New member- need advice asap!

Hello,

Things are happening very quickly and I'm at a loss as to what I should do. I'll give a brief history and try to explain the current situation.

My partner and I had a colony of community cats where we used to live, one day a rough looking guy showed up at mealtime. The other cats didn't really want anything to do with him but we took pity and fed him. After that he never left. We called him Chubby (because he had big puffy tomcat jowels, it just stuck). We planned to get him fixed but around the same time were also buying a house, so we decided that we would take him with us when we moved and take care of that after.

We moved in November and didn't get a chance to get him neutered until January. He also had some eye and ear issues so we kept him in a crate until sometime in February. He was happy and healthy but then he disappeared in the beginning of March. We found him a couple of weeks ago but he had changed drastically.

He lost a *lot* of weight. He went from being 12lb in Jan to under 6lb as of today, developed a very abnormal gait, lost a lot of muscle, and was very lethargic, and thirsty. So thirsty, like constantly drinking and then constantly peeing. We put him back in the crate and tried to put some weight back on him thinking he had been starved but he wasn't getting better.

We were going to take him to the vet a week ago but then we got covid, so it had to wait a few more days. Sunday we took him to the vet and after doing all the bloodwork and stuff they said he's diabetic. They sent us home with some insulin and told us to give him 1 unit after dinner and bring him back the next day to do a glucose tolerance test.

As a note I have no idea how old he is, the vet that neutered him said 1 and the vet that diagnosed his diabetes said 10 so it's probably somewhere in between. We thought 4 or 5.

He was at the vet all day yesterday for that, and I guess his results were really strange/confusing so they told us to give him 2 units after dinner and bring him back today.

Today they called and said his levels got up over 700 and they can't get them down and now they want me to decide whether or not to put him down. What is happening??

I'm trying to be rational and look past the fact that I've spent over $1k on this cat in the last 2 days, but it still seems like putting him down is a little premature when he was literally just diagnosed with diabetes and hasn't had time to get the dosage right or anything. Maybe a glucose tolerance test 2 days in a row is just too much? But then I'm not sure why they would even suggest that as an option unless they thought it was hopeless. Unfortunately I know very little about diabetes in general, much less in felines, so I really need help understanding what I should do in Chubby's best interest.

 

Some experienced members may have better answers for you but to start two days of insulin is not enough to determine whether it is working or not. Depending on the type it can take up to a week to build a depot, Lantus for example.

Please don't even consider putting him down. Diabetes is not a death sentence. There is a very long list of kitties on this site that hove gone into remission. Give the insulin a chance to work, it may take a bit of time but he can get better.

To help can you tell us what type of insulin he is on.
What food are you feeding him, wet or dry? Which brand, flavour. Diabetic cats need a low carb diet, less than 10%, ideally less than 5%. Wet rather than dry.

 

can you get his labs and post them here for people to look at?

this glucose tolerance test, I am not familiar with it. @Suzanne & Darcy ?

 

Ok yes sorry I should have included more information, just freaking out a little bit because of what the vet suggested.

So, he eats a combination of Blue Buffalo Blue Wilderness dry indoor cat food, chicken healthy weight flavor and chicken flavor. At least the last couple of days he has, I'm not sure he was eating anything other than treats after my partner let him out of the crate a week ago. And at the vet yesterday they didn't tell me to bring food and I forgot anyway so they gave him canned diabetic food, it was probably Hill's but not sure if he ate any of that.

The insulin is Novolin N, 1 unit is 0.01mL

 

and I would echo what Chris said -- get him home, see how he does on insulin after a week or two he might be already improving.

My boy Hendrick is 10 years old and lost several pounds, it took about 2 weeks on insulin for him to gain .2 pounds back and that was with feeding him about 150-200% of his normal calories. Cats who are unregulated diabetics cannot process nutrients from food properly. So they are always hungry and have to eat more than normal just to not lose weight.

I'm not sure what they mean by "they can't get his levels down" but cats get stressed at the vet and get extra high, elevated blood glucose levels and if they are giving him insulin and expecting to see a drop in his blood glucose but not seeing it, that could be why.

 

when Hendrick was at the vet his BG would not come down either

 

Thank you. I think I will bring him home and see how he does after being on the insulin for a while before I consent to more testing. I have never used this vet before, I mainly went to them because my covid isolation ended Saturday and they were open on Sunday. It seemed like they cared but I just feel like suggesting euthanasia after 2 days of strenuous testing is bad advice. I don't really trust them. I will ask for his records when I pick him up and follow up with my regular vet.

 

see if you can get him on a better insulin, like Lantus or ProZinc. They tend to be better for cats than Novalin

 

tagging @Suzanne & Darcy again about the glucose tolerance test, what is that about?

 

I think that the vet was perhaps referring to the fructosamine test (unless they already did that - which they should have when he was diagnosed). Or they are planning to run a curve on him, which means that they will give him insulin and test every few hours. I would not give him any insulin until I got a test kit and could test him. Has he already been receiving insulin? If so, when and how much? So you say it is Novolin? Don’t waste any more money on their tests right now. You can do this! We are here to help and we all care about you and Chubby.

 

There is a test called a glucose tolerance test, but it’s not something you need to do. Optimally, you need to get your Chubby off of all dry food and onto a diet of wet low carb (under 10 percent) food. This can make a huge difference in blood glucose. Now, if he’s already receiving insulin I would not change his diet just yet because it can make a big difference and we don’t want him dropping too low So only one change should be made at a time (the insulin and then the diet or the diet and then the insulin.). But the only way we are going to know what is going on with Chubby is for you to get some tests done. This can be really challenging at first. I cried quite a few times my first week at trying to test.

 

Hopefully your regular vet will be more helpful and get Chubby on a better insulin.

Here is a great link that has percentage carbs in cat food.

Here is a link on home blood glucose testing, it has great tips and advice.

Most people here use human blood glucose meters instead of pet ones as they are less expensive. You can get the Relion meter at Walmart Pharmacy and strips fro a great price if you live in the US.

Also if you switch to Lantus insulin (if you ate in then US) you can order it online from a Canadian pharmacy for a better price or get a biosimilar insulin called Semiglee, which also costs less.