Help and Reassurance

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beckyandwinston

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Hi my name is Becky and my gorgeous cat Winston was diagnosed with diabetes on 26th February. He was a 7.2kg cat and was put on 1ml of caninsulin twice a day. But this weekend I had to take him in as he just wasn't right. The vet admitted him straight away and his glucose levels were off the scale so he had to have a hospital stay all weekend. They have upped his dose now to 1.5ml twice a day but his levels are up and down, either off the scale or as high as 30, but then dropping down to just over 10. He had also lost a kg of weight in just two weeks. He has had blood tests and wee tests which I will get the results of today to see if there are any other problems. I want to know if this is normal when you are first diagnosed with feline diabetes? Am so worried that there is something else going on and not just the fact that we haven't got the right amount of insulin yet. Has anyone else had this problem with their feline 'babies'? Any help and reassurance would be very welcome.
 
Caninsulin is not a good insulin for most cats as it's duration is not long enough. What you see on caninsulin is usually a big drop in blood glucose (BG) up to about +4 after the shot and then BG levels rising straight back up again so the cat ends up spending way too much time in high numbers. The insulin with the highest proven remission rate for cats is Lantus (AKA Glargine) - using the tight regulation protocol on newly diagnosed cats the remission rate is 84%. Other good options for cats are Levemir or ProZinc.

The best thing you can do for Winston to ensure his safety while on insulin (and also save you a lot of moeny at the vet) is to start home testing his BG levels yourself. You can find video's on YouTube to show you how it's done and also post here and ask any questions that you have about it.

Diet is also an important part of treating diabetic cats. You want to get Winston onto a low carb canned food diet if you have not already done so but need to be careful about doing that while he is already using insulin if he has been eating something else, particularly dry food. The change in diet alone can have a dramatic effect in decreasing BG levels and if you are not monitoring you could end up with a kitty in hypo.

It's impossible to know what's going on with Winston without more detail, I assume the vet has ruled out ketones so hopefully the other tests they have taken result in some answers for you. I would definitely be changing insulins though.

P.S. the candle and rainbow icons are usually reserved for when a cat has passed on.
 
Hi thank you for your post. I have gradually changed his food over to Hills w/d wet food, he still has a small amount of whiskas, he was not a fan of dry food and even though I have HIlls w/d dry food he doesn't eat it, he tends to eat round it, but he's been having fish and chicken as well. Thankfully when I took him in on saturday there were no ketones which was a relief and when I go in today to get the results I will ask the vet about changing insulin and home testing. At the moment I just want to get him stable and not have to constantly watch him to make sure he ok as I'm sure he gets fed up with me wandering round the house checking he ok and disturbing him. Its nice to read that there are so many other people out there that have been in the same situation.
 
Whiskas loaf varieties are low carb but the other types of Whiskas aren't your best choices.

One of the joys of home testing is that you won't have to worry like that anymore, if you are worried you can just test :-D
 
Ok great I'll look out for Whiskas loaf when I next do my shop. Am just dreading going to the vets this evening as to what the results say but just hope because he is such a big cat that its just the dose we need to get right and I have to tell myself its only just been over 4 weeks since he go diagnosed and these things have to go slowly. Thankyou for your reassurance. :smile:
 
Please ask for either Lantus (glargine) or Levemir (detemir) insulin. Lantus is being used more often in cats now. Studies have shown Levemir may work a little longer for cats, but either one is better than Caninsulin.

I assume you are either in Europe or Canada? Surely this incident proves Caninsulin is not working for Winston. I understand that switching insulins can be an issue in Europe. In Canada I think you can get either of these insulins without a prescription.

Here is more information about Levemir if your vet has not heard of it.

http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2007/07/17/5316/lantus-and-levemir--whats-the-difference/

ACVIM abstract 2009http://www.felinediabetes.com/phorum5/read.php?15,1778958

Levemir info from the Insulin Support Grouphttp://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=681

Basic User infohttp://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=682

University of Illinois study using Levemir in catshttps://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/16049/1_Gilor_Chen.pdf?sequence=3

Those should help any vet feel more confident that Levemir works very well for cats. We see good remission rates here if it is begun early and even cats who have been on another insulin for 2 years have gone into remission on Levemir.
 
Hi VIcky and Gandalf, who looks very much like my Winston only slightly fluffier. I will try and get a picture on here of him. I am in the UK, near Portsmouth, and will ask the vet about changing insulin when I go later for his results. Am just worried now that there may be some other problem that he has as well, like kidney disease or thyroid problem as they all seem to have the same symptoms! Its worrying enough when you first get diagnosed but have found the injecting part really easy so far and am hoping that we just need to get his level of insulin right as he is quite big cat and has only just gone up to 1.5ml twice a day, whereas another cat at my vets of similar size is on 5ml a day so am hoping that by increasing the dose gradually I will get my happy gorgeous boy back as I am no ready to lose him yet. I lost his brother last year to a pancreatic tumour which I still haven't really gotten over so will do anything to keep my Winston around with me for a long time yet.
 
Most cats on a low carb, canned diet (NO dry food), do not need much more than 1u of insulin. Since Caninsulin does not work well in cats, many cats get the dose raised too high, and this creates a dangerous situation with hypoglycemia.

Hills W/D, canned or dry, is not something you want to feed a diabetic cat. In fact, I think Hills W/D is what caused my Bandit's diabetes. It has an extremely high carbohydrate content which makes the diabetes worse and the need for insulin higher. That's probably why the other cat at your vet needs such a high dose of insulin.

I would definitely see about changing the insulin to Lantus or Levemir. These insulins are great for cats and have very high remission rates.
 
beckyandwinston said:
Hi VIcky and Gandalf, who looks very much like my Winston only slightly fluffier. I will try and get a picture on here of him. I am in the UK, near Portsmouth, and will ask the vet about changing insulin when I go later for his results. Am just worried now that there may be some other problem that he has as well, like kidney disease or thyroid problem as they all seem to have the same symptoms! Its worrying enough when you first get diagnosed but have found the injecting part really easy so far and am hoping that we just need to get his level of insulin right as he is quite big cat and has only just gone up to 1.5ml twice a day, whereas another cat at my vets of similar size is on 5ml a day so am hoping that by increasing the dose gradually I will get my happy gorgeous boy back as I am no ready to lose him yet. I lost his brother last year to a pancreatic tumour which I still haven't really gotten over so will do anything to keep my Winston around with me for a long time yet.
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I think you will have difficulty getting Levemir, but you may have better luck getting Lantus from your vet. It seems in the UK, they think caninsulin is good enough for cats, but it does not last long enough.
There was another lady whose vet refused to consider other insulins, but she had her vet contact a vet in NY, http://www.drmarkepeterson.com/

I believe that their exchange resulted in the cat being put on Lantus insulin.
Sometimes UK vets need some proof from other vets.
The lady I know, her vet was not pleased about it all, but went along with Lantus after contacting Dr. Peterson since you can't very well dispute a world renowned expert in the field.
http://www.facebook.com/drmarkepeterson - has his contact info.

ETA: I have to agree with Vicky that Levemir seems to be the way that gives cats a better set of results.
 
beckyandwinston said:
Hi my name is Becky and my gorgeous cat Winston was diagnosed with diabetes on 26th February. He was a 7.2kg cat and was put on 1ml of caninsulin twice a day.
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Welcome :smile:

Insulin is typically measured in units, not ml. Your dose is 1 unit (or 0.01 ml).

1 ml would be an massive overdose for a cat :shock:

I agree with the others about using a better insulin. Caninsulin works great for dogs but not so much for most diabetic cats.

Felix in jelly and Butcher's Classic are two good UK canned (tinned) foods to feed a diabetic cat. There are other suggestions in this thread: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?p=33786
 
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