Hello everybody,
I have been a long time lurker of this forum since my cat Bill (male tabby) was diagnosed with diabetes 4 years ago.
My girlfriend had noticed at the time that he looked raggedy and had flakes present on his skin with lots of shedding so we decided to take him to the vet for a checkup. He was at the early stages of DKA (always serious, but not critical) and had to be hospitalized for 2 days to stabilize and that was the beginning of our journey with his Diabetes.
Our vet prescribed the usual diabetic cat food and started him on a course of 2u of Lantus twice a day. He did not eat the prescription food so we found that he enjoyed the "crave" brand packaged pates. After an initial learning curve and several more trips to the vet for BG curves, we were told he was stabile at the dose of 2u Lantus twice a day. Eventually it became impossible to find crave pates in stock anywhere and we switched him to the Sheba Pates (he will only eat the seafood flavors of this food).
Fast forward 2.5 years, we noticed that he seemed more and more lethargic. One early morning, he howled in a way that we had never heard before and he was dragging his hind legs. We took him to the emergency vet and they found that he was severely hypoglycemic and he spent an day there getting stable again. We were recommended to take him to his normal vet afterwards for an assessment and we thought to bring his insulin and syringes so that he could be dosed and monitored there. It was then that it was discovered that they had accidentally dispensed him the wrong needle size (he is supposed to get U100s) but they realized they had dispensed a needle size that was effectively dosing him 2.5 times his required amount. We were giving him this unsafe amount for probably close to a month and we were devastated to learn that fact..
Without getting into too much of the aftermath of that situation, the vet covered the overnight cost and we restarted him on a lower dose of insulin. Fast forward a few weeks after that instability was introduced he began throwing up his meals. He had sweet breath so we took him to the vet again. It was found that he was critically DKA. He was hospitalized for 3 days and they were eventually able to discharge him. The recommendation from our primary vet at that point was to ease him in on 1u of Lantus twice daily. We got a libre put onto him and it was found that his BG was all over the place.
It was an incredibly stressful time and situation and that was when I found this forum. Through lots of monitoring and trial/error we discovered that the Purina prescription dry food that he was supposed to be nibbling on was actually shooting his blood sugar sky high. So we started only giving him the sheba pate (two trays at 10 a.m. and 2 trays at 10 p.m. with additional trays on a timed feeder at 2pm and 2am respectively because it was found through monitoring he was nadiring too low. This seemed to work beautifully for 3 months with his curves looking really good. He was playful in ways he hadn't been ever and had excellent energy.
That brings us closer to the current time where lately while he had excellent appetite (sometimes ravenous) he seemed to be really lethargic.
Unfortunately this past week, we went out of town on a trip for my birthday when our cat sitter told us his appetite was gone and that he had thrown up the day before. He had also tried to use the litter box 3x in a 20 minute stretch while she was there. We asked the pet sitter to take him to the vet where they checked his blood sugar, ran a serum fructosamine test, and also sent off labs to check for pancreatitis and possible UTI.
His blood sugar this time was fine, potassium levels were normal, and had no ketones in his urine. We are waiting for his labs to come back for pancreatitis and UTI results. He was given cerenia for nausea and mirtazapine for appetite. He had to be convinced to eat his dinner (ate it in two trips with some food warming to coax him and did not eat any of his 2a.m. tray until I woke up at 6a.m. and tried to coax him to eat it. He ate maybe half.
I'm stressed beyond belief because the labs cost a fair amount of money already and I cannot afford to hospitalize him again.... We haven't given him any meds for pain yet (but have gabapentin) and we have not given him any cerenia or mirtazapine today. I just don't know what to do.
Thanks for reading this essay and I would greatly appreciate any advice or insights..
I have been a long time lurker of this forum since my cat Bill (male tabby) was diagnosed with diabetes 4 years ago.
My girlfriend had noticed at the time that he looked raggedy and had flakes present on his skin with lots of shedding so we decided to take him to the vet for a checkup. He was at the early stages of DKA (always serious, but not critical) and had to be hospitalized for 2 days to stabilize and that was the beginning of our journey with his Diabetes.
Our vet prescribed the usual diabetic cat food and started him on a course of 2u of Lantus twice a day. He did not eat the prescription food so we found that he enjoyed the "crave" brand packaged pates. After an initial learning curve and several more trips to the vet for BG curves, we were told he was stabile at the dose of 2u Lantus twice a day. Eventually it became impossible to find crave pates in stock anywhere and we switched him to the Sheba Pates (he will only eat the seafood flavors of this food).
Fast forward 2.5 years, we noticed that he seemed more and more lethargic. One early morning, he howled in a way that we had never heard before and he was dragging his hind legs. We took him to the emergency vet and they found that he was severely hypoglycemic and he spent an day there getting stable again. We were recommended to take him to his normal vet afterwards for an assessment and we thought to bring his insulin and syringes so that he could be dosed and monitored there. It was then that it was discovered that they had accidentally dispensed him the wrong needle size (he is supposed to get U100s) but they realized they had dispensed a needle size that was effectively dosing him 2.5 times his required amount. We were giving him this unsafe amount for probably close to a month and we were devastated to learn that fact..
Without getting into too much of the aftermath of that situation, the vet covered the overnight cost and we restarted him on a lower dose of insulin. Fast forward a few weeks after that instability was introduced he began throwing up his meals. He had sweet breath so we took him to the vet again. It was found that he was critically DKA. He was hospitalized for 3 days and they were eventually able to discharge him. The recommendation from our primary vet at that point was to ease him in on 1u of Lantus twice daily. We got a libre put onto him and it was found that his BG was all over the place.
It was an incredibly stressful time and situation and that was when I found this forum. Through lots of monitoring and trial/error we discovered that the Purina prescription dry food that he was supposed to be nibbling on was actually shooting his blood sugar sky high. So we started only giving him the sheba pate (two trays at 10 a.m. and 2 trays at 10 p.m. with additional trays on a timed feeder at 2pm and 2am respectively because it was found through monitoring he was nadiring too low. This seemed to work beautifully for 3 months with his curves looking really good. He was playful in ways he hadn't been ever and had excellent energy.
That brings us closer to the current time where lately while he had excellent appetite (sometimes ravenous) he seemed to be really lethargic.
Unfortunately this past week, we went out of town on a trip for my birthday when our cat sitter told us his appetite was gone and that he had thrown up the day before. He had also tried to use the litter box 3x in a 20 minute stretch while she was there. We asked the pet sitter to take him to the vet where they checked his blood sugar, ran a serum fructosamine test, and also sent off labs to check for pancreatitis and possible UTI.
His blood sugar this time was fine, potassium levels were normal, and had no ketones in his urine. We are waiting for his labs to come back for pancreatitis and UTI results. He was given cerenia for nausea and mirtazapine for appetite. He had to be convinced to eat his dinner (ate it in two trips with some food warming to coax him and did not eat any of his 2a.m. tray until I woke up at 6a.m. and tried to coax him to eat it. He ate maybe half.
I'm stressed beyond belief because the labs cost a fair amount of money already and I cannot afford to hospitalize him again.... We haven't given him any meds for pain yet (but have gabapentin) and we have not given him any cerenia or mirtazapine today. I just don't know what to do.
Thanks for reading this essay and I would greatly appreciate any advice or insights..
