Go Emergency Vet or wait 24 hours own Vet

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Nereus & Jennifer

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Have a 12 year old male neutered rescue cat, have had about 9 years,. He was FIV when I found him. He has also been diagnosed with asthma, glaucoma, Herpes in eyes, ringworm, overinfestation of normal cat mites. (no intestinal parisites found). He was diagnosed diabetic about a month ago and takes 2 units Lantis 2X a day. He has also had intestinal problems.
He takes, prednisolone, terbutline-asthma,
methazolamide- glaucoma and dorzolamide drops.
For some type of stomach problem undiagnosed as of yet, He has had metronidazole two rounds of 8 days each time - last pill May 21st.
On Friday saw Vet doing ok, blood test came back and Dr said to maintain at 2Units Lantis.
Then Sat night about 8ish a few hours after last meds and shot. He started getting diarrhea. In the night he also started vomiting.
This Sun AM no eating drinking, I haven't given any meds just the dorzolamide eye drops.
I did give him some maple syrup on gums--no change.
I can get him into his own VET who knows his complete history probably 8AM Monday.
Should I just take him right now to Emergency Vet. I dont' have a ton of money and I am not sure I trust emergency Vets.
Any ideas?
 
When diabetics get sick their blood sugar tends to rise as a side effect of their bodies fighting off the infection. The vomiting and diarrhea would have also made him dehydrated and raised his blood sugar further. Stopping his insulin will have made it get even higher. The combination of all these things probably means he has dangerously high blood sugars that need to be dealt with immediately and you need to take him to the ER vet ASAP. Keytones are a side effect of this as the body can't use insulin to change glucose into energy so it starts breaking down muscles and organs, producting toxic keytones as a side effect. The ketoacidosis the other poster mentioned is when these keytone levels get to a critical level and that is life threatening.

Ask them to test his blood sugar and keytone levels and a basic chem 7/13 electrlyte panel to see how bad he is. He'll need to get restarted on insulin asap and depending on his keytones levels he may also need IV fluids to flush them out of his system. If his keytone levels and electrolyte balance are not critical they may be able to just give him sub Q fluids (cheaper), restart his insulin and monitor his glucose til you can get him into your regular vet.

Stopping insulin when diabetics are sick are not eating seems like the right thing to do but it isn't. I know this from personal experience as I am type 1 diabetic and stopped my insulin when I got sick and couldn't eat about 20 years ago. It nearly killed me and I spent 5 days in hospital on an IV drip while they tried to get all my electrolyte levels and blood glucose stabilised :shock:
 
Update
Glucose level 221 , ketones negative.
Gave him subq fluids, shot to stop vomiting, and metronidazole for diarrhea.
He might have IBD or GI cancer that would just be one more diagnosis to add to his list. ;-)
All for under $250
After and if he eats tonight the reccommendation is to give his reg dose of Lantis or if he eats just a little half the dose.
Thanks for ER recommendation.
 
If the steroid is given by mouth or injection, it may be contributing to his diabetes.

Have you read about the Aerokat? It is a mask to fit a cat so you can use inhaled steroids for asthma, putting the medicine in the lungs where the inflammation is occurring. Pop over to Fritz the Brave to read more about using inhaled asthma meds in cats.
 
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