PyxieStyx
New Member
Hi everyone,
Lovely to "meet" you all. I'm Sam, and the fellow used in my avatar pic is Romulus, our diabetic kitty. We need some help figuring out our next steps.
We're very new to our diabetic journey. Until recently (last week, actually, when I found this group and started reading), we've just been going by what our vet told us to do, but we're still very unregulated and nothing seems to be working for one of his biggest issues- frequent and extreme urination.
Context: Rom (or Bom-Bom, Bomby, Bombus, etc. because he used to be so bombastic) is just turning 5 years old, give or take a few weeks. He began showing considerable health concerns in December 2023 (barbering his fur, lethargy, beginnings of weight loss, extreme hunger), and in February 2024 he was diagnosed diabetic. He had significant weight loss during that discovery period, dropping 5 lbs between December and March. He was a larger cat that never seemed to lose weight no matter what we did until the diabetes, and now he's underweight for his build. He is no longer losing, but he is still not gaining.
Our vet diagnosed him and started us on 1u Vetsulin at the end of February. She provided us with diabetic dry food only, but I had a gut feeling that this wasn't the right way to go and ended up getting the matching wet food. Because we're a multi-cat household (10 of them!) we switched from free feeding to scheduled feeding for all household members. Every 12 hours, we separate Rom into the bathroom and feed him separately according to the desired weight chart on his food, and administer his insulin while he is distracted and eating. We were told to only administer the insulin in the scruff of the neck- something I've read against doing in the documents here. I'm not sure if we should discuss changing location with our vet, or if we should just switch to the area along his abdomen.
We initially saw a change on the 1u and feeding schedule where he seemed to be more like his old self, but he continued to lose weight and the lethargy came back pretty quickly. We brought him back in for a test after two weeks, and he went from testing in the high 600s to 400s at the vet visit 4 hours after eating/providing insulin. Still very high, of course, but they were hopeful that increasing by another unit would do the trick. So we were tasked with home testing and moved up to 2u of Vetsulin every 12 hours.
Here's where the latest batch of trouble started. We've had nothing but problems with the glucose meter (i Pet Pro) we purchased from the vet, and struggle to this day to get readings both from the meter and from the cat. We really struggle to get his ears to bleed when pricked, and often have to make multiple pricks or even rips (vet told us to go in at an angle with our needle and then pull up) to get enough blood. On top of that, when we were back in for a recent issue, the vet confirmed that Rom is "avascular" in his ears and even she struggles to take readings from him.
Our meter claims his readings are all over the place; just two nights ago we decided to test the theory of bad readings by doing two back-to-back tests and taking samples from each ear about 10 minutes before his evening feeding. The first test placed him hypo at 58 mg/dL, and the second test 2 minutes later in the other ear put him at 208 mg/dL. Any guidance we can get on straightening out our meter troubles would be deeply appreciated. Additionally, I know stress can affect readings, but how do we know the truth when he tests in the 400-600s at the vet, and in the 100-200s at home?
On top of that, we're seeing new symptoms that are making our lives a living heck, including Rom's. Once we increased to 2u of Vetsulin, we noticed our boy's water intake spiked up again. Shortly after that, he started having accidents. It started abruptly one evening. He started circling our living room couch growling, and then running to the litter box in that room. Sometimes he made it, sometimes he didn't, and the space is probably somewhere between 20-25 feet long. At the time this started, any accidents he was having where he didn't make it to the box were just little drips and dribbles.
Those little drips and dribbles quickly became floods. It's like we turned a gallon jug of water upside down on the floor. It's multiple times per hour, and he's not making it to any of our litter boxes. We took Rom back to the vet when he started to pee himself in his sleep. He behaves like he does not notice that he's covered in urine or wet in general- he just gets up and goes about his day. It is extremely weird, and I called the vet immediately and got a same day.
That day's visit revealed that his sugar was in the 400s again, but our vet was baffled that A) it had not gone down with the insulin increase, and B) why he would be having these types of accidents but not seem to notice. She checked him for ketones in his urine and found nothing thankfully. She mentioned that his urine is extremely dilute, but still full of sugars. We asked about neuropathy, but she didn't seem to think this was a concern yet. I then asked about reducing/removing his dry food. She said that we should keep some dry in his diet for his teeth, but we could transition to mostly wet food, but keep the insulin the same. I now know that I should be testing, feeding, and then administering insulin, but I'm not sure how or what I'm looking for based on the trouble we've seen with his meter.
We started reducing his dry food on Thursday night, and for two days the flooding accidents cleared up. But as of Sunday afternoon, he's started having extreme accidents again. Right now he's flooded our couch and is sleeping in it as if he doesn't even know it's there. This is completely abnormal for him- he's always been very meticulous. Clean litter boxes, Cat Attract, more litter boxes, etc. do not seem to make a difference. When he's awake, he licks his "bits" raw to the point of bleeding, and he dribbles with every step. He's absolutely soaked. What's more- there's virtually no smell. You can detect the faintest whiff of urine in the house overall, but it's tough to tell the difference between his accidents and water on the floor even when we stick our noses right in there.
My fiance and I both work from home, and even so, we're struggling to keep up with the mess. This is a rental with an open floor plan, so we have very limited options for confining Rom to a single room.
I know this was a lot- especially coming in as a new member- but we really need some help and we feel very overwhelmed. Any advice to make poor Rom comfortable and keep us from needing to put up wet floor signs would be helpful, as well as help understanding what might be going on with our meter.
Thank you all so much for reading!
Edit to Mention: Forgot to add that when we first brought up the urination issue to the vet, she started him on amoxicillin for 14 days and gabapentin for 10 days as a precaution, even though she did not see signs of infection. That held true when we retested on Thursday, and he has finished his regimen of drugs.
I also just got another reading. It's been 7 hours since his insulin and last feeding, and he was at 137 mg/dL. He just peed himself again on the floor getting off the couch.
Lovely to "meet" you all. I'm Sam, and the fellow used in my avatar pic is Romulus, our diabetic kitty. We need some help figuring out our next steps.
We're very new to our diabetic journey. Until recently (last week, actually, when I found this group and started reading), we've just been going by what our vet told us to do, but we're still very unregulated and nothing seems to be working for one of his biggest issues- frequent and extreme urination.
Context: Rom (or Bom-Bom, Bomby, Bombus, etc. because he used to be so bombastic) is just turning 5 years old, give or take a few weeks. He began showing considerable health concerns in December 2023 (barbering his fur, lethargy, beginnings of weight loss, extreme hunger), and in February 2024 he was diagnosed diabetic. He had significant weight loss during that discovery period, dropping 5 lbs between December and March. He was a larger cat that never seemed to lose weight no matter what we did until the diabetes, and now he's underweight for his build. He is no longer losing, but he is still not gaining.
Our vet diagnosed him and started us on 1u Vetsulin at the end of February. She provided us with diabetic dry food only, but I had a gut feeling that this wasn't the right way to go and ended up getting the matching wet food. Because we're a multi-cat household (10 of them!) we switched from free feeding to scheduled feeding for all household members. Every 12 hours, we separate Rom into the bathroom and feed him separately according to the desired weight chart on his food, and administer his insulin while he is distracted and eating. We were told to only administer the insulin in the scruff of the neck- something I've read against doing in the documents here. I'm not sure if we should discuss changing location with our vet, or if we should just switch to the area along his abdomen.
We initially saw a change on the 1u and feeding schedule where he seemed to be more like his old self, but he continued to lose weight and the lethargy came back pretty quickly. We brought him back in for a test after two weeks, and he went from testing in the high 600s to 400s at the vet visit 4 hours after eating/providing insulin. Still very high, of course, but they were hopeful that increasing by another unit would do the trick. So we were tasked with home testing and moved up to 2u of Vetsulin every 12 hours.
Here's where the latest batch of trouble started. We've had nothing but problems with the glucose meter (i Pet Pro) we purchased from the vet, and struggle to this day to get readings both from the meter and from the cat. We really struggle to get his ears to bleed when pricked, and often have to make multiple pricks or even rips (vet told us to go in at an angle with our needle and then pull up) to get enough blood. On top of that, when we were back in for a recent issue, the vet confirmed that Rom is "avascular" in his ears and even she struggles to take readings from him.
Our meter claims his readings are all over the place; just two nights ago we decided to test the theory of bad readings by doing two back-to-back tests and taking samples from each ear about 10 minutes before his evening feeding. The first test placed him hypo at 58 mg/dL, and the second test 2 minutes later in the other ear put him at 208 mg/dL. Any guidance we can get on straightening out our meter troubles would be deeply appreciated. Additionally, I know stress can affect readings, but how do we know the truth when he tests in the 400-600s at the vet, and in the 100-200s at home?
On top of that, we're seeing new symptoms that are making our lives a living heck, including Rom's. Once we increased to 2u of Vetsulin, we noticed our boy's water intake spiked up again. Shortly after that, he started having accidents. It started abruptly one evening. He started circling our living room couch growling, and then running to the litter box in that room. Sometimes he made it, sometimes he didn't, and the space is probably somewhere between 20-25 feet long. At the time this started, any accidents he was having where he didn't make it to the box were just little drips and dribbles.
Those little drips and dribbles quickly became floods. It's like we turned a gallon jug of water upside down on the floor. It's multiple times per hour, and he's not making it to any of our litter boxes. We took Rom back to the vet when he started to pee himself in his sleep. He behaves like he does not notice that he's covered in urine or wet in general- he just gets up and goes about his day. It is extremely weird, and I called the vet immediately and got a same day.
That day's visit revealed that his sugar was in the 400s again, but our vet was baffled that A) it had not gone down with the insulin increase, and B) why he would be having these types of accidents but not seem to notice. She checked him for ketones in his urine and found nothing thankfully. She mentioned that his urine is extremely dilute, but still full of sugars. We asked about neuropathy, but she didn't seem to think this was a concern yet. I then asked about reducing/removing his dry food. She said that we should keep some dry in his diet for his teeth, but we could transition to mostly wet food, but keep the insulin the same. I now know that I should be testing, feeding, and then administering insulin, but I'm not sure how or what I'm looking for based on the trouble we've seen with his meter.
We started reducing his dry food on Thursday night, and for two days the flooding accidents cleared up. But as of Sunday afternoon, he's started having extreme accidents again. Right now he's flooded our couch and is sleeping in it as if he doesn't even know it's there. This is completely abnormal for him- he's always been very meticulous. Clean litter boxes, Cat Attract, more litter boxes, etc. do not seem to make a difference. When he's awake, he licks his "bits" raw to the point of bleeding, and he dribbles with every step. He's absolutely soaked. What's more- there's virtually no smell. You can detect the faintest whiff of urine in the house overall, but it's tough to tell the difference between his accidents and water on the floor even when we stick our noses right in there.
My fiance and I both work from home, and even so, we're struggling to keep up with the mess. This is a rental with an open floor plan, so we have very limited options for confining Rom to a single room.
I know this was a lot- especially coming in as a new member- but we really need some help and we feel very overwhelmed. Any advice to make poor Rom comfortable and keep us from needing to put up wet floor signs would be helpful, as well as help understanding what might be going on with our meter.
Thank you all so much for reading!
Edit to Mention: Forgot to add that when we first brought up the urination issue to the vet, she started him on amoxicillin for 14 days and gabapentin for 10 days as a precaution, even though she did not see signs of infection. That held true when we retested on Thursday, and he has finished his regimen of drugs.
I also just got another reading. It's been 7 hours since his insulin and last feeding, and he was at 137 mg/dL. He just peed himself again on the floor getting off the couch.
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