Need info about Diabetes

alleygirl · Feb 23, 2012

A friend of mine has an adult male cat who was just diagnosed with diabetes. The vet has him on insulin injections every 12 hours and has her feeding him Purina DM wet food.

I (thankfully) haven't had to deal with this issue so don't know anything about it.

Do you guys have any advice or helpful links I can give her regarding diet and things to help? She's understandably panicking and could use some guidance.

Thanks!

white shadow · Feb 23, 2012

IMO, the all-time-best web resource for feline diabetes has to be The Feline Diabetes Message Board http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/

"Their" homepage is here http://www.felinediabetes.com/

Tell her to take a deep breath, talk with those folks and then join us here!

farleyv · Feb 24, 2012

I have had two diabetic kitties...one currently. Goofy is on two units am and one pm.

I tried to feed him the DM food....he would have NONE of it! I then did research on www.yourdiabeticcat.com. Great food suggestions there. Found Friskies wet, certain flavors were fine for him So for the last three or four years, that has been our food. All my cats get it as it is just too crazy to seperate Goofy out three times a day to feed.

There is a forumula on that site to rate all cat food as to its suitability for a diabetic cat. Have used it many times, very easy. Involves adding up the guaranteed analysis on each can. But wet food is a must for diabetic cats. The site I recommended is excellent. However, their goal is to transition cats off insulin to food controlled. However, I choose to keep on the insulin. Still a very good source of information and you can relate to others with the same problem.

Tell your friend to research diabetes in cats. The more information she has the better. Knowledge is power and it sure beats being worried all the time. Goofy gets long just fine...is playful and crazy. You would never know he has it.

Good luck to her and you are a good friend to help out.

sugarcatmom · Feb 24, 2012

No need to feed Purina DM, as farleyv mentioned. In fact the patent-holder of the formula, Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins (who is also the site owner of yourdiabeticcat.com) says any low-carb wet food will do.

Encourage your friend to learn how to home-test her cat's blood glucose. Lots of info on how at the felinediabetes.com site that White Shadow linked to. It's probably the single most important tool to managing feline diabetes (along with that low-carb diet!).

Another excellent source of info is this one: http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Has lots of detail and case studies on the different types of insulin, the various complications to watch out for, and also info on home-testing.

alleygirl · Feb 24, 2012

Thank you!

I've passed on a bunch of links for her to read and gave her this page as well if she wants to join

alleygirl · Feb 25, 2012

Her kitty is now at the vet being force fed. He stopped eating, drinking, urinating, etc.

He was originally taken into the vet because he was lethargic and had a fever and stopped eating. They treated him with an antibiotics injection and IV fluids. That is when they discovered his diabetes. 10 year old, neutered male. Sugar was 300-something. The last couple days he's been on 1 unit of insulin every 12 hours. Now he has stopped eating again and his sugar rose to 400+

Does anyone have any insight? Kitty is obviously at the vet and being helped but they aren't sounding very positive about it and any info I can share with her would help. Is this a common thing in diabetics?

sugarcatmom · Feb 25, 2012

AlleyGirl said:
Her kitty is now at the vet being force fed. He stopped eating, drinking, urinating, etc.
He was originally taken into the vet because he was lethargic and had a fever and stopped eating. They treated him with an antibiotics injection and IV fluids. That is when they discovered his diabetes. 10 year old, neutered male. Sugar was 300-something. The last couple days he's been on 1 unit of insulin every 12 hours. Now he has stopped eating again and his sugar rose to 400+
Does anyone have any insight? Kitty is obviously at the vet and being helped but they aren't sounding very positive about it and any info I can share with her would help. Is this a common thing in diabetics?

Are they checking his blood for ketones? Ketoacidosis can be a serious side effect of unregulated diabetes, and not eating increases the chances of it occurring. But a bg of 300 something (even 400+) isn't really all that terrible for a new diabetic. Many cats are off the charts (600+) when first brought in.

Electrolyte imbalances are something else to consider. Potassium levels often go outta whack and need to be addressed immediately. Is he on IV fluids again?

Do you know what kind of insulin he was initially prescribed? Are they still giving him insulin at the clinic, and if so, what type and how often?

My cat actually needed a feeding tube for 3 months when he was first diagnosed, but he had also developed ketoacidosis (which caused his anorexia, since it makes one feel really horrible and nauseous). He pulled through and that was exactly 9 years ago. With the right care, the majority of cats can make a full recovery, but 24 hr emergency treatment can be expensive. I wonder why the vets aren't very positive about his situation? Do they think something else might be going on? Pancreatitis can frequently go hand-in-hand with diabetes and may complicate the situation.

Tell your friend I'm sending her kitty healing vibes and I pray he can hang in there. I know how scary it can be!!!

alleygirl · Feb 25, 2012

Sugarcatmom said:
Are they checking his blood for ketones? Ketoacidosis can be a serious side effect of unregulated diabetes, and not eating increases the chances of it occurring. But a bg of 300 something (even 400+) isn't really all that terrible for a new diabetic. Many cats are off the charts (600+) when first brought in.

Electrolyte imbalances are something else to consider. Potassium levels often go outta whack and need to be addressed immediately. Is he on IV fluids again?

Do you know what kind of insulin he was initially prescribed? Are they still giving him insulin at the clinic, and if so, what type and how often?

My cat actually needed a feeding tube for 3 months when he was first diagnosed, but he had also developed ketoacidosis (which caused his anorexia, since it makes one feel really horrible and nauseous). He pulled through and that was exactly 9 years ago. With the right care, the majority of cats can make a full recovery, but 24 hr emergency treatment can be expensive. I wonder why the vets aren't very positive about his situation? Do they think something else might be going on? Pancreatitis can frequently go hand-in-hand with diabetes and may complicate the situation.

Tell your friend I'm sending her kitty healing vibes and I pray he can hang in there. I know how scary it can be!!!

Thank you for your reply! I'm going to copy your response to her and see if she has any of the info you asked about.

orientalslave · Feb 25, 2012

Vets never know just how a cat will react to insulin - the dose needed seems to vary greatly for the same sugar reading - so they start low and work up. An overdose of insulin is very dangerous.

My friend's diabetic cat took 3-4 months to get onto a stable dose. Now he is, he is doing so well. I don't know how common to be as collapsed as your friend's cat is. Possibly because cats are usually so stoic about being ill he was really quite ill when first admitted. The other thing I know from having a friend some years back who was diabetic is that it affects some people far more than others in general, and I can quite imagine that's the case with cats.

alleygirl · Feb 26, 2012

She got this update from the vet late last night. Things are looking up!

"Vet just called. He said he gave Santini 7units of Humulin N after I left, then rechecked him 6 hours later and gave him 4 more units. He just checked him again, after 5 hours, and Santini ate ! They did have to rehydrate him via IV. His glucose has gone from almost 500 to now 101!! He will check him at 6am and make further adjustments. He had avoided ketoacidosis, and the vet is much more optimistic now. There is still a long road ahead, and not out of the woods yet, but he is alive and improving. I'm so relieved!!"

Sounds much more promising!

sugarcatmom · Feb 26, 2012

AlleyGirl said:
She got this update from the vet late last night. Things are looking up!
"Vet just called. He said he gave Santini 7units of Humulin N after I left, then rechecked him 6 hours later and gave him 4 more units. He just checked him again, after 5 hours, and Santini ate ! They did have to rehydrate him via IV. His glucose has gone from almost 500 to now 101!! He will check him at 6am and make further adjustments. He had avoided ketoacidosis, and the vet is much more optimistic now. There is still a long road ahead, and not out of the woods yet, but he is alive and improving. I'm so relieved!!"
Sounds much more promising!

Woohooo! So glad to hear that Santini ate, that's a great sign. But wow, those are whopping doses of insulin! I hope he's being monitored overnight to make sure his blood glucose doesn't go too low.

Thanks for the update. Fingers crossed for Santini's continued improvement.

Need info about Diabetes

alleygirl

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white shadow

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farleyv

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alleygirl

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alleygirl

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sugarcatmom

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