Cat recently diagnosed with diabetes

Two weeks ago I brought my 12 year old cat to the vet and she was recently diagnosed with diabetes. My family is unable to correctly give her the insulin shots so we decided to just feed her the weight management food. For awhile it seemed she liked the food and was doing better. Her behavioral issues were starting to be corrected. But now she has stopped eating her food. She has peed twice in her bed and has been moving very slow. She has lost two pounds since we took her to the vet and is very boney. I have a feeling that she is on the verge of dying but am not sure. I need you guys help!

Subcutaneous insulin injections are an imperative part of caring for a diabetic cat. Withholding this vital treatment will inevitably lead to a host of health problems. Weight management food is neither a treatment for diabetes and nor a substitute for insulin.

It is impossible for a cat owner or a licensed vet to derive an accurate diagnosis from a website post. However, a cat, who has stopped eating, is in dire need of medical intervention. The cat is at high risk for developing a disease called hepatic lipidosis. After 48 hours of not eating, the cat's liver begins storing fat. As fat continues to accumulate, the liver stops functioning properly because it cannot process the stores of fat.  Hepatic lipidosis, if left untreated, will result in death.

Please seek medical attention from a licensed veterinarian. Best of luck to you and your cat. 

Losing weight can often reverse the diabetes enough that they don't need insulin.  The best way to lose weight is by closely monitoring calories and feeding high protein, low carb WET food rather than weight management food however.  Believe me, I've tried all kinds of things before doing what I  mentioned to get my porker to lose weight.  It's the only thing that finally worked.

Good luck with your little one.

He must have the insulin to rebalance the blood sugar as a priority. Only if the blood values eventually fall permanently can he be considered to be in remission, and the diabetes may possibly be controlled with careful weight management. Is there any reason why your family cannot give him the insulin? It is very easy to do, I do it twice a day with my Wellington and he is showing a great improvement in his general health and his blood sugar is way down to almost normal. The vet can show you how to give the injection. Without insulin he will die.

Why is your famly unable to give the insulin injections? Has the vet or the vet tech shown you and your family how to correclty measure the insuiln and how to give it?

Can you call the vet and ask about Glipizide? It's a pill for diabetic cats that is supposed to work to lower blood gluocse levels. The downside of using Glipizide is that is just doesn't work very well and forces the already burned out pancrease to work even harder which makes it harder to get the diabetes under control. Plus pilling a cat can be a big pain and some cats end up hiding at pill time.

Your cat needs insulin. Diet alone does not work. especially not for a newly diagnosed cat. Without insulin your cat is at risk for developing diabetic ketoacidosis which can be fatal if it's not treated ASAP.

Instead of the weight management food, feed your cat low carb canned food. The right diet is important, just like it is for Human diabetics. Many vets don't know much about nutrition so dont expect your vet to support your decision to feed something else. Here's a list of low carb Fancy Feast you can start with: http://www.felinediabetes.com/glutenfree.htm There are many other brands of commerical canned food you can feed to a diabetic cat.

I highly recommend that you join the FelineDiabetes.com message board and ask for additional help here on how to manage your diabetic cat without insulin. There may even be a member who lives in your area and who could offer to show you and your family how to give insulin.