Rebekah + Joe
Member Since 2024
Hi there. I've been a lurker of this site for the past three weeks or so and thought it time to finally say hello. My 12 year old cat Joe is just beginning his diabetes journey and I've already learned so much from going through the posts and information here, so thank you for this treasure trove of community and content.
So Joe has not yet been formally diagnosed as diabetic but all signs point in that direction. He's had IBD for about 3.5 years, which seems to be triggered by proteins. He's been on hydrolised food and varying dosages of prednisolone for much of those three and a half years.
In November and December of 2023 Joe began to have symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea. Assuming this to be an IBD flare up, he went up to a 5mg daily dose of prednisolone which had no real impact. An ultrasound on 14th December revealed a mottled liver and a shadow that could be an enlarged lymph node, angry pancreas or neoplasm. Blood tests showed no concerns with organ functioning or blood cell count, but his glucose was 27 mmol/L. A urinalysis the following week confirmed the high glucose reading.
Joe is now waiting on a fructosamine test. This should have happened yesterday but apparently he is very difficult to handle at the clinic and the vet and vet nurse couldn't obtain a sample between them. They will try again next Wednesday, and they've given me gabapentin to give him before we attend the office. Even so, the vet said it is unlikely that Joe will be able to have his intial glucose curve done at the clinic - which is their standard procedure - because they cannot sedate him all day and he is hard to handle. So it looks like I will be doing it here at home.
To be honest, I'm a bit frustrated at having to wait another week. It was the only time the vet and the nurse could be availale at the same time. We're now into our third week of being reasonably confident that Joe has diabetes and yet no treatment has begun. Maybe these delays are normal, but meanwhile he is losing 150g of weight per week. He's gone from being ~6kg in October, when he had dental cleaning, down to 5.5. While we wait he is quite a ferocious eater, and I am letting him eat as much as he wants (somewhere in the region of 500g-600g of food per day). I work from home and Joe's an indoor cat, so as long as I'm awake I test every wee with Ketostix or Diastix. If anyone has any suggestions as to how else I can manage this interim period between suspicion and confirmation, please do share your ideas. This is my best friend in the whole world and I want nothing more than for him to be healthy, or at least have his illnesses under control.
Managing the diabetes and IBD together may be a bit of a challenge. One dictates low carbs, the other has primarily been managed by hydrolised dry food.Since I received Joe's blood glucose result a few weeks ago, I stopped feeding him the IBD food. I have to be selective with the proteins he has in order not to trigger the inflammation, but for these past few weeks he's been having James Wellbeloved Grain-Free Turkey in gravy (we're in the UK, in case that brand is unfamiliar to you). Touch wood, we have not had any vomiting or diarrhoea since changing food. He is alert, lively, affectionate. He's both drinking and urinating less frequently. In fact, apart from being underweight and hungry, you wouldn't know anything was wrong when you're around him. His urine consistently tests negative for ketones, but glucose is showing up every time.
Long exposure to prednisolone is a risk factor in diabetes and the vet seems confident that this is the main factor in Joe's case. However, I can't help but feel that three years on hydrolised food is an equal, if not bigger, contributor. It's just a gut feeling I have, considering he was throwing up every day (sometimes as often as eight times a day) in November/December before I switched him to the wet food. It's the only change we have made at this point but his symtoms have improved. The long-term aim is to switch him to a difference immunosuppressant for the IBD, and we have begun to taper down his prednisolone. The vet is also keen for Joe to switch to Purina's diabetes food but it contains chicken, which is a common allergen and one that caused problems for Joe back when he was first diagnosed with IBD. James Wellbeloved is not ideal, at 10% carbs, but it was something readily available on Christmas Eve. I'm now looking at the excellent UK food list for single-source protein alternatives with even fewer carbs. It can be a challenge to get Joe to eat wet food that isn't gravy based, but it will be easier to get him on board while he is this hungry.
Once the diagnosis has been confirmed, the vet has suggested we treat Joe with insulin. Senvelgo was touted as an option but an intermal medicine specialist at a referral centre says that considering it is so new to the market, and there is greater experience in using insulin alongside IBD, that insulin is the better treatment option.
As for me, I've been a little stressed out (mostly by the delays caused by Christmas closures and vet availability) but I think I'm taking it reasonably well. I was so worried that it would be cancer and that nothing could be done. Diabetes might be a little labour intensive to manage (and a bit costly, if you're doing this without insurance like I am) but there's nothing I won't do for this little guy. I've had a couple of vets say to me "Wow, you must really love this cat" and, while that statement's as plain as the features on my face, it makes me really sad. Sometimes I feel the statement implies that all the time, effort and money is not worth it for a 12 year old with comorbidities. But there's no alternative: Joe is everything to me. And fractious though he may be when taken off to back room at the clinic for testing, at home he is nothing but a happy, loving boy with a largely very good quality of life. I will make hard choices for him when the day comes, as I have had to do for other animals in my care in the past, but this is not that day. Joe has so much more life to live; my job is to make it as comfortable and fulfilling as possible.
So Joe has not yet been formally diagnosed as diabetic but all signs point in that direction. He's had IBD for about 3.5 years, which seems to be triggered by proteins. He's been on hydrolised food and varying dosages of prednisolone for much of those three and a half years.
In November and December of 2023 Joe began to have symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea. Assuming this to be an IBD flare up, he went up to a 5mg daily dose of prednisolone which had no real impact. An ultrasound on 14th December revealed a mottled liver and a shadow that could be an enlarged lymph node, angry pancreas or neoplasm. Blood tests showed no concerns with organ functioning or blood cell count, but his glucose was 27 mmol/L. A urinalysis the following week confirmed the high glucose reading.
Joe is now waiting on a fructosamine test. This should have happened yesterday but apparently he is very difficult to handle at the clinic and the vet and vet nurse couldn't obtain a sample between them. They will try again next Wednesday, and they've given me gabapentin to give him before we attend the office. Even so, the vet said it is unlikely that Joe will be able to have his intial glucose curve done at the clinic - which is their standard procedure - because they cannot sedate him all day and he is hard to handle. So it looks like I will be doing it here at home.
To be honest, I'm a bit frustrated at having to wait another week. It was the only time the vet and the nurse could be availale at the same time. We're now into our third week of being reasonably confident that Joe has diabetes and yet no treatment has begun. Maybe these delays are normal, but meanwhile he is losing 150g of weight per week. He's gone from being ~6kg in October, when he had dental cleaning, down to 5.5. While we wait he is quite a ferocious eater, and I am letting him eat as much as he wants (somewhere in the region of 500g-600g of food per day). I work from home and Joe's an indoor cat, so as long as I'm awake I test every wee with Ketostix or Diastix. If anyone has any suggestions as to how else I can manage this interim period between suspicion and confirmation, please do share your ideas. This is my best friend in the whole world and I want nothing more than for him to be healthy, or at least have his illnesses under control.
Managing the diabetes and IBD together may be a bit of a challenge. One dictates low carbs, the other has primarily been managed by hydrolised dry food.Since I received Joe's blood glucose result a few weeks ago, I stopped feeding him the IBD food. I have to be selective with the proteins he has in order not to trigger the inflammation, but for these past few weeks he's been having James Wellbeloved Grain-Free Turkey in gravy (we're in the UK, in case that brand is unfamiliar to you). Touch wood, we have not had any vomiting or diarrhoea since changing food. He is alert, lively, affectionate. He's both drinking and urinating less frequently. In fact, apart from being underweight and hungry, you wouldn't know anything was wrong when you're around him. His urine consistently tests negative for ketones, but glucose is showing up every time.
Long exposure to prednisolone is a risk factor in diabetes and the vet seems confident that this is the main factor in Joe's case. However, I can't help but feel that three years on hydrolised food is an equal, if not bigger, contributor. It's just a gut feeling I have, considering he was throwing up every day (sometimes as often as eight times a day) in November/December before I switched him to the wet food. It's the only change we have made at this point but his symtoms have improved. The long-term aim is to switch him to a difference immunosuppressant for the IBD, and we have begun to taper down his prednisolone. The vet is also keen for Joe to switch to Purina's diabetes food but it contains chicken, which is a common allergen and one that caused problems for Joe back when he was first diagnosed with IBD. James Wellbeloved is not ideal, at 10% carbs, but it was something readily available on Christmas Eve. I'm now looking at the excellent UK food list for single-source protein alternatives with even fewer carbs. It can be a challenge to get Joe to eat wet food that isn't gravy based, but it will be easier to get him on board while he is this hungry.
Once the diagnosis has been confirmed, the vet has suggested we treat Joe with insulin. Senvelgo was touted as an option but an intermal medicine specialist at a referral centre says that considering it is so new to the market, and there is greater experience in using insulin alongside IBD, that insulin is the better treatment option.
As for me, I've been a little stressed out (mostly by the delays caused by Christmas closures and vet availability) but I think I'm taking it reasonably well. I was so worried that it would be cancer and that nothing could be done. Diabetes might be a little labour intensive to manage (and a bit costly, if you're doing this without insurance like I am) but there's nothing I won't do for this little guy. I've had a couple of vets say to me "Wow, you must really love this cat" and, while that statement's as plain as the features on my face, it makes me really sad. Sometimes I feel the statement implies that all the time, effort and money is not worth it for a 12 year old with comorbidities. But there's no alternative: Joe is everything to me. And fractious though he may be when taken off to back room at the clinic for testing, at home he is nothing but a happy, loving boy with a largely very good quality of life. I will make hard choices for him when the day comes, as I have had to do for other animals in my care in the past, but this is not that day. Joe has so much more life to live; my job is to make it as comfortable and fulfilling as possible.
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