Newly diagnosed diabetic cat- possible misdiagnosis?

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jamesdare95

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Background info: The cat in question is named Eve. She is an eleven year old spayed female domestic shorthair. She weighs 9.6 pounds as of yesterday and her feline body score is 6. All the tests were basic blood glucose tests that are part of a regular senior cat panel.

I took Eve to the vet in January for her yearly visit. The vet took her blood sugar and told me she was diabetic because her blood glucose was "high 200s-low 300s", in the words of the vet. I switched her to Purina Friskies canned food (I know it's not the best but I'm on a budget and can already barely afford that) and decided to just monitor her for awhile since she was completely asymptomatic for diabetes aside from the blood glucose.

I took her in again in May to a different vet because she was acting weird (very clingy and aggressively affectionate but no other symptoms). Vet once again measured blood glucose levels of ~280 and prescribed 2 units vetsulin 2x/day. After two days on the insulin, she had a hypoglycemic seizure. We went down to 1 unit/day for about 2-3 weeks until she started acting really depressed. I haven't given her insulin since late June and she still displays no symptoms of diabetes. I purchased a blood glucose monitor the other night but I haven't figured out how to get a sample large enough for a reading yet.

I'm not confident in the accuracy of her diagnoses because 1) the first vet gave her a treat before the test and the second one may have since I wasn't in the room when they performed it 2) she has a tendency towards stress hyperglycemia, which I've heard is already common for cats 3) the second vet told me it was better to give double insulin than to skip if you can't remember if you gave it or not, which I don't think is true since everyone else tells me the opposite.

Basically, I don't trust the vets. The first one misdiagnosed another one of my cats with a food allergy that needed a conveniently expensive cat food which did not improve her symptoms at all (it ended up being cat acne) and the second one gave me 1) the wrong insulin dose, if she is diabetic and 2) incorrect insulin-administering advice. Those are the only 2 vets in my area, and it's obvious neither of them became vets to work with cats. I'll keep trying to monitor her blood glucose but until I get enough blood for a reading, could she be misdiagnosed?

Edit: I have received her test results, her fructosamine came back normal! Very happy. Vet says she may be in remission rather than non-diabetic (though he also said he wasn't sure) so I will keep her on wet food. Thank you all for your help and suggestions.
 
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jamesdare95 said:
Background info: The cat in question is named Eve. She is an eleven year old spayed female domestic shorthair. She weighs 9.6 pounds as of yesterday and her feline body score is 6. All the tests were basic blood glucose tests that are part of a regular senior cat panel.

I took Eve to the vet in January for her yearly visit. The vet took her blood sugar and told me she was diabetic because her blood glucose was "high 200s-low 300s", in the words of the vet. I switched her to Purina Friskies canned food (I know it's not the best but I'm on a budget and can already barely afford that) and decided to just monitor her for awhile since she was completely asymptomatic for diabetes aside from the blood glucose.

I took her in again in May to a different vet because she was acting weird (very clingy and aggressively affectionate but no other symptoms). Vet once again measured blood glucose levels of ~280 and prescribed 2 units vetsulin 2x/day. After two days on the insulin, she had a hypoglycemic seizure. We went down to 1 unit/day for about 2-3 weeks until she started acting really depressed. I haven't given her insulin since late June and she still displays no symptoms of diabetes. I purchased a blood glucose monitor the other night but I haven't figured out how to get a sample large enough for a reading yet.

I'm not confident in the accuracy of her diagnoses because 1) the first vet gave her a treat before the test and the second one may have since I wasn't in the room when they performed it 2) she has a tendency towards stress hyperglycemia, which I've heard is already common for cats 3) the second vet told me it was better to give double insulin than to skip if you can't remember if you gave it or not, which I don't think is true since everyone else tells me the opposite.

Basically, I don't trust the vets. The first one misdiagnosed another one of my cats with a food allergy that needed a conveniently expensive cat food which did not improve her symptoms at all (it ended up being cat acne) and the second one gave me 1) the wrong insulin dose, if she is diabetic and 2) incorrect insulin-administering advice. Those are the only 2 vets in my area, and it's obvious neither of them became vets to work with cats. I'll keep trying to monitor her blood glucose but until I get enough blood for a reading, could she be misdiagnosed?
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Welcome James and Eve, we are here to help you in your journey with Eve, First you have a good instinct, about your trust, most Vets are not familiar with cat diabetes, and yes, a treat most likely dry treat should have not been given prior to testing, dry food has approximately between 20-30% carbs, diabetic cats should have a diet of wet can foods between 0-10% carbs, home testing is very important to avoid hypoglycemia, you can purchase a human monitor like Walmart, most of us use the ReliOn Premier monitor about $ 12.00 and the Premier strips $9.00 for 50/$17.99 for 100, you cannot give insulin if you do not know Eve's BG, below you'll have a Drs food list of many brands, and here we enjoy Fancy Feast Pates they are USA made so no waste goes in their system, also you will need a HYPO KIT, this will consist of KARO Syrup/Honey, some medium carb foods between 12-14 % and some High carb food between 15-20% in case her BG numbers get below 50, and never ever give a second shot or more insulin like the vet said, please. read all the sticky notes in the Main Forum and follow the protocol of the link to help you, we are here for you, I myself had a horrific experience my cats Vet for 10 years after Corky was diagnose, today, my vet is this Forum, I trust the experts here for increase/decrease dosing, all my concerns, it's been since January2, 2023 that Corky was diagnosed, and my Corky has flourished to be his best since, I will tag another member to help you with the insulin you are using , but we do need a bit more information about Eve so click on the links below, :bighug::cat::cat:
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/dr-pierson-new-food-
chart.174147/
@Bron and Sheba (GA)
 
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Hi and welcome to the forum James and Eve.
The best way to get a diabetic diagnosis in a cat is to have a fructosamine test done at the vet. That will give you the average of the past couple of weeks blood glucose and is an accurate way to get the diagnosis.
Yes cats can get stressed at the vet and their BG (blood glucose ) can rise.
However it does sound to me as if Eve probably does have diabetes. And it is not safe to ignore that and not give insulin. You are running the risk of her developing ketones because there is not enough insulin in her system and that can lead to much more serious and expensive issues, even death.
Your vet, unfortunately, did not give you a good insulin in the beginning and started her on too high a dose and that is why she had the hypoglycaemic episode and the seizure. Vetsulin is a dog insulin and is too harsh for cats.
This is what you need to do…
You need to get a fructosamine test done to establish Eve has diabetes.
Then if she does, you need to get a much better insulin for cats. The ones recommended by the American Animal Association are Lantus and prozinc. And the starting dose if Eve is eating a canned diet would be 0.5 unit (1/2 unit)
Then once you have the insulin and the fructosamine test done, come back here and we can help you get Eve safely onto a dose and show you who to manage it all.
But please do not just leave it and think it will all be ok because it won’t and sooner or later Eve will get ketones and then you have a much bigger problem. Diabetes is a very treatable disease and once Eve is on a good insulin she will be able to lead a normal life.
Make sure she is eating well please. That is very important.
 
Bron has offered very good advice. Please ask the vet to get a fructosamine test. It is the definitive way to diagnose diabetes. A fructosamine test is the equivalent of a hemoglobin A1c that is used to diagnose diabetes in humans. You may want to take a look at this article published by the American Animal Hospital Association on guidelines for managing diabetes.

It's entirely possible that your cat is not currently showing symptoms of diabetes but her blood glucose values are elevated. Frankly, none of us truly know how long our cats were diabetic before they were diagnosed. If Twix is diabetic, the risks are far higher for not treating her than getting if you get her appropriately treated. And we can help you with her care.
 
Hi, I'd like to chime in here due to my recent experience with one of my cats, Roger. Roger went to the vet for a checkup this month for blood work and to figure out a weight loss plan. He is a little overweight but also has the frame of a main coone, so he's large in general.

They sent out bloods and it showed hyperglycemia. His bg was in the 400s on that test . I was stunned bc, besides being a little chunky, he has absolutely no symptoms of diabetes ( we have had two diabetics in a row now, so we're familiar with what to look out for). I didn't believe the test, asked the vet of it could be from stress and was told "no, bc the glucose is way too high for stress". Roger is an anxious cat, so he gets worked up easily, so I really had a hard time believing these results.

I trusted my instincts and took some bgs at home in the afternoon for two days and they were all under 100, without starting insulin. I updated the vet and they had me bring Roger back in to rerun the tests. The results came back perfectly normal, no diabetes.

With all due respect, I am missing where the original poster described symptoms that specifically align with diabetes. If you are weary of the results, have them send out another sample, if budget allows.

Hyperglycemia of 200 to 300 can be stress. Heck, hyperglycemia in the 400s apparently can be stress. After we got the results from the second test, that's when my vet was like "oh I'm so glad you had the wherewithal to test him before starting insulin."

I would have killed my cat if I blindly listened to them , no vet bashing at all bc I love this vet and trust her..but sometimes they're wrong.
 
Johann_marcel said:
Hi, I'd like to chime in here due to my recent experience with one of my cats, Roger. Roger went to the vet for a checkup this month for blood work and to figure out a weight loss plan. He is a little overweight but also has the frame of a main coone, so he's large in general.

They sent out bloods and it showed hyperglycemia. His bg was in the 400s on that test . I was stunned bc, besides being a little chunky, he has absolutely no symptoms of diabetes ( we have had two diabetics in a row now, so we're familiar with what to look out for). I didn't believe the test, asked the vet of it could be from stress and was told "no, bc the glucose is way too high for stress". Roger is an anxious cat, so he gets worked up easily, so I really had a hard time believing these results.

I trusted my instincts and took some bgs at home in the afternoon for two days and they were all under 100, without starting insulin. I updated the vet and they had me bring Roger back in to rerun the tests. The results came back perfectly normal, no diabetes.

With all due respect, I am missing where the original poster described symptoms that specifically align with diabetes. If you are weary of the results, have them send out another sample, if budget allows.

Hyperglycemia of 200 to 300 can be stress. Heck, hyperglycemia in the 400s apparently can be stress. After we got the results from the second test, that's when my vet was like "oh I'm so glad you had the wherewithal to test him before starting insulin."

I would have killed my cat if I blindly listened to them , no vet bashing at all bc I love this vet and trust her..but sometimes they're wrong.
Click to expand...

That’s what I’m worried about. Both vets appear to know little about feline diabetes, so I’m just wondering if the immediate diagnosis could be jumping the gun a little. I’m definitely still going to get her tested. I don’t really understand the assumptions that I wouldn’t.
 
jamesdare95 said:
That’s what I’m worried about. Both vets appear to know little about feline diabetes, so I’m just wondering if the immediate diagnosis could be jumping the gun a little. I’m definitely still going to get her tested. I don’t really understand the assumptions that I wouldn’t.
Click to expand...
jamesdare95 said:
That’s what I’m worried about. Both vets appear to know little about feline diabetes, so I’m just wondering if the immediate diagnosis could be jumping the gun a little. I’m definitely still going to get her tested. I don’t really understand the assumptions that I wouldn’t.
Click to expand...
I think we all agree with you.
 
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