Worried about our diabetic cat.

Kartakeya is an 11 yr old male. Diagnosed with diabetes after having an infected tooth and pancreatitis. He has been on lantus (2units twice a day). We are not home testing him except an occasional urine strip which always reads high.Fructosimine levels done in Feb high 572. He often acts obsessively hungry. He is feed twice a day. Mostly raw food Natures Variety Instinct medallions plus canned Innova cat and kitten chicken. Lately he has a sore on his back paw that he keeps open by licking. We treat it by soaking it in black tea. He is cranky and doesn't want to be approached and we are all going on vacation for a month. I am nervous that we don't have his diabetes well controlled. Any Ideas? Thanks, Joey

 

Hi Joey,
Is he going on vacation with you?

Carl

 

Welcome.

Have you taken him to a vet to rule out a cancer as the cause for the non-healing wound?

In my signature link are some secondary monitoring tools which you can use when home testing doesn't work out for you. They may be used extremely cautiously to adjust a dose following the protocol specified by Dr Rand at the University of Queensland. Its located on page 4 of this article here.

The gold standard for monitoring diabetes is, however, blood glucose monitoring. The data you collect from that help you determine how the dose is working and may be used with a standard protocol for dose adjustment to optimize control.

 

Welcome :smile:

Was the Lantus starting dose 2 units twice a day? How long has your cat been getting insulin? Lantus is a good insulin to use. There are a few things you need to know about using it, like proper handling and the storage shed. Read the stickies at the top of the Lantus board when you get a chance: http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=9

A urine glucose test will always show up as high. This is because glucose builds up in the urine until the cat pees. A blood glucose test is a much more accurate way of knowing your cat's blood glucose levels. Do test the urine for the presences of ketones. You may need to buy Ketodiastix if you aren't already using those.

Unregulated diabetics are always hungry so two meals a day just isn't enough. Frequent small meals is best. Most people here use a programmable timed feeder. I would not put the raw food in the feeder since bacteria can quickly grow in the food. Is the Innova cat/kitten the dry or the canned? If it's the Innvova EVO cat/kitten canned, then you can safely put that in the timed feeder for the day. You can add some water to the food to keep it from drying out too quickly. Some people freeze canned food into chunks and put the frozen chunks into the feeder to slowly defrost for the cat to eat.

The Nature's Variety raw food is good for diabetics :smile: Some peope here feed raw food, either a commerical brand or homeade using a recipie.

Has the vet treated the paw sore? If not take the cat to the vet for treatment. The sore could be an infection of some sort, a hot spot, allergy related, or some other thing. There are OTC pet products for wound/sore care and treatment but it's best to have the vet take a look at the issue first.

Diabetes isn't something that you can regulated right away. Some cats can go into remission fairly quickly with the right insulin and food. Many others need a few months or longer to acheive remission. There are cats who never quite get to remission but their blood glucose levels are regulated well with diet and insulin. Every cat is different :smile: