Help with my newly diagnosed 3 year old kitty

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freelis

Member Since 2013
I am really scared and feel very helpless. My cat, Ivy, got diagnosed with Diabetes two months ago. She is only 3 years old and weighs 8 1/2 lbs. She was the runt in the litter. She got diagnosed when I brought her in for a UTI. I should have recognized the signs before hand as she at a ton and drank a lot of water and had problems walking but I did not put two and two together. The vet thinks something is causing her diabetes because she is so young but they don't know what. All of her liver enzymes were really high as well. So she had a round of Clavomax which cured the UTI and they started her on 1 unit twice a day of Prozinc. After three weeks she went back to the Vet and tested her fructosomine and that wasn't good so they raised her to two units twice a day of Prozinc. Her BG is always around 300-370 no matter what we do. She now has another UTI one month later and she has has swollen lymph nodes in her neck now for two weeks. She is back on Clavomax but now won't eat. I also changed her diet to a low carb one. It is the B.F.F. Tuna and Chicken. Previously she was on all dry food. The vets are now just shooting in the dark as they don't know what is wrong with her. She just doesn't seem well and it is heartbreaking for me and I don't know what to do. I know we need to get the Diabetes under control to stop the UTI's. I know from experience they hurt a ton. I don't know if she should switch to Lantis. I also don't know what to do about the underlying issue as well. Does anyone on here have a cat with Diabetes so young?
Any help is appreciated.
 
Lots of folks are surprised and anxious when told the cat is diabetic; you are not alone. Its not like there's a banner on each corner saying cats get diabetes, y'know?

The problems walking may be diabetic neuropathy. Methylcobalamin, a specific form of Vitamin B12, has been helpful for this.

Liver enzymes may be high because fat breakdown for calories may be overloading the liver, since carbohydrate calories aren't being used.

Clavamox is notorious for upsetting the GI tract. You might ask your vet about FortiFlora, to replace the beneficial bacteria lost from the Clavamox (it takes out both good and bad). Its available from our shopping partner Amazon or you might be able to get it sooner from your vet (al a higher price).

Prozinc at 1 unit twice a day was a good starting point; it often needs adjustment at first, as you get the hang of managing the diabetes.

We recommend canned or raw, over the counter foods with less than 10% of the calories from carbohydrates. Two inexpensive examples are Fancy Feeast Classic pates and Friskies pates. I'll have to look up the BFF brand at Cat Info, where vet Dr Pierson obtained the info and made a printable downloadable chart of foods and their % calories from protein, fat, and carbohydrate.
edited to add: Just checked and its about 2 % calories from carbohydrate. Due to the potential for merculry buildup, we suggest not feeding seafood more than twice a week.

As you are already using insulin, it will keep your cat safer if you learn to test the glucose at home using a glucometer. An inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart ReliOn Confirm or ReliOn Prime have been used successfully by a number of members here. If you dislike WalMart, you can order the generic Confirm as the Glucocard 01 (and test strips) from our shopping partner ADW (link at top of page).

Yes, I did have a diabetic who was only 3 years old. It can happen.
 
Hello and welcome !!

Poe, my kitty, is only about 7 and has it. Part of the contribution was steroid use a few years ago due to an asthma attack.

The other big contributor was his dry food diet, with high carb wet.

Home testing is soooo important when administering insulin. It's the only way we know that it's safe for kitty to have the dose, and we can also make adjustments based on data we collect in home testing. All help to bring the diabetes under control and helping the pancreas to heal.

More experienced people will be around soon to give you even more information. In the meantime, there is a lot of great information in the "Stickys" at the top of the message boards.

:-D
 
Diabetes at three years is rare. The swollen lymph nodes and persistent UTI may point to a bigger underlying medical problem. What does your vet say?
 
Its a catch 22 really... UTI can be caused by the persistent high blood glucose giving a ton of sugar in the urine for the bacteria to feed on. But a UTI can spike blood glucose.

However the clavamox should help a bit, as should the change in diet you recently did with the move to BFF which is low carb. The critical thing now is home testing since the blood glucose could drop a lot and you dont want to overdose insulin. Plus it will give you a really good idea of whats going on with the PZI etc. We can give lots more info etc on home testing if you want?

Wendy
 
Michelangelo was diagnosed just a few days shy of his 6-month birthday with no underlying causes or problems. He's now a little over a year old and still diabetic, but you'd never know it. I've spent quite a bit of time researching diabetes in younger cats solely because it's so rare and I've discovered that the majority of the time, there is something else that might be going on. Once the other issue is cleared up, usually the diabetes also clears up. The most common factors are infections like UTIs, dental, or pancreatitis or steroid use (both previous and current). Has Ivy been checked for hepatitis or other liver problems? The UTI and swollen lymph nodes make me think systemic infection of some sort, like liver disease or cancer. Has she been checked for those as well? The faster they can get to the bottom of this, the faster she can be helped.
 
Besides all the possible medicinal reasons or factors already mentioned here for the high liver enzymes you may want to examine environmental factors.

I had a kitten who was drinking and peeing a ton and his liver enzymes were sky high and we could not figure out why. One day I decided to look at his environment and found out that he was drinking out of the tub. The faucet had a slow leak that was running along the bottom of the faucet - across all kinds of mold and bacteria stuck in a caulking mess that sloppy maintenance men had left behind and down into the tub. The kitten was drinking it like it like a good wine. When we determined that toxic poisoning was his ailment, it was too late to save him. I still can't look at a picture of that beautiful kitten and it was four years ago.

So examine where she sleeps, eats, drinks - where he spends his time. There may be an environmental cause or at lease you could rule that out if there isn't.

Hope your Ivy feels better soon.
 
We have now given Ivy every possible antibiotic to get her lymph nodes down. They are still huge so it isn't a bacterial infection. She did have sky high liver enzymes but they have gone back to normal after all of the antibiotics. This is our second vet we have taken her to and neither one knows what to do anymore. We also switched her to 1/2 unit of Lantus recently from Pro Zinc as that wasn't working. I am sure they will increase it but they want to start slow. Has anyone had any experience with allergies at all- either to tuna or chicken flavored food? The next step would be to give her predisone, but we can't do that since she is not regulated. They say pancreatitis is unlikey since her ultrasound of that area came back with it not being swollen. Her liver was slightly swollen. They don't think it is cancer because only her neck lymph nodes are swollen. They said usually all of them are. But what is usual in a 3 year old diabetic cat I do not know. However I do think there is an underlying disease causing the diabetes. Maybe an autoimmune disease? The vet does not think there is anything in her mouth causing this as she inspected it. Unfortunately there are not many resources for cats it seems for rare conditions. Thanks everybody for the posts.
 
Would you share with us where you are located - city/state/ province/country are all we need.

There may be someone local who can offer in person help.
 
Fish allergies are more common in cats than chicken allergies. Other cats have beef and/or pork allergies. Sometimes, it's not the main protein ingredient in the food causing a problem, but some of the grains. Some cats are allergic to wheat, corn, soy so looking for a food without any of those ingredients may be something to try.

How long has Ivy been on the 0.5U dose of Lantus?
 
We are in Seattle, Washington. I think it my be the food. Does anyone know of hypoallergenic food that cats like? Ivy is so picky.
 
Take a look at the food list from Cat Info and select something without the proteins you've been feeding. In other words, if you've been feeding fish, feed chicken. If you've been feeding chicken, try beef. If you've been feeding beef, try rabbit. And so on.

A second tactic to consider is rotating through protein sources so you never feed the same source 2 days in a row.

A third tactic is completely eliminating a specific food protein for 4-6 weeks to see if symptoms improve, then reintroducing it to see if they worsen.

Lymphadenopathy - enlarged lymph nodes - may be a form of autoimmune disease along the lines of an arthritis. Normally, they treat with prednisone, which generally raises glucose levels. In that case, you would adjust the insulin dose around it. Fish oil supplementation may be beneficial if there is an arthritis type conditionj.. Discuss this with your vet(s).
 
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