New Member. Diabetes & Neuropathy in all 4 Paws

[Daria]

Hi All,
Im new to this group, and am not technologically savvy, so my apologies.
My 12yo Male Neutered Cat was always extremely energetic ..until the end of this past July. I thought he was drinking & urinating more because it's been so beyond hot. August 4th, he used the litter box, and when he came out he was hunched over like a cartoon drawing. I immediately took him to the Animal Urgent care, and they diagnosed him with pancreatitis and diabetes. Come that monday, I took him to the veterinarian. They started him on Glargine insulin injection, twice a day. Suggested I change his food to Hills MD wet and dry. Took him a long time to transition from Royal Canin digestive care wet food to the hills MD wet food: but he's doing okay now with eating Hills MD wet: still won't eat the Hills MD dry. He still eats the Royal Canin dry digestive care. My biggest concern and heartache is that he has *extremely* bad diabetic neuropathy. He still walks with a curved back, and on his elbows. He's been on Glargine for the past almost 1 month, with no improvement in Neuropathy. Is there anything I can do to ease his pain from neuropathy? Either with food/ B12 injection, absolutely anything? This past month has been extremely hard for both of us. I don't wish to continue him with insulin injections and veterinarian visits for blood glucose curve if he's not improving. I would rather him have a good quality of life, instead of quantity. Any help would be welcome, since I am absolutely exhausted and I'm sure he is as well. As

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I’m sorry you and your kitty have had a hard time. The short answer is there is a lot we can help you with and hopefully improve the quality of your kitty’s life.
First of all you are using an excellent insulin for cats. Can you tell us the dose you are giving him please?
With the food, there is no need to be feeding expensive prescription foods. I will give you a link to low carb canned food which can be bought at the pet store or supermarket and is much cheaper and just as good. There is nothing special about prescription foods. Look for foods that are 10% or under carbs. Most of us feed 4 to 7% carbs. M/D dry is 18% carbs so is high carb. A lot of us feed the fancy Feast pates which are low carb but there are others to choose from as well.
Food Link
With the neuropathy you can buy Zobaline from lifelink.com which is a tablet made specifically for cats with diabetic neuropathy. YOu cant buy it from vets. Also getting the blood glucose (BG) more under control also helps with that. My Sheba had very bad neuropathy but with the zobaline and getting the BGs more under control she eventually got back to normal. The improvements don start straight away but they will happen.

Would you consider doing home testing of the BG ? Most of us do it here. It isn't scary and your kitty wont hate you. It is the fasted and safest way to get the BGs under control and much cheaper and less stressful than constant vet visits. We can also help you with dosing advice. It will soon become routine. Here is one of our members testing his kitty

And here is a link to useful information for new members HELP US HELP YOU
Keep asking lots of questions. We are here to help and support you

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Poor baby
Welcome to the best group you could have found
If it wasn't for the experienced members here and giving me their advice Tyler would not be in remission since 1-24-21
the Hills M/D wet is 13% carbs too high for a diabetic cat
The Royal Canin dry is 35% carbs
Once you get his BG under control the neuropathy should get better
Bron has given you lots of information and links for low carb wet foods

There is no reason to take him to the vet for curves ,you can start to home test him yourself
I can give you some suggestions on meters to buy just ask

Zobaline is good but it's expensive for just 60 tablets
A member told me about the Vitacost Brand Methyl B-12 , I'll give you the link at the end of this post

Tyler had bad neuropathy and after about 1-1/2 months he was back to normal after I got his BG under control. I started to see an improvement every 2 weeks
For the neuropathy
You can order this Methyl B-12 . I have used it for years and a lot of other members use this Methyl B-12 , just open up the capsule mix it in with the wet food add some water, it's tasteless.

The Zobaline is too expensive

https://www.vitacost.com/vitacost-vitamin-b-12-methylcobalamin-5000-mcg-100-capsules-6
14.49 for 100 capsules
Give one a day

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Always aim for the sweet spot warm the ears up first, you can put rice in a sock and put it in the microwave, test it on the inside of your wrist to be sure it's not to hot, like you would test a babies bottle. You can fill a pill bottle with warm water and roll it on the ears also.Just keep rubbing the ears with your fingers to warm them up

6. As the ears get used to bleeding and grow more capilares, it gets easier to get the amount of blood you need on the first try. If he won’t stand still, you can get the blood onto a clean finger nail and test from there.
When you do get some blood you can try milking the ear.
Get you finger and gently push up toward the blood , more will appear
You will put the cotton round behind his ear in case you poke your finger, after you are done testing you will fold the cotton round over his ear to stop the bleeding , press gently for about 10 or 20 seconds until it stops
Get 26 or 28 gauge lancets
A lot of us use the lancets to test freehand not the lancing device
I find it better to see where I'm aiming
Look at the lancet under a light and you will see one side is curved upward, that's the side you want to poke with
Here is a video one of our members made testing her kitty
She's using a pet meter that has to be coded ,with a human meter you don't have to code it.
I have always used a human meter
VIDEO: How to test your cat's blood sugar


Just keep asking questions and if you can read the link Bron gave you in blue Help Us Help You that would be great
It's information we need about your kitty which we call our signature, it's in gray at the end of everyone's posts. Plus it talks about the spreadsheet we all use to record our cats BG numbers and how to set it up and explains how to use it
Not hard at all

You might want to read all the yellow stickys here about Lantus /
Glargine
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/lantus-levemir-biosimilars.9/

 

[Hendrick Cuddleclaw]

Would you consider doing home testing of the BG ? Most of us do it here. It isn't scary and your kitty wont hate you. It is the fasted and safest way to get the BGs under control and much cheaper and less stressful than constant vet visits. We can also help you with dosing advice. It will soon become routine. Here is one of our members testing his kitty