Juvenile Diabetes

Hi Everyone,

A bit of background since I'm not sure if there is an external cause or if it's just luck of the draw: my kitten was rescued at 8 weeks old from a friend's work back in June because the partially-feral Mama cat abandoned him (yet kept his two bigger, healthier brothers). Because mama cats don't usually selectively abandon kittens unless they are sickly/about to die, I already knew we were going to be fighting an uphill battle to start with. When I first took him to the vet, they said he was only at the 5 week mark developmentally (we're sure of his birthday because my friend took a picture when the litter was first born). He also had coccidia, so the first 2 weeks with me, I had to give him Albion for it (he was still infected after the first round so we had to go for another week with him on it). His whiskers also fell out/broke off, which the vet said was most likely caused from being malnourished the first few weeks of his life (they've now grown back in, but some of them are kinked and/or curl).

After such a rough start, things started to go well until he was neutered about a month ago (at around 5 months old). Almost immediately after, he started acting a little "off." I kept an eye on him, associating his increased water consumption, listlessness, incontinence, lip-licking, etc... as being related to having just gotten fixed. About a week later, I took him back to the vet because he still hadn't improved. That's when we discovered he had a urinary tract infection and extremely high blood sugar levels. nailbite_smile

Since not many cats are diagnosed so young, my vet had to refer to a specialist because, after 25 years of practice, my kitty was the FIRST juvenile diabetic he's ever encountered. At this point, we've cleared up the UTI with Clavamox and I've been doing the standard twice daily Lantus insulin injections (1 unit)for the past couple of weeks. He's also been back to the vet for numerous follow-ups to see if this is the cause of his original UTI or if it was a symptom and clears up on its own. Today, after a month of testing, the vet thinks that the UTI seems to be a symptom of his having juvenile diabetes. He also did a urine and blood test again and has recommended increasing his insulin to 2 units now (with another follow-up in the next week or two).

First question: is there hope he might be "cured" through proper diet and monitoring? Or, because it's juvenile, will he always need artificial insulin? I'll be purchasing a glucometer and changing his diet either way, but I don't want to unrealistically get my hopes up.

Second question: is there a difference in treatment between juvenile (Type I) and adult (Type II) diabetes? Is there anything specific I should be aware of or will most everything that pertains to adult diabetes work for his case?

Any help and information is appreciated and if you have links to other sites/posts that already cover a lot of this information, the more the better :smile:

 

Hi and welcome,

We have seen some young cats diagnosed, notably Morgan
http://www.catster.com/cats/267400

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=70512&p=766819&hilit=morgan#p766819

Sometimes I think the young ones diagnosed seem to be the sickly kittens, and perhaps have other issues not diagnosed yet.

Its treated the same in cats, no matter the age. Yes insulin and low carb canned food (no dry)..but many cats go into remission/diet controlled. Generally we dont consider them "cured" because they can come out of remission. Going OTJ (off the juice) isnt really isnt a function of the cats age or type of diabetes.

Awesome that you are going to get a meter! Read up on this site theres lots of info!

 

I just wanted to wish you luck! It's great you took in such a young kitten. This place is a great resource as you continue your journey!

 

Thanks! Getting him OTJ is what I meant, but I didn't know the correct terminology :lol:

There's still a ton of information I have to learn and a lot of work and a long road ahead for both me and my kitty (Mikey), but I am so glad to have found this forum! I'm a bit worried about my vet and have a feeling I'll be doing a bit of educating for them because just yesterday my vet sold me a bag of Hills Prescription M/D dry cat food! When I asked my vet about glucose testing, they said it was unnecessary and told me that out of the 20 or so diabetic cats they treat, only one owner does the testing herself and even then, it's only because she's also a diabetic. They also recommended I increase his insulin a full unit instead of in half increments. Even before reading it here and on a few other sites, I suppose I instinctively knew that increasing his insulin that much was probably not a good idea as I've only given him 1 1/2 the last two injections instead of the newly prescribed 2. I absolutely love my vet and have been taking my animals there for my entire life (they even saved my last cat from Hepatic Lipidosis about 15 years ago) so I really hope I can convert them.

My current plan is to get a glucometer to start charting his levels instead of blindly giving him insulin. I have a feeling this will correct the daily lethargy he seems to get after his morning shot (his evening shot, on the other hand, seems to invigorate him). And now with all this knowledge on food, I'll be switching out his dry food with high protein/less than 10% carb wet food.

Is it weird to admit that I'm more than a little excited to get started on this project with Mikey? I mean, I wish he didn't have diabetes in the first place, but since he does, we might as well make the best of it.

 

Low blood glucose levels, roughly under 60 mg/dl (3 mmol), can cause lethargy and other hypoglycemic symptoms:http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=15887 Blindly giving insulin is dangerous. You have no way of knowing what the blood glucose level is and if it's at a safe enough level for any insulin to be given.

Do test before giving each insulin shot. It's recommended not to give any insulin if the blood glucose is under 200 mg/dl (11 mmol).

Canned food can help with blood glucose levels.

What insulin is your cat on? Some types of insulins are better to use than others.

 

He's currently on Lantus. I did ask the vet about PZI and they said they don't like prescribing it because it's not always available around where I live.

I suspect that a lot of pet owners aren't willing to put the time and effort into their cats because I can't fathom how anyone would feel comfortable just dosing their cat with insulin every 12 hours. Since Mikey was "officially" diagnosed yesterday and this will be a permanent part of our lives together, there's no reason for me to remain uninformed any longer. I did it the first week begrudgingly because I was hoping he wasn't permanently diabetic and even then, I was skipping his morning dose every other morning because I saw he was doing better without it and it was freaking me out that he might go into hypoglycemic shock (which the vet didn't really warn me about but I knew of solely because I've had a few diabetic friends). Add in the fact that I'm now changing his diet, there's no way in the world I would ever continue injecting insulin without testing his blood first.

Mikey's next scheduled feeding/insulin dose is at 7 tonight so I'm planning by then to have some new food for him to try and a glucometer to test him before giving him any more insulin. :razz: