Curious about cats on insulin forever?

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paige

paige

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My husband and I were having a discussion about diabetes in felines and I had a question that I wanted to ask. For those limited felines that never go into remission......do their insulin requirements increase over time? In other words, would a cat that has been diabetic for 3 years need to have a larger dose every year?

Just curious how their bodies react to the insulin. Just like some people's bodies require higher dose over time.

thanks again :-D
 
I have not seen the need for an increase over time with any of mine. I have seen a decrease when I changed their diet to a lower carb one. When i received Mitten she was on 5 units bid and eating dry WD. Now she is on canned and about 1/2 unit bid.
 
My Gwyn has been dependent on steroids for about 16 years now, and diabetic for five. We've never even been close to remission, but were pretty sure from the start that that would be beyond us because of the steroids.

Since becoming stabilised on 4u PZI BID, Gwyn's insulin requirements haven't really changed much over the years, and any changes we've seen we're pretty certain we know what's caused the changes: a lower-carb base product for her food mix lowers her insulin needs, a UTI increases it; sub-Q fluids lower it, a packed colon increases it. After five years, most of the fluctuations are pretty easy to guesstimate these days (although strokes can send things completely haywire for a couple of weeks). But outside of those fluctuations, after five years there's been no real change in Gwyn's initial baseline dose of 4u BID.
 
Ennis has been on insulin continuously since July 2006. 3.5 years. Once I got him regulated on Levemir around December 2006, there has been no significant change in his insulin requirements. As JJ said, there are times when something else is going on--for Ennis, usually a low-grade infection from his nasty mouth--that causes an increase in insulin requirement. For Ennis, an increase usually means going from SID to BID. (There are times he does beautifully on SID.) But when he's getting slightly higher PS levels and needing insulin BID, I know it's time to do something for his mouth. Either a dental procedure or a round of Clindamycin.

On the other hand, when Ennis's insulin needs are significantly lower, for example, when he stays below 80 for 3 to 4 days without insulin, I worry about cancer. Last year, I even insisted on X-rays and and US because his insulin needs were significantly lower. All came back well.

Being a long-term, "permanent" diabetic, Ennis's BG levels are a very good indicator of his health situation otherwise. Thankfully, we are not dealing with issues like CRF, UTI, and IBD. I'm not sure I could appropriately analyze the status of those health conditions through his BG numbers,
 
Tucker was adopted in 2005 and dx shortly after. Not sure how long before that he was FD (untreated). Over the years his insulin requirements have gone down. He also went into remission for over a year.

He is currently on Lev and just had his dose reduced last week, or I should say "tweaked." He went from about 0.75U BID to a fat 0.5 U, maybe around 0.6U BID.
 
The answer is an emphatic NO. Thomas has been on insulin now for 9 years, and is getting less insulin than previous. For the first 7 or so years he was also a BID cat, but in the last 2 years he has done well on SID dosing. As well depending on the time of year it is, his needs can go up and down. The only thing that remains the same, is the amounnt of vigilance, it takes us as his family, to figure these things out.
Dana
 
Same with Gandalf. Although I see some lower numbers and try to reduce, it doesn't hold. He's been receiving insulin since January 31st, 2005 - so 5 years the end of this month. He is a steroid/dry food induced diabetic. I blame both because he ate Hill's Hairball Control food for at least 5 years and was 18 pounds at diagnosis. Combining the 2 his poor pancreas didn't have a chance.
 
Thank you to all! That is wonderful to hear that their little bodies don't progressively require more and more insulin. I am glad to hear that all of your babies are even needing less over the years. I am fascinated in learning about how their body reacts to a disease that we can get too.

Gwyn--you have a little trooper there. ;-)
 
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