Well, I finally found out why my cat has been drinking tons of water and peeing everywhere - apparently, he is quite diabetic. The vet tells me that normal cat blood sugar levels are 70 - 125; his bloodwork came back from the lab, and his sugar level was 546!
So this may explain a lot. Saturday I will have the joy of taking Sir Galahad, aka Fatso, to the vet to learn how to inject him with insulin, which ought to be a barrel of laughs for all concerned (he still has all his claws, and though he is generally a quite mellow and affectionate creature, I fear he may draw the line at syringes). Do they have crazy things like kitty testing strips? Any good sources for cheap kitty insulin? What questions should I ask the vet on Saturday?
Has anyone been through this? What can we expect? Any tips for making it easier for all concerned? On the bright side, once I threw away the rug (which had bad karma anyway - it was a hand-me-down from my Evil Ex with No Morals and No Remorse), he has confined his fluid emissions to the litterbox again. And at least it’s not impending doom, like kidney failure or something; the vet seemed surprised that given how high his blood sugar was, he doesn’t appear to have other complications. My kitty is Strong Like Bull!
Good news- unlike human or canine diabetes, feline diabetes can actually clear itself up in time.
It’s not guaranteed, but it does happen, according to my parent’s Vet.
My parent’s cat has (or had) diabetes, and had to have daily insulin injections, drink lots of water, etc etc.
However, we think he had a bit of a reaction to insulin after a while… behaving strangely, walking around in circles, not recognising people- and my Dad stopped giving him the insulin injections daily because it seemed to be distressing him so much. They went to the vet, who ran some tests and said their cat’s blood sugar was a hell of a lot better than it had been, and there was no need to continue giving insulin- just make sure there was plenty of water, and keep an eye on his health.
He’s been fine since then, and is back to his old happy, purry, friendly self.
First off, work on getting his weight down. That could completely eliminate the diabetes since it’s often connected to obesity. Secondly you’re going to become VERY knowledgable about his eating habits now.
There are no ‘testing’ strips like in people. You just have a set schedule of injections, usually twice a day. The vet will explain it all to you but basically if the cat doesn’t eat, he doesn’t get the insulin or else you’ll be in big trouble. I’ve found the easiest way to give insulin injections is to do it while they’re eating. They’re distracted and often don’t notice. And it’s really not much of an issue since the needles are TINY. Hardly noticable
As you can see from the photos, getting him to eat enough is not usually an issue. I’ve tried putting him on diets before, but he got insanely aggressive - he woud bite my feet at 3 a.m. while I was sleeping, that sort of thing. But maybe the reason he’s been such a food freak is that his blood sugar is all wonky. I’ll have to ask the vet about that one.
My wife had a diabetic cat, and giving injections wasn’t difficult at all. Kitty barely seemed to notice you were doing anything, especially when my wife gave the injection. I was less competant because I didn’t have nearly as much practice.
She used very fine needles, the biggest problem (for me) was keeping the needle from bending accidentally.
I stuck my cat with a insulin needle every morning for about two years, then after a nasty fight with a dog one day she lot a lot of weight and her diabetic condition evaporated completely. Now she is fine.
It is easy to inject a cat, just grab a fold of skin and do it. Don’t be nervous they really don’t feel it.
There is another test, a Fructo-something something test, can’t remember exactly, which looks at a 90 day window of the cat’s blood sugar levels. This can be very useful when you consider that a glucose test only looks at that one moment in that one day, and glucose fluctuates depending on when they last ate etc.
The 90 day overview value is called the HbA1c and you should definitely ask for a comparison from the vet, from one trip to the next.
You can, apparently, use common home glucometers for humans for testing cats. You might want to ask your vet if he recommends such and how strongly he feels on the subject. Here’s a site that talks about the how:
I’ll second the people who said giving the shots is no big deal. I’d rather administer medicine that way than giving pills or oral liquids any day.
Things that helped me:
a good vet who’ll do a quick blood test whenever you feel it needed.
A small jar of honey in case of an insulin overdose reaction - look for sudden lethergy and disorientation. Get a fingerful of honey on the cat’s gums and in her mouth asap. You should see a dramatic improvement in minutes.
Keep an eye on kidney function. In my cat, the diabetes over time led to a loss of kidney function and eventual failure.
If you need to be gone, get a real, qualified petsitter with references and experience at administering shots if you are not going to board the cat with a vet.
Don’t stress out. It’s easier that it looks. As I’m sure your vet will tell you, the number one cause of death in diabetic animals is euthanasia because the owner can’t handle it. The animal will usually do quite well with less care than a human because you can control their diet.
I got an extra 10 months with my old girl and was very pleased to have it. She had a couple ups and downs because cats are so small it’s tough to work out a reliable dosage, but it gets easier.
Good luck, and remember there are plenty of support boards for people taking care of diabetic pets.
Our very large and friendly cat got diagnosed with diabetes when he was 10 years old. For a few years I gave him morning shots, then morning and evening. He always liked getting them and would make himself obvious around shot time. We went on this way for 7 years. He died at that point, but that’s pretty old for any cat. It was a splendid time.
And another cat also got diagnosed and started getting shots twice a day. Sometimes he’d be scarce around shot time but usually he accepted it no problem. However he died suddenly, probably of heart attack, after about 2 years.
It’s way easier giving shots than pilling cats. However it’s pretty hard to draw blood for a glucose test. I did get trained to do this and only got it to work once, and I gave up because it hurt me so to hurt them. I don’t think I’m cut from vet cloth. Fortunately in our case it seemed to work pretty well to get periodic checkups. I always bought 3/8" needles in the finest gage. Back when you used to have to enter your name in a notebook when buying needles in my state, listing a reason, I was surprised that about a third of the entries said they were for use on cats.
My little guy got diabetes when he was 10 years old and he wasn’t fat at all. He was controlled by pills - glyburide and specialty food - DM by Purina. I was a little leery of doing insulin shots because of the possibility of him going into insulin shock when I wasn’t home. He did fine but his poor little heart gave out four years later.
Just got back from the vet - it was actually less hellish than I thought it would be, though having another cat screeching in agony in another room didn’t help matters at all.
My cat is going to get 2 units of insulin, twice a day, plus special diabetic food. It seems that I may have caught this just in the nick of time - he’s lost 4/10 of a pound since last week! Maybe he will be one of the lucky ones whose need for insulin is drastically reduced, or even eliminated, through weight loss and diet control - even in the past week or so, he’s been drinking a lot less water.
I think the part of the whole experience he liked the least was the first shock of cold air when I took the carrier through the front door and onto the sidewalk. He barely even noticed when the vet showed me how to do a practice injection with sterile water - hopefully I can figure out how to be just as gentle. Luckily they don’t think it’s necessary to keep him on-site to regulate his blood sugar, because he doesn’t have any other symptoms or complications.
You get amazingly good at shots. At first I was sticking my fingers half the time in all that fur. But within a couple years I could do him while he was sleeping in the hastas, or while he was under the table, I could do him righty or lefty.
One thing was pretty funny. We know a very nice young man who agreed to house-sit for us on summer vacations, and I went through the whole shot education program with him very carefully, making absolutely certain he understood how to do it and was comfortable with it. Later, I found out he was a rehabilitated heroin addict. He could probably have done it with his toes, blindfolded.
Cats, for the most part, tend to be less annoyed by syringes than dogs in my experience.
That said, there are always the cats that hate having ANYTHING done to them, so there it is.
I wish you the best of luck in managing your pet’s disease. It can be a difficult and sometimes costly process. Insulin is pretty expensive, so if money is a problem I’d start setting aside some savings for possible accidents. Insulin stores best refrigerated and out of direct light, so there may be a time when you leave it out and need to shell out another $100. That sucks, but mistakes happen.
Thankfully for fatso, insulin needles are the smallest there are. I hope your vet gave you a good demo on shots. I have a lot of experience administering shots to cats so if you have any wrangling questions feel free to ask.
Also, stock up on some Karo syrup. Hypoglycemia is just as dangerous as high blood sugar, so have an emergency sugar supply. As your vet for a couple oral syringes to take home for quick administering. NEVER give insulin if your cat doesn’t eat his meal. Call the Dr. first.
Sometimes cats don’t respond to certain insulin types, so be prepared for some time for adjustment and possible medicine changes. PZI, VetSulin, Glargine, etc. are all possible types you may have to try.
Oh and if you can afford it, you can absolutely pick up a blood sugar monitor with strips. At my hospital we use AcuCheck and it’s accompanying strips. If you are comfortable you can always ask your Vet to show you how to do a spot BG at home. An ear flick is often the easiest to do solo. It may save you money on visits to them. We have a few clients who draw their own pets’ blood (it takes a single drop) and often run the all day blood glucose curves on their own pets. They then just send the data to the Vet and she analyzes it for them. But your mileage may vary.
I hope you have a good relationship with a Vet who can help tailor your cat’s care in a way you like.
Well, thanks for the great tips, everyone. I did the first injection tonight, and so far things are going off without a hitch (though I want to know how the hell I am supposed to know if a cat that normally sleeps most of the time is “abnormally lethargic”?). No accidental needle sticks, no kitty panic - like I said, he’s normally a very mellow kitty.
And oh, did I mention that he’s now on special low-carb food? Yes, folks, my cat is essentially now on the Atkins Diet. I think he’s rather enjoying the whole experience - lots of extra attention, plus he’s typically a dry food eater, so the canned food was a special treat for him, even if it’s a special medical diet. (My sister said a friend of hers had a hard time getting her diabetic cat to eat the prescribed food, but no such problems here.) On the down side, I think his combined food and medical budget is going to be approaching mine. (I do cook like a maniac, though, so I have both Karo syrup and honey in the house if needed, plus a 24-hour supermarket a block away.)
I did talk to the vet about the home blood glucose monitor, and he recommended a couple more monitoring visits until my cat stabilizes a bit, with which I am abolutely in agreement. But it would be nice to be able to do checks at home - not only to save money on vet visits, but also because the only time I can make it to the vet when they’re open is on Saturday, and Saturday appointments book up fast. Also, my cat is not terribly fond of being stuffed into his carrier, and he REALLY doesn’t like all the dogs in the waiting room.
I guess something I’ll have to figure out when the time comes is how to handle it if I need to be away from home, even overnight. I don’t exactly have a ton of people I can rely on to shoot up my cat, and until now he’s been fine alone in the house for a coupe of days at a time. It’s one thing to ask a friend to stop by every couple of days, but twice a day, plus hypodermics? I’ve never boarded him, but I might have to think about it.
Check with your vet to see if they have any recommendations for pet sitters. At my hospital we have a few technicians who do pet sitting on the side, and because they have the training they offer medication administering services along with their sitting services. They do this for handicapped and elderly clients as well. It’s a good to know you can leave your cat at home and just have someone come in and take care of him a couple times a day. So definitely inquire at the office.
You can get strips to test urine. But you don’t need to monitor cats the way you do humans and that ear prick thing is awful hard to do (try holding a cat’s ear still, finding the very thin vein in it, and prick it all at the same time with only two hands!!).
That was why I was glad my guy was on pills. He was a little saint about taking them. Because he needed them three times a day, I got a house/pet-sitter which was cheaper in the end than boarding two cats. But indeed having a sick cat sure does change things for you when it comes to travel. I also couldn’t just head out after work and leave him all evening because he needed his pills around dinnertime.
That’s a FABULOUS idea, especially as the vet is a block from my apartment. It would be so easy for someone to just pop by on the way to and/or from work and earn a few extra bucks, and my cat would so rather be in his own home.
