Neuropathy

Hi all,

Two days ago my 8-year old cat, Milo, started walking funny pretty much out of the blue. Rear legs wobbly and flopping and didn't notice fronts until later. Walking on hocks. Hard to jump up on the couch. Drinking lots of water. Of course I Googled the heck out of it and low and behold, here I am.
Everything is pointing towards diabetes. He's a big strong mouser and birder, 20lbs., been feeding him Whiskas and Iams dry food pretty much exclusively all his life (tons of carbs obviously). I have immediately got him on Orijen Cat and Kitten (zero carbs as far as I can tell) and wet food.

The biggest problem I have is that I'm an unemployed single father of three small children and money is extremely tight at the moment. I'm thinking about getting a glucometer and confirming his condition (hopefully not kidney or liver), then taking him to the vet to double-check and get setup with insulin. I'm assuming he'll need injections if he's already showing signs of neuropathy. Or should I first monitor his blood sugar with a proper diet and try and treat the neuropathy with methyl B12 like Zobaline?

Given my financial situation, any advice is appreciated, thanks!

 

you can apply for financial help which is the first thing i would look into. and then explain start looking for a vet that has knowledge of feline diabetes so you do not end up wasting any money. i am a prime example of tight money that was wasted with vets not knowing much about feline diabetes. they do the same routine to most clients. vetinsulin (which u dont want) blood test, glucose test and exam fee. my bill was $370.00 when they got done. the syringes were 40.00 which i found out later i could of got elsewhere for really cheap. the insulin was another 50 and guess what i used that all of two weeks my cat didnt do well on it and i had to switch to lantus which i should of had in first place. i didnt find this forum until after the first vet visit. they will try to sell you expensive food as well. the cheapest meter and supplies was about 25.00 then i got wet food but had a coupon so it was about 6.00 for 24 pack then i got syringes from the pharmacy which was about 13.00 for 100.
The best thing you can do right now is to arm yourself with as much information as you can from here and do not let them push you over or waste one cent of your money.
you could get the meter and supplies and do his glucose to get and idea of how high it is and take that to the vet with you.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/financial-help-links.131190/

 

Welcome to FDMB. Sorry you find yourself here but glad you found us. Don't know where you are located, but we have all sorts of tips for keeping costs down and once you learn the ropes, it's easy to treat your cat. If you have specific questions about anything at all, diabetes or cat stuff of any sort, you can post on the health forum here. There is a ton of info on this board and a great group of very caring helpful folks ready, willing and able to assist you.

I'd stick with the wet food and ditch the kibble if you can. Using the guaranteed analysis which isn't really accurate but in the ballpark, the Orijen kibble would be about 15% carbs. You really want to stick with something 10% carb or less and the wet food is your best bet to do that. I have a kibble addicted cat and would sell my soul to have her eating wet food. It really does make a difference.

 

If you are interested in treating your cat with Lantus (if he needs insulin) don't let the US $ sticker shock put you off: we can point you to sources where you can get a much better price. Also, Diabetic Cats in Need may be able to help you with startup costs, and check the FDMB Supply Closet to see what might be going there.

For a proper diagnosis a fructosamine test will give a picture of how a kitty's average blood glucose levels have been running for the previous few weeks. If you are getting a blood test done, ask the vet to check for potassium levels and, ideally, B12 and folate levels. (Both neuropathy and potassium imbalances may cause leg weakness. B12 supplementation is fairly straightforward but you'd need to work with your vet to address a potassium imbalance in order to get the right treatment (definitely not something you can address alone - too high a potassium level is dangerous).

Welcome to yourself and Milo.


Mogs
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Welcome to the message board, the best place you never wanted to be.

There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test. All of our insulin guidelines use human glucometer numbers for reference.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 found online.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.

 

So I decided to head to the vet and lo and behold, the bill was $369.51CAD. I went before anybody had responded including scoobydoox...

Was $70 for consultation, $17.50 for Blood Glucose (which was 28), $31.02 for Blood collection and $233.50 for "Geriatric Panel with fPI and Urinalysis". I will admit the doctor was really helpful, Milo is a big, active muscular outdoor cat and he was really surprised that he was diabetic so he wanted to get the blood work done I guess to rule anything else out. He had me leave him there for a few hours while they gathered the urine and blood; etc. When I got back, he gave me a prescription for Lantus which I ran out and grabbed ($130 for 5 x 3ml, 100u/ml pens + $35 for 100 Novofine 32G Tips). Came back and he gave him (actually had me) a B12 injection and explained everything and had me give him an insulin injection. All told probably spent close to an hour with Milo and I. I suppose I could have insisted that we just do the glucose but I guess it's better safe than sorry, blood test comes back on Friday. 1 unit shots morning and night for the next week and then we'll start to monitor his levels. All told $550CAD that I can't really afford but it sounds like we're set for at least a year or so.

Couple of questions. I understand I keep the unused pens in the fridge. The currently open pen should be kept at room temperature? Also, it says that it should be disposed of after 30 days when obviously there will be lots more left. How long do people find an open pen really lasts? Should I just continue to use it until it becomes cloudy?

Thanks for your input, I'll be switching him over to wet food exclusively as he doesn't care either way.

 

you have to keep all the pens in the frig if you want the lantus to last. you really need to get a glucose meter and supplies when your shooting lantus to see what his blood glucose level is before you give the injection. routine would be no food two hours before you take the blood glucose then feed then injection. there is a lot of info to cover. also you can get cheap syringes to use instead of the pen needles that are standard to use. average about 10 months for 5 pens. also there is a video on how to use the syringes and draw the insulin from the pens you should watch. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...insulin-info-handling-drawing-fine-doses.151/

 

You are fine with the pen needle to get started right now as you are giving 1 unit at each dose however our cats usually need tiny dose adjustments. We suggest increasing/doses by quarter or half units at a time and therefore recommend using syringes instead of the pen needles to make measuring the incremental doses is possible. The pen needles will only allow full unit dosing. Here in Canada (I'm in Toronto....where are you?), the most common brand is the BD Ultra-Fine II, 3/10mL/cc, 8mm, 31G with half unit markings and they run about $37 for 100. They are readily available at Walmart, Shoppers, etc. The lowest prices for the insulin/syringes are generally Walmart and Costco.

Keep all the insulin including the pen you are currently using in the fridge. The direction to leave the pen out and discard after 28 days is for human use. Humans use considerably larger doses of insulin than our cats and Lantus can sting a bit at higher doses when cold so the manufacturer recommends keeping it at room temperature. If you keep the pen you are using refrigerated, you will be able to use up all of the insulin with no waste.

Please get a glucometer and start home testing BEFORE you remove all the dry food now that you are starting insulin. Removing the dry food can cause dramatic lowering of blood glucose levels and your cat's need for insulin. It's also important to note that most cats have elevated glucose readings at the vet's office so it's really important to be testing at home to ensure it's safe to give the insulin and to monitor any changes to the those readings while making diet changes. We recommend testing at a minimum, of twice daily before each shot to ensure it's safe to give the shot. Any human glucometer will work just fine and some are free with the purchase of the strips. Your vet may recommend a pet meter. While a pet meter is fine it's also at least double the cost to use. All the reference numbers on this forum are based on human meter readings unless stated otherwise.

We can help you learn to home test so please join us over on the Health forum HERE with any and all questions.

 

Important safety information:

How to treat Hypos - print this out

Hypo toolkit


Mogs
.

 

My cat also started walking funny out of the blue. His blood work 6 months ago was fine. Now, his glucose is over 20. I hope I caught it early that he will recover. He is getting insulin 2x daily and I am monitoring him. The good news is that there are cheap food brands that are low carbs, like Friskies, which he loves. He is not allowed dry food anymore but at least reasonable low carb food is available. You can find a complete list somewhere on this site. I think there are places with cheap or even free glucometers. I have him on cannisulin for the moment since prozinc is twice as expensive, and I just dropped over 500 this week. Still, I will consider it in the future.