10 month old kitten with diabetes????

confused_cat confused_cat confused_cat confused_cat confused_cat

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here on the board and have a cat at home, that is going OTJ but he is not the topic I need to ask about....

I volunteer at a cat shelter and have several older diabetic kitties under my care, but I just got a call from my shelter manager that we are accepting a 10 month old kitten this weekend who would otherwise be euthanized because he/she is diabetic. This kitten presented to the vet with glucose numbers in the 500's. I haven't ever come across a case of juvenile diabetes in a kitten. Are there any other conditions that could possibly cause these kinds of number in a young cat that we need to watch for???? The kitten will be started on Lantus insulin when he/she arrives at our shelter and given Fancy Feast classic wet only.

Any ideas on what could have caused this? Or what I need to watch for? Thanks for your help

Margaret

The things i can think of are which could result in this diagnosis:

1) poor diet of high carb dry, though many cats tolerate this for years
2) type 1 diabetes - a rare, congenital defect in producing insulin, worsened by poor diet
3) acromegaly or IAAA
4) mismanged insulin dosing resulting in wildly swinging glucose values, tested when high
5) lab/test equipment needing recalibration

Hi and welcome! My 7 month old kitten was just diagnosed a month ago. It's a struggle because so far, I haven't found anything out there on how to deal with kitten diabetics and there are certain quirks going on with him that are most likely due to his young age.

In my kitten's case, he was a malnourished rescue kitten (check out his profile in my link below). This could have certainly contributed to his diabetes. Although I did initially feed him dry food, it was one of the healthiest ones available and I'm highly doubtful he got diabetes after only a few months of eating it. Of course, he should have been on wet food to begin with, but at the time I wasn't as educated about pet food as I've now become. He also had gotten fixed shortly before he started showing signs of his diabetes. It could be unrelated, it could have been the stress-inducer that brought it on, it could have been the anesthesia, who really knows. At this point, for me it's no longer a matter of what could have initially caused it but of what I can do to fix it.

Where are you located? Is the cat in need of a home? I might be willing to take it in if it's feasible. After all, I'm pretty sure I'm the only other person in the world with a diabetic kitten. :lol:

KPassa said:

Where are you located? Is the cat in need of a home? I might be willing to take it in if it's feasible. After all, I'm pretty sure I'm the only other person in the world with a diabetic kitten. :lol:

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Careful, someone might just take you up on that offer! nailbite_smile

Diabetic cats have found new homes on this forum and some have been transported - in relays - across country to their new homes! :smile:

Hi There,

The kitten is in Maine! I was advised on another forum to have the kitten also tested for Cushings Disease. The kitten is arriving at the shelter today or tomorrow and I will be in to meet the kitten on Tuesday. The kitten is being started on insulin and a wet food diet. The vet where the kitten was diagnosed called us in the hopes we would take the kitten as the owners wanted to euthanize it. I will check glucose on Tuesday when I go in to see how the kitten is responding (the diagnosis glucose numbers being in the 500's) . This kitten will be going to the shelter's vet to determine if any other conditions are contributing factors to the juvenile diabetes.

We will certainly be looking for a home for this kitten once the kitten's condition stabilizes so I will definitely keep everyone posted! Thanks for everyone's input!

Margaret

One other contributing factor that I've seen in all the other (3) kitten diabetic cases I've dug up online is that it could have been from corticosteroid use. If that's the cause, the outcome has been eventual remissions in all three of the cases. In Mikey's case, he never took steroids and he has no other medical issues besides the diabetes, so again, who knows?

Elizabeth and Bertie said:

Careful, someone might just take you up on that offer! nailbite_smile

Diabetic cats have found new homes on this forum and some have been transported - in relays - across country to their new homes! :smile:

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That is incredible to hear and makes this actually potentially feasible. One small problem, I live in Southern California so that would be quite a trek literally diagonally across country :lol:

But yes, I would be honored to take this kitten in and would love to have a new addition to our family. Mikey is already on Lantus as well and I have the resources and experience from already having one diabetic kitten and the quirks that go along with it, so why not make it two? ;-) Not only that, it would be beneficial if Mikey had a friend and since they're both still so young, I have a feeling they'd get along better than an older cat might.

I opened this thread because yesterday I was asked to consult with a woman in Massachusetts who has a kitten that was recently diagnosed with diabetes. I don't have any details yet, but will be following this thread closely.

If it is a genetic issue, how did the kitten live to be 6 - 10 months old? Just wondering!!

Claudia

I've wondered how even a few year old cat develops diabetes too if there's no meds given to cause it. KT was just barely 8 years old, the only meds he'd EVER taken was 2-3 rounds of ab's over his lifetime. He DID eat both wet and dry food but so did the rest of this crew - only KT developed diabetes. I'm fairly certain that KT lived with it for quite a few months before he actually went downhill enough for us to notice. I'd actually seen signs for well over a year and didn't know they were 'signs'. So if he can live that long with it and without treatment, couldn't a kitten do the same? KT actually drank HUGE amounts of water and peed HUGE amounts even when he was a young kitten. Did he have it then and lived for 8 years without treatment?

I'm watching this thread/info closely too....very interested!

cjleo said:

If it is a genetic issue, how did the kitten live to be 6 - 10 months old? Just wondering!!

Claudia

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Hypothetically, the way I understand it, since kittens are still growing, their bodies require more and more insulin. Eventually, they reach the threshold where their bodies aren't producing enough insulin for the increased amount of calories/sugar their system is using and that's when the diabetes presents itself. There are a couple of other scenarios, like they might have the same genetic defect as the older adult cats who end up with diabetes later in life, however theirs presents much earlier. They could have a partially working pancreas that will sporadically work to keep them going. There's also speculation on whether it can be caused by a virus from the mother (like HSV-1) that lies dormant.

One of the reasons it took two weeks to "officially" diagnosis Mikey was because the vet wanted to rule out possible infections or inflammations causing a temporary prolonged spike visible on fructosamine tests, so that could be another cause. He also checked for signs of an under-developed pancreas. I have no idea how this is checked (X-ray, maybe?), but Mikey's seemed to be normal.

My vet had never seen a diabetic kitten in all the years of his practice until Michelangelo and had to consult with a Specialist. The Specialist had also never seen a diabetic kitten. Biggest problem with all these theories is that there just aren't enough kittens out there to research. Unfortunately, I have the very sad feeling that the reason why there don't seem to be more diabetic kittens (aside from them being rare to begin with) is because most of the time, their owners just euthanize them. :cry:

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My vet had never seen a diabetic kitten in all the years of his practice until Michelangelo and had to consult with a Specialist. The Specialist had also never seen a diabetic kitten. Biggest problem with all these theories is that there just aren't enough kittens out there to research. Unfortunately, I have the very sad feeling that the reason why there don't seem to be more diabetic kittens (aside from them being rare to begin with) is because most of the time, their owners just euthanize them. :cry:[/quote]


Well, that was going to happen to this kitten too... if we didn't take the kitten, the owner wanted to have it euthanized. Our shelter is no kill and we will try to do what we can to save this kitten. I will be updating as we know more. I spoke with my day manager about possible issues and will be letting you know as i know. Right now the important thing is to get this little one stabilized.... and YES! once the kitten is ready for a home, I will post that and advise where you can apply for the kitten! Thanks for your interest everyone!

Margaret

cjleo said:

If it is a genetic issue, how did the kitten live to be 6 - 10 months old? Just wondering!!
Claudia

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I would assume these kittens are type 1 diabetics. In human type 1 diabetes, the person's own body has destroyed the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Type 1 diabetics do not produce insulin. In the majority of cases this type of diabetes appears before the patient is 40 years old. That is why this type of diabetes is also known as Juvenile Diabetes or Childhood Diabetes. Diabetes Type 1 onset can appear after the age of 40, but it is extremely rare. About 15 per cent of all diabetes patients have Type 1.

So, the kittens probably have a defect, genetic or anatomically, that prevents them from producing insulin making them type 1 diabetics.

I also want to point out the with humans, you can eat a healthy diet, carry no extra weight and still be a type 2 diabetic. My SIL's father was diabetic, even though he was a skinny healthy eater. Her sister also has diabetes. So when my skinny SIL was diagnosed, it was not a surprise. The doctor agreed she was genetically predisposed. Maybe they will identify the genetic marker someday.

Magyarlany said:

I spoke with my day manager about possible issues and will be letting you know as i know. Right now the important thing is to get this little one stabilized.... and YES! once the kitten is ready for a home, I will post that and advise where you can apply for the kitten! Thanks for your interest everyone!

Margaret

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Please let me know about the kitten! I already discussed it with my roommates about bringing another cat in the house and they're fine with it.

Some other issues to be aware of is that he/she might have fluctuating insulin needs and food needs because he's growing. I've noticed with Mikey that his insulin dose was at first too high so I lowered it a bit. Around that same time, he started eating more and finally started gaining some weight and growing more in the last couple of weeks after remaining ~4.5 pounds for the past 3 months. I then had to bring his insulin level back up and I might still have to bring it even higher than what we started out with. I'm hypothesizing that his little growing spurt affected his insulin needs, but there's no real evidence or precedence to confirm this. Since your kitten is a bit older than mine and possibly depending on when its particular breed reaches maturity, this might not be as much of an issue.

Maggies Mom Debby said:

I would assume these kittens are type 1 diabetics. In human type 1 diabetes, the person's own body has destroyed the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Type 1 diabetics do not produce insulin. In the majority of cases this type of diabetes appears before the patient is 40 years old. That is why this type of diabetes is also known as Juvenile Diabetes or Childhood Diabetes. Diabetes Type 1 onset can appear after the age of 40, but it is extremely rare. About 15 per cent of all diabetes patients have Type 1.

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Yes, this is what my vet told me: more than likely, Mikey had Type 1, however it's also possible to have Type 2 at an early age without being overweight. Also, something I've been reading is the difference between cats and humans is a much higher prevalence of Type 1 diabetes in cats, however, it's a much later in life onset than with humans. I think that it's probably more likely that all cats "have" Type 1 diabetes; because their bodies are such proficient meat-eating machines, their pancreas has evolved to produce only X amount of insulin since that's all that should be necessary in an obligate carnivore's diet. When their diet is not ideal, it makes sense that their pancreas won't be able to cope. This is all speculation on my part, of course, so don't take my word as gospel by any means. :lol:

Hi, I am a newbie too. My cat Steve , who is now 2 1/2, was diagnosed at ten months with diabetes. After 3 mths of diet changes and tight control he went into remission. Recently I noticed he seemed a bit off. Brought him to vet yesterday, sure enough 335. Of course, end of office hours, with no way to contact my vet until Monday, I am questioning the course my vet has laid out. I have read many posts and sites. Don't know how to test at home which would be a godsend. Don't want to crash him. .

Hi Margaret!

Just wanted to follow up with you and see what else you may have found out today about the poor little diabetic kitten. How's he/she doing since the weekend?

Hi Everyone!

I met the kitten yesterday! She is an adorable, sweet and loving little black kitten named Bella!

After changing her diet to Fancy Feast classics only and 1 unit of insulin BID, her glucose is already down to 198! Yey!

She still needs to see our vet to see if she has any other underlying conditions to watch for, but it seems that hopefully she will stabilize! I will continue to update as I know more!

I will try to get a picture next week!

Margaret

Excellent news about Bella the kitten! :smile:

That's wonderful news to hear! It sounds like she might already be on her way to OTJ! This makes me wonder if perhaps her diabetes is being caused by some sort of infection? I'm not sure exactly what, but that's one of the things my vet initially suspected in Michelangelo's case because of his age and so he was on Clavamox in the beginning (also to treat his UTI). Alas, his BG numbers never dropped even after the infection cleared up, but maybe with this kitty, it could be the cause?