Male cat 10+ yrs diabetes, blood in urine, seizures

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LWH

Member Since 2021
Oscar came out of the woods about 10 years ago to be our big old black cat. Adult male, guessing 2-5 years old. He's always been very social and affectionate and we all love him a bunch. He got diabetes about 18 months ago - pretty scary. We were able to find a vet with experience with diabetic cats. Over a few weeks we ended up with giving Oscar 5 units of Lantus 2x/day. Pretty high, but that's what he seems to need. We've never been able to do home BG tests on him.

About 6 months ago Oscar had his first seizure - flat on the floor, legs flailing, for a minute or so. He had 2 or 3 seizures in the next few weeks, then they stopped.

About 10 days ago he started peeing on the floor and his urine was pink. This has happen several more times in the past week. He has been getting amoxicillin (Amoxi drop) for the past week.

In the last few days he has been having seizures again, and getting more frequent. Three so far today. When we are holding him (just about all the time this AM), we can feel his legs jerking slightly but holding him a little more tightly helps stop that. He is pretty tired now - seems like he wants to sleep.

Oscar always has a very good appetite.

We've always had pets in our lives and know that we have to do what is best for each on of them even when we don't want to. But we've never had a kitty with diabetes or seizures and we don't know how to decide if this is his time to go or if there is something we can do that will help Oscar have a little more of the good life he has shared with our family.

If you've had an old man diabetic kitty with seizures and urinary problems, what did you do? We'd love to hear from you.
 
If he is having seizures you need to get him to the vet ASAP. He may be hypoglycemic.

Are you home testing? 5 units is a very high dose of any insulin unless the cat has certain medical conditions that require that high of a dose. Most cats only need 1-2 units per dose.

An infection can raise glucose levels. Since he was treated with antibiotics his glucose levels also may have dropped. I am concerned that the seizures could be because he is hypoglycemic. That is extremely dangerous. It means his glucose levels dropped too much.

You can use any human glucose meter to test. If you are in the US the Walmart Relion brand meter is good and inexpensive to use.

My suggestion is start testing immediately. We can help you learn how to do it Also please reduce the dose considerably immediately until you know his glucose levels.
 
I agree with Lisa, those seizures could indeed be due to a going too low. Have you made any changes in his food lately? If you cannot home test, maybe see if the vet thinks a Freestyle Libre is a good idea. It's a device that is attached the skin and allows you to do readings remotely with your phone. It only lasts at most 2 weeks, but could gather some valuable data - better than you'd get at a vet clinic where stress can raise their numbers.

For the infection, was his urine cultured to see what type of bacteria was causing the infection? You need to do that to make sure you are treating with the right type of antibiotic.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
I agree with Lisa, those seizures could indeed be due to a going too low. Have you made any changes in his food lately? If you cannot home test, maybe see if the vet thinks a Freestyle Libre is a good idea. It's a device that is attached the skin and allows you to do readings remotely with your phone. It only lasts at most 2 weeks, but could gather some valuable data - better than you'd get at a vet clinic where stress can raise their numbers.

For the infection, was his urine cultured to see what type of bacteria was causing the infection? You need to do that to make sure you are treating with the right type of antibiotic.
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Thank you Wendy
 
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