I don’t understand why the vet would advise discontinuing the Atopica if it will result in you having to euthanize your beloved cat. I have never read in any of the information about its side effects that Atopica raises blood glucose. I have looked into it for several of my cats due to severe allergic dermatitis. I understand how bad that can be. We’ve had some completely bald cats around here and those who lick into their skin. My poor baby Marcus had to go off of his Dexamethasone (a steroid) this past summer when he had an overgrowth of Demodex mites and bacteria on his skin. It was almost unbearable for him. He had to wear a surgical recovery suit to prevent him licking himself as much (it even had legs on the suit.). We gave him Gabapentin to sedate him a little and that helped keep the licking down. After a couple of months though, we restarted the Dexamethasone. It does raise his BG a little bit on the days he gets the pill (every other day.). Marcus isn’t diabetic but he is FIV+ so it’s not optimal that he has to take an immunosuppressive steroid every other day, but he usually stays pretty healthy and he has to have it or his quality of life would be awful. Honestly, I think that it’s our house that is causing the allergies. I hope that I can soon get a Reme Halo whole house air cleaning system to remove allergens.
There are cats here who must take a steroid (usually prednisolone) for various medical conditions like asthma or IBD, and it does raise their blood glucose on the day that they take it, but it can be managed with insulin. For some cats it doesn’t raise the BG enough to warrant any changes in insulin.
