False diabetes diagnosis?

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Katt and Nik

Katt and Nik

Member Since 2017
Hi to all, and am SO happy hubs found this forum! Okay, I warn you in advance this may be a bit long winded. Just want to give all info I know so far. I rushed our four year old kitty Nik to vet b/c of urination probs.. He was diagnosed with a UTI. Vet seemed to confuse my telling him that Nik drank plenty of water and had lost weight as signs of diabetes ( along with the UTI). He did a test on his urine and reported that his glucose was 350. He told me that sometimes stress can cause high nos., but not that high. I agreed to have blood workup done and he called the next day with the results, that he definitely had diabetes. His glucose was 351, and that there were ketones in his urine, in his words that was the "nail in the coffin"! Nice, right?! He told me to give him 2 units of vetsulin twice daily and come back in three weeks to be checked again. Well, as all or most of you know,it was a shock to say the least! I did go this morning and picked up the insulin and got copies of all tests. Under the glucose result it says, 'a fructosamine level may be helpful in differentiating stress hyperglycemia from early or sub-clinical diabetes mellitus'. They recommend he add on to that test. He didn't. The urinalysis said the urine color was red and the ketone was trace. A note under it said, 'discolored urine may cause false positive results'. Bought a glucose monitor today and we checked him twice this evening 1st was 69 and 3.5 hrs later was 86. We have NOT given him any insulin. We will continue testing throughout the weekend and I plan to find the ketone strips recommended here, but my thought is that he isn't diabetic.
 
Hi Katt and Nik, and welcome!

So did the vet run the fructosamine test? Is that what got the 351? or what test showed that number?

Thank goodness you decided to home test before giving insulin!!!
 
I would be questioning the diagnosis too. Your home testing might prove the vet wrong. Let us know how the weekend goes and how the ketone tests turn out.
 
Thank you :)
No, he didn't order it. It was the glucose test that was 351.
Thank goodness we read this forum so we knew to home test!!!
I just really feel that it's highly unlikely that he's diabetic. No, I don't think I'm in denial, lol. I just wonder how often this happens. And it infuriates me. We could have really hurt our baby if we had just blindly followed his instructions.
 
Absolutely! We had someone here that had a "false" diagnosis. She gave her cat an insulin shot on a very low BG for insulin users. We stayed up all night with her and she fed the cat all night long. He didn't go above 70-80 the whole time. We started to catch on but we were not sure if that was the case. After 24 or 48 hours of no insulin she had tests done again (a few days later if I remember correctly) and turns out he didn't need insulin. Was a happy ending to what we thought was a crisis.
 
StephG said:
Absolutely! We had someone here that had a "false" diagnosis. She gave her cat an insulin shot on a very low BG for insulin users. We stayed up all night with her and she fed the cat all night long. He didn't go above 70-80 the whole time. We started to catch on but we were not sure if that was the case. After 24 or 48 hours of no insulin she had tests done again (a few days later if I remember correctly) and turns out he didn't need insulin. Was a happy ending to what we thought was a crisis.
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Wow! Thank God!!
This vet didn't seem too keen when I told him that we planned to home test. If we hadn't it would been a whole 3 weeks!
 
I'm so glad I found this site too. I took my kitty to his vet for the weekly BG check (before I started testing) and he was at 65 (pet meter) and on insulin. Vet told me to skip evening shot but give a reduced shot the next morning. I decided that morning I was going to test at home no matter what. He was at 85 that morning and didn't need any insulin. Had I blindly shot him it would have been a very bad consequence.
 
Squalliesmom said:
It might not have been three weeks, it might have been the end for your beloved kitty! Thank heavens you tested first!!!
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Right! It very well could have been.
I am so grateful for all of you! We've learned a whole lot in a short amount of time from this forum. From home testing and where and how to draw blood to the difference in meters to collecting urine for testing.
 
Lillie said:
I'm so glad I found this site too. I took my kitty to his vet for the weekly BG check (before I started testing) and he was at 65 (pet meter) and on insulin. Vet told me to skip evening shot but give a reduced shot the next morning. I decided that morning I was going to test at home no matter what. He was at 85 that morning and didn't need any insulin. Had I blindly shot him it would have been a very bad consequence.
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Good on ya!!!
 
So glad you found this site first. Sadly people do follow the vet blindly. I was one of them..

Was a thyroid test done?
 
Katt and Nik said:
There were a whole bunch of tests, but I don't see anything that says thyroid. Would it be called anything else?
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And, by the way, I've blindly followed all sort of Drs advice blindly before too. It's all a learning experience! Plus, there's a certain freedom that comes with old age in that you don't give a crap what people say or think, you just gotta go with your gut.
 
Once you set up your spreadsheet you can input the lab results on the Lab tab. If you set it up... maybe and hopefully you won't need one!
 
StephG said:
Once you set up your spreadsheet you can input the lab results on the Lab tab. If you set it up... maybe and hopefully you won't need one!
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Hopefully!
I'm as new to this forum thing as I am to feline diabetes, lol.
I am definitely going to change their food now, hopefully as a preventive, but now I feel I can take a little time and do more thorough research on that.
 
Thank goodness you tested. Some things that could have caused that high number are vet stress, and the uti! If you're cat does wind up needing insulin, a dose of 2 is double the recommended starting dose. Keep testing and let us know what numbers you get.
 
JanetNJ said:
Thank goodness you tested. Some things that could have caused that high number are vet stress, and the uti! If you're cat does wind up needing insulin, a dose of 2 is double the recommended starting dose. Keep testing and let us know what numbers you get.
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I was thinking the same thing. The sickness and a lot of stress. We had to travel an hour to get there and I'm sure my anxiety rubbed off on him. I thought he was possibly blocked with crystals. Then he threw up on the way...
 
Katt and Nik said:
I was thinking the same thing. The sickness and a lot of stress. We had to travel an hour to get there and I'm sure my anxiety rubbed off on him. I thought he was possibly blocked with crystals. Then he threw up on the way...
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He may have diabetes, but i doubt he needs two units. Just keep recording numbers. You should try setting up a spreadsheet like the one in the signature. Download Google Sheets Here's a link.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/
 
Katt and Nik said:
Just a quick update on Nik's #s. 11:30/55 2:00/98 4:45/77. Those combined with yesterday's 69 abd 86 and we're darn near convinced his high 351 at vets was stress related! Is it too soon to say WooHoo!? Was unable so far to catch any urine for testing, but not sure it's all that important anymore.
Hugs, love, and peace from Nik and I.
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I believe you are right.
 
We went ahead and tested once today, it was 74. We're done!
I am so grateful to you all and how you are right there to help. These past few days have not been the easiest and I only got a tiny taste of what y'all go through for the health of your sugarbabies. You freakin ROCK!!! I've learned a lot and will be making dietary changes for my babies and will know where to send anyone I might run across who needs your valuable knowledge. God bless you and your babies.
Katt and especially Nik
 
I wonder if my cat isn't miss diagnose its been only a few weeks and I have stopped giving her shots cause her sugar hasn't been over 174 and as I check through out the day it goes down on its own. I asked the vet if there is a disease that may mimic diabetes and they said no not really her sugar was in the 400's but she had a UTI also which high sugar will do that. could remission happen that quickly? I did change her food to wet grain free and grain free dry.
 
Infections can cause BG to be higher so since it's clearing, that may be the reason :). Was your 174 with a human meter or pet meter like Alpha Trak 2? Still on the slightly higher than normal BG range but a good sign that it goes down during the day on its own :)
 
Yong said:
Infections can cause BG to be higher so since it's clearing, that may be the reason :). Was your 174 with a human meter or pet meter like Alpha Trak 2? Still on the slightly higher than normal BG range but a good sign that it goes down during the day on its own :)
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I use the Alpha Trak 2
 
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