Do you have a diabetic cat?

[daffydowndilys]

My 10 year old ginger moggy has recently been diagnosed with diabetes.

We started twice daily insulin injections on Monday.

Since then she has improved massively, we are so relieved! She had lost so much weight.

She now nags me for food about 10 times a day. I don't give in (she still gets a good amount of high protein food, just not every time she shouts at me). Should I allow he to feed up a bit? Does the insulin make her hungry?

I don't mean let her get anywhere near being overweight, but is her body building her back up after being so poorly?

We are seeing the vet again next week.

Our old cat had diabetes (amongst other things). The diabetes is what makes them hungry and thirsty. It is early days on the insulin so her blood glucose is possibly still high. I would discuss this with the vet when you go back.
As an aside have they shown you how to do blood glucose readings at home? The stress of being at the vets can make it higher so it's definitely worthwhile and you can do glucose curves at home. The vet or nurse can show you. Obviously this may depend on your cat's temperament!!

The insulin won’t make her hungry. But you must feed and inject at the same time. Don’t feed without insulin. That’s where it gets tricky.

The weight will get back to normal in time, but the crying for food may not if the cat is used to being fed whenever in the day. Every 12 hrs isn’t normal for a cat. They like to graze. It was a problem with my cat. He wanted food when he felt like it.

Unfortunately he didn’t live for long with diabetes. Only 4 months. Get a glucose monitor online about £95. You will have to do regular curves for your vet. It will be cheaper than the blood tests. They are about £75 a pop and not as reliable as the glucose curves. Your vet will show you what you need to do.

OP well done so far, it's a shock isn't it. It's still early days, and may take several weeks of tests and adjusting insulin doses to stabilise the diabetes. Meanwhile small, regular meals are best - your vet will be able to advise what weight to aim for. Please feel free to pm me, am now on my third diabetic cat and happy to share experience.

Thank you sparky, yes it's a shock.

She is insured but we haven't kept up to date with her vaccinations so we are hoping and preying that they will approve our claim.

She was in today for monitoring and they have upped her insulin dose to 1.5.

I have suspicions though that's we caught it very late and too much damage may have been done ☹️

They do start on a low dose and go from there. Upping the insulin slightly you may notice a decrease in her appetite but it may take another small increase. Is it Caninsulin? Don't despair it can take a little while to get the correct dosage.

IIRC diabetic dcat 1 hadn't been vaccinated (indoor cat) and it didn't affect the insurance claim. Hope you're getting on okay OP.