? 5 yr old cat diagnosed with diabetes, 1 day before my due date

Status
Not open for further replies.
Three Cats & a Baby

Three Cats & a Baby

Member Since 2022
My cat Phoebe just got diagnosed, and I'm just feeling overwhelmed and confused. She's 5 years old, ideal weight, 100% indoor cat, and in good health, so I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that there's really something wrong.

On top of that, my vet just wrote me a prescription for insulin and wants us to get started right away (like, today). And normally that would be ok, but I'm about to give birth! My due date is tomorrow, and so I don't know exactly when, but at some point in the next few days, I'll be heading off to the hospital for about 36-48 hours. We have people scheduled to stop by and feed the cats twice a day while we're gone, but the idea of starting insulin and then having to suddenly leave is so stressful. And there's no way Phoebe will let a stranger give her a shot. So we would be starting insulin, stopping for about two days (potentially longer if there are any complications with the birth), and then starting again (which the vet said was preferable to waiting until after we're back from the birth). I know it's crazy, but I'm tempted to go to the hospital by myself and have my husband stay home with the cats.

As for the diagnosis itself, I'm still struggling to feel confident about it. For some background, in May, Phoebe had a really bad UTI, and was put on antibiotics for about 2 weeks. When we brought her in to the vet for the UTI, none of her tests showed anything weird with her blood sugar. Then, about 2.5 weeks ago, she ate some ribbon (a couple of 2-3 inch pieces) off of a baby present someone sent us, and then threw up for several hours. We took her to the emergency vet to test for a blockage. They didn't find any blockage (apparently she threw it all up) but they said her blood sugar was high and her liver numbers were off. They did an ultrasound and said there was nothing visibly wrong with her liver. They let us take her home, but said to run bloodwork again with her regular vet in a couple of weeks. After getting home from the ER vet, she was a little hungrier than usual for a week or so, otherwise her appetite/thirst has seemed pretty normal.

So, this week we took her to the regular vet to follow up. The vet said her blood sugar is still over 300, and the urine test shows that it's been elevated over the last two weeks. Her liver numbers are also still elevated. He also noted that her weight has been consistent since her May visit (10.5 lbs) and that her urine was normal concentration, both of which he said were unusual for a diabetic.

So, I'm also wondering, does anyone think there could be something else to do with her recent medical history that would cause these elevated blood sugar levels? Something other than diabetes? It just feels like so much has happened all at once with an otherwise healthy cat.

Or, any thoughts about starting insulin when we know we're about to be gone for a couple of days? I don't really know what I'm looking for, I'm just worried and overwhelmed. Thank you for reading!
 
I'm sorry for the terrible timing! My cat was originally diagnosed when I was in the dreaded first trimester and that was hard, can't imagine what you're going through. If you can manage to get your hands on ketostix (or some other brand) to test her urine for ketones that would help you know if you can hold off. If her urine is free of ketones you can likely hold off (there are people far more knowledgeable than me who will chime in here).

In the meantime, what food are you feeding her? If you're giving her any dry food and the ketone test is clear, I'd suggest switching to an all low-carb wet food diet immediately (but don't do this if you do start insulin asap, only do it without insulin!). There is some chance (I don't know how high) that her BG could go back to normal levels after removing all carbs from her diet. If it doesn't fully regulate it, it's still beneficial as she'd likely need less insulin than she would have had you kept her on a carby diet. The wet food I use is fancy feast chicken pate (pink can). Not a fun thing to switch to while enduring 1st trimester nausea :)

Hope this helps and good luck with both babies!
 
I would see if any of the vets ran a fructosamine test. It will give you an average blood glucose reading over several weeks -- it's a test that's similar to a hemoglobin A1c that's used to diagnose diabetes in humans. Blood glucose levels can be artificially elevated due to the stress of illness or being at the vet's office. Likewise, a lower carbohydrate food, depending on what you're feeding your cat may help. And the food doesn't have to be zero carbs. Most people here use a food that's around 5% carb -- we consider under 10% to be low carb.
 
Liver numbers go up and down and unless more than double the high norm taken at least a month apart mean nothing, especially if no symptoms. Don’t do anything until after you are home with the baby. Then see if her diet is high carb and try and get her to eat a low carb canned food under 10% in carbs. Try not to worry. The high glucose was stress induced and she might be just fine. I wish you an easy delivery and congratulations!
 
picklesmom said:
I'm sorry for the terrible timing! My cat was originally diagnosed when I was in the dreaded first trimester and that was hard, can't imagine what you're going through. If you can manage to get your hands on ketostix (or some other brand) to test her urine for ketones that would help you know if you can hold off. If her urine is free of ketones you can likely hold off (there are people far more knowledgeable than me who will chime in here).

In the meantime, what food are you feeding her? If you're giving her any dry food and the ketone test is clear, I'd suggest switching to an all low-carb wet food diet immediately (but don't do this if you do start insulin asap, only do it without insulin!). There is some chance (I don't know how high) that her BG could go back to normal levels after removing all carbs from her diet. If it doesn't fully regulate it, it's still beneficial as she'd likely need less insulin than she would have had you kept her on a carby diet. The wet food I use is fancy feast chicken pate (pink can). Not a fun thing to switch to while enduring 1st trimester nausea :)

Hope this helps and good luck with both babies!
Click to expand...

We've been feeding her this. It markets itself as being grain free and high protein, but looking at the numbers, I guess it's like 35% carbs? Today I bought some grain free chicken pate wet food.

I'll try to find some keytone testers. Thanks for sharing your story! Pregnancy is just the worst time to have something like this to worry about!
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
I would see if any of the vets ran a fructosamine test. It will give you an average blood glucose reading over several weeks -- it's a test that's similar to a hemoglobin A1c that's used to diagnose diabetes in humans. Blood glucose levels can be artificially elevated due to the stress of illness or being at the vet's office. Likewise, a lower carbohydrate food, depending on what you're feeding your cat may help. And the food doesn't have to be zero carbs. Most people here use a food that's around 5% carb -- we consider under 10% to be low carb.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yes, they ran the fructosamine test too, which is why the vet said he felt comfortable with the diagnosis, even though some of the other signs aren't there. We normally feed her this, and none of the blood work was done fasting. Looking into the details of what's in the kibble (blueberries, pumpkin...) I wonder if the food could be the cause of the high blood sugar. We feed it to all three of our cats.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top