New here-question about depressed diabetic cat

[Striffy’s Momma]

My cat was diagnosed with diabetes 4 days ago and in the hospital for 3 of those days. She is 17 and her blood work has been good with the exception of the glucose number. She started Prozinc and her glucose number was 118 today. She has been depressed since becoming ill and continues to be depressed. She is still loving, purring and eating. The vet suggested that something else could be wrong, such as cancer. That is definitely a possibility but she also said it would probably cost thousands to visit a specialist to find out and that in itself would not help her quality of life. She has suggested euthanasia. My question is, does a newly diagnosed cat snap back to its old self with a few doses of insulin? Or is this something that takes time? I do trust my vet as she knows a lot more about animals…but I really think my cat is very sensitive, too. Just riding in the car, being sick and staying in the hospital had to be very traumatic for her. Thank you for reading.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

This is a complicated question with a complicated answer or even many possible answers. First of all, a common phrase we have here is ECID (every cat is different).

Is there a reason your cat was in the hospital for three days? Was another condition like DKA also diagnosed? or pancreatitis? Typically newly diagnosed cats are treated at home unless there is another condition. Many of us also don't know how long our cat's have been diabetic. If diabetic for a while, then their bodies are used to higher blood sugar numbers, and starting insulin may make them feel off. Or like you said, there could be another condition causing them to feel off, not necessarily cancer. Did the vet say why cancer was a possibility? Diabetes is a very treatable condition.

With a number like 118, I'm a little worried about your cat being on too high a dose. Can you tell us what insulin she's on, what the insulin dose is, and what food you are feeding her?

This post is a good intro post and let's you know what sort of information we need to know to help you: New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

 

[Striffy’s Momma]

She had blood work 3 months ago and had slightly elevated glucose. Vet said it was probably from stress. Then, a couple of weeks ago I took her to the emergency vet because I was pretty sure she had grass in her trachea. That vet said she was dehydrated because of the skin on her neck and suggested she had gastroenteritis. She also said there was no grass in the trachea, even though my cat’s meow was completely different and very high pitched. Two days later my cat expelled the grass but still seemed a bit off. Then she started to have issues with her hind end and I noticed she was not squatting in the cat box. I tried to go back to the original vet but they were full and said to come next week. My cat stopped eating for the most part and I knew I couldn’t wait that long. New vet said to drop her off and they would examine her. Within about 2 hours they called and said she had diabetes and they wanted to keep her overnight to monitor her. They said no ketoacidosis but if I had waited to see original vet she would have died by the weekend. The next day they said her glucose was coming down but her level was 300 and they wanted it at 200 and this was the day they were doing the glucose curve. Still depressed so they wanted to monitor her another night. She came home for a day and a half then had a follow up appointment and they asked to keep her again because they felt something wasn’t right. Took x-rays, all clear and glucose at 118. She is on Prozinc 1.5 units and Purina DM wet and dry. She is also on Mirataz to stimulate her appetite. She’s still drinking water like crazy. I did not give insulin tonight because she didn’t eat a lot and the vet said not to since her number was low. I didn’t even know about feline diabetes until 5 days ago.
All of her blood work was normal except slightly elevated white blood cells. I guess that’s why they jumped to cancer…I really don’t know.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

How's it going? Any update? Is she home yet? If she's nausea, you might want to see if you can get a prescription for ondansetron. It's good to give nausea medication before giving an appetite stimulant like Mirataz.

Most of us knew nothing about diabetes before joining here. There's a lot to learn, but we can help. Elevated white blood cells can also mean infection.

 

[Striffy’s Momma]

Thank you for the information, Wendy. She is home and it's been rocky. The vet said to give her insulin when she would eat, so it was hit or miss. I finally got a glucose meter Saturday evening and have been pretty shocked at the numbers. She is eating better so I've been able to give her insulin regularly since Saturday night. Unfortunately, I think that first evening shot went right through her fur. Yesterday went well, and today was good, too. I'm happy to get her on a schedule and know where her numbers are. The problem is, the numbers are so high! Also, since she is super picky and her teeth hurt the food I have for her is high carb. We have tried so many foods to get one to stick. I am determined to not fail at this but it is super stressful.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

A lot of our cats (including mine) are super high to start. High carb food will also make her numbers higher. What are you feeding now? Wondering if we can suggest an alternative if you tell us the kind of things she likes/will eat.

If you do a fur shot, you can note it in the units column. I used to do something like 1.5FS, so show that I intended to do 1.5, but did a fur shot, so not sure how much got in.

Any chance of getting a test sometime in the middle of the day between the shots? We determine how to change the dose based on how low the cat goes, and that's usually somewhere in the middle between the shots. Some cats can really drop in the middle, then shoot back up again by the next shot time.

 

[Striffy’s Momma]

This morning she loved the Fancy Feast savory salmon pate. I have a few cans of that so I’ll try to continue with it. She really likes the gravy lovers but I see that’s in the hypo toolbox so I will keep those just in case and steer her in another direction. She will like a type or flavor of food for a little while and then stop eating it. The good news is that I haven’t given her Mirataz in a few days and she’s still eating.
The food I have in my inventory right now is Gravy Lovers turkey, FF pate salmon, FF broths, Evolve grain free turkey, Sheba pate salmon, Meow Mix tasty layers, Beechnut baby, Blue pate chicken and a couple of Tiki Cat mousses. For treats we have Churo tuna, Churo chicken and tuna squeeze ups (Temptations?). She eats Purina DM dry food during the day.
Now that I’m getting the hang of testing her I would definitely like to get more readings throughout the day. I will plan to do that this weekend. We are taking this day by day but I am very hopeful!
Can you tell me what SLGS and TR means? I cannot find the definitions anywhere. Thank you!

 

[Wendy&Neko]

SLGS and TR are names of two dosing methods used here. TR (Tight regulation) is only appropriate for Lantus and Levemir insulins. SLGS is Start Low Go Slow and described here for Prozinc: PROZINC DOSING METHODS

 

[Stefania S]

This is a complicated question with a complicated answer or even many possible answers. First of all, a common phrase we have here is ECID (every cat is different).

Is there a reason your cat was in the hospital for three days? Was another condition like DKA also diagnosed? or pancreatitis? Typically newly diagnosed cats are treated at home unless there is another condition. Many of us also don't know how long our cat's have been diabetic. If diabetic for a while, then their bodies are used to higher blood sugar numbers, and starting insulin may make them feel off. Or like you said, there could be another condition causing them to feel off, not necessarily cancer. Did the vet say why cancer was a possibility? Diabetes is a very treatable condition.

With a number like 118, I'm a little worried about your cat being on too high a dose. Can you tell us what insulin she's on, what the insulin dose is, and what food you are feeding her?

This post is a good intro post and let's you know what sort of information we need to know to help you: New? How You Can Help Us Help You!

@Wendy&Neko could you talk more about this feeling off, or low, from the insulin. I have noticed that as well with Jessi. I expected to see much more energy and activity, and while there are moments of this, more often she does have a down look, sleeps a lot, and right after injections kind of conks out.

If not on this thread, so as to not take up space or attention away from @Striffy’s Momma, in another thread could you go into more about this effect and how long it could take to see more energy and vitality in them? Also, how does the insulin interact with other conditions? Can it aggravate them? Jessi has some kind of skin anomaly that I haven’t yet investigated and I have been concerned that the acidity of the insulin could make it worse. It sometimes seems that way.

If this comment doesn’t belong here, I apologize, I’m still learning all the etiquette and guidelines so just tell me where we could talk more about this.

Thanks

 

[Striffy’s Momma]

@Wendy&Neko could you talk more about this feeling off, or low, from the insulin. I have noticed that as well with Jessi. I expected to see much more energy and activity, and while there are moments of this, more often she does have a down look, sleeps a lot, and right after injections kind of conks out.

If not on this thread, so as to not take up space or attention away from @Striffy’s Momma, in another thread could you go into more about this effect and how long it could take to see more energy and vitality in them? Also, how does the insulin interact with other conditions? Can it aggravate them? Jessi has some kind of skin anomaly that I haven’t yet investigated and I have been concerned that the acidity of the insulin could make it worse. It sometimes seems that way.

If this comment doesn’t belong here, I apologize, I’m still learning all the etiquette and guidelines so just tell me where we could talk more about this.

Thanks

These are great questions! I have seen more of my cat’s personality come back just in the past couple of days but on the other hand, I am having the same experience as you. She is pretty low feeling after eating and getting her injection. Thank you for posting in this thread.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Few of us really know how long our cats were diabetic before being diagnosed. That can mean that they've been in higher blood sugar numbers for a while, and gotten used to it. I like to compare high blood sugar to coffee/caffeine. Some people really like to drink lots of coffee, and feel awful the first times they go without or reduced amounts. Over time, they get used to lower numbers. In Neko's early days, she was playful in low 300's, so that was her happy zone. Eventually she felt horrible in those numbers and best in the 80-120 range. First time Neko saw green, she hid under the bed. How long it takes depends on the cat, what numbers they are used to and how long it takes to get them into and used to lower numbers.

@Stefania S You should start a new thread about the skin anomaly, as that may be unique to Jessi.

 

[Stefania S]

This is super useful information to know, thanks @Wendy&Neko . Whatever you can share about this transition process is so helpful. It never occurred to me that lower blood glucose good feel yucky to a cat that has had high BGs for a while. Jessi has probably had undiagnosed diabetes her whole life, so I can imagine that is definitely her case, and judging by her demeanor. I would gladly start a new thread about the skin thing but because I still am trying to understand the restrictions on thread posting, I better wait. I understood I wasn’t supposed to have more than one thread at a time going and since getting info on dosings and everything related to that is top priority, I better keep to that for now. I also don’t have a diagnosis on the skin disorder yet so, I could only speak from direct observation rather than clinically. I just wanted to know if there are conditions and diseases that can be aggravated by the insulin shots, as far as you or others know. Both of these topics are so important: the transition period, and the effects of insulin on other conditions. They each could have their own thread or even a page with info couldn’t they?

 

[Wendy&Neko]

@Stefania S No limits to thread posting on the Feline Health forum. The only suggestion we have is that you don't let one thread get too long. So go ahead and start a new one with a title that might attract people who know about skin issues.