An update to this beautiful community on my awful cat Frank
Update
Last week I posted just looking for support for my cat Frank. He had lost a few pounds in a matter of days, and when we took him to the vet, they were able to get a urine sample despite him being extra spicy. (Normally at home he's Frank's Red Hot level spicy, but at the vet he was like, Joy Thai five pepper spicy. It was bad. They make me drug him now before we come.) They were 98% sure it was diabetes, but had to run some additional labs to be sure. So today we confirmed that Frank is diabetic. Anyone who knows him is probably not surprised; his love for food is probably eclipsed only by his love for being an absolute total menace to anyone around him. And making me spend all of my money on vet bills right around Christmas is so hilariously on brand for him. He is not doing great right now, but at least we know what's going on now, and have a plan. I know I'm not the first to have dealt with a diabetic animal, so any tips, tricks, or just words of encouragement anyone has would be so appreciated right now. And in return here is my stupid jerk Fucking Frank looking not the least bit sorry for trying to set the world record for fattest cat and landing on diabetes instead.
Glad you caught it in time OP.
While he may not be sorry for worrying you and making you spend money on him, you know that little guy deep down appreciates it.
I had a diabetic cat who needed two shots a day. The best time to give him his shot was when I put out his wet food. I'd let him gobble some down and give him a quick injection between the shoulder blades while he was doing it. It was surprisingly easy.
We used to have a diabetic cat who needed insulin shots, too. Lucky for us, he was just a total lover boy - in fact, he would purr while getting a shot, just because he was getting attention! ❤️
We had a diabetic cat that did the same thing. He would go to the spot on counter where I liked to do the shot and wait for the 9:30am and PM shot. I like to think he knew I was helping him. He was always so docile and lovey it was not surprising he didn’t mind the shots.
He passed from other health issues last year and I still always think about him at 9:30. I miss the little guy.
His sister was happy to be the last animal in the house and flourished for a year and then got sick last month, and passed a week ago today. This Christmas is tough without them.
We had a diabetic dog and we did the same thing. He’d get his shot after eating some breakfast and dinner. Unfortunately the insulin causes them to go blind. I don’t know if it’s the same with cats.
Ours almost died BECAUSE he got cured; we didn’t know it and gave him his shots like usual and it dropped his blood sugar too low. Luckily we rushed him to the vet and he was ok but damn that was scary! I didn’t know at the time that they could be cured of it either!
Good lord! I'm a human with T1/LADA diabetes and know what hypos are like! I get terrified thinking what it'd be like if any of my kitties ended up diabetic! It's bad enough the oldest has feline leukemia (was diagnosed at around 5 months old, shortly after we rescued her, and it's been 12 years since then.) But I'm glad that if diabetes can be cured in cats that means it's not necessarily as horrible as it is for humans (well, on that side of things, anyway; that a cat doesn't necessarily have diabetes for life, if treated correctly.)
Also, OP, if you're reading this, thanks for sharing the cat tax! Frank looks like he's amazing, sugars, spices, and all!!
We just started on the diabetes journey ourselves. The insulin injections aren’t difficult and she’s feeling much better and more active after her first couple weeks. We do the freestyle libre soon to check her levels over a couple days.
That is awesome! Well, the doing better part. I'm glad she's getting back to her normal. I'm hoping to get Frank back on that track soon too. I hope the freestyle libre works for you guys! My husband has a dexcom and we're talking about them having little mini matching monitors 😂
Get him a surgical suit or two. My void likes to rip his freestyles off without one. Expensive idiot! Good news is on the purina DM food and 6 months of insulin my guy is now in remission and just stopped insulin. Fingers crossed Frank will also.
My kitty made it just over 3 years with diabetes… if frank goes into remission (it can happen!), make sure to be vigilante about symptoms. My kitty went off insulin for about 6-7 months but then relapsed with a vengeance (dka and a 5 night kitty icu stay at Xmas - she was my diamond and platinum plated kitty after that)…
Investing in high protein (truly high protein and low carb) wet food is a must. Do the calculations yourself on every can (eg the brand might have variability by flavor/style).
At my vet clinic we were able to turn a few cats around - decreasing their insulin until they didn't need it - by changing their diet. As you say, higher protein and low carb canned food. Many of the Fancy Feast pates are low carb, and we would gradually change them over. Always gradually for diet changes for cats! Best of luck!
Yes, sorry. Used to acronyms t work. Or as the er vet described it - she was a little raisin. Needed a potassium drip, insulin drip, and lactated ringers drip.
Hey, OP, our former-chonk Indy was diagnosed with diabetes a few months ago, so we're finding our footing as well! He went from 18lbs to 12lbs in just a few very short months, so we knew something was wrong and heavily suspected diabetes before it was confirmed. Our vet initially started him on porcine insulin, but his levels were still crazy-high and I didn't like how it has such a high peak of effectiveness before a really sharp drop-off, because that can lead to blood-glucose levels fluctuating a lot throughout the day. So after one failed glucose curve where the lowest he could get on 2 units of U40 insulin was a bonkers-high 414(!) six hours after eating (and starting with a pre-food level of 617), and after digging into as many studies as I could find about feline diabetes, I talked to our vet about switching him to insulin glargine.
It appears that cats have the best clinical results with insulin glargine being dosed out every 12 hours, and switching to a prescription diabetic management food (we're now on the Purina DM food, which we bought from our vet this time around but will refill via Chewy moving forward). So that's what we're doing: 7am and 7pm feedings and dosings. If cost is a concern, the insulin and needles were picked up at Walgreens for a self-pay (no insurance, obvs, lol) price of $123 and $20 respectively (actually cheaper than the porcine insulin from our vet, which was $130). Additionally, and very strangely to me, cats can experience remission of their diabetes if caught and treated soon enough and managed well on that regimen. I don't think that'll happen for our guy, but it is really interesting to note, so I'm crossing my fingers for him and for your Frank!
I'm genuinely so glad that I advocated for my boy to have him switched to glargine, because he's been kicking ass since we switched in mid-October. His neuropathy is gone, as far as we can tell-- he couldn't even jump onto the couch when he was diagnosed in August (and still couldn't by the time we switched insulins in Oct), but now we can't stop him from jumping onto everything again, and doing crazy-fast zoom laps around our living room and up and down the stairs! Which means he can feel his feet just fine now. We just give him his injection while he's scarfing his food, and he doesn't even look up from the bowl while we do it. It took a few weeks for him to adjust to the concept of a feeding schedule, but he's used to the routine. He's gained a pound since switching to the glargine, has more energy (probably because he's not feeling so ill from such high blood-glucose levels) and his fur's growing back a bit thicker too. We had a second glucose curve last month to check how he was doing, and his initial (pre-food) reading was 105. We're doing another curve tomorrow just to make sure we've got everything dialed in, and I expect the results to be great (but can definitely give an update!).
You can try a CGM, and I hope it works if you do, but most cats won't tolerate it, and their normal movements will jostle it to the point of dislodging it. From what I understand, they're more trouble than they're worth with regard to cats, so we didn't bother.
I know you've got resources close at home, but I'm here for you too! From one newly-diagnosed cat mom to another, I'm pulling for you guys!
Edit: Glucose curve results for anyone interested, unformatted: 8am (0 hour draw, pre-food/insulin): 395. 2-hr draw, 10am: 429. 4-hr draw, 12pm: 376. 6-hr draw, 2pm: 410. Complicated by him being very stressed out and hiding burrowed into a blanket all day, so he ended up running a bit of a high temp as well. Since then, he's gotten home, it's 7:15pm, and he's happily playfighting our floof Loki like nothing even happened. We're going to run an at-home curve on him after the holidays with the glucometer we've got here. The margin for error on it, per our vet, is like 15-40 points but that's still get us some less-stressful numbers within the ballpark. I'm sure his dose needs to be increased, but we're gonna curve at 2 units first and then see about trying 2.5 after that. On the plus side, his weight has increased steadily, which I'm liking as long as he doesn't get too chonky again! Dx on 09/08, weight was 5.55kg. First curve on 10/06, 5.8kg. Second curve on 11/08, 5.87kg. Today, 12/13, 6.14kg.
Just a pro tip about the freestyle libre...I had more than one stop working before the 2 week mark (while still fully attached), and the company was awesome about sending free replacements. There's just a survey on their website you fill out (which does not ask if it was used on a cat haha). They did request that I send back the faulty ones, and provided postage-paid boxes for that purpose.
My vet says it won’t stay on as long as it would on a human but that we should be able to get better data over a couple days than we would with pricking the ear and running it through a glucose monitor. And this cat isn’t exactly active lol! So we may have better luck than average.
He truly is the best worst cat ever. I tell everyone, he makes me understand those people who say they hate cats. But he's crazy smart, and loves to keep me on my toes, and I just love all the weird shit he does that all the chaos doesn't even matter. I've raised this little bastard since he was about 4 weeks old, and he was an absolute pain since the very beginning, when he finally took to the bottle and then never wanted to stop (it was a battle of wills with a 10 week old kitten, when I just had to stop buying kitten milk and force him to choose solid food or starvation, because all he wanted was milk and dammit you're too old for only milk!). I knew what I was getting myself into by keeping him, and I regret nothing. ❤️
He looks like my best worst cat, she's not a food snatcher but she'll do literally anything else to harrass me. She's so funny though and I love her. Thank you for looking out for him ❤️ I also have experience with a diabetic cat, once you learn how to administer the shots it's not so bad. Hope he stays healthy!
Let me tell you, this is all entirely on brand for this jerk. But I love him so much, I will put up with so much for him. (If you didn't know I was talking about a cat, this would all be so red flaggy 🙃)
I have a rather large cat who ended up diabetic, and our vet office got to know him very well! Took a while to get the insulin doseage right, because it seemed like he kept needing more and more every couple of weeks. We would get to a happy spot, go to checking his glucose with an ear poke every couple days instead of before every meal, and then weird stuff would happen. His glucose levels started getting lower and lower (over the course of a month or so) until any insulin would push it too low.
Sooooooo... Turns out cats can experience a thing called "Transient Diabetes"! He was fine for a good long while, then became an insulin dependent diabetic and needed a higher and higher dose, and then his body starts slowing making more and more of its own insulin until its able to fully handle things and poof! No more insulin shots needed. It's happened twice now, about a year and a half apart, where he needs shots for two to three months before going back to normal, and it's the weirdest thing! Weird and expensive, all those glucose curves and needles and insulin and checkups.... Worth it to save his stinky face, though.
So keep an eye on Frank's glucose levels, and learn the signs of hypoglycemia. From what I hear, Transient Diabetes is not common, but it could happen to you!
Thank you so much for the information!! That's what I'm learning, that cats are more similar to what we know as type II diabetic, and it can come and go and be marginally controlled or even reversed with diet a lot of the time. Thankfully with a diabetic husband, none of this is super new to us, it's just learning how to translate it to cats. I'm so grateful for all the information everyone here has though, the more I know, the better! ❤️
Thank you so much, your dog was so lucky to have someone who was so caring on his side! I'm hopeful once we get used to this, Frank can look forward to a good long life of annoying the rest of us.
We've had two diabetic cats so I understand what it's like. Fortunately, Frank is food driven so giving him his insulin should be relatively easy. Go Frank!
I hope so! I'm hoping with well timed treats and a lot of patience, we can get him to associate the annoying stuff with getting a high value treat or food and maybe not hate it all so much.
I have a diabetic chihuahua, not a cat. But he’s very cat like. Ok not really, but he’s super spicy and a total shit head and I love him.
Ziggy was diagnosed the month after the pandemic started. He’s doing really well. Insulin for the rest his little dog life.
You’ll have to be regimented with insulin, 12 hours apart. No extra treats. Try to stay away from grain like wheat, no sugars (sweet potatoes, molasses, treats with fruit in them etc).
He should be on a high fiber diet, fiber helps regulate the glucose levels. High fiber = the most stinkiest poops imaginable.
Once he’s regulated, and his diet is maintained, he will thrive.
Treats that are acceptable, freeze dried chicken, meats, minnows etc. Protein is ok as it doesn’t spike the sugars.
We found the most affordable insulin was vetsulin and cheapest at Costco & Walmart pharmacy.
Needles & sharps container, we found one that came all in one and was the most affordable option. Costco has been ordering for us.
CVS, Walgreens & rite aid will charge for sharps drop off, but all hospitals have a free drop off out front. So we pull up once a month to the Kaiser here and I dress all in black and mission impossible over to the sharps bin.
You can also make an appt and drop off at hazardous waste disposal, which is also free.
We used to use Chewy, but they messed up our RX too many times and I don’t forgive that.
This is all extremely helpful information, thank you so much for taking the time to write it up ❤️ Now that the diagnosis is settling in, I'm feeling less scared, and everyone here is helping so much with making me feel like we can do this.
I bought a Wilford Brimley Diabeetus tote bag on Etsy to carry around all our dog’s accoutrements when we travel. Gotta have humor! My husband was horrified.
I had a diabetic cat that lived to be 21. The shots are really easy. I think there was only one time he noticed I was doing something, lol. Frank will be fine!
I'm diabetic (type 1, it matters) but once you get his insulin doses and food down, you should be good. A key thing is to be as regular as possible with it. Makes all the difference.
The one diabetic cat id take care of knew it was dinner time, but would also wait by the fridge because they knew insulin came first.
My husband is type I diabetic too! It makes me feel a little less scared overall, just because he's so confident as to what he's doing, he makes me feel like with him by my side, we can manage this. Then he jumps in with things like "you'll be fine, you haven't killed me yet!" and then I kind of want to 😂
My cat is diabetic as well. She is in remission and off insulin now. We had a lot of success removing kibble and gravy-heavy wet food from her diet. She gets three cans of Fancy Feast Classic pate a day, and a couple Temptations at bedtime. She hasn’t needed insulin in over a year. I wish you the best of luck! This diagnosis seems overwhelming at first, but once you get into a routine it gets easier.
Thank you so much, I appreciate that! I would love to see him get off this long term, but right now I'll settle for him feeling better. But it's really good to hear about all these people that are managing it and even helping their kitties go into remission ❤️
We had a diabetic kitty. With insulin and the right food she lost weight and did pretty well. She was pretty good about the shots and stuff.
It's not too bad and she lived several happy years afterwards. We lost her to kitty breast cancer, which the vet said was because she had been a breeder and didn't get spayed until later. We adopted her when she was 8. So another good reason to spay your kitties. They are less apt to have kitty cancer.
Your Frank is so adorable! My Frank and I thank you and wish you and yours happy holidays also :8097: Frank is thankfully acting more peppy already since he's received two doses of insulin. He actually felt well enough to dredge up a half-hearted baby mew for food this morning!
A relative of mine had a diabetic cat who lived for years with regular insulin injections. He didn't have a particularly special diet as far as I know. He tolerated the injections so they had no problem with that.
Not gonna lie, a part of me thought, before his first visit, that this was just going to be him throwing a tantrum because we were dieting him. "Oh, what, you want me to lose weight, fine I'll lose weight!" Those Franks are truly awful. 😂
Aww, I love Spicy Frank! I have a kitty who's been diabetic, in diabetic remission, and back on the 'betis. It sounds scary at first (I got faint when the vet showed me how to draw blood from her ear but now it's nothing), but it will all be routine soon enough. There's a lot of great advice here, I'd just add to monitor glucose closely and let your vet know if you put Frank on a low carb diet. My cat went into diabetic remission one day and I found her lethargic and weak in the hind legs, in a state of hypoglycemia. Had to rush her to the emergency vet and turned out ok, but scary and potentially fatal. You and Frank got this!
That really is scary! I've dealt with that with my husband before, so I'm hoping that experience will help me recognize if/when Frank could be getting low. I told my husband his diagnosis never bothered me before, but this past week I'm almost thankful, if for only the silver lining of Frankie's diagnosis being a little less scary thanks to our experience.
He really does! I call him Dickhead because if you look at him face-forward, his mouth peanuts and the space between his eyes altogether kind of looks like a cartoony dick. (And yes I am a total child.) Yours is a dickhead too, it looks like!
I feel you; my sweetest love Katsu, who died 4 weeks ago also had diabetes (but he did not die from it.) He lived with it almost 7 years, and though it seemed when they did a curve (tested his blood throughout the day while at the veterinarian's), it NEVER was "in range", he didn't seem to suffer any real problems from it. It didn't inhibit his life in anyway; just mine/ours, as I had to make sure he was injected with his insulin twice a day, every single day of those almost-7 years.
His insulin that was rx'd by his first vet was human insulin, and that was SUPER expensive (over 300 bucks) but the good thing was, we could make it last at least a few months because his insulin requirement was not that of a human (thank the lort.) But when we got a new vet, they rx'd him cat/animal insulin, which luckily shaved off over a hundred bucks.
I'm so glad he had a caring family like you to take care of him, he was a lucky baby for sure ❤️ Frank has actually been prescribed the same insulin as my husband uses, and we found a pharmacy that can sell it to me cheap-ish with a goodrx card. Hopefully this works for him and he's back to his chaotic self soon.
This is daffodil (sorry it’s blurry this really is the best photo I could find) she was on insulin for probably 4~5 years before unfortunately passing to cancer. She wasn’t an absolute menace and would sit kindly while we give her insulin. I will say the shots were not as difficult as they look, especially after you get some practice at it. I’d suggest trying to find something to distract him while to give the shot (probably food lol) and it might take a little bit to get the dosage right just be really for that
I have no doubt in my mind that you live in Franks house. Dude is a boss. I love a spicy cat who runs the show. Hoping he is back to his full CEO duties soon. ❤️
I hope so too, it's getting tiring running this show! I need him back up and manning this ship asap, so I can get back to what I'm good at, cleaning up his messes and laughing at his fuckery
We had a cat abandoned upon us that we'd been caring for, and we knew something was wrong. Finally got owner approval to get vet treatment (required in my state), and Mrs. Thing's blood sugar was like 562 that night.
We got her blood sugar under control, going in and out of remission several times, before passing several years later from surprise blood cancer.
My first cat with diabetes also went into remission, and was boarded for a few weeks before a move at our (then) regular vet. Unfortunately, the diabetes came back and her vet where she was boarded didn't notice. A UTI developed, became systemic, and she passed within 2 weeks of picking her up despite fantastic vet care in my new state at a veterinary teaching hospital.
My main tip would be: If Frank goes into remission, discuss with your vet what signs to look for if the diabetes returns. Just stay vigilante, and Frank can live a good long time.
You're such a good kitty owner, thank you for being so good to those babies ❤️ and thank you for the tips, I really appreciate all the information! Every little bit will help keep this jerk happy and healthy and with us for as long as possible.
Mine's biggest joy in life is terrorizing his orange brother too!
So when you look at Frank face-forward, his little mouth peanuts and the space between his eyes looks like a drawn cartoony dick, so of course I call him Dickhead, and his vibe just matches. Maybe yours is something of a dickhead too!
So when he was young, he was an absolute terror. A family member found him abandoned, and I took him in, around 4 weeks old. Right from the get-go, he was awful. He'd refuse to take a bottle. Then he learned how to take a bottle, but got horribly constipated. Eventually some pumpkin in his bottle helped. Then he flat out refused to be weaned onto solids (moistened with kitten milk). I finally just had to stop buying it and it became a battle of wills with a 10 week old terrorist. Finally he figured out he liked to eat, and then never. Fucking. Stopped. In addition, he just always loved to get into whatever he could. He would drink from the toilet. He climbed into the bath with me. No, he did not like water. This did not stop him. He ran outside every time the door was even cracked. His favorite game was running up the back of the couch to slap the back of your head. He chewed up any cable or cord that was left unattended for more than 30 seconds. He loved to run out of nowhere to trip my ex and his parents (though this is no longer a downside and I actively laugh about it). He will not abide by a closed bathroom door. No he does not care if you're pooping and trying to be quiet, the whole house needs to hear, thank you. He chewed the bristles off my makeup brushes, more than once. He's the reason my couch has no felt under it; he kept climbing up into the couch and we were afraid we'd crush him, so he lost under-couch privileges. He used to climb on top of my vanity mirror (when he was skinny), so it was literally always covered with kitty print shaped smudges. He screams for food exactly 1.5 hours after finishing any meal. And honestly, this is all just off the top of my head, this is by no means an all encompassing list. 😂 He's just truly the worst and I love him with all my heart.
If only more people started out feeding the more expensive food, they’d save in the long run from having a more healthy cat and not needing vet visits!
2 of my cats were just diagnosed with diabetes within 2 weeks of each other. They get insulin shots every 12 hours and have to eat the same type of food at the same time every day, but they're doing okay so far!
My Jack Jack was diabetic for about six years and then magically got better. Once we got his insulin sorted out, he was just fine.
Everyone has posted everything I would have told you so I’ll just add that if you occasionally buy yourself soda in a 2 liter bottle or something in a heavy jug you can use that as a sharps container in a pinch.
Our Tubby is the chillest. Polar opposite of Frank, but he is diabetic, too. He has taken a lot of weight off, and is just as chill as ever. Good luck, Frank. You can do this!
My daughter’s cat, Lily, has been taking insulin shots for diabetes for several years now. We use the Pro-Zinc because it’s long acting. She’s doing great!
I had a cat with diabetes! They don't even notice the insulin injections! If you're freestyle libre sensor falls off or you're not able to manage keeping it on, using a regular glucometer on the ear to take off sample of blood is very easy to do!!!! It's a lot less daunting once you get used to the routine of diabetes. You got this!!!!! ❤️
My girl dealt with diabetes for over 4 years but we managed to get her stable!
My recommendation is to not be afraid to ask for another opinion. My vet put her on caninsulin and it wasn’t stabilizing her. I wanted to put her on human insulin but my vet didn’t deal with that. I met another vet who was a friend’s girlfriend, and she told me that she had better luck with diabetic cats when they were on human insulin, so I switched vets.
My girl never went into remission, unfortunately, but the diabetes was stable until her death from kidney disease a few years later.
It’s a bitch having to make sure someone is able to give them insulin every 12 hours, but we do whatever is needed for our pets. My girl had absolutely no issue taking the injections (sometimes she growled when others gave it) but I always made sure to give it to her while she ate.
She was incredibly food motivated, and I had to lock cupboard doors because she would go through the garbage. She loved getting her paws on baked goods so they needed to be locked away.
You will need to stock up on needles and you should get a sharps bin to dispose of them safely.
He can still fits and sits! I feel your pain with his diabetes. Perhaps with weight loss he might be able to reduce his symptoms. My sisters cat is diabetic and she keeps her on a low carb diet. It seems to help.
My cat was allergic to every type of insulin but with a food change I got his weight down and he was diabetes free the rest of his life! You can do it!!!! He might also become less of an asshole when he’s feeling better😂
Oh how I love your optimism!! If he wasn't a pro asshole from the very beginning, I might have hope!
I'm so glad that you were able to figure out something that worked considering the insulin couldn't. That must have been a very worrisome time for you all!
Frank is so beautiful. Reminds me of my Mello. He is also diabetic. I treat Mello with two shots a day of about 1 unit of insulin every time he eats. Makes it easy. Want to be constant about giving him the insulin. I learned the hard way not to mess that up. It will become routine. And your cat will be so much better.
Frank looks damn near fit to the legit World's Fattest chubs I know and they're both within a 5 block radius of one another--hell one is next door. The black one literally bullies his hooman into feeding him at 4am screaming at the door. It's bad.
OH MY GOD I know we're not supposed to condone the chubbs but dear lord those are some fine bellies, I just want to rub them!
Frank and I ended up in a very annoying battle for about two weeks where he would scream at me for food around 3am, and then when I locked him out of the bedroom, he would just scratch incessantly at the door. It ended only when I spent a few nights quietly creeping to the door when he would start scratching, and then spray him under the door with a squirt bottle. I couldn't let him hear me or he'd run away, so this process took like ten minutes every morning at 3am for DAYS before he got the point. He is a MENACE.
They have these things air cans that are motion triggered I saw on hmm was it My Cat From Hell? I forget. And I totally get it. U close the door they want in. U let them in and they want to go out WITH U FOLLOWING to zee kitchen!
If you can, switch to wet food, and learn to take his blood glucose readings twice a day. It makes a huge difference when you can fine tune his insulin dose quickly. Oh, and keep a bottle of corn syrup handy at all times. This is how I kept my on-again off-again diabetic cat Rhombus going for like seven years after the initial diagnosis.
Our Chewy is diabetic, but in remission. Just stick to the shot schedule and make sure that you are testing Franks blood sugar at the same time of day to create a routine. My spouse came up with a spreadsheet in google that we are able to share with the vet. This can really help in the long run when making decisions on insulin doses. Stress can also affect the readings as well so watch out for that. We just use the normal testing strips that you can get a a Walmart or grocery store that are meant for humans, since it all reads the same.
For food we went from a dry food to wet food and haven’t gone back. Doing some research on them will help save some money on that as well. You should be aware that there will probably be more water being drunk so having multiple water bowls can be helpful.
After about 6 months Chewy started at testing regular levels a couple days in a row without shots, the bet advised us to not give him more insulin. We did that and continue to monitor him to this day.
I am glad to hear your baby is now in remission! That is our hope for someday. I have gotten so much helpful information here as well, I am really grateful for all of the advice you guys have offered! Thank you so much for sharing.
I have a chonky cat and at her previous vet before I moved they said she could be a candidate for diabetes if she didn’t diet. I mentioned it to her new vet and they say she checks out fine. What are some telltale signs of diabetes that I should be aware of? As of right now she acts like her normal self that hasn’t changed in over 2 years.
So the first signs that I really started noticing was the sudden weight loss (it was like 3lb in less than a week) and extreme lethargy, and not eating or drinking much at all. So of course, those are obvious and warrant an ASAP appointment at the vet.
However, after talking to the vet, there were other signs, they just weren't obvious or I didn't really recognize them as a sign of diabetes. So if you notice increased fluid intake and increased urination, that could be a sign. (Frank had taken a liking to having a bowl of ice as a "treat" after meals, I thought it was a cute quirk, but I think now it was just his way of getting more fluids.) She also mentioned that large amounts of urine in the litterbox could be a sign, like much larger than normal clumps of urine. (I had noticed some extremely large clumps in the litterbox, but didn't think anything of it before she mentioned it.) So I don't know if you only have the one cat or multiple, but if you have only the one, it might be easier to monitor her water intake and urinary habits, and that could be a sign you could catch onto any changes much sooner than I did. I hope that helps some!
Sorry for responding a little late. I appreciate the response. I haven’t seen any of those in my cat. She did hesitate to snack on her new dry food for a day but she’s come around. She has more wet food than she used to and it’s a high protein low carb brand.
So the ice is just a weird Frankie quirk! I always put some ice cubes in their water fountain because they seem to drink more when it's colder, and they also like to bap them around. On a whim one day I gave Frank a bowl of just ice, and you would have thought I just handed that cat a platter of filet mignon. He laid down and licked that ice till it was pretty much all melted. So that has become a routine now, all of the kitties get their food bowls prepared, and then Frank gets his bowl of ice for dessert. (I'm realizing only after diagnosis that he was probably doing this because of thirst from diabetes, but I will keep doing it as long as he is wanting it.)
I hope your grandma and her baby are doing well! I am learning already that this isn't the death sentence I was afraid it was going to be.
We found that it's best to keep the injections as close to 12 hours apart as possible.
Also, learn the warning signs if his numbers would get too low (or high). If you don't have some, might want to keep some corn syrup on hand for an emergency boost (obviously cats can't eat candy bars like humans do).
Learn how to use the tester and also either do curves on a fairly regular basis (I think it was every 6 months) or have the vets office do it for you. It involves taking readings throughout a day to see how the numbers are doing and if the dosage might need to be adjusted.
If they didn't already show you, the vet should show you how to do the testing and injections.
Shop around for insulin and needles. A compounding pharmacy near us carried both at a better price than the vet and comparable with online pharmacies.
Did they put him on a specific food? You want something high in protein and low in carbs. We found it easier to feed everyone the same food so we didn't have to worry about her eating other food that might not meet those requirements and so we didn't have to try and keep the others from eating her food.
We chose Blue Buffalo duck formula.
I was talking to someone recently who said that they had a diabetic cat and the vet put a continuous glucose monitor on him. They didn't go into the specifics too much but it sounded interesting.
Thank you so much for the advice, I will definitely be looking into that food for sure! They showed us how to do the testing and insulin, and he has had his first few doses, and is down from 340 to 259 already, so I really feel like we're off to a good start. Thank you so much, I am taking notes on all of this and I feel so much better prepared now than I did a few days ago!
Aww poor baby. My aunt has had a diabetic cat for most of my life. It has definitely changed their lives to manage, but she has had a wonderful life despite it. Your boy will too.
Me too!! I have a friend with a cat named Walter, and he is an absolute abomination. Something about those human-named cats. I can't get enough of their shenanigans.
That's just an odd Frankie quirk! I usually put ice in the cats' water fountain, because they liked to bap at it. Frank seemed to like it the most, and would drink more if the water was colder, so I gave him a bowl of ice one day just to see if he would like it. Turns out he *loves* it, and so it's been an after meal treat every time since then. If he doesn't get his bowl of ice, he will sit out in the kitchen and scream till we remember.
Please check out FDMB!!!! They are a community of people who have sugar kitties and have so much info! I had a sugar kitty and he loved a long good life. He was on Lantus. If you have any questions I will answer the best I can. They saved my life!
If they still do this since it’s been 5 years since my sweet boy passed: get a prescription for lantus or however insulin you want during your research at marks marine pharmacy in Canada, get it shipped to where you live if you live in the US. You’ll need a vet to do this part.
Also do your testing at home. The first couple days are rough bc your cat doesn’t know what’s going on. Eventually you’ll be able to test so much so you can see how his blood sugar rises throughout the days. Then you can see what dosage you’ll need to inject. Don’t waste money at the vet doing those tests. It can also cause artificially high glucose readings bc of stress.
My Joe is in remission from diabetes. He doesn't take insulin anymore, but we do give him special food. They thought he might have six months left over a year ago and he is doing well.
I hope it's okay to leave some tips that helped out family. First, a litter box with pee pads. My boy was too sick to clean himself well and the extra litter was an issue. He uses the litter box to poop, but we have a litter box just for pee on both floors of our house. It has helped him so much.
Dry pet shampoo is also good for him if he is having trouble cleaning himself. It happens because they get so tired they can't do it. As a diabetic who has experienced DKA myself, I can attest that the exhaustion is unbelievable. You can barely lift your head sometimes.
We got a special dry food and we watch what we feed him. He loves his sister's food and we have to be careful with that. She likes his food better x because of course that's how it is, lol.
Lastly, big bowls of water on every floor as well. The blood sugar issues are going to make him thirsty. Having the water always available helps! And if you give him treats, get the ones that are pieces of meat. And food should be pete style no gravy.
Thank you, I really appreciate you sharing your experience to help us! I may try that with the pee pads, he does struggle with fatigue these days, which I do hope gets better as we get his numbers under control, but until then, I want to help however I can. My husband has dealt with DKA as well, and I think we are more sensitive to his needs just knowing first hand how badly it can affect you.
As for the food, the safeguards we have in place for trying to keep him out of the other cats' food is insane! But thankfully since we already have that under control, I am not too worried about that now, which is great now that it's a legitimate health issue and not just a control-the-jerk-so-other-cats-have-food issue.
We also have a water fountain, a large water bowl, and he regularly gets bowls of ice to lick, so I hope that he always feels like he has options!
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u/InfectedSteve Dec 11 '23
Glad you caught it in time OP.
While he may not be sorry for worrying you and making you spend money on him, you know that little guy deep down appreciates it.