Vet misdiagnosed my cat

[Scientits]

My cat came from a rescue as an 8 year old with a disability.

He is now 14 and recently I noticed he wasn't himself. I took him to the vets who tested him extensively and kept him in overnight. They said his kidney enzymes were high but more worryingly that he was diabetic. I was given syringes and told to start injecting him on 2 units of Caninsulin a day, to moderate his diet and to give him pills for his icky bowels. This cost me five hundred pounds, which I paid.

Ten days later I took him for his blood curve. In this time I'd given serious consideration of the outcomes for my lovely boy, his quality of life and my limited finances. I discussed with the vet, and they took him for the day. Later she rang to tell me that he doesn't have diabetes and that I needing to stop injecting him. They're not sure how he was misdiagnosed, or if any damage has been done to his pancreas or kidneys.

Just hoping if anyone knows if the ten days of insulin will have caused any harm to my stupid but lovely cat? Without more blood tests I'm told they can't say, and I don't want him to have any more tests currently (stresses him out, expensive etc)

[Scientits]

Bumpity

[FamilyOfAliens]

I don’t know the answer but you could try to get @Veterinari on the thread for advice (I think that’s her user name).

[Scientits]

Thank you Family I'll see if she pops up. Just worried for his insides as he is an old boy

[Borris]

There are 2 possibilities:

1. Stressed cats can get a temporary high blood glucose giving the appearance of diabetes when they don't have it. Do you know how high his blood glucose was?

1. Some cats can be cured of diabetes as using the insulin gives the pancreas chance to recover.

Did your vets definitely say they'd made a mistake with the original diagnosis?

[Scientits]

Hi Borris, thanks for your response.

1. I asked the vet about the possibility of the high blood glucose being a result of stress at the vet's visit (something I had picked up from here, ha!) and she said they did a urine test as well and there was glucose in the urine. I don't have his results in front of me so no idea on figures but I can find out.
   
   
2. On our last visit she said it was unheard of for a diabetes remission in such a short space of time - about 10 days.
   
   They didn't say it was a mistake, no. They just said it was peculiar and that they thought maybe his wonky kidneys had 'leaked' glucose into the urine, messing up the urine test

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Cats can switch on and off from having diabetes. So be in remission now and then have it come back again. Whilst 10 days is a short period for it to happen it is not impossible. I had a patient a few years ago who quite literally would be diabetic this week, not next week and then would be the week after. The clients did twice daily ear prick home blood glucose to monitor and we had a program of when to give insulin.
Diagnosis of diabetes is high blood glucose and glucose in the urine at the same time so your vet is advising correctly about this.

[Scientits]

Thanks Lonecat that's good to know. I'm keeping a close eye on him at the moment, he's gone from starving to barely eating anything and he's still having very frequent loose stools (hope you're not eating breakfast) but think he's been eating grass so locked him in the house for now.

My main concern is that the insulin had damaged him in some way but it sounds like there was a need for it at the time so I'm happy with that.

[Borris]

I don’t think insulin would damage him unless he had a hypo. Occasionally insulin is used for non diabetics to treat high potassium in an emergency situation

[Scientits]

Yes, that's what I'd been hoping. I know in humans injecting insulin can be dangerous and because his kidneys are wobbly anyway I didn't want his health to be jeopardised in any way iyswim