My first post and story

[Russ]

Hi all,

Hopefully I posted in the right section. Any advice will be appreciated

I have 16 year old cat that I'd jump in front of a car for. In addition I would empty my bank account for her. Now onto my story

Approx 8 months ago I came home from work and Dita was having trouble walking, so I brought her to my vet who only sees Cats and is highly rated in Manhattan. He diagnosed her with diabetes and kidney failure. Putting Dita on insulin and fluids every other day. I hired a vet tech to come to my home to assist.

Few days into the treatment I woke up late at night and Dita was puking, eyes going to the back or her head and was having diarrhea while we were rushing her to the hospital.

She wound up staying over and one of the hospital vets said she didn't think Dita had diabetes. My original vet and the hospital spoke and agreed. Miraculously a few days later Dita was great and there was no more insulin, however every other day she still gets fluids.

Fast forward to 3 days ago, I felt Dita getting light and I had a new vet do a home visit. Test results came back and she said Dita is diabetic again?

After that near death experience I am very hesitant to utilize insulin. She prescribed purina DM which I ordered but didn't use yet

In addition Dita is very alert, purring, eating but having some trouble with her back foot when she walks

I'm looking for direction if anyone can offer.

Thanks

 

[Tuxedo Mom]

Hi Russ and welcome to the board.

Diabetes is a complicated disease. Without knowing what sort of glucose numbers Dita had when tested it is hard to say what is happening. However from what you describe it sounds like Dita could have had a hypo attack (glucose numbers too low). If this is what happened at the hospital they would have put her on an IV glucose and drip to bring the glucose back up. When a cat is having a hypo attack the glucose numbers will show up very low, which can look like they are not diabetic, but the numbers could be low because of too high a dose of insulin.

If she tested with high glucose 3 days later then there is a good chance she is diabetic, but was given too high a starting dose of insulin. If she is showing back leg weakness that could be neuropathy which causes muscle weakness, something many uncontrolled diabetic cats have because of ongoing high glucose levels.

The best thing you could do at this point is to learn to home-test and do ongoing monitoring of Dita's glucose levels. The vet or a vet tech could show you or we have excellent videos you could watch. Since these levels can go up and down through the day even without insulin doing a number of checks each day will give a broad picture of what is happening.

I don't know if you are still giving insulin at this point. What type of insulin was prescribed for her and what dose was she getting before she ended up in the hospital? Also if you are feeding dry food that is not good for any cat especially a diabetic cat. A diet of low carb wet food will help keep glucose levels lower.

If you want to put this information together and do another post on the Feline Health forum:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/forums/feline-health-the-main-forum.28/

with something like "newly diagnosed need dose advice" and put the "?" icon in the title from the drop down box to the left of the title bar (hope that makes sense ) then you will get more people weighing in on what might be happening and how you should proceed. There are many experienced and knowledgable people here and we all care about all kitties.

 

[jayla-n-Drevon]

bump

 

[BJM]

Welcome to FDMB.
Learning to home test the blood glucose with an inexpensive human glucometer (ex Walmart Relion Confirm or Confirm Micro, Relion Prime (takes a bigger blood drop), or Target Up and UP, will help you (and your vet) determine if your cat is diabetic. Numbers at the vet may be 100-180 mg/dL higher than at home.
Changing the food to low carbodrate canned or raw food will help reduce glucose by as much as 100 to 200 mg/dL if elevated and maintain it at healthy numbers if not elevated.
It is possible there have been glucose fluctuations due to pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas which can destroy insulin and enzyme producing cells. Many cats may have this at a low level and symptoms only emerge when it flares. Watch for any signs of nausea (ex lip smacking or drooling), pain (crouching hunched up), or disordered digestion (grayish, largish, really stinky feces, or diarrhea).