Aggression in my goblin kitty

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Pan

Member Since 2023
Hi so first post, so there's a lot of backstory to this one. Long story short we have three brother kitties and momma kitty. All of them are about a year and a half old. Our middle child goblin (a very fitting name) was diagnosed with diabetes about 7 months ago. We originally were only supposed to have the runt (jarjar) as our roommate had momma before he became our roommate. We then ended up with the oldest (Oscar) and youngest. Goblin ended up finding a home with a not so great pet owner. He was abused and neglected before he ended up in our care and became part of his biological family again. Because of this when he came to us he was scared, severely underweight, and super aggressive.

Now that the context is out of the way, time to explain the issue here. After we got him on insulin his aggression and fear almost immediately left, he became a normal happy cat. He was super cuddly and lovey and kind of an attention wh*re. We normally keep him on 1 unit every 8 hours. For a bit the vet told us to switch him to 2 and he was doing fine for about 2 months. He ended up having severe hypo and suffered a seizure. Since then he has been completely different. He will attack unprovoked, he's mean, he growls at everyone, and he's become extremely territorial over our bathroom. I was just wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences or if there's something we're doing wrong as he's our first "special needs" kitty and considering he's so young compared to the average diabetic cat
 
Hi and welcome to the forum.
I have some questions please so I can get a better picture of what is happening.
  • Can you tell me what the name of the insulin you are giving please? .
  • Who suggested giving it every 8 hours.? Insulin in cats should be given every 12 hours, not every 8 hours.
  • Are you home testing the BG?
  • How are you deciding on what dose to give?
  • How much insulin are you giving him at the moment?
  • What are you feeding Goblin?
  • Are you feeding him a main meal before the dose and then giving some snacks during the cycles?
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Bron
 
Welcome to FDMB.

Bron has asked some important questions to give us more context about goblin's diabetes.

Regarding the behavioral issues, there is always a chance that the hypo had an effect on brain function. It may also be an association to what was happening when he was in an abusive environment. The one thing I'd suggest is getting some Feliway diffusers. The pheromones may help to calm your kitty.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Hi and welcome to the forum.
I have some questions please so I can get a better picture of what is happening.
  • Can you tell me what the name of the insulin you are giving please? .
  • Who suggested giving it every 8 hours.? Insulin in cats should be given every 12 hours, not every 8 hours.
  • Are you home testing the BG?
  • How are you deciding on what dose to give?
  • How much insulin are you giving him at the moment?
  • What are you feeding Goblin?
  • Are you feeding him a main meal before the dose and then giving some snacks during the cycles?
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Bron
Click to expand...
-hes on vetsilin (sorry if I spelled that wrong)
- I totally meant to say 12, that's my bad It was like 4am when I posted that and so my brain wasn't working
- we don't have access to a bg monitor for home as we're both working pretty much to make sure he has access to his insulin and we can pay rent. We don't have much extra income.
- we give him the insulin amount our vet recommends to us
- he's currently on 1 unit
- we feed him fancy feast classic pates since they were recommended by our vet
- we feed him a full can when he has his dose and then half a can twice in between and then one more half can before we go to bed
 
Question, if you're not monitoring his blood glucose at all, how do you know that he is not being overdosed right now on 1U?

I ask this question because aggression is listed as a potential symptom of very low blood sugar, aka hypoglycemia. Sometimes after a bad hypo event, some cats can be extra-sensitive to insulin.

From the sticky:


MODERATE HYPOGLYCEMIA
Disorientation
Trouble with vision... bumps into furniture
Poor coordination, such as staggering, walking in circles or acting drunk
Changes in head or neck movements
Restlessness
Urgent meowing
Behavioral changes, such as aggressiveness



Also, if you can get your vet to switch him to Lantus or ProZinc, those are much better insulins. Less harsh on kitty. Much more gentle. Vetsulin is actually for dogs not cats.
 
Hendrick Cuddleclaw said:
Question, if you're not monitoring his blood glucose at all, how do you know that he is not being overdosed right now on 1U?

I ask this question because aggression is listed as a potential symptom of very low blood sugar, aka hypoglycemia. Sometimes after a bad hypo event, some cats can be extra-sensitive to insulin.

From the sticky:


MODERATE HYPOGLYCEMIA
Disorientation
Trouble with vision... bumps into furniture
Poor coordination, such as staggering, walking in circles or acting drunk
Changes in head or neck movements
Restlessness
Urgent meowing
Behavioral changes, such as aggressiveness



Also, if you can get your vet to switch him to Lantus or ProZinc, those are much better insulins. Less harsh on kitty. Much more gentle. Vetsulin is actually for dogs not cats.
Click to expand...

We don't know, my bfs grandpa was going to give us his extra monitor so we can set it up to read gobbo but he needs to find it. He doesn't have many aggression issues since we switched him back to 1u but I have noticed some other symptoms so maybe we should have him checked out again. When we had originally gotten him diagnosed his bg was so high that he was risking death and so I'm thinking they prescribed him so high for that reason but he leveled out and got sick. I have read that post seizure aggression is a thing too but I'm not sure on the validity and if that applies to him
 
With vetsulin, you need to feed him 1/2 hour before you give the dose of insulin. If you are not already doing this, I would definitely start now.
It is very good you are feeding him during the cycle as well as before the dose:)
It will be excellent if you can get the glucose meter to test him to see what the dose is doing.
Keep posting for help and support. We are happy to have you here:)
 
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