Diabetic and "Insulin" Neuropathy

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Viggo's Mom

Viggo's Mom

Member Since 2016
I was googling "diabetic neuropathy" because my boy has gotten so bad. I used Zobaline for a month and saw no change so I stopped because his poops were very black and he was constipated and I wondered if that was causing it. I am going to start it again because I see on other options. But anyway, in googling I found this article but can't find any more info, regarding "Insulin Neuropathy", mentioned at the end of the piece. It's very curios because this all started for him about 2 days after starting on insulin. Coincidence? Have any of you heard of this rare condition and do you have any input? http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Neuropathy
 
Lack of insulin is the cause of the neural degradation, and the neuropathy. There are a lot of posts on this item.

Leo had neuropathy pretty bad. I gave him Zobaline as well for a few months. Then I stopped because it didn't seem to help. At the same time I did get better at regulating his blood sugar, and he also had the SRT treatment. In summary for Leo, the reversal was obvious. He is not 100%. But his worst neuropathy was very disheartening. And his current capabilities are very good. We are fortunate to have a wealth of information and treatments available to us. And for Leo, his improvement is worth the world to us.
 
Thanks for your reply Jeff. The way I read this article is that Insulin Neuritis is different than Diabetic Neuropathy. ??
 
Skittles had it for a few months but he had it before his DX in Oct 2015. He went into remission in Dec 2015 and by within 3 weeks his was gone. I used zobaline .
 
You are right. I just re-read the article. That last paragraph is indeed different. It would be interesting to see if any cats had the following:
- no neuropathy prior to insulin injections
- then subsequent development of neuropathy while the cat was glycemically balanced

The article says it is rare. Probably because most of the neuropathy we see in cats is from the hyperglycemia.

Leo jumped today - from a coffee table - 2 feet to the top of the couch. Just 4 months ago he could barely get on the couch. At one point his neuropathy was so bad, we though we only had a few more weeks with him because we can't carry him around the house.

If others are reading this....stick with insulin treatments and B12. Neuropathy can get reversed. It is real depressing to see your cat with neuropathy, and incredible to see when they heal from it. We also feed him small protein treats on the top of the washing machine - forcing him to go up the cat ramp step to get to them (1.5 feet to ramp, then 1.5 feet to washing machine). I think this exercise is also beneficial.
 
That is very true how sad it is when they have it. Skittles looked so bad trying to walk around and he could not jump up on anything when he had it. And even though it's been gone for at least a 1.5 year , it still makes me very happy to see him completely jump over the baby gate and even jump up on my bed and my bed is very high off the floor
 
Zobaline takes a while to work. It should not cause any stool issues, your cat cannot overdose on B12. Your cat's BG still needs to be fairly well-regulated to see any improvement from diabetic neuropathy, as it's the excess glucose that is causing the neuropathy in the first place.

I've never heard of insulin neuritis, I did a quick search through my university's library and didn't find a lot of info. I did find one article that talked about it in humans, and I guess it's more common with tight glycemic control patients, which is becoming more common in medicine today so it's becoming more relevant for humans (and cats). It's often associated with more pain than regular diabetic neuropathy, and might have something to do with weight loss, but there's not enough research on it really. With insulin neuritis, or "Treatment-induced neuropathy of diabetes" (TIND), symptoms in this study reduced or disappeared with cessation of insulin... or they can be managed symptomatically with opiods.

I skimmed the article, that's all the relevant info I saw. If you feel your cat is in pain from this, maybe talk to your vet about it and see about getting something like Gabapentin.

 
Has your cat had labs draws recently? There are a couple other things common to diabetics that can mimic neuropathy - low potassium as well as anemia. The low potassium is due to insulin taking potassium out of the bloodstream and pushing it into cells. It can cause leg weakness, generalized weakness, heart issues, and constipation. Anemia can cause generalized weakness as well, and dark colored stools may indicate a GI bleed (black stools can be constipation as well).
 
Thanks Meya14, something to consider. He has had some bloodwork done recently and if there was any indication of those things it wasn't caught. But good for me to know. I never ask for a copy of the blood tests and I need to start doing that. I will bring this up to make sure these things were looked at. Thanks!
 
Viggo's Mom said:
Thanks Meya14, something to consider. He has had some bloodwork done recently and if there was any indication of those things it wasn't caught. But good for me to know. I never ask for a copy of the blood tests and I need to start doing that. I will bring this up to make sure these things were looked at. Thanks!
Click to expand...
My vet emails the labs to me if I ask. May even yours will too.
 
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