Neuropathy, declining weight, continued heavy urination

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sadie bryde

sadie bryde

Member Since 2014
My 14 yr old Siamese male cat was peeing everywhere and after an initial diagnosis of "marking behavior" which had never been a problem before, I eventually took him to another vet who told me he had diabetes. So some time later, about 2 weeks I think, he had a glucose levels test and the vet said he needed to increase dose to 2 units twice a day. So I did, and then his hind legs started folding over and he sort of scrabbles around now and avoids even sitting on his hindquarters, he likes to be prone, front legs extended. If necessary he can handle stairs or walk to the pee pad I put down for him, the litter box is an effort. I called my vet very concerned about his declining health despite medication and worried he is suffering and decided it was time to end this, have appt. tomorrow. BUT. I haven't yet taken that step and have read some posts that indicate this is reversible over time. His other problem is continued dehydration, he still drinks and pees a lot (just not as much as before), and he has lost enough weight or muscle mass so it can be difficult to get a good scruff grab for injections; he seems to be melting away. He's been getting insulin shots for about 6 weeks I think.
Anyway I adore my cat and don't want to lose him, but if he is suffering don't want to prolong it for my sake. I am not sure what to do. Suggestions much appreciated. Thanks, sara
 
Hi Sara! Welcome to both you and your extra sweet kitty!

I wouldn't give up yet. Feline diabetes is treatable. Many cats live a good long life and some even go into remission.

A few questions to help us. What insulin are you using and what dose? What are you feeding your kitty? Do you home test?

We advocate a wet, low carb diet. Many use friskies pate or fance feast classics. Fairly cheap, but excellent for cats! Low carb food, a good insulin like ProZinc, Lantus, or Levemir, and home testing to make sure you are dosing the right amount are the best ways to treat.

The neuropathy should go away as your kitty feels better.

Don't give up yet! Give us a chance to help.
 
Hi Sara,

I am sorry you are your kitty are struggling. Diabetes is a difficult disease but we use a protocol that is very successful. Maybe trying our protocol will turn things around. I would certainly try before putting him to sleep.

as Rachel said, we use long lasting mild insulins like Lantus, Levemir or ProZinc. We feed wet low carb food. A vet explains why it is so important here: http://www.catinfo.org. And most importantly ,we test our cat's blood sugar just like we would do for our two legged children. We want to know that the dose we are giving is safe each time before we give a shot, and we want to test in the middle of the cycle to see how the insulin is working, how low the numbers are.

We'd love to help you help your cat. We have helped thousands of people over the years and many cats have become healthy and regulated or even gone into remission. Maybe read some of the threads on this page and see how others are doing. Read the topics on the main forum page on nutrition and health. Ask questions.

The problem with his legs is probably neuropathy, very common in diabetic cats. Getting his numbers regulated will help greatly. Methyl B12 also helps.
 
Thanks for writing back so quickly, I am inexperienced caring for a chronic disease in a pet and was thinking he would improve more rapidly. I am using ProZinc, but I am concerned I may have damaged it by shaking it before I learned no can do. Then I thought maybe I was grasping at straws in my effort to save him. Anyway 2 units twice a day. I need more info on testing obviously; vet doesn't recommend but charges $220 for a glucose levels test, so why would he? I understand that must use human testers any recommended? I would like to try to keep him I am having too hard a time right now even THINKING about euthanasia makes me cry I guess I'm just not ready.
 
Well, the good news is that ProZinc is a good insulin, so one thing done. You can roll ProZinc. Are there floating pieces in the vial? If not, it could be fine.

We don't like numbers from the vet. Very often kitties are stressed there and stress raises bg levels. Then doses based on those stressed induced numbers can be too high once the cat gets home. The only way to know whether the dose is too high or too low is to test at home. We'd love to teach you how to do that. And you'll save lots of money in the process. Here is a shopping list for home testing:

A human glucometer. Any one that sips and takes a tiny sample is fine. Some members stay away from any meter with True in the name and the Freestyle meters. Some people think they are unreliable and read lower than other meters. The meters are often free at drug stores; it’s the strips that are expensive. You can, however, buy them on ebay at less than half the price of stores. Lots of people here also like the ReliOn from Walmart. It is an inexpensive meter and its strips are the cheapest around. Try the meter out on yourself or someone else before you try it on your cat. You want to be familiar with it before you poke the cat.

Lancets and a lancet device. Usually, until the ears “learn” to bleed, a 26-28 gauge is good. Any brand will work as long as the lancets match your device.

Ketone strips. (Ketostix) Just like human diabetics use. You will sometimes need to test urine if the numbers are high.

Rice sack. Make this out of thinnish sock, filled with raw rice or oatmeal and then knotted. You heat this in the microwave until very warm but not hot. Then heat the ears before poking. You can also use a prescription bottle filled with very warm water. It provides a good surface to poke against.

Also nice to have. Flashlight: so you can look at the ears and find the little capillaries that come off the vein running down the ear. Vaseline: Put a tiny smear where you want to poke. It will help the blood bead up.

And some lo carb treats to give your kitty, successful test or not Lo carb treats

How to get the cat ready for home testing

While you wait, you can get your kitty ready for testing.
First pick a place where you want to test. Some people use the kitchen counter, a blanket on the floor, between your legs while sitting – whatever works for you. Take the kitty there and give him/her lots of praise while you play with his ears. Give a treat and release. Next time, add the rice sack (thin sock filled with raw rice, heated in the microwave until very warm but not hot) or a prescription pill bottle filled with very warm water. Lots of praise, treat and release. Finally add the lancet so he will get used to the noise. The hope is that when you finally poke, they will be used to the process and know a treat is coming!

Here is our protocol for ProZinc. Ask if you have questions:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=109077

What are you feeding him? If high carb dry food, don't change until you have hometesting down. Our Oliver went down 100 points overnight when we switched from dry to wet. If we hadn't tested him the next morning and lowered the dose, he would have hypoed.
 
Hi Sara and welcome to you and your extra sweet kitty. Would you please tell us his name?

I'm going to tell you a story of a remarkable turnaround that happened to a diabetic sugardude named Wink.

Wink was abandoned by his owners in a shelter and then transferred to another shelter. They were treating him for his diabetes but not testing much and his blood glucose levels were out of control. He was eating a very poor quality, high carb diet in the shelter and he was pretty sick.

In January 2013, someone agreed to foster Wink and see if they could get him feeling better. When she took him home, he had a UTI, horrible diarrhea, huge nickel sized patches of dandruff, had lost more than half his fur, was horribly matted and had one of the worst cases of diabetic neuropathy you can imagine.

Because of the neuropathy, he could only walk 3-4 steps before he needed to stop and rest. He was walking completely down on his hocks, had trouble getting in the litter box, could not jump up more than about a foot and was having a really tough time.

Wink was a dry food addict so it took some time to slowly convince him that low carb wet food was better for him. He was tested more frequently and his caregiver learned to give the insulin when his blood glucose readings were low. She also started to give him some methylcobalamin to help repair the nerve damage that was causing the diabetic neuropathy. As the blood glucose readings improved, so did the neuropathy.

Within a few weeks, he was able to jump a bit higher and walk 6-8 steps before stopping. Within a month, he was starting to walk more normally but still walking a bit down on his hocks. He was walking farther and was able to get in and out of the litter box better. He had more energy and started to play some. After about 8-10 weeks, the neuropathy was mostly gone. He was jumping everywhere, 3 feet up onto the desk, 4 feet up onto the kitchen counter and he was plotting how to jump up to the top of the 6 foot bookcases!

Today, you'd never know he had the neuropathy. He was also one of those cats that was able to become diet controlled and he's been in remission for over a year now. That's his picture over to the side there, that handsome tuxedo.

There are things that you can do to help your cat. We are here to provide our experience and knowledge in getting him feeling and walking better. There is still hope.

Would you consider giving your kitty more time, and see if we can help you to get him feeling better?
 
I am so grateful people have responded so quickly. I had forgotten that I had joined this online group when he was diagnosed, and I was in a panic over my strong confident cat (Bobby) turning into a glassy eyed, limping wraith of his former self. So I wanted to end his misery. Have cancelled the euthanasia, I wasn't getting any useful info from vet re: practical methods of dealing with chronic diabetes in a pet, ie education and monitoring of glucose levels. His advice was to leave it all to him, and here is the bill, due now. At this point I feel much more calm. I am going to pursue glucose monitoring and proper maintenance, and if it doesn't work, then I won't feel I pulled the plug prematurely. Will update Bobby's condition as there are changes. Again, very relieved I recovered from my panic state over his condition and will proceed with more info and support.
 
Good for you - breathing is definitely important and helpful. :mrgreen: I think you are absolutely right. If you work to get him better with hometesting and the right foods, you will know you did the best for him. And we hope it will make all the difference. You'll be amazed how much better and more confident you will feel once you really know what is going on and how the insulin is working.

Let us know how we can help.
 
I'm very glad to hear that you're going to see if you can help Bobby start feeling better. Please let us know if there's anything we can do for you two or if you have any more questions! :-D
 
This will be helpful when you start glucose testing.

We suggest using an inexpensive human glucometer with pet-specific reference numbers. One many of us use is the WalMart Relion Confirm, or Confirm Micro, which is also sold at American Diabetes Wholesale as as the Arkray USA Glucocard 01 or 01 Mini (same manufacturer - Arkray USA). It uses a tiny blood droplet and the cost is significantly lower for test strips (like $0.36 each).

Comparing a human glucometer to a pet-specific glucometer is like reading temperature in Celsius vs Fahrenheit. Both are correct. You just need to know the reference ranges to interpret what the numbers mean.

[Glucose reference ranges are unsubstantiated and have been removed by Moderator]


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *​
Examples of using the chart:

Ex. You are a new insulin user and you test your cat before giving insulin. The test is 300. It probably is safe to give insulin.

Ex. You are an established user of Lantus, following the Tight Regulation protocol. You've tested around +5 to +7 to spot the nadir. It is 200 mg/dL. You probably need to increase the dose, following the instructions for the protocol.

Ex. Your cat is acting funny. The eyes are a bit dilated. You are concerned and test the glucose. The number is 35 mg/dL. ACK! The cat may be in a hypoglycemic state. You quickly follow the HYPO protocol linked in the glucose reference values chart. (which we really, really, suggest you print out and post on your refrigerator.)
 
Hi Sara,

Just wanted to welcome you to FDMB. :smile:
You've found the best site on the planet for help and support with feline diabetes.

I know you and Bobby have had a tough time, but we will do everything we can to help you turn that situation around.

Welcome aboard!

Eliz
 
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