Newbie, question about insulin and back leg trouble

Hi everyone! On Wednesday my 13 year old calico/tabby mix Princess was diagnosed with diabetes. She's still an extremely happy, loving kitty who is still as affectionate as ever and her personality hasn't changed a bit. However, her back legs have been getting worse and worse over the summer. She can still get around, but it's difficult for her and she has a lot of trouble jumping up on anything. This is really my main concern with her, I know these problems are common with a kitty who has diabetes but I was wondering who else experiences it and if the insulin truly does help with reversing it? I know I probably sound like a huge newbie, and I am haha, but I'd really appreciate some first hand stories from people who have gone through it with their kitty, rather than just reading things from the literature my vet gave me to read. It would help a lot! I was also wondering if there was anything else I could do to help with her legs besides the insulin?

One last question, I have been giving Princess one shot of insulin every morning at 10:30 since Thursday. TI have been setting an alarm to wake me up in time to give her the shot but today it didn't wake me up and I ended up sleeping in until 12 PM. I know it's important to make a schedule for the insulin shots and make sure they're receiving them every day at the same time (I still gave her the shot at 12 after reading a little bit online to make sure it was ok) so now I'm wondering if tomorrow I should go back to giving her the shot at 10:30 or if I should give her it at 12 from now on?

I am so glad there is a place like this, I've been struggling quite a bit the past few days trying to cope with all of this and it's hard to deal with when I don't really have anyone who can relate to what I'm going through with my kitty. I'd be so grateful to anyone who could help me with the questions I've had, and even just give me some general tips on what else I can do to help Princess get through this and keep her comfortable. Thank you!!

 

What insulin are you giving?

The different types act a bit differently as far as time is concerned, and really NONE last 24 hours in cats.
Cats have a faster metabolism than humans and dogs, and need to have a small injection every 12 hours. (split the dose the vet told you into two half-size shots)

The amount of insulin needed is balanced by food intake. Dry food has a lot of carbohydrates -- like feeding your diabetic Twinkies. If you switch to a low carb - high protein canned food, the amount of insulin needed can be reduced and sometimes even eliminated (OTJ - "off the juice" or diet controlled just like a human).

The best way to figure this all out is to learn how to test blood sugar at home. Most of us here use human glucometers to check our cats' blood sugar before every shot and occasionally at other times of day. We prick the edge of the ear for a tiny blood sample.

 

The back leg thing is a classic diabetes symptom. Trouble jumping, shaky back legs that collapse beneath the cat? This will go away once the diabetes is under control -
at least that is what I'm told. My cat displayed those issues and is on day 6 of insulin. Already seeing slight improvement in the leg thing.

 

The leg trouble can be neuropathy, common in diabetics: http://petdiabetes.wikia.com/wiki/Neuropathy Insulin will ultimately help it, but as the article says, Methyl B12 is also helpful.

Ditto to everything Phoebe said. This is a sharp learning curve and it seems like lots of information all at once. But the techniques suggested on this site has helped thousands of cats. Agree completely that you need to be giving insulin every 12 hours and get Princess out the roller coaster of lower levels and then 12 hours of continual high.

Check out this site for info on food: http;//www.catinfo.org BUT DO NOT CHANGE HER DIET TO WET UNTIL YOU ARE HOMETESTING. Wet lo carb food can drastically change blood glucose levels.

Here is a site on hometesting: http://www.sugarcats.net/sites/harry/bgtest.htm and a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zE12-4fVn8

Read and reread. Ask questions. We'd like to help you and Princess on this journey that we have all taken.

 

To be honest, I'm honestly not even completely sure what kind of insulin it is. My vet supplied me with it, but didn't give me the name of it. I think it MIGHT be caninsulin? They truly didn't give me much information at all besides how to give her the insulin shots and now that I'm home with her and reading about how to care for a diabetic cat, Im realizing how little I know and how the vet REALLY didn't give me much helpful info at all. I'm currently giving her 2 units every morning.

About the diet, they did suggest I switch her to a different type of food that I could only get at the vet, it was something high in fibre but I decided that for now I would just get her to used to the insulin instead of changing her lifestyle around too much all at once since she's an extremely picky eater and I didn't want her to not be eating at all. The diet aspect of it worries me because like I said she is a picky eater but should I be starting her on a different diet right away? I'm sorry if I sound ignorant right now!

SaraJaye, yes those are all the symptoms she has with her back legs. They slide out from underneath her when she's sitting down as well. I was also told it would go away once her diabetes was under control and I'm crossing my fingers that it does since that's really her biggest problem and it breaks my heart seeing her limp around like she has been!

I've read about Methyl B12 helping but I guess I'm just not experienced at all yet and I have no idea where to get that, how to give it to Princess or any of that. I'm really trying to learn everything and pick up on things as fast as I can haha! And wow, thank you all so much for replying and helping me out, I appreciate it!

 

You don't need to get "prescription" food from the vet. (There are no "prescription" ingredients in it.....) We feed 8-10% carbs, wet food. Lots of us feed Fancy Feast and Friskies, or Wellness or Merrick. Here is a food chart that will give you the carbs: http://www.felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm But as you said, get the other stuff down first - the insulin dosage and hometesting.

Don't worry about not understanding it all at once. We were all in your shoes - scared and overwhelmed. Your job is to learn about this disease and then be an advocate for Princess. (It does not sound like your vet is very experienced if he prescribed one shot a day. I figure vets are like gps - they know a little about a lot of things. We all have or had a diabetic cat, treated them sucessfully and we do know a lot about feline diabetes.) I know it is hard to take advice from people on the internet, but we are all here paying it forward - helping newbies because we were helped.

 

Is it really important for them to be eating wet food? I've always fed Princess dry food, she doesn't like wet food so when a cat is being picky like that, is it better to just leave their diet how it is? You're right about my vet, she didn't seem to know much about diabetes at all, in fact I was the one who mentioned the possibility of Princess having diabetes to her. So how should I schedule her insulin shots?

 

Wet lo carb is vital to treating diabetes. Feeding dry is like giving donuts to a human diabetic. Dry food is all grains - not protein like a cat needs. They also need the moisture that wet food provides. Read this website by a vet: http://www.catinfo.org She does a great job of explaining it.

BUT don't change until you have a handle on the insulin and are hometesting. And if she is picky, you don't want to be giving insulin if she is not eating. Dr. Lisa explains on her website how to safely change over from dry to wet, even with picky cats.

As Phoebe said, split the dose in half and give it 12 hours apart. That should at least even out the roller coaster she has been on.

 

So since she's on 2 units daily now, I should be giving her 1 unit 12 hours apart? I just wanna make sure I'm understanding correctly haha. Should I do one in the morning in one at night?

My vet didn't mention home testing to me. I'm not sure if it's because she didn't want to overwhelm me with too many things at once or if it's because she truly is not too experienced with diabetes in cats. Should I call tomorrow and mention it to her?

 

Yes. One unit 12 hours apart is a good place to start.

You can ask your vet, but you don't need permission. It won't hurt Princess; it will only make giving her insulin a much safer process. Yes, some vets don't want to overwhelm new patients. Some vets don't even realize it is an option. And sadly, some vets want you to bring in the cat for a weekly test - which is expensive and unneeded if you are taking daily tests at home.

Our vet didn't know it was an option. We were the first patients who tried it. We would take tests several times daily and send her our results. Or if she wasn't available, we would come on this site and get excellent advice. We were also one of the first patients whose cat went into remission. After that, she asked us to help others learn how. At one point, we went to an emergency vet who had a diabetic cat for years; he had never heard of hometesting either! It is becoming more common and has found its way into vet publications.

 

Wow, well thank you for all of your help!! I think I'm going to start reading up on home testing as well as switching her diet. Like I said, I don't want to do it all right away, but I am thinking maybe after this first vial of insulin is close to running out which should be in a few weeks or so, I'll take her to the vet and discuss changing her diet/home testing and what not. She seems to be a very happy cat still despite everything, if it weren't for her back legs weakening then I don't think I ever would have even realized she could possibly have diabetes. I think I am going to give her 1 unit tomorrow at 10 am and then another one at 10 pm? Also, is it ok to re use the needles for the separate 2 units I'll be giving her daily? As long as I'm using new ones every day, it should be ok for me to use the same one twice in one day shouldn't it?

 

Shannon, the needles dull quickly and possible risk of contaminating insulin by reusing so it is not recommended to reuse a syringe. Also, Jasper's site will give you all the info needed on neuropathy. What town,state are you in? You might have someone on the board near you to help.....seen it happen many times here. http://www.laurieulrich.com/jasper/ Yes, 1 unit a.m. and p.m. for right now.

 

Reusing needles isn't a good idea. One, they can get dull and hurt. Two, you run the risk of contamination when you stick a used needle back into the vial. They should not be very expensive; you don't need to get them from the vet. You can buy them through Hocks.com or at the drugstore. (Some states might require a prescription; I am not sure.)

I hope after you read and watch the videos, you will decide hometesting doesn't look all that hard. The vet who posts here once described treating feline diabetes without hometesting like driving down the freeway with a bag over your head........You just don't know what the insulin is doing unless you test. The sooner, the better.

 

Ah, I wasn't sure about the needles, my vet told me it was actually ok to re use as long as I didn't do it more than twice. Thank you guys, you've all been so helpful, it's very much appreciated, my cat is truly my baby and I want her to be as healthy as possible and your tips are going to help out a lot!

 

Hi Shannon,
Welcome to FDMB. My name is Taline and I'm so glad you're here to get help, support and advice from fellow members. This is the best place to learn and to ask questions. Sue is very knowledgeable, she helped me through my cat's situation just few weeks ago. I'm a newbie myself and my cat Bibo was diagnosed with diabetes 35 days ago, and I can say that with all the support and expertise here, Bibo hasn't had an insulin shot for over 6 days now. There is a big possiblity that your cat might not need it for a long time. BUT, you really need to follow certain rules in order to get there. One of them is to switch your baby's diet to a wet food, either by trying to incorporate dry and wet in the beginning, and slowly reducing the dry perhaps, it is so essential for your cat's well being. I'm feeding Bibo fancy feast variety pate in 3 flavors, and in the beginning, he wasn't too crazy about it, now he loves it. I also feed him many small meals, instead of 2 large meals.
Second rule is to homtest. I understand you're giving her 2u a day. It's so hard to know if your cat really needs that much of insulin per day even if the vet said so. My vet, told me to give Bibo 1u twice a day and sure enough that was too high of a dosage for my baby. It's not very difficult to learn how to poke the edge of their ears. You'll master it in no time, and you'll feel empowered and in control of the situation once you know the numbers and you post them on the spreadsheet (found in tech support forum).
Third rule is to breathe! It gets so overwhelming in the beginning, that you get anxious and frightened. Don't be. Everything will be ok. This is a controllable disease and sometimes treatable to the extent of remission. So please be hopeful and ask as many questions as you have, and someone will answer them for you. Post your questions with a new topic everyday, so we could follow you, and make sure to include Princess's name on the subject. Best of luck to you Shannon. Hugs and kisses

Taline

 

Thank you so much Taline! This is making me feel much more positive/relieved about everything. I'm going to look into changing her diet around asap now that I'm learning how important it is.

I have another question though that hopefully someone can answer, ever since I started giving Princess her insulin shots, shes been having diarrhea. She only has it once a day and seems to be fine otherwise (yesterday though I did have a big mess to clean from her fur once she was done using the litterbox!), she's eating and drinking normally, sleeping normally and seems to be in a good mood but should I be worried? Could it just be her body getting used to the insulin or could it be from something else? I'm assuming it's from the insulin since she was having normal bowel movements before this, it's just confusing me because like I said, she is fine otherwise. Should I be talking to my vet about it? Sorry for all the questions, I hope someone will be able to help me out with this.

 

Shannon, unfortunately I don't know if the insulin could cause the diarrhea or not. Maybe Sue, Phoebe or someone else could answer that question. If I were you, I would call the vet's office and ask them about it first thing in the morning, but don't worry about it tonight. Please and please consider getting a glucometer and the strips, preferably from Walmart, because it's cheap and start checking Princess's glucose. I don't know which city you live in. I live in Los Angeles, and if you were around here, I would've helped you with the testing. I hope someone else is tuning in to check on your question. I'll check on you in a little bit.
Taline

 

I called an emergency vet number yesterday to ask about it and they didn't seem too concerned, they mentioned it could be from stress on her system from everything she's going through but I'm not sure about that, I'm going to call the vet tomorrow and try to speak to the vet who treated her the day I brought her in since they'd probably have a better idea of what it could be than the other vet I was talking to. Hopefully it isn't anything that I'll have to bring her into the vet over! Thank you so much for being so sweet Taline, unfortunately I live in a very small area of Canada so I don't think there'd be anyone in my area that would be able to help me. Can all the supplies for home testing be bought at wal mart or do I have to go throgh my vet/order online in order to get them?

 

Everything could be purchased at Walmart except the insulin, and it's the cheapest place to buy the fancy feast canned food too if Princess would eat it. There are a lot of members from Canada. You can start a new topic asking " Anyone close to (ur city's name) who can help?" Regardless, we will all help you, especially when you start the home testing. On the main Forum, you will find the Tech Support link, that will help you set up the spreadsheet that you see on the members ID line in the bottom of each post we make. That spreadsheet, gives you and the members the information about your cat's glucose numbers, so you can adjust the dosage of the insulin (once you start Pricess on that). I know how overwhelmed you are today and scared that this is so difficult of a task but be sure that we all went thrugh this, and mine was so recent, and it will sink in with you and it will get better soon. trust me. I'll be following you, but there are more experienced and knowledgeable members than me, who would really help you start and continue helping princess get better. Keep on posting.
taline

 

I don't know about the diarrhea, Shannon. You haven't changed her food yet, right? Often transitioning to wet can cause some intestinal issues. I would ask the vet. You may be able to get some probiotics that will help.

Yes, you can get the ReliOn meter from Walmart. It is very popular here as it is the least expensive meter and the least expensive strips. (Sometimes meters are free. It's the strips that can be expensive.) There is a meter you can buy through the vet, but we find that the regular human meters work just as well. The meter (AlphaTrak) is quite expensive and usually strips are available only through the vet. That can be a problem if you run out of strips on a Saturday night.

So you can buy the meter, the strips. You will also need lancets with a lancet device to poke with. I used a rice sack to warm the ear; it really helps at first. Just a thinnish sock with raw rice, heated in the microwave. You can also get some lo carb snacks to reward him after each poke, successful or not. Freeze dried fish/meat snacks are good. Chicken breast broiled without spices and cut into tiny pieces is also a good snack.

Make sure you try the meter on yourself first so you are confident before using it on Princess.

I'm glad you are coming around to the idea of hometesting. I can't tell you what a sense of control and relief it gives you about this whole process.

 

Taline, was your kitty always eating wet food or did you have to switch him from dry to wet? After reading around on this forum and learning how important the wet food is, I am thinking of going and picking up some tomorrow. I don't know if you can answer this, if not maybe someone else can, and again I apologize for all the questions, but I read that once you switch your cat to wet food then you also need to lower the amount of insulin you're giving them or it could cause problems. Is it a really huge issue? If i start her on the a mixture of dry/wet for awhile until she gets used to the wet food, am I still going to have to lower the amount of insulin I'm giving her and if so, how much insulin should I be giving her once I'm feeding her dry/wet and also once I'm feeding her just wet food by itself? She's on 2 units a day now so should I only be giving her 1 unit or less once she's eating the wet food? I don't want to run into any problems where I'm giving her too much insulin or anything and I worry that's going to happen if I switch her to wet food and it starts balancing her out better which is why I'm nervous to switch her. This is all so confusing!

Sue, I have not switched her food around yet, she's been on the same kind of diet for quite awhile now, the only change that has been made to her lifestyle has been the insulin, she started having diarrhea the day I started her on it but maybe it isn't related to the insulin at all, she could have picked something up at the vet from another cat maybe, last time I took her to the vet she ended up catching an eye infection. She's a very expensive girl to take care of haha! Thank you so much with all the information on the home testing supplies, I'll be at wal mart tomorrow and I'm going to take a look around and see if I can find them!

 

Yes, often the diet change will mean a reduction in the amount of insulin given. That's why you have to be hometesting before you change the diet.

Check out Dr. Lisa's page. (http://www.catinfo.org) She has great tips for transitioning. Yes, you can mix the wet with the dry. You can crush up the dry and sprinkle some on top. Sometimes cats surprise us and are thrilled to be offered wet food. Oliver was. He started eating it on day one and never looked back!

Be sure to check out the food chart. http://www.felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm You want to pick a food between 8-10% carbs. And fish only once a week or so - it's low carb but has mercury in it. Also some cats get hooked on the fish and get picky about any other flavors. I'd suggest getting several cans of several different flavors until you find out what she likes/doesn't like.

 

Honestly Im a bit nervous about home testing! I guess this is all just a lot to deal with all at once. I think I'm going to look for the supplies for home testing tomorrow, but it might be awhile before I begin home testing because I'd like to read up on it a lot and be well educated about it before I start doing anything to Princess. As far as the food/insulin goes, since I'm not home testing for now, should I just continue giving her her normal diet and keep her on 2 units of insulin a day until I run out of insulin and need to go buy more/have her tested (my vet suggested bringing her back in a few weeks for them to test her again) or should I maybe stop giving her the insulin for now and work on her diet instead? I don't think I want to attempt working on both at the same time without having her tested or testing her on my own in case the food helps a lot and then I end up giving her too much insulin.

 

My cat used to eat dry and wet food. In the beginning, I mixed the two together, and 2 days later, he was only eating the wet food. I'm sure he'd love to crunch on his treats, but no more of that.
And as far as changing the dosage with diet. Only testing could determine that. It's hard to know, how Princess is responding to the diet, so once you start checking her blood glucose, you'll be able to determine more or less what dose she would need. I personally, couldn't determine it by myself, so i posted every little info on this forum and just like Sue, and many others, walked me through the process. They helped me so much throughout the last weeks, and I know they will help you too Shannon.

 

Thank you! After watching a video on how to home test, I actually feel a lot more confident about it, it doesn't seem as scary as I thought! I'm just wondering though, what part of wal-mart would I find everything I need in order to start home testing Princess?

 

If I were going to pick one change to make, I would read up on and learn to hometest. No one can tell you if it would safe to change the food and leave the insulin the same. And it might be safe to leave the food alone and the insulin the same, but she could also start reacting really well to the insulin and her bg levels could go down. There just isn't an easy answer here. But if you want to do the safest thing for Princess, that would be to hometest. Otherwise, you are just guessing, based on her behavior, that she is doing okay.

You go to the pharmacy area - just like human diabetics.

Don't worry. We have taught lots and lots of people to hometest, over the internet. It doesn't always work the first time, but it almost always works eventually. We all have tips that helped us and we love to share.

 

I'm going to make a call to my vet tomorrow about the diarrhea and if they don't seem concerned about that and they don't think I need to bring her in, then I'm gonna go ahead and buy everything I need to home test her. Watching a video of it has already helped with my confidence in it like I said, I feel much better. Thank you all for the support and tips you've been giving me all day, it's very much appreciated, I feel so much better about everything with Princess now. I don't know what I would have done if i didn't discover this forum!

 

You have come a long way today, Shannon. You sound much more confident about things. Just think how much you know about feline diabetes now that you didn't know yesterday! Time for some chocolate (or other high calorie treat?) and beverage of your choice - you have earned it!