Newly diagnosed diabetes/animic

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viffaf

Member Since 2013
My 17 year old cat, Thea, was diagnosed 2 weeks ago. She is on 2 Glipizide, twice a day and Benazepril once a day and was eating Purina DM Wet the first week. On her return visit, her numbers were normal. The vet told me to keep her on the medication, but to feed her anything she would eat to get her nutrition back up. I have been giving her Fancy Feast Classics. On Thursday, she slept the entire day and night, but did eat morning and night. I woke her a couple of times, but she refused food. Yesterday, she ate very well and was alert all day. Today she is lethargic again and has eaten almost nothing. I coaxed her to eat some of the friskies wet food I still had on hand, but she only licked up the gravy. Any suggestions on what I can tempt her with?
 
Welcome to FDMB! Glad you found us.

FF is a good choice for food - most people here use it. Friskies pates are also pretty good for diabetics.
Getting her off Purina DM was also a good move!

You can try adding 'sprinkles' to the food - tuna water (make sure its spring water if human cans), crumbled parmesan cheese, fortiflora probiotic (cats love the taste), freeze-dried treats (Purebites freeze dried chicken is a fav. - you can get it for either cats or dogs at most large pet stores)

From what I've read, Glipizide is not a good option for cats - do a search on this board for it.
It may actually damage the pancreas.

Do you have any bg readings for Thea? The ones from the vet are probably higher than would be expected (vet stress) but we'd still like to get some idea of her levels.
You've probably aware that we are all major advocates of home testing here.

Denise & Honey
 
No Glipizide is not recommended for cats as it can actually damage the pancreas as Denise said. If you have time do a Google search on it as well.
I hope you are getting her to eat something at this point.

Terri
 
viffaf said:
My 17 year old cat, Thea, was diagnosed 2 weeks ago. She is on 2 Glipizide, twice a day and Benazepril once a day and was eating Purina DM Wet the first week. On her return visit, her numbers were normal. The vet told me to keep her on the medication, but to feed her anything she would eat to get her nutrition back up. I have been giving her Fancy Feast Classics. On Thursday, she slept the entire day and night, but did eat morning and night. I woke her a couple of times, but she refused food. Yesterday, she ate very well and was alert all day. Today she is lethargic again and has eaten almost nothing. I coaxed her to eat some of the friskies wet food I still had on hand, but she only licked up the gravy. Any suggestions on what I can tempt her with?
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Welcome to the site. I am glad you joined this site; you will get a great deal of help from the members here.

OK, my first recommendation is to take your cat off glipizide as it's harsh and does nothing to help your cat... it forces your cat's pancreas to work harder and there is no chance of its healing and being able to function on its own.

There's alot of info on glipizide, but the bottom line is that it's harsh, can cause your cat to become sicker, especially if your cat has other health issues, and eventually, you may likely have to start giving insulin anyway. Better to get on insulin now, and hopefully get Thea off insulin once her pancreas heals.

One of the danger signs with glipizide is not eating.... If she is already stopped eating, I'd stop the glipizide and get on insulin.
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Conten ... ID=3001459
On insulin, your cat is 'helped' and Thea's pancreas will be given a chance to heal.

Where are you located? If you need a prescription to get insulin, I would recommend telling your vet that you want to use Lantus or Levemir, or even PZI.
 
Imagine if Thea has a sprained ankle.....

with glipzide, your vet is making her run on that ankle with only a bandage for support. her ankle will just get worse because it can't heal if she has to keep putting weight on it.

with insulin, you vet is making her run but with crutches and a bandage around the ankle. her ankle will have a chance to heal and then you may be able to take off the bandage and get rid of the crutches.
 
No sooner did I hit post, Thea got up and ate a LOT! She is resting again in the sun. Her original reading was 354. One week later, it was within normal range, although I did not get the exact number. She goes back in tomorrow, and I will discuss the Glipizide 5mg with her vet. She is on 1/4 tablet twice a day. Thank you for your quick responses. The past two weeks have been a roller coaster ride of emotions. We are in Michigan.
 
viffaf said:
No sooner did I hit post, Thea got up and ate a LOT! She is resting again in the sun. Her original reading was 354. One week later, it was within normal range, although I did not get the exact number. She goes back in tomorrow, and I will discuss the Glipizide 5mg with her vet. She is on 1/4 tablet twice a day. Thank you for your quick responses. The past two weeks have been a roller coaster ride of emotions. We are in Michigan.
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Was that 354 just the glucose number on test results, or from one test done by the vet when you were there?
I ask because one of my cats always tested higher at the vet office but would be lower later on, so it's important to know if the vet based the diabetes on one number or if maybe your vet did a fructosamine test which a bit more reliable because it's the average of Thea's glucose over the last few weeks.

Glipizide does harm, so switching to insulin is the best for her health.

ETA: if your vet will not give you a rx for insulin, you can post your city in Michigan to ask others for better vet recommendations.
 
We've all been there with the roller coaster ride - its really hard at first and very emotional.
But stick with it - there's hope.

My cat Honey was dx in October 2012. She went on Lantus and with the help and advice from this forum she's now on a 2 week trial without insulin and so far, her numbers are within the 'normal' range.
So, don't be frightened of getting Thea on insulin - diabeties its better than a lot of other cat illnesses to manage.
 
Thea was at the vet for the better part of a day. The testing was done while she was there. The vet told me there was a good chance she would need to go on insulin, if she didn't respond to the glipizide, so I don't think he will have a problem getting rx. He also told me that only a small portion of cats do respond well to it. Thea's ketones were normal on both visits and her kidney function is good. Thanks! Also, can someone link me to the "normal" ranges :)
 
Where in MI are you located? There are a few of us in different parts of the state. Also, please be aware that cats on glip can still hypo.
 
I'm sorry, I don't know how anemic she is or much about the benezipril, but she is much weaker than normal. I know based on my research this weekend, I will have a lot of questions when I go back on Tuesday.

The vet explained the hypo and what to watch for and do. I also try to get her to eat something every couple of hours and make sure she eats, before giving her the medication.

I am near the thumb area :)
 
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