Trying to help my little buddy

Hello from a newbie. I have been looking at posts for a couple days, to see if anyone else had the same issue with their cat and decided to post, to see if anyone has any insight. A little over a week ago, I noticed a bare spot on Sky's side, with a circular red spot about the size of a dime. After a couple days of trying to treat it, I took him to the vet last Saturday. She gave him 2 shots, an antibiotic and a steroid and sent us home. He had also slowed down on eating, but was drinking plenty of water and urinating quite a bit. After a couple days, he slowed eating even more and would just lay on the shower floor or in a sink, which I had never seen him do before. So Tuesday evening went back to the vet and they did some blood work and discovered he was diabetic, kept him over night to do a curve and had an iv in him. Picked him up the next evening, along with his Novolin and was told to inject him every 12 hours. Since he's been home, all he does is lay on the bed. Wants nothing to do with any food, so I've started mixing the vet canned food with water and giving him some through a syringe, just to get something in his system. Today he did finally urinate a good amount in the litterbox, so I took that as a very small good sign. Is it common for them to be so inactive and lack of appetite with the diabetes? Before he always followed me everywhere and was in my lap, if I was sitting. I'm not sure what to do to help the little guy, except take him back to the vet again. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I don't have a test kit, but plan on getting that tomorrow and try to use it to monitor him.

 

Hi,
Welcome to the forum.

It is not uncommon for a cat to be lethargic and or depressed if the bg (blood glucose ) is going haywire.

The first thing I would suggest is to learn to test the bg before EVERY shot--this is critical and many vets do not teach you how to test. I am not a expert especially with the insulin you are using and I am sure others will respond with what is usually the best choice of insulin (usually lantus or levimer)
Novalin is considered a "harsh" or in and out insulin. The bottom line is that it will work and drop the bg sharply then after the nadir (lowest point of the cycle ) kitty will rise. When you learn to test you can test at home and see exactly when Sky has his nadir.

Many cats go too low and then a hypo situation can occur which can be life threatening.

I think once you gets sky's numbers at least somewhat regulated he will bounce back.

Just a side note my cat was originally put on vetsulin and he was SO depressed! We have been on 4 and he does best on lev. which is a more gentle insulin and helps him level out.
If you haven't considered a low carb diet for Sky this can drastically help him too (under 10%). Just remember if you change to a low carb diet it is even more critical for you to test as the diet change alone may reduce the bg significantly.

Do you have a meter? Many use a human meter. The most common pet meter is Alpha Track.

The spot you are aiming for is not the vein in the ear but the spot between the edge of the ear and before the vein.
It will take practice but it is worth it.
I am trying to find a pic to show you- I am sure some experts will stop by .... hang in there it is over whelming at first but you will get the hang of it in no time

There are many "stickys" you can read and they have tons of info-

 

Thank you for the reply. I am getting a meter tomorrow, so I will be checking then. I'm also changing his food to a low carb wet food, if I can get him to start eating again.

 

did the vet mention having ketones??

You might want to get some urine ketone test strips and test as soon as possible....cat's not getting enough food, enough insulin and having any type of infection/inflammation can develop ketones very quickly. Treatment is expensive (and unfortunately, not always successful)

 

Using a little ointment on the ear may help with the "poke"-- my guy is pretty easy going but for some it takes more time. It is a learning curve for both you and Sky. Once you start testing Sky will develop more capillaries and "learn to bleed" easier. If using a the layer of ointment it helps to form a blood "bubble".... Some use vaseline others a ab ointment I personally use this....a very thin layer.
https://www.youngliving.com/en_US/products/animal-scents-ointment

It lasts forever I use it on lots of things.

Here is a pic of Dre's ear when I was testing all the time (we are no longer anticipating remission and I know him we'll enough to know when to test which all of that testing helped me to learn.
As you can see his ear is perfectly fine.... I learned quickly he was not a fan of testing his right ear

As Chris mentioned ketones are serious and strips are not too expensive at the Walgreens or wherever you go for this type of stuff. I cannot express enough how different Dre was when we switched insulin. I was heartbroken when he was so depressed thinking this what his life was going to be. This forum is full of really smart people and many with Novalin
I think @Bobbie And Bubba and @Wendy&Neko have experience with it. If you set up a spreadsheet it will be easier for the advice givers to help you. If you need help @Tricia Cinco(GA) & Harvey may be able to help and she is quite knowledgable with pretty much everything

 

Sorry, no experience with Novolin N, which is what I suspect you are giving. Neko was originally on Caninsulin (rebranded later as Vetsulin in the US) and it didn't last very long so I switched to Lantus, and later Levemir.

Tricia may not be on much these days, she just had a back operation.

I do second Chris's suggestion of getting some Ketostic or other brand ketones testing strips and testing your kitty, along with a blood glucose meter.

Is the circular red spot improving at all. Did the vet say anything about it?

 

I have a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC at home.

 

No, they didn't say anything about ketone, but sounds like I need to check for it. Thank you

 

The spot does look to be drying up and scabbing over. All the vet said about the spot, was called it a "hot spot" and said it could have been caused by a number of things.