Cat was diagnosed being diabetic. warning! What you should do first!

Wow it has been a crazy few months for our family and our fairly new adopt cat Willow.
We adopted this 14 year old female cat September 2015, we ended up spending around $1,000 within the first month due to the condition she was in. After having to get her spaded I noticed she was drinking and peeing a lot. I took her into the vet were they advised she is diabetic. The testing at the start was another $800 to determine the amount of insulin she was going to need. The vet gave us a prescription for cat food and insulin, advise give her a shot once a day come see us in a month . This was the beginning of the nightmare to follow! A complete totally lack of communication on the vet part would end up costing us $8,000 in vet bills over a three week period. We went home, got her the food and started giving her the shots as advised. Over the next month I would call the vets office three time saying our cat is not acting right what should I do? They advised to give her syrup and not to worry. After a month our cat was looking really bad. I ordered a blood tester for cats and had it next day, I also started reading everything I could find regarding this disease in cats. I took her into the vets office on a Sunday they said she was in really bad shape, was dehydrated, backed up and blood work was not looking good overall. They kept her overnight, Monday night the vet advised we had to take our cat to a overnight vet to be monitored or she would die. She now had Keytones and was DKA. The overnight vet was 45 minutes away from our vet, their hours are 7pm-7am at a cost of $700 a night, we have to pick her up and take her back to our daily vet from 7am -6pm, this went on for over a week back and fourth, with our cat getting worst. Our day vet advised I should think about putting our cat down, the cost of trying to get our cat under control could go on for weeks or even months. Our cat had now turned yellow and we were advised her liver and kidneys have stopped working, again the vet advised I should put the cat down. My wife and I wanted to spend one last night with Willow. We picked her up and took her home to say goodbye. Over the night Willow was walking around and came to me as she had from day one. The next morning I took her into the vet and advised them to keep treating her, the vet asked me why was I doing this? At this point I'm pot committed, what is another $1,000 considering how much I have spent so far, I have never backed off on something I have committed too and I'm not going to start now. I asked if I could do the night monitoring to try and save on the $700 a night for the night vet? What would I have to do? I would have to check her blood every two hours, syringe feed and water, check her pee and poop, her peed was dark brown and poop black. Okay I said, I will stay up and do this, not to mention I had caught that cold that has been going around, I was sick as a dog, head stuffed up, sweating so bad I would have to change my shirt 4-5 times a night. Over the next three night I lived downstairs in a sleeping bag staying up all night checking her blood, feed and water her and give her the insulin shot as needed, I would then drop her off at the vet at 7am with all of my night notes for the vet. This went on for three nights. Need to note our vet is a large veterinarian, they have five vets working there and we had to deal with three different vets during this time. On the fourth night we were having an Oscar party at our home. I advised the vet not to give Willow any shots that night because I only had three test strips and could not Monitor her that night. If a cat gets blow 50 they are in the danger zone, cats that have this disease range from 200-400mg better to be too high then too low because they can die very fast being too low. The night of our party my wife had gone all out, we have 55 of my clients at our home, fully catered and over the top event. Around 8 pm for whatever reason I went to check Willow, she was non-responsive, tongue was hanging out of her mouth, her blood was 19! I raced out of my house with her in my arms, I knew time was against us, I called the night vet while racing there to advise them I was on the way. I not going to say what I had to do to get there so fast I'll leave it to your imagination. I made it there is 22 minutes, rushed her in and they gave her a shot that saved her. She was in really bad shape at this point. Over the next few days I did the same thing, drop her off at the day vet and take her home to be checked every two hours. After another few days our day vet advised we need a different kind of insulin at a cost of $300 a bottle to give her two shots a day. Good thing I did not follow the vets advise or Willow would be dead. It is very important to not give a cat a shot if they are 200mg or below and this happened a few time. A normal cats range is 70-150mg. Over the next few weeks I was able to nurse Willow back to health with hand feeding and watering. Willow had started eating and drinking on her own, her pee was yellow/green and poop light brown. I had to leave for three days so my wife took over while I was gone, my wife was scared to death because she was so afraid Willow would die on her watch. When I came back Willow was much fatter and her blood levels were really high again and having a hard time getting them down to good numbers. And this is where we are at today.
My advises if your cat is diagnosed with this disease, is to educate yourself really fast, the vets are just guessing at best and since this is your cat you need to know what is going on and not just follow the advises of the vet.

What a horror story!   You're absolutely right that it's important to educate yourself about your cat's health issues.  There is no question that some vets are better than others.  This is why it's often wise to get a second opinion when you suspect your vet isn't helping your cat as much as he or she could.  In your case, you were getting a lot of input from the emergency vet and the five vets in the regular clinic - with that kind of consensus, you had every reason to believe what they were telling you.  It's very troubling that one of your vets told you to give insulin shots at inappropriate blood sugar levels and Willow is very, very lucky you had studied up on diabetes and knew your stuff.  I'm wondering at this point if you should look for a cat endocrinologist to take over Willow's care as well as a new general practitioner.  Once you've lost faith in your vet, it is usually a sign to look for another.  Perhaps you could get a recommendation from an endocrinologist for a new regular vet.

One of the things that struck me reading your post is how dedicated you are to Willow.  Very few people will adopt a 14 year old cat in the first place, so you're pretty wonderful for that reason alone.  And then to commit to all the time and driving and expense - that is not easy to do.  I just wanted to say my hat is off to you for everything you've done for this girl.   

Thank you so much,
Willow is laying next to me now. We had to leave over night and had to have the vet send someone to our house to give Willow her a shot in the morning, our vet went ahead and had her brought into their office to do another curve. He only charged us for her food. He said he has never met a pet owner who committed the way we did. I don't beleive I really did anything that special, she is apart of our family.
As I write this is blood is dropping again too fast, so I'll be staying up all night checking her every two hours. We will have to do this until we find the correct balance between her food and insulin.

I too have had a cat that was diabetic. He was my first pet ever (my family got him when I was 5, I'm in my 20s now). He was diagnosed as diabetic when he was 9 years old (I was 14). My dad and I were the only ones ever to give him his insulin. He had to have it twice a day, every 12 hours. Luckily, my uncle is a vet so we usually get free or low cost vet care. I think we only had to pay 1/2 price for his insulin and needles and visits were free, even when he had to be boarded overnight.


But he had a whole host of other health problems, around the age of 8 he developed many benign tumors on his legs, and after he was diagnosed diabetic, a tumor on his nose started to grow, at first it was benign but then it became malignant and it had spread too close to his brain to be safely removed and he died at age 11 because of the cancerous tumor on his face.

These are some pictures of him. I still miss my little buddy

Before being diagnosed diabetic (he was long haired and very fluffy, but also very fat, he was 25 pounds at his largest):


After (you can see the tumor on his nose in this one, this was right after it was biopsied for the 2nd time, the biopsies didn't come back malignant until the 4th time and by then it was too late):



I am also very happy you decided to take in a 14 year old cat, it makes me even happier that you are sticking with her and helping her through her health issues. Not many people would be willing to do what you are doing right now for her, which makes me think that she was meant to be yours. You are literally saving her life instead of giving up on her, and that makes me so happy

Similar stories like yours are posted often on the FelineDiabetes.com message board. Some vets just don't know much about treating feline diabetes so they just send clients home with insulin and a vague "give two shots a day and feed this prescription food". Few people question the diagnosis, the treatment, or ask for clarification of all the medical terms the vet may say.

How much insulin was your cat originally prescribed and what kind of insulin? Is it possible you were misreading the markings on the insulin syringe and giving your cat way too much insulin? Some people see the line marked as 10 and think that it is 1. There is a huge difference between 1 unit of insulin and 10 units of insulin. Some syringes are only marked for every 2 units, not every single unit, so that gets confusing.

 $300 for the new insulin sounds like either Lantus or Levimir. Both are good insulins to use as along as the well published dosing protocol is followed. Instead of buying the 10 ml bottle, you can buy the insulin pens instead. The box has 5 pens, each with 3 ml of insulin, and it's basically a 5 month supply you'll have on hand.

I highly recommend that you check out the FelineDiabetes.com message board and introduce yourself and your cat over there and share your horror story.  The experienced members there can help you get your cat's diabetes under control. Of course, having a good vet is important The board has members from all over the world so someone there is likely able to recommend a good vet in your area.

Raina21 said:

I too have had a cat that was diabetic. He was my first pet ever (my family got him when I was 5, I'm in my 20s now). He was diagnosed as diabetic when he was 9 years old (I was 14). My dad and I were the only ones ever to give him his insulin. He had to have it twice a day, every 12 hours. Luckily, my uncle is a vet so we usually get free or low cost vet care. I think we only had to pay 1/2 price for his insulin and needles and visits were free, even when he had to be boarded overnight.


But he had a whole host of other health problems, around the age of 8 he developed many benign tumors on his legs, and after he was diagnosed diabetic, a tumor on his nose started to grow, at first it was benign but then it became malignant and it had spread too close to his brain to be safely removed and he died at age 11 because of the cancerous tumor on his face.

These are some pictures of him. I still miss my little buddy

Before being diagnosed diabetic (he was long haired and very fluffy, but also very fat, he was 25 pounds at his largest):

FB_IMG_1449293195580.jpg

• raina21
• Mar 16, 2016

After (you can see the tumor on his nose in this one, this was right after it was biopsied for the 2nd time, the biopsies didn't come back malignant until the 4th time and by then it was too late):

FB_IMG_1458194274731.jpg

• raina21
• Mar 16, 2016

I am also very happy you decided to take in a 14 year old cat, it makes me even happier that you are sticking with her and helping her through her health issues. Not many people would be willing to do what you are doing right now for her, which makes me think that she was meant to be yours. You are literally saving her life instead of giving up on her, and that makes me so happy

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Thank you so much, you and your family are just like my family, our pets are family and we will do everything we can to help them in their time of need.

When we were at the vet there is a animal shelter right next-door, this is where we got our other two cats, they are feral cats brother and sister. When we adopted them a few years ago. They advised us to take only one because the other one was sick and we would have to pay for the vet and their was a good chance they both would get sick. My wife agreed, how could we separate them and yes they both got really sick. Yet they are now our family so we will take care of them until the end. We are fortunate to be allowed to become their custodians doing a short time here. We are the lucky ones.

I was really shocked to see so many people bring in their pets and drop them off at the shelter with their toys. Their is a room their stacked with carriers and toys from so many owners who just drop off their pets. Good bye buddy, good owning you, sorry our commitment means nothing too you. I got so upset when this guy was dropping off his dog of 15 years. He was telling the girl at the front desk that his dog has been a good dog, never had any problems with him at all. He just decided he did not want a dog anymore and hopped someone was going to adopt him. I said out loud maybe we should put you in the cage and let the dog go home and see if someone comes and gets you, yet I'm sure no one will and you'll end up being put down just like what will most likely happen to your dog if you leave him hear! The guy turned to me and said what did you say? I stood up and said you heard me! The guy just walked out. Clearly zero commitment in this person life. I'm sure his life has been filled with problems where he just walked away instead of doing the right thing.

The girl at the front desk said wow! She thought there was going to be a fight. I said not with that person or anyone who does this to their pet. They don't have what it takes to commit. She told me people come in all day everyday with their pets and just drop them off, most never leave there.
So dang sad!

LTS3 said:

Similar stories like yours are posted often on the FelineDiabetes.com message board. Some vets just don't know much about treating feline diabetes so they just send clients home with insulin and a vague "give two shots a day and feed this prescription food". Few people question the diagnosis, the treatment, or ask for clarification of all the medical terms the vet may say.

How much insulin was your cat originally prescribed and what kind of insulin? Is it possible you were misreading the markings on the insulin syringe and giving your cat way too much insulin? Some people see the line marked as 10 and think that it is 1. There is a huge difference between 1 unit of insulin and 10 units of insulin. Some syringes are only marked for every 2 units, not every single unit, so that gets confusing.

 $300 for the new insulin sounds like either Lantus or Levimir. Both are good insulins to use as along as the well published dosing protocol is followed. Instead of buying the 10 ml bottle, you can buy the insulin pens instead. The box has 5 pens, each with 3 ml of insulin, and it's basically a 5 month supply you'll have on hand.

I highly recommend that you check out the FelineDiabetes.com message board and introduce yourself and your cat over there and share your horror story.  The experienced members there can help you get your cat's diabetes under control. Of course, having a good vet is important :nod: The board has members from all over the world so someone there is likely able to recommend a good vet in your area.

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Thank you for the help and advised, I will go on there.

The first insulin was NP with white stuff in the bottom of the bottle, the second bottle is glargine, that is the $300 a bottle it is a slow delivery long lasting one. On the units I have been doing shots for most of my life mostly cc with myself. I went to the vet four different times to make sure what a unit was and to make sure the Syringe we were useing were them same as the ones they gave us.
I called a DR friend of mine who is part owner of a major ER to get advises from him. He explaind so much about the amount of food that is given must be the same everyday for the absorption rate with the insulin. If we give more or less food it will change the insulin amount. If explaind how tough it is with people if figuring out the curve in the beginning, he said it will be hard with a cat at first. He said we must be very consistent with her feeding, no free range feeding anymore.
Because I had to stay up for four nights in a row I spent a lot of time reading and taking notes online. The one thing that was urged over and over again was to make sure you check their blood before giving them their shot. It explained what numbers to never give a shot and why as well how the number will spike during the day and why. The range cats should be with and without this disease. What is acceptable numbers and why. One of the vets I felt like I knew more them him.

And your very right most vets don't have the training for this, the night ER, the vets there have hire training over the day vet. Our day vet told me this, he said the vets over there spent more time in school and training.

Again thank you so much for the help and advise

NPH isn't a great insulin to use. It's too short acting and can be pretty harsh. NPH is a suspension. The white stuff is the active part of the insulin. You have to gently roll the insulin bottle for a minute to mix everything up before you draw up a dose.

Lantus (glargine) is great
There are other brands that don't cost as much. The FDMB board can provide you with online web sites to buy insulin syringes and other supplies from.

Testing the blood glucose level before giving the insulin is important and can prevent a possible hypo a few hours later. The "no insulin" cut off number is 200 mg/dl for newbies. If the cat is borderline, like 190, what you can do is feed a little food and wait half an hour, then retest. If the level goes up over 200, then you can give insulin and the rest of the food. If the level stays the same, then better to skip giving insulin than to risk a hypo.

LTS3 said:

NPH isn't a great insulin to use. It's too short acting and can be pretty harsh. NPH is a suspension. The white stuff is the active part of the insulin. You have to gently roll the insulin bottle for a minute to mix everything up before you draw up a dose.

Lantus (glargine) is great In my experience, the 10 ml bottle does not last more than a month before it loses effectiveness. Cats need pretty small doses so at the end of the month you're throwing away a barely used bottle. The only way you know if the insulin is starting to "poop out" is by home testing. Definitely look into getting the Lantus SoloStar pens next time. Since each pen is 3 ml, you can almost use it to the last drop. Some pharmacies may sell a single pen instead of a whole box. You can use insulin syringes with the pen. There's a rubber stopper at the end just like in a bottle.

Do you have the half unit marked insulin syringes? If not, you really should get them. The half unit markings makes it super easy to measure tiny doses which cats often need. With the whole unit syringes, you have to eyeball where the half unit is and it's not too accurate. I used these 3/10 cc with half unit markings insulin syringes:

BD%20close%20up.jpg

• LTS3
• Mar 17, 2016

There are other brands that don't cost as much. The FDMB board can provide you with online web sites to buy insulin syringes and other supplies from.

Testing the blood glucose level before giving the insulin is important and can prevent a possible hypo a few hours later. The "no insulin" cut off number is 200 mg/dl for newbies. If the cat is borderline, like 190, what you can do is feed a little food and wait half an hour, then retest. If the level goes up over 200, then you can give insulin and the rest of the food. If the level stays the same, then better to skip giving insulin than to risk a hypo.

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Hi thank you so much for the advises and help.
We did get the half ones and the other ones. Right now anything below a 300mg no shot for her, she only weighs between 6-7lbs. She does not like to eat a lot of food at one time, she rather graze and this has caused us problems. The good news is we are really getting a hang of what to do with her before her shot. Last night I did not check her and she must have been below 300 because within an hour she was 230 then one hour later 130 and in 15 minutes to 113mg. I was not going to have another mad dash to the ER so I gave her syrup, again I gave her a little too much. I'm sure sooner then later we will become very good at managing this disease.

Again thank you so much for taking the time to help

Jamesharvey said:

Thank you so much, you and your family are just like my family, our pets are family and we will do everything we can to help them in their time of need.

When we were at the vet there is a animal shelter right next-door, this is where we got our other two cats, they are feral cats brother and sister. When we adopted them a few years ago. They advised us to take only one because the other one was sick and we would have to pay for the vet and their was a good chance they both would get sick. My wife agreed, how could we separate them and yes they both got really sick. Yet they are now our family so we will take care of them until the end. We are fortunate to be allowed to become their custodians doing a short time here. We are the lucky ones.

I was really shocked to see so many people bring in their pets and drop them off at the shelter with their toys. Their is a room their stacked with carriers and toys from so many owners who just drop off their pets. Good bye buddy, good owning you, sorry our commitment means nothing too you. I got so upset when this guy was dropping off his dog of 15 years. He was telling the girl at the front desk that his dog has been a good dog, never had any problems with him at all. He just decided he did not want a dog anymore and hopped someone was going to adopt him. I said out loud maybe we should put you in the cage and let the dog go home and see if someone comes and gets you, yet I'm sure no one will and you'll end up being put down just like what will most likely happen to your dog if you leave him hear! The guy turned to me and said what did you say? I stood up and said you heard me! The guy just walked out. Clearly zero commitment in this person life. I'm sure his life has been filled with problems where he just walked away instead of doing the right thing.

The girl at the front desk said wow! She thought there was going to be a fight. I said not with that person or anyone who does this to their pet. They don't have what it takes to commit. She told me people come in all day everyday with their pets and just drop them off, most never leave there.
So dang sad!

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I agree. It is extremely sad that people get pets and then all of a sudden decide they don't want them anymore. Unfortunately most people don't do their own research before buying animals, and they don't realize how much work they can be. They're just like "Awwww kittens are cute, I think I'LL get one." And then they get a kitten and they realize that they are hard work. And the kitten scratches their furniture, poops or pees outside the litterbox, tears up their drapes or they get sick and need veterinary tretment.

I can't even tell you how many cats I have seen dumped at the shelter because their owners cared more about their furniture than they did their cat. So they dump their cats because of their natural behavior of scratching on textured surfaces (couches and recliners, mostly).

All of the cats my family has ever had have been rescues. 4 out of the 5 were very sick when we got them. 2 out of the 5 have died (1 died of cancer and the other died of old age). The remaining 3 are still with us and are doing very well.

When we got Zazzie as a kitten she had Feline Distemper (mother had it and passed it on to her kittens, she was the only kitten to survive, all 5 of her siblings died), long story short she had to stay at the vet for almost 2 months straight because her white blood cell count was less than 100, when it should have been over 5,000. The vet said that she was within hours of death when we brought her in (and we brought her in ASAP). But now, she is a happy and healthy 3 year old kitty.

Here is a picture of her:


Kiwi had a really bad upper respiratory infection and had to be given antibiotics and antibiotic eye drops for the first few weeks we had her. But now she is a happy and heathy 2 year old kitty.

A picture of Kiwi:


Tesla was dumped on the side of our busy street at just 6-8 weeks old. We quickly brought him inside and took him to the vet the next day. He was healthy, other than needing shots and needing to be de-wormed. He is now 5 months old.

And here's a picture of him:

Jamesharvey said:

Hi thank you so much for the advises and help.
We did get the half ones and the other ones. Right now anything below a 300mg no shot for her, she only weighs between 6-7lbs. She does not like to eat a lot of food at one time, she rather graze and this has caused us problems. The good news is we are really getting a hang of what to do with her before her shot. Last night I did not check her and she must have been below 300 because within an hour she was 230 then one hour later 130 and in 15 minutes to 113mg. I was not going to have another mad dash to the ER so I gave her syrup, again I gave her a little too much. I'm sure sooner then later we will become very good at managing this disease.

Again thank you so much for taking the time to help

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Don't worry too much about hypo unless your cat goes under 70 or so. How many hours after the insulin shot was the 113? 2 hours? 3 hours? 10 hours? It helps to know when a spot check was done in relation to the insulin shot and when the nadir is. This explains what happens to blood glucose levels after insulin is given, about halfway down the page "Learn how your kitty is responding to insulin" http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...the-basics-new-to-the-group-start-here.18139/ Since you're using Lantus, post over on the FDMB Lantus board for more specific help on using the insulin for your cat.

Reserve the syrup for a serious hypo when you need to get blood glucose levels up quickly. Syrup acts quickly but the effect doesn't last very long. To ward off a potential hypo when you see levels dropping before the insulin has peaked, it's better to feed a little moderate carb food (10% to 20% carbs). Here's a list of typical symptoms and treatment: http://www.felinediabetes.com/hypogly.htm A trip to the vet isn't needed unless hypo symptoms are really severe, like seizures and coma.

Grazing on food is fine. It helps keep blood glucose levels more stable than two strict meals a day and no snacks in between. Not too much different from how most Human diabetics manage their disease.

LTS3 said:

Don't worry too much about hypo unless your cat goes under 70 or so. How many hours after the insulin shot was the 113? 2 hours? 3 hours? 10 hours? It helps to know when a spot check was done in relation to the insulin shot and when the nadir is. This explains what happens to blood glucose levels after insulin is given, about halfway down the page "Learn how your kitty is responding to insulin" http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...the-basics-new-to-the-group-start-here.18139/ Since you're using Lantus, post over on the FDMB Lantus board for more specific help on using the insulin for your cat.

Reserve the syrup for a serious hypo when you need to get blood glucose levels up quickly. Syrup acts quickly but the effect doesn't last very long. To ward off a potential hypo when you see levels dropping before the insulin has peaked, it's better to feed a little moderate carb food (10% to 20% carbs). Here's a list of typical symptoms and treatment: http://www.felinediabetes.com/hypogly.htm A trip to the vet isn't needed unless hypo symptoms are really severe, like seizures and coma.

Grazing on food is fine. It helps keep blood glucose levels more stable than two strict meals a day and no snacks in between. Not too much different from how most Human diabetics manage their disease.

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Hi thank you again
There was and episode after the doctor gave a shot of insulin that after 3 hours she was 19mg.
This was before the new insulin. The vet assured me that night he gave her very little and not to worry. She almost did not make it, the ER vet said he did not think she would make it through the night, her numbers on her blood looked really bad, her liver and kindney swerve failing, she was yellow.

The other night when she dropped to 113, was after three hours and we were going to bed in a few hours. I did not want to run the risk of her going to low while we were asleep. As is I'm not getting much sleep these days. I wake up and check on her every night at least a few times a night.