? Ozzy my cat son

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Alexandra Gade

Member Since 2021
Hi,

I need help for my cat son Ozzy. I rescued him in 2016 from the streets of Kolkata, india, where we live. So I dont know his exact age. But I guess it would be anything between 5 to 7 years old. Ozzy started putting on weight in the last one year and became pretty lethargic. About 3 weeks ago ozzy started off with a cough which then progressed to an eye infection wherein his eye became like a white stone. My regular vet was not available so I rushed him to another vet who suspected diabeties. On testing his blood sugar we found he was at 286. The vet immediately gave him 20 units of human mixtard insulin. And then prescribed 12 units once a day. Meanwhile I was in touch with another vet that I know and she suggested 12 units twice a day. I knew nothing about diabeties or home testing then. But after about 4 to 5 days of this dose, izzy had a critical hypo. I didnt know about hypos then too. It was God's grace that I had honey at home and the vet told me to give it to him when he seemed to be slipping into a coma. I then joined the feline diabeties group where I learned to home test. It is not easy to home test ozzy as one person has to hold him down and therefore I need to hire someone to help me. At most I can do it once a day owing to this and with lot of difficulty twice a day. Post the hypo episode I stopped insulin on the vets advice and with the group guiding me I started home testing. Ozzy's BS fluctuated between 50 to 96 at the most. In the last 3 days I noticed ozzy scratching his lower belly vigorously which had become inflamed. My regular vet was still not available so I started an ointment called kiskin. I'm providing a snapshot of it. I also stopped home testing for the last 2 days because I was very busy with work and I also felt ozzy was not diabetic since his numbers were so good. But when I home tested today his BS was 264 in the afternoon, about 3 hours after his meal. And when i again checked before dinner his BS was 137. Might I mention here that ozzy has this infection on his lower belly for about a month, much before we checked the first time for BS, wherein he was itching vigorously, . I was putting some mild ointments which didnt work and then I started the kiskin ointment after which he got a cough and the eye infection and then we tested for blood sugar. The point that I'm trying to make here is that both the times the blood sugar rose really high was after I applied kiskin, which apparently has a steroid.

Ozzy is on whiskas wet food mostly which is chicken in gravy. I'm told by the group that it has some amount of carbs so I tried to change his diet to fish/boiled chicken/low carb whiskas. But he refused to eat anything except the whiskas in gravy. Before his first BS test I was also giving him chicken liver which he liked very much, but I've stopped that now as I dont know if that's the right food to give him now. He eats a very small quantity of dry food which I try my best to regulate though he loves it. I need guidance please for the following:
1. Is my boy diabetic?
2. At what BS level should I re start insulin in case I need to.
3. I am posting a shot of the insulin that the group suggested to me. Please let me know if it's fine and how much I should give. Ozzy is about 5.5 to 6 kilograms.
4. Could this BS spike be owing to the ointment which has a steroid?

Please guide me.
 
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I'm afraid the pictures are not getting uploaded as I'm getting an error message

We can't upload them like we're supposed to. The only way you can get pictures is to copy the picture and then paste it in here. Right click on the picture, choose "copy", then come here and use CTRL + V to paste. Don't use the "upload a file" feature.
 
1. Is my boy diabetic?

I think that it's totally possible that when you were giving those huge doses of mixtard and he had a severe hypo, it put him into remission. We don't know how it happens, but sometimes when a cat gets a serious OD of insulin and has a severe hypo, it seems to somehow kick-start the pancreas and it starts working normally again.

2. At what BS level should I re start insulin in case I need to.

I'd wait until you're done with the steroid ointment before worrying about this but I would call your vet and see if there's something else that will work for Ozzy that doesn't contain a steroid. Once he's been off the steroid for awhile, if his BG goes over 150 and stays there (or increases), then we might want to consider putting him back on insulin but at a MUCH lower dose. Most cats never need more than 3U

3. I am posting a shot of the insulin that the group suggested to me. Please let me know if it's fine and how much I should give. Ozzy is about 5.5 to 6 kilograms.

If this is the picture you're talking about, this is Glargine (Name brands are Lantus, Basaglar, Semglee and Optisulin) and are one of the best types of insulin for cats.
254096162_10158996602788241_6886880402285564341_n.jpg


IF you do need to re-start him on insulin, you'd want to start at 0.5 to 1.0 unit

4. Could this BS spike be owing to the ointment which has a steroid?

Absolutely!

When you have a minute, please read this "How you can help us to help you". Doing your "Signature" and having our spreadsheet link included and up to date will help us to give you the best advice possible. If you need help, please feel free to send me a message on Facebook (Chris Ronkoski)
 
Chris thank you so much for the insights. This is majorly helpful. I will check out the link you provided. I'm very grateful
 
First of all Wellcome

It appears your boy has some issues you will need to address besides the possibility of him being diabetic, what diagnose do you have for the issue in his eye ? and for his belly problem?
By any chance any of the vets ran a blood test? if they did could you post the results here

Addressing your questions

1. Is my boy diabetic?
He could be but the best way to find out and be sure either way is by home testing, start testing him regularly and share the results here so that we can all get an idea on how he's doing

2. At what BS level should I re start insulin in case I need to. 3. I am posting a shot of the insulin that the group suggested to me. Please let me know if it's fine and how much I should give. Ozzy is about 5.5 to 6 kilograms.
I think Chis already answered this ones

4. Could this BS spike be owing to the ointment which has a steroid?
Since is an ointment it shouldn't really affect him much but each cat is different so is hard to say but I would consider more likely that whatever is causing both his illness is probably causing the rise in his blood glucose levels too so is important to address this issue which doesn't mean he is not diabetic he could have both problems
 
Hi and welcome! I am going to tag @Bandit's Mom asshe lives in India also and may be able to help you.

I would continue to test the BG twice daily and try and stick with low carb food. I wouldn’t start any insulin without advice from this forum. The vet grossly overdosed your kitty. If the BG is staying between 50 and 120 with a human meter, they are normal readings.
 
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