot of cats that switch to a low/no carbohydrate diet will revert back to being normal again. Hopefully this is the case with you cat. Was this the one with the yeasty ears?

 

[Anthony Martino]

A lot of cats that switch to a low/no carbohydrate diet will revert back to being normal again. Hopefully this is the case with you cat. Was this the one with the yeasty ears?

Nope, it was our other two cats that had issues recently.

One guy was rapid-fire sneezing up a storm, like 10 times in a row. They gave him an anti-virus that targets three different viruses responsible for upper-respiratory infections plus had us add some immunization powder in his food once per day and he cleared up pretty quickly.

The other guy had lost a couple of pounds, and had blood in his urine, plus he was sometimes leaving hard poops around the house. They did an x-ray and saw he was constipated, with a significant backup in his intenstines. So had us add a laxative to his food until his stool started softening.

He also had a UTI so they gave him an antibiotic shot for that plus gave us a pill to provide him once daily, and did some bloodwork. When the bloodwork came back they were concerned about diabetes and did a glucose test and he was at 550.

Giving him insulin was a lot easier than I expected, although a week into it they installed the sensor on his back/shoulder blade area, which was my go-to spot for giving him shots. So it's a little more difficult to administer now. He lost a lot of bulk in his hind quarters, so there isn't a good spot for me to pinch back there I don't feel, so still sticking with his shoulder blade area.

We switched all three cats off the free-feeding hard food and give them moist food 3x/day now instead. It's more expensive and more cumbersome to administer, but like you said, cats can go into remission. So we're hopeful we can at least get him eventually off the insulin shots and just maintain diet and exercise (we've started playing with them more per day with cat teasers, especially before eating.

The two guys that were sick are both around 10 years old, so getting up there in age and encountering some of the issues you'll see as cats age.

The other cat who we rescued from under our house a few years back is younger, but her ear has cleaned up and healed nicely. Thanks for chiming in and asking about her too!

 

[Anthony Martino]

We've had him on 4 units of insulin for awhile now and had some great numbers of the past few days, here's the charts we've got showing his progress

 

[Rhodeman77]

Do you have a local Chinese restaurant that can take care of the problem for you?

 

[Anthony Martino]

Do you have a local Chinese restaurant that can take care of the problem for you?

View attachment 909619

Lol, I wanted to hire a Korean guy, put him in a chefs hat with a huge pot, then send him to a shelter where he shouts "I TAKE ALL YOU KITTY!"

So I appreciate this humor

 

[Rhodeman77]

Ummmm yeah humor, right, that’s it! Just a joke. Nothing to see here, move along.

 

[Anthony Martino]

My vet just called. Based on recent readings she thinks Ruffian is going into remission!

Said to drop from 4 units of insulin to 2 and see his readings over the next few days. But with any luck we'll be able to take him off insulin

Gonna use my 1 time here

 

[Anthony Martino]

We had taken him down to 1 unit but it caused him to start jumping back into the 300's so we went back to 3 units, then 2 units. Now at 1.5 Units 2x/daily of insulin glargene.

In addition we are feeding 1 can of wet food daily as follows:

6am - 1/3rd of can

12pm - 1/6th of can

5pm - 1/3rd of can

10pm - 1/6th of can


With him getting his insulin shot at 7am and 7pm daily. So far it seems to be trending him in the right direction. Keeping our fingers crossed we can get him into remission prior to our move in a few months:

 

[buzzmonkey]

These are the best hand breakdowns you've ever done.

 

[Anthony Martino]

These are the best hand breakdowns you've ever done.

Going to have to launch a Diabetic Jeezus channel next.

 

[Anthony Martino]

Great news!

Vet said our boy is in remission and we can take him off insulin!

We'll continue to monitor him, especially with our move next month to make sure he doesn't revert back

 

[allforcharity]

What type of insulin do they give cats? Do they use cow/pig-derived or human insulin?

 

[Anthony Martino]

What type of insulin do they give cats? Do they use cow/pig-derived or human insulin?

Human insulin, we were giving him Glargene. 4 units 2x daily was the highest dose, we worked our way down to 1 unit 2x daily and were able to get his curve corrected

We also used the Freestyle Libre 2 system to get his sugar levels. It was $60 for the scanner/reader, then $40 for a 14-day sensor (which he'd try to remove, so oftentimes we got a lot less than the full 14 days, then had to pay $54 each time the vet installed the sensor)

It was a grind emotionally and financially, but just glad we caught it early enough to get him into remission

 

[Sprouty]