Feline Diabetes

[Ritterskoop]

We just got a diagnosis on Miss Mary. Instructions on shots coming up tomorrow, though I will ask if we can try just a diet change first.

Please let me know if you have first-hand experience and any advice. Roomie's daughter and son-in-law added eight years to a kitty's life with twice/daily shots, and it was excellent quality of life. I read that with successful treatment, this does not decrease life expectancy or quality. So we are not overwhelmed, but if you have reassuring firsthand experience, please share. Thanks.

[Snaxx]

My mom has a diabetic cat too, a tomcat named Louie who has lived quite well for at least 3 years (it may have been longer) with the twice daily shots and a diet change.

[a1mamacat]

We have a lot of diabetic cats at the shelter, and they do very well. I think if you are cool with giving the shots, Miss Mary will live long and prosper.

[Beebs52]

Bless you. I'm sure it will work out fine.

[Ritterskoop]

I give myself a shot every night (though it's a pen, so not quite as elaborate) so I don't think it will be a big burden. The doctor gave her a prednisone shot in one second Monday, when we thought her leg problems were from a pinched disc. It looked pretty simple, and there are lots of places on their backs that are just fat (especially this cat!).

[SpacemanSpiff]

We've been treating Shirley (of Laverne and Shirley, a pair of tuxedo siblings, now 14.5 years old) about a year and a half.

The hardest thing we had was getting the insulin dosage right. Diet wasn't an issue - they'd been on the diabetic diet for a year or so prior to Shirley's onset because of digestive issues. I kept taking her in on a weekly basis for testing, and they kept saying it needed to be a bigger dosage; the problem was that the glucose level shoots out of sight (even for normal cats) in a fear reaction, and that's what Shirls had every time she went in. After the second hypoglycemic attack - the first one she came around quickly with that old southern standby, Karo syrup - when we rushed her into the vet and though she was a gonner (and so did the vet), she came around quickly with a glucose injection. At that point, we dialed back her dosing and she's been fine ever since. So, keep an eye on getting the dosage dialed in.

We'd started at 1 unit twice a day, worked our way up to 4 units (when she had the problems), settled in at 2 units. At that level, a bottle of insulin lasts 3 months.

To give you an idea of how well it's worked, she's basically been a 12.5 - 13 pound cat all her life. At the nadir of this, she'd dropped down to under 8 pounds. She's now back to her old weight, and (like her sister) acts like a cat half her age.

As others have said, it's a very doable thing.

[Ritterskoop]

We just gave Miss Mary our first shot (vet walked us through the first one this afternoon). I did it while she was drinking from the sink faucet, and she didn't notice a thing.

We'd put the wrong bag in the fridge this afternoon - not the one with the insulin - but I called the clinic and they said it's totally fine, just put it in there now. Maybe it's just to keep it from going bad but it's not like mayo and won't go bad immediately.

The bottle of insulin was $130 but I think we worked out that was six months or a year's worth of stuff. I still think with some time on this and a change in diet, she will be off of the insulin after a while. Roomie gave her a meatball from his spaghetti tonight and she ate it all, leaving a few scraps of pasta behind. So more meat is on the menu!

The idea is that the dry crunchy foods are carby and promote diabetes, while more meaty diets are closer to their natural menus - they would eat bones and organs and all, plus they are getting the nutrients from whatever their prey ate. It is all kind of specific and gross but fascinating. For us it just means we'll try some canned food about half the time, plus a dry food that is designed for diabetes.

[Ritterskoop]

She weighs 12 lbs. and her initial blood sugar reading Monday was over 500.

He told us to start at 3 units twice a day, and said that was slightly less than full strength. I said good because I don't want her getting too much right off the bat. She ate a lot tonight and has been as interested in water as ever, so there's no immediate bad reaction.

We re-check in a little over a week, though I feel confident that after the first few re-checks he'll trust us to check her sugar ourselves (we both do a finger-stick several times a week, so sticking her ear is no big deal).

He said whereas with people the ideal is in the 80-120 range, depending on who you talk to, he wants her reading to be 150-250. I will ask him if that accounts for them spiking when they're nervous, but my guess is that it does.

Thanks everyone for the footage and stories.

[Ritterskoop]

She is inhaling her first can of canned cat food. Yummy stuff.

[Bob Juch]

We just gave Miss Mary our first shot (vet walked us through the first one this afternoon). I did it while she was drinking from the sink faucet, and she didn't notice a thing.

We'd put the wrong bag in the fridge this afternoon - not the one with the insulin - but I called the clinic and they said it's totally fine, just put it in there now. Maybe it's just to keep it from going bad but it's not like mayo and won't go bad immediately.

The bottle of insulin was $130 but I think we worked out that was six months or a year's worth of stuff. I still think with some time on this and a change in diet, she will be off of the insulin after a while. Roomie gave her a meatball from his spaghetti tonight and she ate it all, leaving a few scraps of pasta behind. So more meat is on the menu!

The idea is that the dry crunchy foods are carby and promote diabetes, while more meaty diets are closer to their natural menus - they would eat bones and organs and all, plus they are getting the nutrients from whatever their prey ate. It is all kind of specific and gross but fascinating. For us it just means we'll try some canned food about half the time, plus a dry food that is designed for diabetes.

Cats' natural prey have a high carbohydrate content as they're rodents and the occasional bird who both eat seeds and nuts. The undigested stomach and gut contents are eaten by the cats. (The birds who are mostly carnivores aren't usually caught by cats because they don't land on the ground often.)

[SpacemanSpiff]

We just gave Miss Mary our first shot (vet walked us through the first one this afternoon). I did it while she was drinking from the sink faucet, and she didn't notice a thing.

We'd put the wrong bag in the fridge this afternoon - not the one with the insulin - but I called the clinic and they said it's totally fine, just put it in there now. Maybe it's just to keep it from going bad but it's not like mayo and won't go bad immediately.

The bottle of insulin was $130 but I think we worked out that was six months or a year's worth of stuff. I still think with some time on this and a change in diet, she will be off of the insulin after a while. Roomie gave her a meatball from his spaghetti tonight and she ate it all, leaving a few scraps of pasta behind. So more meat is on the menu!

The idea is that the dry crunchy foods are carby and promote diabetes, while more meaty diets are closer to their natural menus - they would eat bones and organs and all, plus they are getting the nutrients from whatever their prey ate. It is all kind of specific and gross but fascinating. For us it just means we'll try some canned food about half the time, plus a dry food that is designed for diabetes.

Cats' natural prey have a high carbohydrate content as they're rodents and the occasional bird who both eat seeds and nuts. The undigested stomach and gut contents are eaten by the cats. (The birds who are mostly carnivores aren't usually caught by cats because they don't land on the ground often.)

The canned diabetic food (reasonably priced compared to it's mass-market counterpart) was dubbed "mouse in a can" by our vet.

The problem is, Laverne eats it, but Shirley (the diabetic) doesn't; we'd switched earlier due to digestive issues, and found it worked on that. So... we use the dry diabetic food, which is about $25 for 4 pounds of the stuff. This Shirley eats. (And, if given the chance, so will the dogs. Needless to say, at this price we make sure the dogs don't get to it!)

Ironically, the water wasn't an issue; we did notice problems with the litter not clumping before we diagnosed Shirley. I had assumed the litter manfacturer had switched stuff out -- you know, "new and improved" and all that. But it turns out that because the urine was less, well, uriny, the compounds that cause it to clump weren't present. Not sure if you use such a litter, but that might be kind of a litmus test. (This, BTW, also stopped once we got her treatments in order).

[mellytu74]

Skoop --

Echoing what everyone else here has said.

TLAF's old neighbor's cat -- Magoo -- was diabetic and the family handled it well. Two of the kids and the mom did the shots; Magoo was a very affectionate cat, so he loved getting extra cuddles after his shots. Magoo also adapted well to the diet change, so that wasn't a problem, either.

Good luck with everything.

[Ritterskoop]

Miss Mary's first blood sugar reading was over 500.

Nine days out, on Fancy Feast lower-carb cans and 2 shots of insulin a day, it was 260, two hours after the shot.

Six more days (today), it was 52, four hours after the shot. A little too low (that would be way too low in people). We want it between 150-250 (higher than in people when well controlled, but people can tell you when they feel funny).

We are lowering the insulin from 3 to 2 units, and adding a little more canned food (she's not eating the crunches; I just leave them out as backup). I still think just the meat diet will do the trick with some time. We are kicking ass on giving the shots.

[a1mamacat]

Miss Mary's first blood sugar reading was over 500.

Nine days out, on Fancy Feast lower-carb cans and 2 shots of insulin a day, it was 260, two hours after the shot.

Six more days (today), it was 52, four hours after the shot. A little too low (that would be way too low in people). We want it between 150-250 (higher than in people when well controlled, but people can tell you when they feel funny).

We are lowering the insulin from 3 to 2 units, and adding a little more canned food (she's not eating the crunches; I just leave them out as backup). I still think just the meat diet will do the trick with some time. We are kicking ass on giving the shots.

Sounds extremely promising. Keep up the good work!

[Ritterskoop]

We are on our third week off the insulin.

If you catch it early and switch to an all-meat diet, many cats will be fine without insulin.

There is a list at the Feline Diabetes forum that is user-generated, showing which foods are low-carb. We started with Fancy Feast and just bought some 9 Lives. As long as the foods are old-style without lots of gravy, they are fine.

Miss Mary is the happiest of cats. Thanks for everyone's encouragement back when we needed it most!

[ghostjmf]

Your cat is doing better than me! On insulin.

I seriously thought, & still think, that my beloved TuckerMonster might be developing diabetes because of his increased water intake, & commensurate increased urine-soaked cat sand output. But, believe me, his is nowhere near (when you take into consideration the relative size diffs) what mine was.


Problem is that this is the "attacks vets savagely" cat. My trusted "oh I can handle this" vet got a huge slash down their arm for their troubles, & Tucker was literally fleeing across the ceiling (for a bit). He was traumatized for life by the vets he was taken to by the crew that rescued his family when he was 2 weeks old. Or something. I would have to tranquilize him to get any work done, & they won't give me a shot for that, though I begged. They say I should give him a pill they will prescribe. I've never even tried to give a pill to this cat.

I know I have to put this on my agenda for the future. Brrr.


I wish I could switch to an all-meat diet, but my urologist says that's the world's best recipe for uric acid kidney stones, the kind I form.

Meanwhile, Tuck is the only cat I've had who completely disdains the meatier foods I've bought him, leaving them to rot while he wolfs, so to speak, down Science Diet kibble. If he ever does get this diagnosis we're going to be trying out many foods.


I think it was Tuck, among cats I've had, who slurped up the gravy on the gravy-er foods while leaving the actual food. I will have to try him on the "less gravy" kinds.

[Bob Juch]

Have you heard about Google's contact lenses that measure your blood sugar?

http://www.dailytech.com/Google+Testing ... 34155c.htm

[Ritterskoop]

Have you heard about Google's contact lenses that measure your blood sugar?

http://www.dailytech.com/Google+Testing ... 34155c.htm

They will not be available to everyday consumers for five years or so. We'll have transporter technology before then.