Diabetic Cat Advice Needed

[skifast]

Back in the early 80's, we had a cat, Tyrone, with diabetes. He was the first cat that our vet regulated with insulin. We gave him one shot a day, and he did fine. He died at 16 years old and was on insulin for 7 years.

This week our 13 year old Cat, Job, started drinking and urinating a lot. We took him to the vet and sure enough he is diabetic. The vet kept him over night. When we picked him up, the vet told us to give him two shots a day and feed him twice a day. The insulin is Humalin.

From what I have read, Humalin is a short acting insulin. I assume that is why it has to be administered two times a day.

It was more convenient to treat Ty. One shot and we did not have to limit his meals to twice a day. Should we discuss using a different insulin and protocol with our vet, or is each cat different?

 

[Kelly & Oscar]

Cats process things faster and will need 2 shots a day no matter what insulin you choose. Humalin is actually more of an "old school" insulin now because it is too fast acting. Usually it is out of the cat's system in 8 hours or less, leaving 4 hour of more with the cat with no insulin and high numbers. Very hard to regulate. The longer acting insulins of choice now are ProZinc, Lantus, and Levemir. These still need to be given twice a day. The good thing is that will careful monitoring, starting out with a great insulin, and a diet change to a low carb/high protein wet diet, your kitty has the best chance there ever has been of coming off insulin and its pancreas healing. Much better than 7 years of shots in my opinion!

Welcome to our sugar cat site. There is a whole lot of reading to do - many articles on the how-to's of treatment and veterinary journal articles. Feel free to ask any and all questions you may have!

 

[Sue and Oliver (GA)]

Welcome!

There are three insulins that people use here - all milder than Humulin and longer lasting. There are forums for all three: viewforum.php?f=5 (Lantus, Levemir and PZI) There is a forum for Humulin but it is not very busy as few people use that insulin. Read the starred stickies on the top of each forum to get an idea how each works.

As Kelley said, almost all cats need two shots daily.

We also feed our cats wet lo carb food (http://www.catinfo.org) and test them, just like we would our 2 legged children. Video for hometesting

There is lots of good info on this site and it is a good support group. Read, ask lots of questions. We would love to help you help your kitty.