Anyone use d-mannose for their sugarcat?

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wombat88

wombat88

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Shaikha has low white counts so she gets UTIs a lot. We are getting her sugar better balanced which may help (now using t.i.d. dosing of PZI) but am thinking about using d-mannose to try to keep these from coming back constantly. The problem is that d-mannose is a simple sugar so I don't need it wreaking havoc with her blood sugar levels. I tried giving it once previously and her BG rose, but she was also having pancreatitis issues and had an infection to boot both of which make her BG go nuts.

Anyone use this on their diabetic kitty? I don't want to give her something that will make matters worse sugar-wise as she's tough enough to control (look at her spreadsheet!). WebMD says that "some research" suggests it makes BG harder to control in diabetics, and another site said it does cause an increase in sugar levels but that only lasts as long as it is taken and the increase isn't "large". That same site went on about how it wasn't really metabolized though and then claimed it didn't interfere with blood sugar regulation, even for diabetics. I guess they mean that your sugar does go up, but you can just take extra insulin to counteract it. :shock:

My plan would be to use it as a preventative, but if it makes BG go wonky that probably isn't a great plan. Just wondering if anyone else has experience with it. She's already on steroids so those alone make her glucose go nuts (they caused the diabetes to begin with, but pancreatitis since then seems to have made it a more permanent condition).
 
How does d-mannose help with UTI? I am unfamiliar with that, so if you've got a link, please post it.

Do you know what the cause of the low white count is? Is that being treated?

Has a culture and sensitivity been done to make sure there really is an infection and that the right antibiotic is given? Sometimes the problem may be interstitial cystitis of non-infectious origins.

Have bladder stones been ruled out? These can provide a hiding place for bacteria and an antibiotic won't clear them as easily.

You may find some useful info about renal issues at Cat Info.
 
BJM said:
How does d-mannose help with UTI? I am unfamiliar with that, so if you've got a link, please post it.

Do you know what the cause of the low white count is? Is that being treated?

Has a culture and sensitivity been done to make sure there really is an infection and that the right antibiotic is given? Sometimes the problem may be interstitial cystitis of non-infectious origins.

Have bladder stones been ruled out? These can provide a hiding place for bacteria and an antibiotic won't clear them as easily.

You may find some useful info about renal issues at Cat Info.
Click to expand...

Will post some links shortly about d-mannose but it does work. Am off to the vet now, but she doesn't have bladder stones and she urinates just fine. The problem is she gets tons of junk in her urine easily. Her sugar hasn't been too controlled so that seems to be the trigger for them flaring up. We've done cultures, but they usually show nothing despite her urine being loaded with crud. That often happens actually if the bacteria are burrowed really high into the tract. It is very common with cats in renal failure, I know. *

She's had low white cell counts for over 11 years now, ever since I adopted her. She was never sick until last year when she got pancreatitis. Since then, we've had infections and UTIs to contend with, so this is all pretty new. What made the white cell counts worse was her taking leukeran last year since steroids had made her diabetic and her pancreatitis was not responding to other treatments (she also has IBD). Since then, her red cells and platelets have also been depressed. Most vets felt her low white count was just normal for her since she was healthy otherwise (and not even prone to infection). Since the leukeran and pancreatitis, she gets sick a lot unfortunately.

* I read Dr. Lisa's site and I understand her hesitation to use antibiotics. But if we don't treat, with her the problem goes from bad to worse. The last time we ended up with her hospitalized with very high fevers that only IV antibiotics controlled. She spills a lot of glucose in her urine, and her low white cell counts don't help either. She's got borderline renal failure. We plan to do a renal panel again next week because her tests today showed much more dilute urine and far more acid than it should be.
 
I wasn't able to find the links I'd found previously, but here are a few. As with most supplements, there isn't much in the way of scientific studies and none that I know of on felines. Cheap and effective OTC cures rarely attract the $$$ needed in either human or veterinary medicine. One note: from what I've read, d-mannose is only effective on e.coli bacteria, so if the UTI is caused by something else then it won't help.

http://www.smart-publications.com/artic ... /#fn-142-2 (See scientific journal articles in the references)
http://tahomaclinicblog.com/d-mannose-f ... nfections/ (no idea of this doctor's credentials but he is an MD)
http://urinarytractinfectionsnomore.blo ... oving.html
http://www.holisticat.com/flutd.html
http://www.felinecrf.org/treatments.htm#UTIs (focus of this site is on renal failure on cats)
 
Very interesting. I'll have to pass that on to some of my friends. Thanks.

The general rule folks use around here, is that if the treatment helps the cat (ex prednisone), yet raises the glucose, you increase the insulin to accomodate that. This means you must be testing in order to know what is happening.
 
BJM said:
Very interesting. I'll have to pass that on to some of my friends. Thanks.

The general rule folks use around here, is that if the treatment helps the cat (ex prednisone), yet raises the glucose, you increase the insulin to accomodate that. This means you must be testing in order to know what is happening.
Click to expand...

Testing what? I assume you mean glucose? I wasn't testing that often in the past, but trust me, I test a lot more these days. Since her bad infection flareup in late January and then pancreatitis flareup, her glucose has been far harder to control, so we've had to tweak things a lot. A second concern is that she may be early stage renal failure, which complicates matters since we can't stop the steroids and it also makes UTIs more likely. I was going to use some cranberry for her, but decided against it given how acidic her urine was today. We need to do more renal function tests next week and will go from there, but we'll just have to balance the two conditions. If phosphorus is high, I'll add binders and other treatments but the steroids have to stay. We've tried lowering the dose in the past many times and every time her IBD gets worse or pancreatitis flares up. It's a no-win situation.
 
Sorry! yes, I meant testing the glucose levels.

If what it takes is a steroid, then you do the steroid and adjust the insulin to accomodate it.

Hang in there!
 
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