14 Year old cat recently diagnosed

Hi everyone

I'm new here and would like to connect to receive some feedback and support during the process of stabilising my lovely older cat who has been diagnosed with diabetes. We live in an area where there is not a lot of experience with diabetic cats.... the vet is lovely but I need to make sure I'm as knowledgable as possible.

My cat Mousey is 14 and started on Caninsulin (3 units x 2/24hr) about three weeks ago. Her blood sugars were in the 700's according to the vet. They did a curve on her six days ago ( 9am-5pm) and increased her insulin to 4 units x 2 / day because her BSL stayed in the 23-27 range all day. She was really stressed at the vet, and so the plan is for me to home test her BSL (I have all the gear now and will start tomorrow..dreading that).

Urine / food

• I've got her on diabetic wet food and have just about weaned her off the dry diabetic food (I know its not good).
• Her urine output when she first started on insulin, initially decreased, as did her water intake, but then increased to pre-insulin quantities within two days.
• On 4 units of insulin, her water intake is still 3 1/2 cups in 24 hrs, but her urine has halved again.

My concerns are:

1. She appears to be developing diabetic neuropathy and has become a lot weaker in the past month, lying around, not able to sit up for very long and walking a bit more unusually.
2. Is she having a Somogyi effect? I know I'll be able to get more information after my home testing.
3. Is 4 units x 2 day a high dose? She weighs about 6.9 kg and losing slowly after being overweight previously.

Thank you for any thoughts, I feel a bit isolated in all this and am especially worried as we are travelling overseas for about three weeks in four months.

 

I'm not a Catinsulin user but I think that yes 3 and 4 units are a high dose. Is it too much is a different issue.

Somorgyi effect is a large fall to normal numbers followed by a rebound to high number. This dose could cause it or it can be too large of a dose period. The only way to know for sure is for you to do a BG curve or at a minimum test before you shoot and 2-3 hours after you shoot to see the result. I believe Catinsulin is a harsher insulin that causes BG numbers to drop fast in comparison to others.

It sounds like overall she is not regulated. The neuropathy should improve with time.

If you come over to ask these same questions on Feline Health (the main forum) you will find more eyes seeing your questions. One's that know more than I do.

 

Thank you! I'll repost in feline health as you suggest, much appreciated.

 

Welcome! I just responded to your post over on the Health board.