Diabetic Neuropathy and Methylcobalamin Injections

Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Rebecca Caro

Member Since 2022
My cat Jack has pretty sever diabetic neuropathy but I will not be able to get the methylcobalamin pills into him so I’m looking at injections. I found at 10,000mcg/10ml. How much should he be getting daily? My vet has not been of much help as there’s no scientific evidence to prove it works on helping diabetic neuropathy.
 
I can't answer your question regarding injections, just wanted to say that zobaline tablets are super easy to crush into a very fine powder and mix with food. Even my super picky cat doesn't notice it in her wet food.
If your cat rejects food with the powder in it, you could also dilute the crushed tablet in a tiny bit of water and give it orally with a syringe. Just throwing those options out there :)
Of course if your cat doesn't suffer any kind of oral meds, that's another story... and I'm sure experienced members will know about the injections!
 
Can you tell me how big they are? He is extremely, extremely picky and is also an IBD cat on chemo. Very small pills he will eat with a pill pocket but I have to be able to break it up the pills into tiny pieces and lightly wrap them and sprinkle with freeze dried chicken treats lol
 
I just measured one, it's flat and round and 1/4 inch wide. It doesn't really cut like other pills, but rather crumbles if that makes sense? I crush them with the back of a spoon and the powder is super fine, like baby powder. Not 100% sure it would cut neatly into small pieces.
 
The injections you mentioned are not what is needed for the neuropathy. You need the methyl B12 tablets. I used Zobaline which is made specifically for cats. You can buy it from lifelink.com
I used to sprinkle it over the food or mix it in and Sheba never noticed it. It crumbles easily.
Most vets don’t know about it and are sceptical, but it works. Sheba had it badly but recovered fully. You also need to get the BGs into more normal numbers for it to resolve.
 
Methyl B-12 for neuropathy it's tasteless ,just sprinkle it on the wet food and add water to it. Give one per day open the capsule sprinkle it on his wet food and add water and mix it up
https://www.vitacost.com/vitacost-vitamin-b-12-methylcobalamin-5000-mcg-100-capsules-6
14.49 for 100 capsules
Once you start to get Jack's BG regulated and starting the Methyl B-12 you should start seeing an improvement
Tyler had neuropathy and he's back to walking and jumping
Took about less than 2 months, but every couple of weeks I saw improvement
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
The injections you mentioned are not what is needed for the neuropathy. You need the methyl B12 tablets. I used Zobaline which is made specifically for cats. You can buy it from lifelink.com
I used to sprinkle it over the food or mix it in and Sheba never noticed it. It crumbles easily.
Most vets don’t know about it and are sceptical, but it works. Sheba had it badly but recovered fully. You also need to get the BGs into more normal numbers for it to resolve.
Click to expand...
What why would pills be different then injections? Both are methylcobalamin not cyanocobalamin.
 
I have spoken to some others and apparently you can use the MethylB12 injections if you can find them. Someone thought you might need a script to get them. I can’t help you with the dose.
The dose of the oral Zobaline tablets is 3 mg, one daily.
 
Yea I found it and got a script but not sure if it’s exactly the conversion of mg to mcg because that would be 3000mcg and seems like a lot.
 
Yea that’s what I got using a simple conversion of mg to mcg but thats a huge daily dose if it’s 10,000 mcg per 10ml I’m going through a bottle every 3 days or so. Also, typically injectable meds would be a smaller dose since it’s not being processed by the stomach. Meh. I guess I’ll just need to wing it.
 
Rebecca Caro said:
My cat Jack has pretty sever diabetic neuropathy but I will not be able to get the methylcobalamin pills into him so I’m looking at injections. I found at 10,000mcg/10ml. How much should he be getting daily? My vet has not been of much help as there’s no scientific evidence to prove it works on helping diabetic neuropathy.
Click to expand...
My boy takes Zobaline everyday & it helped tremendously. It's probably cheaper as well. I get my from Amazon or chewy no script required.
 
Rebecca Caro said:
Yea that’s what I got using a simple conversion of mg to mcg but thats a huge daily dose if it’s 10,000 mcg per 10ml I’m going through a bottle every 3 days or so. Also, typically injectable meds would be a smaller dose since it’s not being processed by the stomach. Meh. I guess I’ll just need to wing it.
Click to expand...
For what it’s worth, the dose for the regular B12 injections I use to give my IBD cat once weekly were 250mcg (0.25mL of a 1000mcg/mL solution). Agree with you that injected amounts are generally much smaller, since there is no waste of absorption in the stomach.
 
Chrispooky12 said:
My boy takes Zobaline everyday & it helped tremendously. It's probably cheaper as well. I get my from Amazon or chewy no script required.
Click to expand...
Yea that’s the issue is that getting him to take pills is extremely difficult. He also has GI Lymphoma and is on chemo and extremely picky about what he eats and what it tastes like so getting the supplement into orally will mean me torturing him and shoving it down his throat. Injectable means I don’t have to torture him. I just can’t seem to find anyone who can guide me on dosing
 
Rebecca Caro said:
Yea that’s the issue is that getting him to take pills is extremely difficult. He also has GI Lymphoma and is on chemo and extremely picky about what he eats and what it tastes like so getting the supplement into orally will mean me torturing him and shoving it down his throat. Injectable means I don’t have to torture him. I just can’t seem to find anyone who can guide me on dosing
Click to expand...
Maybe ask the manufacturer for guidance for doses for a cat.
 
Rebecca Caro said:
Yea that’s the issue is that getting him to take pills is extremely difficult. He also has GI Lymphoma and is on chemo and extremely picky about what he eats and what it tastes like so getting the supplement into orally will mean me torturing him and shoving it down his throat. Injectable means I don’t have to torture him. I just can’t seem to find anyone who can guide me on dosing
Click to expand...
Zobaline has no taste & you can mix it in with there food I put it in a pill crusher.
 
I’ve used injectable cyanocobalamin but never the injectable methycobalamin (I always just used oral Zobaline). However, there is a discussion about the B vitamins and dosage on Tanya’s Feline CRF website — https://felinecrf.org/vitamin_b.htm — partially quoted below.

“A commonly used dose for injectable cyanocobalamin is 250-500mcg every week or every two weeks. Drugs recommends 0.25 to 0.5 ml of the 1000mcg/1ml concentration (so 250-500mcg), every 1-2 weeks as required.

Although it is more bioavailable than cyanocobalamin, I understand from those who have used injectable methylcobalamin that the dosage is the same as for injectable cyanocobalamin, i.e. 0.25ml of the 1000mcg/ml strength (which is 250mcg); however, it is normally only given every 2-4 weeks (although some members of Tanya's Support Group give it more often). Be guided by your vet on the best protocol for your cat.”
 
JL and Chip said:
I’ve used injectable cyanocobalamin but never the injectable methycobalamin (I always just used oral Zobaline). However, there is a discussion about the B vitamins and dosage on Tanya’s Feline CRF website — https://felinecrf.org/vitamin_b.htm — partially quoted below.

“A commonly used dose for injectable cyanocobalamin is 250-500mcg every week or every two weeks. Drugs recommends 0.25 to 0.5 ml of the 1000mcg/1ml concentration (so 250-500mcg), every 1-2 weeks as required.

Although it is more bioavailable than cyanocobalamin, I understand from those who have used injectable methylcobalamin that the dosage is the same as for injectable cyanocobalamin, i.e. 0.25ml of the 1000mcg/ml strength (which is 250mcg); however, it is normally only given every 2-4 weeks (although some members of Tanya's Support Group give it more often). Be guided by your vet on the best protocol for your cat.”
Click to expand...
This is fantastic!!! Thank you!!!!
 
Newman is extremely picky about his food. I can be certain that the Zobaline is odorless and tasteless, easy to crush between two spoons and delivered on the wet cat food. For added success, I sandwiched the crushed powder between two portions of the food, so it is further hidden. He never turned it down. Because of experience with my other diabetic cat many years ago, I knew what to look for and caught Newman's neuropathy early. It has been very effective and after about 6 weeks, I weaned him away from it.

I don't mind giving injections, but I would rather save that procedure for the insulin.
 
Linda and Newman said:
Newman is extremely picky about his food. I can be certain that the Zobaline is odorless and tasteless, easy to crush between two spoons and delivered on the wet cat food. For added success, I sandwiched the crushed powder between two portions of the food, so it is further hidden. He never turned it down. Because of experience with my other diabetic cat many years ago, I knew what to look for and caught Newman's neuropathy early. It has been very effective and after about 6 weeks, I weaned him away from it.

I don't mind giving injections, but I would rather save that procedure for the insulin.
Click to expand...
Not meaning to hijack your post..question for @Linda and Newman When you say you weened him off of it, are you talking about the Zobaline? If so why did you ween him off of it?
 
Chrispooky12 said:
Not meaning to hijack your post..question for @Linda and Newman When you say you weened him off of it, are you talking about the Zobaline? If so why did you ween him off of it?
Click to expand...

Yes, I weaned him from the Zobaline when the symptoms of neuropathy were no longer present.

Early symptoms that I observed and reason why I decided to use the Zobaline, were his hesitancy to jump onto places that he normally had and when he did decide to jump, his hind feet would sometimes strike the edge of the targeted place. He also had a slight tremor in one of his hind legs when he was stretched out, relaxing.
 
Rebecca Caro said:
This is fantastic!!! Thank you!!!!
Click to expand...
I want to caveat by saying the info quoted (from Tanya’s site) in my previous post might not be specific to or ideal dosing/frequency for diabetic neuropathy, but it’s at least a starting point.

I recall many years ago that an FDMB member, Jason and Mr. Kitts, used injectable methylcobalamin for Mr. Kitts’ neuropathy and swore by it. I believe he used it daily but I have no idea of dose.

The original posts were on the old board, the data from which has since been lost. However, some of the info was reposted here on the new board. Here’s a link to that post (there’s also a link to a word doc that seems to still be active which contains research info, though I believe it’s on humans). The original info was from the 2006 timeframe, I believe.

https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/mr-kitts-injectable-methylcobalamin-info.4016/

You might want to search the board for “Mr Kitts” or “Kitts” to see if you can dig up anything else. There have been a few discussions over the years about injectable methylcobalamin but its use in cats is relatively uncommon.

If you do end up going with the methyl-B12 injections, please post updates and let us know how things are going, as well as your sourcing and dosing. It would be interesting data to have.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top