Hello!

Hi All,


My name is Steve and my wife Jo and I are the minions of 5 cats, one of whom, our 8 year old black cat Hodgson, has recently been diagnosed as Diabetic. We are no stranger to managing chronic conditions in cats (we’ve had 2 long term CKD kitties) but diabetes is new to us and we are a bit lost!


His symptoms pre diagnosis were what I now know to be classic: weight loss, rabid thirst and hunger, poor coat and lethargic. He went from a weight of 6kg to 4.5kg in a remarkably short time so we took him to our vet who confirmed the diagnosis and started him off on a 1iu dose of Prozinc 12 hours apart at feeding times, and told us to bring him back in 3 weeks. We already feed all the cats wet food so the only change we made was to switch from free feeding to scheduled. All have taken to this well.


Almost immediately after starting the insulin we saw improvement, he lost the excessive interest in water, his coat came back into condition and he started to gain weight. At his 3 week check he had gained 300g but the vet said his numbers were still a little high so to up the dose to 2iu twice a day for another 3 weeks.


Progress continued well and other than being a little thin, he was completely back to his old self. at the next checkup he’d gained another 300g, but his bloods had increased (450) rather than decreased so vet told us to up the dose again to 3iu twice a day. At this point I began to feel a little uneasy about the approach as I could not reconcile the weight gain with the need to increase, but our vet has been brilliant in the past so I went forward on faith.


That was three weeks ago. Fast forward to todays appointment: Hodgson is looking and acting great and gained another 350g BUT his numbers have increased again (470) so vet tells my wife to reduce his food because overweight cats are harder to balance AND tells her to up his dose to 5iu twice a day.


Alarm bells are now ringing. Unlike the CKD cats, I’ve tried to stay off the internet with the diabetes so far, as our vet was outstanding with that condition, and my own research caused as many problems as it solved, but after a google search earlier I’ve found myself here and realised there is a world of stuff I don’t know! From the little I’ve read 10iu daily is a serious dose. If he was losing weight, demanding water or acting lethargic I can see why this action may be necessary, but if you didn’t know he was diabetic you’d just see a normal happy cat.


So my question is: help! I’m really not sure what to do next? Im thinking testing at home might be useful? As far as I know he’s never had a curve done, as the vet said a fructose (sp?) test gives a similar indication, and he absolutely hates the ride to the vets so is stressed when he gets there which I understand can affect the BG result?

Thanks and sorry for long message!

 

Good morning and welcome Steve, Jo and Hodgson. You have absolutely come to the right place to learn about how to help your dear boy. We know all about being minions here!
First, YES, you need to test. Home testing is the best tool you have to keep Hodgson safe and see what the insulin is doing in his system. You can do your own curves at home, saving Hodgson stress, which raises BG, and you $$. Most of us use a human meter system since the strips are less expensive and for many of the meters, can be obtained locally.
The diet may be an issue here, you say a wet diet, but not all canned foods are created equal. A low carb wet diet is best for our sugar cats, for all cats actually. We have a wonderful chart here on the forum that gives info on all kinds of canned food. Perhaps you can review www.catinfo.org. Dr. Pierson DVM, complied the chart and that is her website on feline nutrition.
Hodgson is on a huge dose of Prozinc!!! We need to get the experienced Prozinc users to look at this.
So, my suggestion is to post on the Main Health forum so that more members can read and respond. This intro forum is just the Welcome mat and it's not really an appropriate place to start with advice. If you like just copy your intro post, start a new thread HERE and paste.
Then, go back to the Home Page and read the info there: Getting Started and Education. There is more info here within the forums, and you will certainly be referred to them, particularly the Prozinc forum where there is specific info about that insulin.
I will look for your post in the Main forum.

 

Wow, thanks for speedy response! Copied to main forum.

 

Welcome to the sugar cat club! You'll find the forum to be a wealth of information and support!