21 y.o Manx Diagnosed with Diabetes

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mattman

Member Since 2013
Hey everyone, got the news this morning that my cats test results came back as him being a diabetic. He has lost a massive amount of weight over the last month. At one time in his prime he was 17 lbs., now he is down to 9.5. He is severely dehydrated, and is having trouble getting around the last few days. Very unstable on his feet.

He went deaf a few years ago, and yesterday the vet told me that he has a heart murmur and his eyesight is almost gone as well. The vet says we can try treatment, injections and hospitalization for week or so. Anyone have any experience with a pet this old bouncing back from something like this? Suggestions needed. I have had stubby the entire 21 years, and I believe he has lived a great, long, healthy life until recently. I would hate to put him through any more pain, if the outcome isn't great.

Edit. Added candle icon
Carl & Bob
 
Unless there is really something wrong there is no reason for hospitalization for week. You can do everything at home, including trsting his blood glucose level. There may be a member near you who can help with the testing.

I would go for it.
 
Diabetes is a treatable disease, so if your heart is in it, we can help you manage it.

1) Diet, first and foremost, should be low carb canned or raw food. To understand why, and get a list of nutrition information, go to Cat Info. Pick foods with 10% or less calories from carbohydrates. You do not need to purchase prescription foods; over the counter foods will be fine. I use Wellness and/or Friskies Turkey and Giblet canned foods for all 15 of the cats in the household, even though I no longer have a diabetic cat.

2) Monitoring your diabetic cat's health - blood glucose testing using a human glucometer such as one of the ReliOn brands from WalMart and urine ketone testing using human urine test strips, available from most pharmacies. To do blood glucose testing, you will need lancets, too; find the 26 or 27 gauge ones to start. Check my signature link for details on urine ketone testing as well as other indicators of his health.

3) Next, insulin. What tests did the vet run? Blood glucose, or fructosamine? The former is not sufficient for diagnosing diabetes; the latter is, along with some other indeicators. We tell newcomers never shoot without testing first, and until you have data to show it is safe, do not shoot under 200.
Recommended insulins are Lantus, Levemir, and ProZinc in the US. You do not want Humulin, nor Novolin (NPH-type) insulins as they do not last long enough.
 
Welcome! 21 is a nice long life for a cat but diabetes is relatively easy to treat. So I would say the decision is up to you. You might start feeding him wet low carb food and testing his blood sugar at home to see how high his numbers are and then decide. Some cats only require a diet change from dry food to wet to get into remission.

We have a very successful protocol for feline diabetes:

1. A slow, long lasting insulin. Lantus, Levemir and ProZinc are popular as they have a slow onset; they are not harsh and they are easiest to use for regulation. Humulin and Canninsulin are less popular because, in most cats, they have a rapid onset and don’t last as long. We like new diabetics to start low and go slow. That is, start at a low dose of .5 or one unit twice daily every 12 hours. And increase slowly, by .25 or .5 units as the numbers indicate.

2. A low carb, wet diet. We like to feed under 8-10% carbs. There are several food charts you can use:
[http=www.catinfo.org/docs/Food%20Chart%20Public%209-22-12.pdf] Dr. Lisa’s food chart [/url]
Hobo’s Food Chart

Whatever food you can afford that your cat will eat in that lower range.

2. And most importantly, hometesting. We think cats tend to be stressed at the vet
and we know stress raises blood glucose levels. So we test our cats at home. We use human glucometers and test on their ears or paws. Here is a video that shows you how it is done: Video for hometesting

Let us know how we can help.

(edited to fix link)
 
I think you should go for it. Diabetes isn't that hard to manage, once you get the hang of testing, and changing his food to all low carb wet food. Post here often, and we can help you help him to have some more quality of life (((Hugs))).
 
I would say go for it! he could continue to live a healthy old age. BTW what a great name!!

Diabetes is treatable and we can help you with it. Switching to a low carb food like fancy feast classic pates, some home testing, a good insulin like Lantus, and this board :) is all you need to get him back on his feet and you see results fairly quickly in many cases.

Wendy
 
Thanks for all of the information and guidance everyone. I have a big decision to make. I have to weigh all of my options and figure out what is best for Stubby. My wife and I do travel often for work and we don't have anyone who we can rely on to ensure he gets the proper insulin shots each day. Even the vet mentioned that he is 21, so all though they can try to treat the diabetes, there could possibly be something else that could hurt him in the near future anyway.

The Vet is claiming that he needs the hospital stay because of his age and the dehydration. She more or less told me that she will not give me the insulin to take home until they get his sorted out at the hospital. Financially that is just not a viable option for me. I am going to try talking with them today and see if there is any other option.

As far as what test they ran to test for diabetes, I am not really sure. They just did a full blood workup and urinalysis him and diabetes is what came up.

I will keep everyone up to date on what happens and how Stubby is doing.
 
J.D. comes to work with me on the weekend days, when his shot is due while I'm at work. I don't have anyone to help me, so that's our only option. He also goes on vacation with me across the country to California each year, and we take a 6 hour car trip with him and his sister every year in August. There's another member on the Lantus board that also resides in New Jersey, but she works and has an apartment in Washington D.C., so at beginning of each week they (she and her cat) travel to Washington, and come home at the end of the week.

Maybe you could try a different vet that won't make you hospitalize Stubby in exchange for giving you insulin to help him (sorry that sounds cruel). Did the vet mention anything about any other serious conditions, or did he say the words ketones or DKA? Did they test for ketones? One high glucose result doesn't necessarily mean diabetes. They should do a fructosamine which will tell how his glucose has been on average for the past few weeks.

J.D. has had cateracks sp? for almost the entire 8 years he's been diabetic, and sometimes, I think he's deaf, but I think it's more a case of selective hearing, which he is entitled to as he gets older.
 
Can you give SubQ fluids to help with the dehydration? That togenther with home testing the blood glucose levels would negate the need for hospitalization in my opinion.
 
Unfortunately, Stubby continued to get worse over Thursday evening and by the time I got home from work on Friday I could tell he was not doing well. He had eaten a bit but hadn't gone to the bathroom for a few days. I took him to the vet and decided that the best course of action was to have him put down. They wanted to run tests and take blood and do this and that, but for me that would have been torture for the poor little guy. I was always lucky if I could even pick him up to pet him. Having strangers handling him would have been horrible. By far the hardest decision that I have ever had to make. Feel very guilty, but I believe that it was the choice I had to make. Vet believed that his kidneys were shutting down and that he was giving up the fight as well.

I am getting him cremated, and having his ashes returned to me. I believe that I at least owe him that much. He would have been 22 in May, right around the time I turn 32. He was the last surviving cat of my 4 childhood cats that I took from my mother when she was no longer able to care for them due to M.S. All of them lived to at least 15, the oldest being Stubby at 21, then Rusti at 20(kidney failure), Stimpy at 16(Kidney failure) and Spanki at 15(Kicked by a drunk and broke hips, never recovered).

The joy of having animals is such a great feeling, and they provide so many years of unwavering love to their owners, but times like this really makes it difficult to understand why we keep pets.

Thanks for all of the information and words of support and encouragement you guys have given. I only found out about this website by searching google, had I found it earlier it would have been a great resource.
 
I am so sorry for your loss of your Stubby ((((((Matt))))))

He knows how much you love him, and he will be waiting to greet you at The Rainbow Bridge, one day.

Fly Free, and play with the other kitties waiting for their loved ones to join them.
 
So very sorry it was time to say goodbye, but so happy to see that he made it to 21! That's a very good run for a kitty. How very hard it must be for you especially as he was a childhood pet. Saying goodbye is never easy, even when their whole body is failing. My condolences. wings_cat
 
I am so sorry to hear about your Stubby, Matt. I hope it helps to know that he had so many wonderful years with you, full of love and care.

Try not to feel any guilt. I think setting them free is one of the greatest gifts we can give our pets who are in pain.
 
I'm so sorry it was Stubby's time to cross, that decision is so hard on our hearts. Neither Stubby nor any of the others are gone, you just have to hug them differently...

Please don't feel guilty, that is a HUGE gift we can give them that we cannot give our human counterparts in the same situation.

BIG LOOOOONG HUG,
 
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