Could surgery have led to the onset of diabetes?

[MayBTheresHope]

I’m curious if an emergency trip to the vet last year might have been at the root of Max’s diabetes onset. On July 17, 2011, he underwent surgery for an abscess on his leg that was caused by a cat fight with a stray tom in our neighborhood (he is an indoor cat, but we let him out whenever we are in the backyard sometimes because he doesn’t tend to wander off like the other of our three cats would. Long story short, we accidentally left him outside all night). While at the vet, he received pain injection, an antibiotic and anesthesia during surgery. They also updated all of his routine vaccinations since he was close to being due for them anyway.

It seems not long after this, I noticed that Max was much perkier and had more energy. He started interacting with us more often. My husband remembers me making the remark that Max was a different cat since his surgery. Shortly after that, we noticed that the litterbox was suddenly sludgy and thought that the litter formulation had changed. This got worse over time and finally we switched to pine litter b/c it was the only litter we could find that didn’t sludge up to the point where we could barely get it out of the litter box. Then we noticed Max at the water bowl a lot.

Finally about two months ago, Max started wanting to eat people food and seemed hungry all of the time. He never ate people food before that…just dry cat food. Not long after that, he started losing weight, which led us to our vet visit last month confirming diabetes. Could something from the surgery, injections, abscess itself caused the onset of Max’s diabetes? I called the vet hospital and they said that he did NOT receive any steroids.

 

[hmjohnston]

It is more likely the constant diet of dry cat food brought on the diabetes.

Other, more experienced people will chime on later, but i know in my Sneakers case it was the dry food. She's never had shots beyond her vaccinations and no steroids at all.

 

[Squeaky and KT (GA)]

I'm not sure you'll ever be able to say "THIS caused him to become diabetic". It could have been many things. He might even have developed it if none of that had happened. Dry food can definitely be a cause but many cats live their whole lives eating dry and never develop diabetes. It could be a gift from his parents... I suspect KT's is due to the dry food and our allowing him to be 4-5 pounds overweight for several years.

HUGS!!!

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

I agree that it's more likely the dry food caused the diabetes. Trauma (like from surgery) can cause temporary high blood sugar, but once he recovered his blood sugar would have gone back down. What you're describing is that he actually seemed to get better from the surgery, and then the diabetes happened. It is possible that the surgery could have triggered full blown diabetes if he was in a sub-clinical state already, but the sub-clinical diabetes caused by diet still would have been the underlying culprit.

As Lyresa mentioned, there can be several different causes of diabetes, but the most common cause for feline diabetes is the high carbohydrate loads in dry cat foods. Cats are obligate carnivores, which means they evolved to need high protein, low carb diets. Check out this vet's web site for more info: http://catinfo.org/. Dry cat foods are like the equivalent of a person eating sugary-cereals for every meal. Eventually, the high sugar/carb load causes type-2 diabetes in some people, and it's the same for cats. Except treatment for diabetes for cats (if done properly) is even more successful than treatment for humans, because a cat's pancreas has the amazing ability to heal itself and begin producing insulin again.

What are you feeding him now? Are you still feeding dry food? There is no dry food that is appropriate for a diabetic cat, since a diabetic needs less than 10% carbs in their diet, and most dry foods are between 25-40% carbs. Some vets will recommend prescription foods for diabetics that are still way too high in carbs, including both canned and dry foods. There are many low carb, canned commercial options to choose from in different price ranges.

The good news is that the large majority of cats (80+%) go into remission and no longer need insulin if the right diet and treatment plan are followed. That consists of three things--a low carb, canned diet, a long-acting insulin (Lantus and Levemir have the best results, but Prozinc has ok results, and Humulin N (NPH) should NOT be used for cats), and small, regular dose adjustments via home testing. That means there's more than hope for him--as long as you get on the right treatment path, it is more likely than not he'll eventually no longer need insulin. My Bandit has been in remission for almost 2 years now, and he's healthier now than he was before his diabetes.

 

[Larry and Kitties]

It may have stressed Max enough to finally trigger his diabetes. Last year my Lightining was being off and I took him to the vet. The found a growth and he was hyperthyroid. The growth was removed during the surgery and a hernia was repaired. He started on thyroid meds and while the first blood test showed the hyperthyroidism was nicely controlled his BG was 280. I took BGs at home and when they reached 300 I started insulin and he is still on it today.
BTW, the vet never noticed the high BG in the blood panel. When I looked over the test results and discussed it with here she though Lightining was just one of my already diabetic cats.