Persistent Wobbly Gate

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Matt & Tabs

Matt & Tabs

Member Since 2023
We have a 13 year old male tabby with diabetes. He’s a rescue and he’s been with us for 18 months or so….. We recently put him in a local cattery for the first time for 3 nights. The cattery is question claimed they knew how to deal with diabetic cats, it was even on their website……

Whilst he was there, he became wobbly on his feet and wouldn’t eat, this persisted so they gave him honey assuming his glucose levels were low. When this persisted, they took him to our vet who was able to confirmed that his blood glucose levels in fact were so high that they were off the charts! The vet then administered treatment and returned him back the cattery owner who then returned Tabs to the cattery. We collected Tabs, it was then that they informed us of the situation…. We took Tabs home and monitored him through the night.

The following morning, he was no better so we took him back to the vet. They then admitted him and put him on IV fluids and kept him in for a further 2 nights to stabilise his glucose levels…… His glucose levels are now stable and in the right region again of where they should be but he is still very unstable and wobbly on his legs…

Has anyone else experienced anything like this and if so, should we expect Tabs to make a full recovery and return to ‘normal’ or should we expect his wobbly and unstable condition to continue?
 
Do you happen to know what your Tab's blood glucose levels have been? I'm wondering whether what you are seeing is diabetic neuropathy. If his levels have not been in normal range, over time, neuropathy can develop. If this is the case, it's reversible. Your cat would need to be in lower numbers and adding a form of vitamin B12 will help. You specifically need to add methylcobalamin (methyl-B12).

Just to be safe, I'd suggest testing for ketones. You can test at home using urine test strips or if you're taking your cat in for a vet appointment, the vet can do a blood test.
 
If the cattery claims to know how to care for diabetic cats they should have kept accurate records. What time the readings were done, the actual numbers, how much and what he ate etc. They cannot just give him a blob of honey and hope for the best. You don't need to be confrontational but it sounds like you're paying for someone else's ineptitude. I'd start by getting a screen shot of the website where that claim was made, asking for his records while he was there and what qualifications the person who did this has.
We've been very lucky that in the 15 years we've had two diabetic cats only once did we board one and that was at our vet's clinic. He was old enough and had so many other problems I actually wrote a DNR for him. Caring properly for a diabetic cat is a medical procedure, it's not giving kitty a pill. They could have easily killed him. A two night stay at the vet with IV fluids can be a mortgage payment for some people. Someone, and it's not you, made a big mistake. Let us know how it goes.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Do you happen to know what your Tab's blood glucose levels have been? I'm wondering whether what you are seeing is diabetic neuropathy. If his levels have not been in normal range, over time, neuropathy can develop. If this is the case, it's reversible. Your cat would need to be in lower numbers and adding a form of vitamin B12 will help. You specifically need to add methylcobalamin (methyl-B12).

Just to be safe, I'd suggest testing for ketones. You can test at home using urine test strips or if you're taking your cat in for a vet appointment, the vet can do a blood test.
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We was hospitalised for 3 days after returning from the cattery and his glucose levels were stabilised there and have remained stable since we had him home from the vets.
We have Cobalaplex at home anyway, which has (Cyanocobalanin B12) in it…… Can this be ok until we can find the methyl cobalamin?
 
We use normal range as 50 - 120 mg/dL.

I'm assuming you're outside of the US and using mmol/L measurement. 12 - 17 mmol/L would be 216 - 306 mg/dL. If 15.5 is around where your cat's blood glucose typically sits, that's comparable to 279 using our measurement system. That increases the probability that your cat's blood glucose is higher than desirable and neuropathy is a possibility.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
We use normal range as 50 - 120 mg/dL.

I'm assuming you're outside of the US and using mmol/L measurement. 12 - 17 mmol/L would be 216 - 306 mg/dL. If 15.5 is around where your cat's blood glucose typically sits, that's comparable to 279 using our measurement system. That increases the probability that your cat's blood glucose is higher than desirable and neuropathy is a possibility.
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Hi, we’re in the UK. We’ve been informed by our vet that those values are within the expected range…. We’re using mmol/L.
 
Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA) said:
Are you home testing or do you have the libre? I’m not sure what those values are but normal range on a human meter is 70-120.
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Hi, we’re home testing now he’s back from the vets….. We took his readings earlier today and they appear to be within the tolerances of what we’ve been told are ‘normal’. It’s heartbreaking to see him like this…. He’s never been the most active of cats anyway but, this is killing us seeing him like this. So angry with the cattery!!!!! We’ve made some enquiries with our vet to have a libre fitted as he was due to have a glucose curve test this week anyway….. Probably better to have the libre fitted and have a longer study of results than just over a 8 or 9 hour period for a curve study.
 
I think what we are trying to say is that even though your vet told you that’s within the normal range, it actually isn’t. This is info easily googled if you don’t want to take our word for it over your vet’s, which I can understand. Unfortunately most vets do not know a lot about feline diabetes….they have many animals to look after and they all have different diseases and treatments.

Minnie had served neuropathy to the point that she couldn’t jump or even make it in and out of the litter box. Once I found this forum and followed the advice from the experienced members here, I was finally able to get her diabetes regulated and she recovered about 95% from the neuropathy. She was able to jump, run and go up and down the stairs.

if you want to set up your signature and a spreadsheet, we can help you. What are you feeding her right now?

Here is a link helping us to help you link. If you noticed, our members have some basic information about their cat's in their signature. This helps us to not pester you by asking the same questions (your cat's name, insulin type, date of diagnosis, etc.) repeatedly. We also have a link to our spreadsheet in our signature. We are very numbers driven. The spreadsheet is a record of your cat's progress. By linking it in your signature, we can follow along and provide feedback should you need the help.
 
We do recommend home testing. The numbers you get at the vet are influenced by stress and yes, spot checks or a curve here and there do not give you the full picture.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Do you happen to know what your Tab's blood glucose levels have been? I'm wondering whether what you are seeing is diabetic neuropathy. If his levels have not been in normal range, over time, neuropathy can develop. If this is the case, it's reversible. Your cat would need to be in lower numbers and adding a form of vitamin B12 will help. You specifically need to add methylcobalamin (methyl-B12).

Just to be safe, I'd suggest testing for ketones. You can test at home using urine test strips or if you're taking your cat in for a vet appointment, the vet can do a blood test.
Click to expand...
I’ve now been able to find a supply of Methylcobalamin B12 on-line and I’m happy to start administering it to Tabs. What sort of dosage would you recommend per day to begin with? We already have a product called Cobalaplex at home for him which contains B12 but it’s not the Methylcobalamin B12 you mentioned here above…..
 
Just so you know, you’ll only start to see an improvement with the b12 methyl once your cat is regulated. The b12 methyl will help once the excess sugar stops damaging the nerves. Until then, you’ll likely not see any improvements and the neuropathy may actually progress
 
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