Cat vomited 2 hoursafter vetsulin infection..never happen before

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Crazypetlady

Member Since 2022
This is a first since diagnosis few months ago. Gave my cat his normal breakfast at 7am. I didn’t test BG because he's a hit and miss tester if he will ket ne and hus whole mood saud not right now. He spit up some, but not alot and went back to eating. Gave him 5 units insulin regular time 35 minutes later.
Just now found him in room under chair and he had thrown up looks like all of his breakfast. He's just glaring at me and I did try at this point to test Bg, but now have stratches and a bite on arm and hand and no BG.
Should I be panicking. What can I do home? Was it just a one time weird thing. He hasnt missed completely shots, although had 2 fur shots last 2 days, but ive had those before wgen first learning shots and never had this happen. No vets open till next week because of Thanksgiving. (Small town)
He's never thrown up not even when first diagnosed.
 
So don't do evening shot?
I guess why I'm panicking is he ate, had shot like regular then threw up almost 2 hours later all thus. What does this mean for him throught the day. He's not acting like BG is low, just laying around, drinking water and growing if get to close.
 
How long ago? I would test him again and go from there. If his bg is dropping, try to get him to eat small amounts. Maybe a favorite treat? Baby food sometimes works when they won’t eat regular food. And also tuna
 
He threw up a little after 9am. About 2 hours after vetsulin shot.
I'll try again for BG later. He won't let anyone even touch him right now. Hiding under table.
I was told to let stomach settle then offer a little bit later food later.
He's on frisky pate seafood ones... he likes them best
 
My cat used to growl at me when I tested him even though I was giving him a treat after testing. I was advised to give him a treat when I wasn't testing, but use the chosen testing location to offer the treat. So I did that several times. I got him to come when I shook the treat container, gave him a treat and stroked him, but not at test time. It didn't take long until at test time, I could shake the treat container and he would come to me. I would be already to test so I could give him a tiny treat and test, followed by another treat. We are doing a pretty good job now. I have mobility issues, so he has to jump up onto my desk for me to reach him for both testing and giving him his insulin injection.
 
Thank you for everyone's advice. Sorry its been a few days, we were out of town. Tigger is doing really good. We had to find a last minute "babysitter" for him to give his injection as the one who had agreed to cone to home was unable to do it. We had to take him to the backup ladies home and Tigger doesn't travel great, but they are an eldery family member, so they couldn't travel to our home. But overall BG great, injections went well, and although he's been side eyeing me letting me know he's not happy with me right now, it all worked out.
I was so stressed and worried when he was throwing up on top of the months of planning for weekend trip and leaving the ,ut hasn't been sick since, so maybe just a bad stomach day.
 
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I’m glad he’s okay. Is the vetsulin working well? It’s a very harsh shorter duration insulin for cats. Sam would actually puke regularly on it because he’d overeat after his dose. He’s on lantus now and is completely controlled, no side effects and no overeating.
 
Tigger seems to be BG runs low to mid 200s.
Which I think is a bit high but his vet said it's ok.
Gained weight back, no more extreme drinking. He's always been food driven so acting like he never eats before diagnosis.
His vet doesn't use anything but vetsulin
 
Crazypetlady said:
Tigger seems to be BG runs low to mid 200s.
Which I think is a bit high but his vet said it's ok.
Gained weight back, no more extreme drinking. He's always been food driven so acting like he never eats before diagnosis.
His vet doesn't use anything but vetsulin
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I’ll paraphrase someone else who said this to me; a vet who won’t prescribe prozinc or lantus have not read any research on feline diabetes in over a decade. Prozinc and Lantus. If your cats responded well, then that’s great! But vetsulin only lasts 6-12 hours at most (in most cats it doesn’t last anywhere near 12). So for half the day your cat will have no insulin in their body. What you tend to see is the blood sugar drop to the low side, then spike back up after 6-8 hours.

The AAHA’s guidelines explicitly do not recommend vetsulin as a first line insulin for felines; they recommend lantus. https://www.aaha.org/aaha-guidelines/diabetes-management/treatment/cats/

But again; if it’s working for him then great! No need to fix what isn’t broke.
 
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I get that impression. He didn't even recommend low carb or to test his BG regular.
I checked with the only two other vets in our small town and neither will.justvtake over. They want to keep him and basically start from scratch before they would do anything. I feel absolutely horrible but the estimated cost they quoted is pretty much the same amount frome 2 months ago. Over 1000 dollars. We can not afford that.
I'm just trying to do the best I can with a limited situation that's why I can here.
 
Crazypetlady said:
I get that impression. He didn't even recommend low carb or to test his BG regular.
I checked with the only two other vets in our small town and neither will.justvtake over. They want to keep him and basically start from scratch before they would do anything. I feel absolutely horrible but the estimated cost they quoted is pretty much the same amount frome 2 months ago. Over 1000 dollars. We can not afford that.
I'm just trying to do the best I can with a limited situation that's why I can here.
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Okay, excuse me? That’s messed up. What a crappy vet. Can you maybe go out of town and find a vet? It only cost me 650 for bloodwork/exam (and would only cost me 450 at my current vet). Are you American or Canadian? In canada i know you can order the insulin online without a prescription.
 
American and the next nearest town with more possible vets that might be better educated about feline diabetes is over an hour away we live in a very rural area.
Tiggers sugar would ve sky high from stress alone.
The insulin cost for bottle ever 6 weeks or so is hurting. It's the over possible bill of vet stay with new vet. They won't do just sone blood work. I even gave them the information I had collected over past months. It's not a complete spread sheet because Tigger is a hard BG tester, but enough in a week to get idea of what it averages. I monitor his water and weight because that was our first sign Something was off.
 
Oops the insulin bottle every six weeks is not hurting us, I've cut some cost in other places to manage.
It's the bloodwork and vet stay we can't do again right now. Husbands hours have been cut dramatically. So things are very tight right niw.
 
Crazypetlady said:
American and the next nearest town with more possible vets that might be better educated about feline diabetes is over an hour away we live in a very rural area.
Tiggers sugar would ve sky high from stress alone.
The insulin cost for bottle ever 6 weeks or so is hurting. It's the over possible bill of vet stay with new vet. They won't do just sone blood work. I even gave them the information I had collected over past months. It's not a complete spread sheet because Tigger is a hard BG tester, but enough in a week to get idea of what it averages. I monitor his water and weight because that was our first sign Something was off.
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I’m really sorry; insulin is such a scam in the USA. There are ways to order it online from a Canadian pharmacy i believe. The good thing about lantus is you can store it and use it for 6 months! It costs 80 CAD in Canada, but like 340 USD down in the US. Some members say they can get it from online pharmacies for half price. But there’s enough in there to last 6 months; so the price per month is much less.

If you can’t afford to take him in and have everything redone (which is totally understandable; that’s absurd that you’d have to do that), then maybe you would consider just following our dosing regimens and doing it yourself? You have the diagnosis; unless he has other health issues you can determine the right dose by testing 3x per day. You test in the morning pre shot, evening pre shot, and about halfway in between to see the minimum blood sugar level he gets to.
 
Also; if you did go to the vet an hour away, they can give you gabapentin for tigger’s anxiety. I give sam 100 mg’s (1 cc) 3 hours before. He used to scream and smash around the carrier in the car. Now he just rests and chills. I would phone that vet, explain the situation, and see if they can help. It might suck, but that’s only a couple hours vs 1000 dollars.

Is this normal for US vet care? My vets great now. Prices are reasonable, and the staff are AMAZING. They pay a living wage (24.90 an hour in my area), so the staff tend to be better (the posting attracts better candidates with higher wages). We had to put sam’s brother to sleep on Friday; all in all cost 145 dollars CAD.
 
I will definitely be making so calls, I didn't know about anxiety meds for cats.
The vet we use has cared for all our dogs and cats for many, many years and we have never been disappointed and they have always been professional.
As much as my research says feline diabetes is common, maybe it's not been so common in my area. I just don't know.
 
Crazypetlady said:
I will definitely be making so calls, I didn't know about anxiety meds for cats.
The vet we use has cared for all our dogs and cats for many, many years and we have never been disappointed and they have always been professional.
As much as my research says feline diabetes is common, maybe it's not been so common in my area. I just don't know.
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Possible, vets tend to not be up to date with research like doctors. Practice tends to lag the literature by 10-15 years. Diabetes isn’t super common in cats honestly; 1/100-1/400 cats will develop it. How much is tigger on and how much is he drinking per day?
 
Crazypetlady said:
I will definitely be making so calls, I didn't know about anxiety meds for cats.
The vet we use has cared for all our dogs and cats for many, many years and we have never been disappointed and they have always been professional.
As much as my research says feline diabetes is common, maybe it's not been so common in my area. I just don't know.
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Maybe you can print out some research for your vet and drop it off at his office for him to read? The Canadian pharmacy a lot of us use (Marks’ Marine Pharmacy) can contact your vet directly to get the prescription for insulin glargine (that is the generic name of Lantus, much cheaper than the brand name). That could simplify the process if you can show solid research to your vet first and convince him? That way he wouldn’t even have to order anything himself. If you do switch to insulin glargine you will need different syringes than for vetsulin, but thats a bridge you will cross when (hopefully) you come to it!
 
He's on 5 units 2x daily ever 12 hours with food. I've been told that's alot. He had a uniary blockage issue about 5 years ago. So not sure if that would account for high dosage.
He's on friskies low carb pates.
3oz of water on average, one day maybe 4oz than another 2oz. He's stays between 9lbs to 10lbs.
Compared to time before diagnosis. He's mostly back to his old self. A little crankier I think from all the poking and tests, but otherwise normal
 
Crazypetlady said:
He's on 5 units 2x daily ever 12 hours with food. I've been told that's alot. He had a uniary blockage issue about 5 years ago. So not sure if that would account for high dosage.
He's on friskies low carb pates.
3oz of water on average, one day maybe 4oz than another 2oz. He's stays between 9lbs to 10lbs.
Compared to time before diagnosis. He's mostly back to his old self. A little crankier I think from all the poking and tests, but otherwise normal
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Is he a regulated diabetic kitty?
 
Tigger runs mostly in the low to mid 200s on average. A few high 200s when I first started but not recently. I do write results and notes in a paper notebook to look back on. I don't have a spreadsheet because he fights testing his BG alot. I'm lucky to get one every other day if he's feeling cooperative.
 
Crazypetlady said:
Tigger runs mostly in the low to mid 200s on average. A few high 200s when I first started but not recently. I do write results and notes in a paper notebook to look back on. I don't have a spreadsheet because he fights testing his BG alot. I'm lucky to get one every other day if he's feeling cooperative.
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It took me awhile to get Panzer used to testing & I had help for the first couple of weeks. I started doing it on my own one day because my roommate at the time was not awake to help me test my boy before his AMPS shot. I was getting very scared to shoot blindly because he was on a higher dose like your kitty. It took time but I just kept doing it. Eventually all I would have to do was put his chewy box on the table & say let's test. He would come running & jump up on the table & get his box & wait for me to wash my hands, set up all of the supplies on a paper towel, get another paper towel warm & wet (rung out) then I warm his ear with the paper towel talking to him the whole time, telling him mommy has to warm up your ear so we can test & get a treat. Then I put a dab of Vaseline on his ear, freehand poke his ear with the lancet, once I have a bead of blood,(sometimes I have to poke more than once) I put the test strip in the meter, touch it to the blood wait for it to give me the number, use the make up pad to stop the bleeding, write down his number in my notebook. Then I give him boiled chicken for a treat & tell him what a good boy he is & we are done. Then I put his number in the spreadsheet. As you can see I'm a test-o-holic LOL. I never ever thought I would be able to test him but I just kept trying & he's not always cooperative but I just talk to him calmly & we make it through it. It gets easier & they learn a routine & the good things associated with it.
 
Crazypetlady said:
Tigger runs mostly in the low to mid 200s on average. A few high 200s when I first started but not recently. I do write results and notes in a paper notebook to look back on. I don't have a spreadsheet because he fights testing his BG alot. I'm lucky to get one every other day if he's feeling cooperative.
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You could always get a freestyle libre; expensive though, like 150 for the puck which you strap to a shaved part of the cat. Only lasts 2 weeks; gives you constant blood glucose levels though. If you can only test once per day; i’d test midday between doses, and then alternate between AM before dose, midday, and PM before dose. Gives you a good estimate of his levels at the times that matter.

So for testing; where do you test? Should be the ear in the edge. They have less pain nerves there and lots of tiny blood vessels. You give him a treat; have you tried something else that he enjoys? He looks like an energetic cat; maybe try to associate play with testing? Try different treats, and multiple treats if need be.

That being said; if you find that it’s starting to affect your bond then you might consider stepping back for a bit. Caregiver avoidance can develop if he starts associating you with fear/pain (testing). But if the net outcome is positive for him then caregiver avoidance is not really possible. If one treat isn’t doing it; give him 3. And try a play session after testing; sam loves playing now, I use it when after i give him a shot.

Also; please take care of yourself. This can all be super stressful. You don’t have to figure it all out this week. If his drinking and appetite are relatively normal then a few weeks won’t hurt. For a cat like him who hates testing you could ask your (hopefully new) vet for a fructosamine test. It measures the average blood sugar over the last 2-3 weeks. It’s used widely by vets now for determining when a cat is regulated (even though a blood glucose curve would be better, but the stress of being kept in a metal cage at the vet and poked 5 times raises blood sugar and can contaminate the results, which is why vets seem to use fructosamine more now). For a cat on vetsulin fructosamine will be less useful, as it only measures averages and often a cat on that insulin goes mildly hypo after their dose then hyper, averaging out to be ‘normal’.
 
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I just read how much he’s on; 5 units is a lot of vetsulin, and the massive drop in blood sugar could cause confusion, stress, and puking.
 
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