Need help!

Hello all,

My sweet boy, Mark Anthony (10 1/2), was recently diagnosed with diabetes and is now on insulin. His sister, Cleo (same age), used to get along, play, sleep together sometimes, although Mark Anthony was always the dominate cat. They no longer have that relationship. Cleo smells the insulin on him and does not want to be with him. She hisses and tries to scratch him and it appears that she has become the more dominate cat. Has anyone gone through this ... does anyone have any suggestions as I would like them to get along again for both their sakes. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

Hi Welcome!!

First of all take a big breath, all of this is pretty overwhelming, but it will get better for you and for your kitties.

More than smelling the insulin what is probably happening is that she is detecting the fact that he's sick and not feeling well, actually even if you weren't giving the insulin his smell changes because of diabetes (being sick, this also happens with other illness) so she does not recognise him very well, or since he's not feeling well maybe at some point he rejected her and that made her feel bad so she does not trust him very much right now, it could also be she's trying to overthrow him getting advantage of the fact that he's not as strong as he used to be is hard to be sure what's happening .

In either case once he gets regulated, he will start acting and smelling as he used to (even with the insulin) and usually (each cat is different) everything goes back to normal in the mean time I suggest you allow each one of them to have their own space and do not try to force things that could make everything worse

What insulin is he on?
Are you home testing or planning to do so? , if not I really suggest you consider it since it can literally save his life and it would help you get him regulated faster.

 

we use to go through that for a day or two after taking one of the cats for vet visit.

i would let the curious cats smell the needle when they would look at me like they were wondering what i was doing to tux. after a couple times, they stopped wondering and treated tux the same. You could wipe his fur down with slightly wet paper towel after injections, then spray a little feliway on that paper towel and rub it over injection fur area afterwards, that is what i do when i come back from vet visits now and there has been no more issues with others being mean, just your normal sniffing each other.

 

Rubbing them with feliway after vet visits sounds like a great idea, I usually have some issues because they arrive smelling well like the vet and that is not a nice smell I guess

 

Hi and welcome to FDMB.

I went back and read your introduction. Why was Mark Anthony at the ER vet? Did he have ketones or Diabetic Ketoacidosis? The reason I ask is because ketones can cause some body odor. Did the problem start before the hospitalization or after it?

It would not be unusual for Cleo to "reject" Mark Anthony right after he returned from the vet hospital due to strange odors he'd no doubt pick up on his fur but normally one would expect that situation to level off in a day or so. Unless you missed with a shot of insulin and what we call a fur shot, Mark Anthony shouldn't smell like insulin.

My concern is that if he did have ketones or ketoacidosis, there is a possibility he still has them and that is something you need to be monitoring closely until he is better regulated because they can build up and become an emergency very quickly. Are you testing him for ketones? You can test Mark Anthony's urine using Keto test strips available at your neighborhood pharmacy. Anything above a trace would warrant a call to your vet.