newly diagnosed

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johnnywyoming

Member Since 2014
Our 13 year old male cat has just been diagnosed with diabetes. We noticed that he was becoming lethargic, finding new, dark, protected areas to sleep in so we took him to the vet. With the initial exam the vet found a bowel obstruction. He hydrated the cat, gave him laxatives, which cleared out the bowel a little though not completely. Then he did blood work and discovered the diabetes. The vet kept him for two days checking his glucose which was initially 360 or so. We brought him home with the instructions to give him 2 units of Novolin N twice a day with a half a tablet of Glipizide. So far the cat has stayed down except for walking down the hall to get a drink of water, which he seems to be drinking at a normal? rate. He is very lethargic, and very unsteady on his feet, sleeping continuously. As far as we can tell he has not used the litter box or tried to eat. The vet put him on the DM dry food. Having read some of the info on this site, mainly that the DM dry food, and that Novolin N is not recommended we are really becoming more frustrated. I also just read that the scruff of the neck is not the best place to inject the insulin but when I asked the vet (beforehand) he said that the neck would be fine.

How long should it take for the cat to respond and at least show some sign of improvement? What type of insulin (brand) should we be using??
 
johnnywyoming - Oh, wow, your poor kitty has a lot of issues going on! I'm pretty new to this site, so I'm not one to give you detailed advice, but just wanted to drop it and say Welcome!

There are lots of knowledgeable folks here who can help and I trust they will be along soon to do just that.
One thing I do know ... diabetic cats should NOT eat dry food, even the expensive stuff from the vets office.

While you're waiting for advice here, please check out the life-saving website http://www.catinfo.org. Created by a vet, there are sections on feline nutrition, feline diabetes, and lots more.

Good luck to you both!
 
Welcome.
Glipizide very very seldom works in cats and N (NPH) insulin is a poor choice for cats.
360 at the vets office is not high at all since vet stress can raise GB by more than 100. The 2 units N and the Glipizide may be too much.
Most of us here test our cats blood sugar by using a hum blood glucose meter.

Goof insulins are the human Levemir and Lantus and the pet insulin ProZinc
 
As Larry said, you don't want to give glipizide as this damages the pancreas further. Novolin is also not a good insulin for cats and is much better suited for dogs. (In fact, it's not even approved for use in cats.)

My suggestion would be to stop the insulin altogether. Go with a diet change to low carb, wet food, as Geneva suggested above, and learn how to home-test. Then in the next week or so, if the numbers are still elevated, look into restarting insulin, but this time using one of the three insulins that work in cats: Lantus, Levemir, or PZI/ProZinc.
 
Check my signature link Secondary Monitoring Tools for additional assessments you can make. If you choose to stop the insulin while switching the food, you need to test for ketones. The easiest way is by using either KetoStix (ketones only) or KetoDiaStix (ketones and glucose. These will tell you what has happened since the last void.

Ketones form as a by-product of fat breakdown for calories. Too many may indicate diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a potentially fatal, expensive to treat complication of diabetes.
 
Little guy is back home and apparently as good as new! We don't know what happened to him. He went from being catatonic (pun intended), with us thinking we would have to euthanize him, to getting stronger every day until this! His glucose was 380 the day we took him to the vet, then we brought him home for a day and he remained lethargic so we took him back. The vet got his glucose down to 85 - 110 and he stabilized. Apparently he does not have diabetes. He did have an obstruction in his intestines originally, and he was dehydrated and not eating. They gave him laxatives and IVs and then he had jaundice which they thought was attributed to liver problems. Blood tests last night showed his liver was clear and no feline leukemia, and the jaundice went away! We are still waiting for one more test result for Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) but the doc is betting that is negative too. Will know Monday. Anyway the vet became very attached to Little Guy over the past week so I asked him if he wanted a few minutes alone with him before we left. He laughed... So, man, this is a first for us where we take a cat into the vet for something dreadfully serious and he comes home ...

Thanks to the members of this forum for your concerns and encouragement. Our cat is very lucky and I am sending good thoughts out to all of you whose cats are diabetic. I wish you all good things....
 
The jaundice could have been the beginnings of hepatic lipidosis. When a cat isn't eating for 2 or more days, fat is broken down for calories. The fat moves to the liver and congests it so that bile won't go out properly and in backs up into the blood stream. This disrupts any digestion and the cat can deteriorate severely and die. Its good you went to the vet.
 
Glad to hear your little guy is feeling better and the diagnosis of diabetes was incorrect. Hope he continues to do well and gets better and better.
 
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