Semi-feral FIV+ cat with diabetes. New member

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Karona

Karona

Member Since 2020
My semi-feral FIV+ cat, Tank, was just diagnosed with diabetes. From the point he was diagnosed I took away all dry and gave him a canned pate food. It's been 3 days and the prozinc insulin should be here tomorrow but all his symptoms have stopped. He's no longer drinking and urinating a lot and he's acting totally normal. The vet said to give him the insulin anyway - 3 units twice a day, but I am afraid to drop his sugar too low. Tank has 2 crumpled cauliflower ears that can't be used for testing and he's long haired. He also doesn't like being touched.
Can anyone verify if I should be giving him insulin without him showing any symptoms? I work 10-12 hours a day and can't be home to monitor him after injections except on my days off.
Thank you. A
 
Karona said:
The vet said to give him the insulin anyway - 3 units twice a day, but I am afraid to drop his sugar too low.
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Welcome to the forum! I would say one thing that's very important to newcomers to this disease. Please do not, under any circumstances give your cat any type of insulin until after you've gotten several blood glucose tests.

If the ears aren't available for testing as you mentioned he has crumpled cauliflower ears...then you may want to try a paw pad. I'm hoping some of the others with more experience with that will come on through the evening and help and advise you with this.

3 units is way too much of a starting dose in my estimation - although I am not familiar with Prozinc - I would say to be extra cautious and not to give any insulin until you can determine what effect the food switch has had on lowering his blood glucose. It's entirely possible that his numbers are too low to give any insulin at all! That would be the best case scenario!

@Chris & China (GA) - can you help guide Karona please? Or perhaps suggest some others who are familiar with Prozinc and testing paw pads?

Best of luck to you Karona!
 
Even on ProZinc, 3 units is a huge starting dose. If you give insulin, start with .5 or 1 unit twice a day.

Regardless, it's going to be a bit dangerous without any form of home testing, especially with you not being home to monitor. There's things you can do to try to get him used to testing. The test itself doesn't seem to faze cats much, but you could start by getting him used to touching his feet. You take him to his special spot for testing and shots, hold his foot for a second, then give him a low carb treat. Do this many times a day until he gets the idea that the spot and the touching means it's treat time.
 
I don't check into fdmb much anymore. But I have been watching streams of a rescue shelter with handling very feral cats lately. They seem to wrap them in a towel after trapping them and the feral cats are easier to handle. Most of them remain calm with their head covered. Maybe you can access his paws more easily with such a strategy.
 
3 units is much too high of a dose. The recommended starting dose is 1 unit twice a day. Esp with a diet change, giving him that high a dose will put him at a great risk for hyperglycemia.
 
Not giving him some insulin if he is truly diabetic could result in ketones.

Ketones are a toxic waste product from a cats body breaking down fat and muscle for energy to fuel the body. Can happen with not enough insulin, not enough food, infection or inflammation (bad teeth, UTI, etc)

Very dangerous and life threatening, can quickly lead to DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis).
 
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