11 year newly diagnosed not walking

hi all My 11 year old domestic short hair tabby cat Laila was diagnosed Saturday night in emergency ER visit. We came home on Sat and found her in pain, not moving. She has bad hind legs - cow hocked and slipping joints - and I thought she might have injured herself while we were out.

The ER vet clinic did a complete evaluation - xrays, labs, bladder punch for urine - and found that Laila’s glucose was 270. She had glucose and blood in her urine. We had noticed no changes at home but she is a BIG cat - 24lbs - and does pee a lot. She eats wet food - instinct rabbit and duck - with a few Hills TD dry for crunch treats and anything she can swipe from family members. She loves to clear up my daughter’s pop tart crumbs in the AM.

The vet has given us this protocol : 1. Get her to eat (she wouldn’t eat at the vets nor when she got home) 2. Start Lantus 2 iu twice a day. 3. Bring her back in on Friday for a glucose monitor day session. I am on both Lantus and Humalog so I had a pen at home and was able to give her a shot Sunday AM after she ate some chicken from my hand. 4. Switch her to feline diabetic wet diet food. I’m concerned about the food switch.

She definitely is not interested in food - HUGE change for her because she would always eat everything and get into your plate if you left food out. I hand fed her some warm chicken we had cooked for dinner - mixed with some water to make it juicy. She is not moving well. Her legs just don’t seem to work. She is walking bent and very slowly - not straightening her legs. I have moved her around the house to her various safe spots - she doesn’t climb because of her legs so we fleece and memory foam pillows for her in all the have rooms. The vet says that cats with newly diagnosed diabetes often have trouble walking. I’m terrified that her mobility issue is permanent. Do cats who have problems walking from diabetes clear up?

I’ve ordered a veterinary glucose monitor. I don’t want to use mine and get the numbers mixed. I have the Lantus pen I started her on but will switch her to her own Lantus script when we finish the pen. I wonder about the switch to Purina’s p(autocorrect made it Putin 3 times ) pro plan veterinary diet DM diabetic diet. Looking at the food forums I don’t see people talking about Purina DM. I’m comfortable doing insulin shots. My entire family (me, mom, dad, grandfather and aunt) are diabetic T2

 

Welcome Laila and Laila's bean to FDMB! Poor little girl! I think you are correct about being concerned about the food recommendation. Many members, including myself, have found that the DM diets are not a good choice for our sugar cats. One thing that is very important, and you already know this, it's critical to test before shooting insulin, and also important to begin testing before a change in the diet. Changing to a lower carb wet diet will lower Laila's BG and you want to be aware of what is happening. Many of us feed Fancy Feast Classics and Friskies pates, lower than 10% carb. There are many other brands of wet low carb foods available also. I am wondering if Laila is suffering from neuropathy with the hind leg issues.
I used a pet meter at first and the cost of the strips became prohibitive so I switched to a human meter, a ReliOn. Now my DH is pre-diabetic and has to test 1X AM. As Idjit is in remission and we don't have to test often, they share and I keep a written log for DH as well. Just until you get the pet meter, could you test Laila with your meter as a failsafe?
Regarding insulin for Laila, many here use the Lantus pen with a syringe since increases and decreases are recommended in very small increments: 0.25 U. Many members order Lantus from Marks Marine in Canada to save $$, this might be an option for you for Laila's insulin at least. We didn't know diddly squat about feline diabetes when we started, bought a vial of Lantus on vet recommend and Idjit went OTJ in two weeks. I wasn't sure it would hold and there it sat in the fridge, just in case. Now $$ down the drain as it is probably no good. So, perhaps pens from Marks Marine at reduced cost would be good for you guys, if you have to get yours and hers separately.
At any rate, there is info on neuropathy here on the board, I will hunt down the link for you.
Please create a signature with Laila's pertinent info that will display with each of your posts. Here is a link: SIGNATURE
Check the Lantus forum and read the yellow tagged info threads to learn about using Lantus for Laila. Please post about your concerns in the Health (Main) forum to get more input on diet, low carb wet food alternatives and the hind leg issues. We want to help dear Laila feel better soon.

 

Here is the link about NEUROPATHY

 

Welcome - you've come to a great place for help and support for Laila!

 

Welcome!
My girl has neuropathy as well. I could swear it has improved slightly with her sugars lower, but it could be my imagination. I've read that it is reversible- hope it is for us!

 

Are you treating the neuropathy with B-12?

 

I will be- we see the vet in a few hours, so everything will be rolling now.

 

you may want to check out that link about Neuropathy I put in a response to Caloucon. You may be able to get the supplement cheaper on Amazon rather than Rx or meds from Vet. I find that the vet dispensed meds are very much more expensive than buying OTC or getting a prescription and ordering from Chewy.com. Just a thought.
Don't mean to hijack your thread Caloucon, just concerned about all the kitties!

 

Hi and welcome to the FDMB. I would encourage you to copy and repost on the Health Main forum HERE as we prefer to deal with specific health matters in that forum where there is more traffic and you will get more eyes on the issues you are dealing with. I will say that a BG of 270 for a cat not feeling well and in the vet's office is not particularly high and diabetic neuropathy doesn't usually manifest in such a sudden and serious manner as to cause total loss of mobility. I'd really like for you to get some other opinions.

 

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! I will try my meter tomorrow but I don’t know where to test. Where do y’all place the lancet? The vet didn’t ask us to test Laila’s glucose so we didn’t go over feline glucose testing. I will repost our medical description in the other forum.

As an update - Laila walked (slowly) from her fleece to her bowl and then her litter box. I’ve never been so glad to see cat poo in my life!! She ate well - Instinct with her glucosamine capsule. I’ve ordered the b12 Idjit and Manjamdra recommended. Should be here tomorrow.

 

If you will post now in the Main forum, asking about testing you will get responses, links to testing tips and tricks, pictures etc. I will be watching for that. This forum is just a welcome mat and I would like you to get more eyes on the concerns.

 

Thanks for all the advice. I’ve been digging around on the forums. What an amazing collection of information! Thanks so much for compiling it here. I know many of my questions - like my question on where to test - will be answered by your posts. I found a detailed step by step process to test using the ears. Wonderful source of information !