Help! Cortisone for cat with diabetes

[ansdlp]

Hi
I have a cat that was diagnosed with diabetes. I am blessed with "healing" hands, so I brought his blood sugar level down from 23 to 4. My vet said he was amazed the cat was still alive with such a high blood sugar reading!
My vet does not believe in home treatment of diabetes cats, and has warned me that I can not give my cat cortisone. However, I only have to treat my cat "with my hands" (I pray while I do it, and my palms get SERIOUSLY hot while I am doing it) VERY seldom - every 5 months or so. I monitor him and his blood sugar closely - his levels stay between 3 and 4.8.
This cat has licked himself till he is bleeding. This condition was previously treated with cortisone tablets given by the vet. The condition then cleared up after a week or so.
Since he had been diagnosed with diabetes she said he can't have cortisone any more.
Problem: the place he licks is on the left back leg at the elbow - I can not prevent the cat from licking there. I have been trying since Dec 2010 to heal this place. He manages to get his paw inside ANY head covering I put on him, and I can not bandage the elbow. All I can do is put a salve on the wound, and try to heal it with my hands. However, while he is licking there, nothing will work.
It looks like I have to use cortisone.
BUT I do not know why a diabetes cat may not have cortisone, and my vet won't tell me. Can I treat him with cortisone, and just monitor his blood sugar levels while I do it? Or is there some other effects that I can't monitor?
He sleeps on my bed, and all my bedding is full of blood. I don't believe it is good for him, and I am sure he must be in pain.
Please help!
ans

 

[Larry and Kitties]

- Use of a steroid can cause diabetics and can cause a cat in remission like your to become diabetic. As you said, you can give it and monitor t the BG and start treating with insulin as necessary. A year or so ago I treated my Thunder with prednesolone, a steroid, for a skin problem and i had to increase his insulin dose.
- What does you vet recommend?

 

[BJM]

An up to date vet will realize, as Larry pointed out, that the use of steroids in cat with or prone to diabetes is most likely going to raise the blood sugar. In that situation, you can adjust the dose of insulin to compensate for the increased blood glucose; your vet should know that.

Many vets are not up to date in the home monitoring and treatment of diabetic cats. We have a number of articles at the top of the forums, especially Lantus, which can help you take steps to get your cat on a low carbohydrate diet, with adequate water intake, using canned, low carbohydrate foods. Binkys Page lists many commercial cat foods and the percent of calories from protein, fat, and carbohydrate. Feeding a diet with less than 10% of the calories from carbohydrate has been very helpful for diabetic cats, and sometimes has enabled them to avoid insulin altogether.

Whether or not you have healing hands, we recommend that you home test your cat's blood glucose so you know the cat's levels and can make an informed decision if and when to use insulin, and if using insulin, whether or not it is safe to give the dose and how to adjust the dose. You can use an over the counter, human glucometer, available from most pharmacies in the diabetic supply section. Many of us in the US use the ReliOn Confirm/Glucocard 01 made by Arkray USA and distributed under the ReliOn name by Walmart and under the Glucocard name by American Diabetes Wholesale

If your cat has an obsessive-compulsive licking problem, there are meds that may help reduce that, such as fluoxetine (Prozac).

If the cat has allergies, it may be possible to do allergy shots (depending on where you live), or, if the allergy can be identified, reduce the exposure to the allergen, and thus reduce the symptoms.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

As Larry and BJ have noted, there are times when a cat with diabetes develops a medical problem that can only be treated with a steroid, of which cortisone is one. (Problems like asthma or inflammatory bowel disease, for example, require steroid treatment.) As long as you are home testing and can monitor your cat's blood glucose level, you are able to adjust you insulin dose to offset the effect of the steroids.

If the licking is due to allergy, you have a couple of options. There is a product called Allerderm which is applied once weekly to the skin which can be quite helpful for itchy or dry skin. It's available on-line. Fish oil or omega-3 fatty acids, 200-250 mg daily, are often helpful, but may take up to 2 weeks to really have an effect. Antihistamines are often helpful—we seem to have the best success with Zyrtec, which is over-the-counter, or hydroxyzine which is a prescription medication. Zyrtec dosage is ½ of a 10 mg tablet by mouth (in food…) twice daily, or about every 12 hours, try for 7 days. Watch for drowsiness or restlessness, although side effects from Zyrtec are not likely or are very mild. Use plain Zyrtec, or cetirizine, only—no combo meds. The fish oil product we use is AllerG3, or you can use human products.