Cats back legs weak (don't think neuropathy)

Hi everyone!
Some of you may remember me from posting a couple weeks ago when Oero had a sever hypo event. We are SO happy he pulled through and made it home. We are taking the best care we can with his glucose levels jumping all over the place and he's generally been doing really well.

But, something is bothering me. And it's that I noticed is that ever since he came home his back legs are very weak. He falls and stumbles and his legs just slide right out from under him. My boyfriend said the day he had the hypo event his hind legs seemed weak in the AM but everything was totally fine before that. No signs of weakness ever, it just happened overnight.

He had neuropathy when he was first diagnosed but this doesn't seem even remotely the same. He's not walking on his hocks at all. It's just unsteadiness and weakness. He can't even hold himself up to pee so he ends up sitting in it. And sometimes when he sits he sways back and forth a bit too.

Anyone have any idea what it could be?

The vets were very concerned about brain damage from his event. Could it be that his motor skills were damaged from the event?

Also, side note, he lost his appetite the last two days. I think it might be due to his blindness because I can hand feed him and kind of make him eat, although not as much as I would like. But no clue if it's related to this leg weakness so I'm mentioning it too. Although this is only two days, leg weakness two weeks.

Also, his glucose levels are ranging anywhere from 150 to 450, just for reference. Jumping all over the place and generally on the high side!

 

Yes, it's possible. You might want to see if you can find someplace that offers rehabilitation therapy ….Water therapy has done a lot of good for pets

If you'll get our spreadsheet going and start recording his numbers, we may be able to help with dosing decisions and get him to level out instead of bouncing around so much

 

Hi,
I'm not sure how to start a spreadsheet in this forum. I can do a link to a Google doc? Or is there another way?

Also, Oero totally won't eat tonight. Maybe two bites of his food. I hand fed some chicken, but not much. Im scared to give him insulin when he isn't eating like this.

 

Here are the instructions on getting the FDMB spreadsheet

Which insulin are you using?

 

Here's your last post....I see you're on Lantus.

If you look below our comments, you'll see our "signature"...it'll help for you to get yours done ASAP too so we don't have to keep asking the same questions.

Just go to the top right of the page and click on your sign on name and choose "Signature"...a new box will pop up for you to enter information into like:

Your name/cat's name, age, sex, date of diagnosis, type of insulin, type of meter, type of food, any other health issues? and a general location.

Are you still trying to do a sliding scale with Lantus?

 

I filled mine out when you mentioned it last time and it apparently didn't save. I'll do it again.

Yes still on lantus and still adjusting up and down but it's mostly 2 units, sometimes 1. I'm trying to keep it as level as possible vs. jumping around with the dosing too much .

I got him to eat after trying 4 different foods. He will only eat fancy feast beef classic tonight. No wd rx, no ff chicken, no ff turkey!!

 

That's good...stay away from the W/D...it's too high in carbs for a diabetic cat

We really don't do the sliding scale dosing here with Lantus. Most of us have better results with consistent dosing and the dosing methods we recommend here require shooting the same dose both AM and PM.

We hold the dose for between 3 and 7 days (unless they drop below 50 on a human meter) and then make adjustments in .25 unit increments so we don't bypass what could be a "perfect" dose.

 

Im only doing it because thats what the internist recommended when he was released from the hospital. They said below 200 give 1 unit, 200-350 give 2 units and 350+ give 3 units. I base this on his lowest dose for the day. Although, I'm gone 11 hours a day with worki at this point I can only get mid-day readings on weekends.

He was previously on 7 units per the guidance of another internist. PZI caused ketoacidosis almost immediately. Lantus we just haven't been able to get him regulated anywhere from 1 unit and up. We did the whole waiting 7 days between each dose and went up in .5 increments, wasn't successful. He ended up at 7 and was happy there for a long time, until the hypo event from vomitting twice in a day. Now he's just a mess.

 

Good job on the signature!!

Are you still feeding the W/D? It's really high carb and the ingredients are pretty lousy.

I can't help much with sliding scale dosing since it's not something I've ever really learned. When my own cat was diagnosed, I read both here and on another site (where they did do sliding scale) but I decided to listen to the people here instead of the other site.

I do know I've seen a lot of cats since then and changing the dose frequently usually just caused wonky numbers. I've also seen a lot of cats that just a drop too much insulin was too much, so doing dose changes in whole units (like 1-3U) goes against everything I've learned.

I've asked some others who might have more experience to weigh in but I don't know when that might happen

 

He went into remission on ff but they changed their packaging right before he came out of remission and I always wondered if the formula changed and that it had too many carbs that caused him to be unregulated. Vet recommended wd and I dumped a ton of money into it, he doesn't want it anymore .So I guess fancy feast it is!

 

And I agree. it goes against everything I've learned too. But doesn't it seem strange and internist would be so misguided?

 

I know.....I gave up trying to figure out why so many vets are so bad at this long ago!!

It's very frustrating for us when the people we trust to know what to do don't know what they're talking about!

 

No, it doesn’t. I went to a board certified feline internal medicine specialist who chastised me for testing and told me my kitty didn’t need insulin and I was going to kill her because she was in normal numbers on a human meter. That was three months into FD and she was diabetic for 5.5 years. This same vet had a diabetic cat and shot blind....never tested.

Another told a member here that she would never prescribe Levemir insulin because it was way too strong for cats. The member showed her how many cats here were on Levemir and how well they were doing and she still refused. Yes, board certified in internal medicine.

I have also seen other boards using a sliding scale with Lantus. I can’t see that they are getting any better results than we do and I see less of their cats going off insulin. We don’t use methods to regulation here that involve sliding scales. My best suggestion to you is to do a spreadsheet and let us look at it. Then we can help you find the right dose that you can safely shoot twice a day.

 

I got my spreadsheet started! I will do my best to fill it out go-forward. Oero was doing much better this AM (even though BG was low, he was very alert & happy) but he threw up tonight and now he refuses all food - tried 8 different types.

 

I noticed Alice's gait was off when she started having more wasting in her hind area. How is kitty's muscle mass looking? Weight loss?

I hope he is feeling better soon.

 

Definitely weight loss, over the past two months he's been slowly but surely losing weight. Since out of the hospital he's losing even more and now refusing to eat. Gait was very sudden change at the same time with his hypo event.

 

Yeah I haven't dealt with hypo and don't know the details and science there. But wasting might have contributed, in theory? Or at least won't improve it. I'm sorry I don't have more help to offer.
But on the bright side there is some very amazing help and support here. So you are where you need to be.