Hello and advice needed

[Stormyy]

Hi!

I have a 19 year old male cat, cross breed. My boy has been diagnosed as diabetic since october officially but i suspect he had it in august/september. We are in the UK.

Wow it has been a journey. I've been lurking the forums for a while but now is the time I need some help and advice from you, who all seem very knowledgable.

My boy is on 2 caninsulin twice a day. His blood glucose testings are still throwing me results in the mid 20's even on that dose, after a very poorly period two weeks ago he has now also been diagnosed with CKD stage two and had fluids overnight.

He seems to be recovering ok from those events and is slowly getting back to himself, as much as he can be at his ripe old age.

We were previously feeding set times twice a day just before the shot, however my vet said that was the old style and so now we feed him 4 times throughout the day also on set times. We recently changed over (over the past month) from a 200 calorie diet a day (they changed the recipe and he just wasn't having it) katkins to Purina diabetic mousse, which he does eat. He has started to get bored so I also bought some of the scrumbles pate which he loves and mix it in and it seems to have worked up his appetite.

He is consistently eating the full can of mousse which the guideline says only half a can for his weight and a full can of scrumbles throughout the day, plus some naughty treats. We had solid poops 90% of the time and not really any vomiting.

My problem is despite all this, we had a weight gain, and now are continually on a down from his high when we got him back up to 3.25, we are now sitting at 3.1 and I just cannot get him to gain weight. I do have a checkup with the vet on monday to discuss things, and i'm not ready to give up yet, and neither is he, but I am at a bit of a loss at how we can get weight back on when hes eating more than what the weight suggestion says.

I am considering asking for hyperthyroid testing as they will be doing his bloods to check on his kidneys anyway. But any help/advice would be very much appreciated, i'm pretty desperate here!
Note but isn't really affecting the diabeetus; my boy also has skin cancer on his nose.

Thanks,
Stormyy

 

[Red & Rover (GA)]

Insulin transports the end product of metabolism (glucose) into the cells. If there's insufficient insulin, the glucose remains in the blood and your cat is literally starving to death.
Caninsulin is not the best insulin for cats. In the UK, vets have to follow a certain protocol. (See below.) Try Caninsulin first. If Caninsulin isn't doing the trick, the vet is allowed to switch to Prozinc which is a much better insulin for felines.

And welcome. Waving from Canada.

From:https://www.rvc.ac.uk/Media/Default/small-animal/documents/feline-diabetes-guide.pdf

2) Use a long-acting insulin to reduce the pathological hyperglycaemia Two insulin preparations are currently licensed for treatment of feline diabetes in the UK: Caninsulin® (MSD Animal Health; porcine lente type insulin) and ProZinc® (Boehringer Ingelheim; protamine zinc recombinant human insulin); these preparations should be considered first before other insulin types are used. While there is no legitimate reason to switch cats that are well-controlled on Caninsulin to ProZinc, current treatment guidelines recommend to initiate treatment of DM in cats using insulin preparations with the longest possible duration of action. In the cat, protamine zinc insulin (ProZinc) is therefore preferred (Sparkes et al, 2015). Most studies found protamine zinc insulin, glargine and detemir to be associated with the longest duration of action, though direct comparison studies are still lacking (Gostelow et al, 2014). Insulin types with a lower concentration (veterinary licensed options: 40 units/ ml, versus human insulin types: 100 units/ml) enable more accurate administration of typical cat dosages. Each patient will show an individual response to an individual insulin type, introducing a significant element of unpredictability. The bottom line remains: use the insulin type that achieves the principle goal of sufficiently lowering the blood glucose to enable a good quality of life without hypoglycaemia or diabetic ketoacidosis. The starting dose of any insulin type is a dose that is safe and is unlikely to cause hypoglycaemia. This is often achieved with one (average sized cat) or two (big cat) units per cat per injection. After starting the cat on insulin, it is sent home and the dose remains unalterered until re-evaluation (at home or in-clinic) 7–14 days later. The dose is only altered earlier than 7 days should hypoglycaemia be suspected or documented (unlikely given the modest starting dose​

If you could set up a spreadsheet, it would be very helpful.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Do you happen to know that amount of carbohydrates in the foods you're feeding your cat? If the food is high in carbs, it's not going to help to get your cat into decent blood glucose numbers. This is a link to canned cat foods that are available in the UK. You want to be feeding your cat foods that are under 10% carb.

 

[Stormyy]

Do you happen to know that amount of carbohydrates in the foods you're feeding your cat? If the food is high in carbs, it's not going to help to get your cat into decent blood glucose numbers. This is a link to canned cat foods that are available in the UK. You want to be feeding your cat foods that are under 10% carb.

Hey!

Thank you for your reply!

Currently; according to that spread he has 1 can of the purine dm pro plan mousse - 3.7 carbs and then scrumbles pate, which is on there but not sure if its the exact same, 1 can a day (https://scrumbles.co.uk/products/pate-cat-food-selection-tins) I have no idea how to work that out though!

I believe they are both under the 10% but combined?

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

You would need to average out the carbs based on how much of each food (e.g., the number of ounces) you're giving your kitty.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Can feed more than 4 times a day as well if he will eat it. Feed the 2 main meals and then give 2 or 3 snacks during each cycle as well. That’s what a lot of us do.
I would also encourage you to try and get the insulin swapped over to prozinc.

 

[Stormyy]

I have the vets tomorrow, praying he has put on weight since my last time weighing him but it is what it is.
He will also get his solensia tomorrow too. We have moved from feeding twice a day to his two main feeds at 9 before his injections then twice more throughout the day for two smaller portions which seems to have livened him up abit actually!
Can we get prozinc in the form of cartridges for the diabetic pens?