Symptoms, but with normal sugar?

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KatenKira

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Miss Kira's sugar was never horribly high, but she was experiencing diabetes symptoms--weight loss, increased thirst and urination. When we started on this journey, her uncontrolled sugar was in the mid-200's, spiking during vet visits to the 300's. We had a hard time finding the right dose, and my boyfriend and I both have difficult work schedules for testing and dosing consistently. I should mention this is all using an AlphaTrak I inherited from family, not a human meter. We've brought both it and our tube of strips with the vet's meter and they've agreed.

She's been eating Young Again Mature Zero Carb for six months now, supplemented morning and night with BFF pates and aspic flavors, so all low carb. Every single time I've tested her sugar, it's ranged between 102 and 120 on, and I haven't felt comfortable giving her insulin... but she's still symptomatic. Her weight had dropped from ~12lbs pre-diagnosis to ~8lbs right at diagnosis, back to 10lbs while I was giving her insulin twice a day, and her last two vet visits she's been exactly 9.2lbs.

We've also been dealing with some urinary issues about six weeks ago--she had blood in her urine, was literally just going back and forth from the water bowl to the litter box, developed a limp in her front left leg. We didn't have an explanation for the limp, but it cleared up after a round of antibiotics. The vet's theory is a bladder infection. Her peeing habits went back to the previous baseline, but I would still call that baseline much higher than a non-sugar cat's.

She had a physical exam about two weeks ago when we took her in to get her vaccines and the vet didn't find anything, but... I don't know, there's still something bothering me. And last night she started favoring her back right leg, though she was still jumping/navigating the litter box and stairs, and by this morning it had almost completely gone away.

I'm wondering if maybe confirmation bias is making us miss something, like we're looking for diabetes so that's all we're seeing, but there's something else. Or if maybe 102-120 is still too high and I need to give her a teeny dose. We haven't gotten a full blood panel or urinalysis in at least a year. But, I mean... she's 13 so she isn't exactly a kitten anymore, the vet wasn't very concerned, she's eating, she's playing, she's purring, she's not hiding any more than a cat normally does. I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill but I also don't want that molehill to secretly be, like, a volcano that's about to erupt.
 
I know what you mean, like somethings not quite right! Even though other symptoms aren’t there; I would agree on some bw. 13 years old is when things do seem to happen whether it’s kidney, thyroid... at least with my kitties. Is you cat also starving all the time? At 12 years is when thyroid usually begins. I had a thyroid kitty, (Lizzie) starving all the time, weight lose, & tummy grumbling like empty & even squeaky sounds! She was controlled with methamazole the rest of her 17 1/2 years.
My Baby is in remission but she still eats & drinks more than she used too. Not as much as when she was first diagnosed but more than before. I’ve heard this often times by members here that I’ve asked. My vet doesn’t quite know why; not anyone else. Once a diabetic always a diabetic?!? She has gained a lot of weight lately & that worries me. I have no idea about the leg issues or where that fits in. Baby has a check up next week so asking more questions then. I hope this helps some...:)
 
Have her kidneys been checked? Has she had a blood work done? If so post her results

Kittys with kidney problems also drink a lot of water and loose wheigt also some vitamin/mineral deficiencies can cause mobility issues, also as they've said thirod problems, a complete blood work would help a lot to determine all this or rule them out

You could also ask the vet to check for arthritis since it could cause pain and sometimes when kittys are in pain (which is difficult to determine because they are good at hiding it) they loose weight also and it could cause some mobility issues
 
I'm definitely calling to make an appointment to get her in for bloodwork. I just hate dragging her in--I trust this vet but he's a 30 min car ride away and it definitely stresses her out.

I've also heard her joints creak sometimes when she jumps on and off the bed, so maybe there's something there. And she's definitely not acting like she's starving--she's always been a free-feeder and usually just grazes throughout the day. That hasn't changed at all. I attached her bloodwork and urinalysis from 10/2016. I didn't think to ask after the collection method for the latter, but my regular vet thinks they used a syringe rather than waiting for her to urinate, which would explain the presence of protein.
 

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I would get some BW to check out the kidneys. I have a KD kid and she drinks and pees more than Jones the FD kitty. Jones even in low numbers has drank and urinated more than he did before DX. Not a huge amount more, but more.

That creaking, limping - arthritis perhaps?
 
I agree that her thyroid needs to be checked if it hasn't. My cat's hyperthyroid symptoms we're exactly the same as diabetes symptoms in terms of drinking a lot, urinating a lot, and losing weight. The difference was, when my cat was hyperthyroid, she purred and played more often. Her thyroid is easily controlled with medication.
 
I knew when mine started drinking more water and losing weight that the short list probabilities were going to be either diabetes or hyperthyroidism. FD drew short straw. :/ Fingers crossed that it’s something “easy” like a thyroid problem for your baby girl!
 
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