Diabetes and Stage II kidney disease

[AffIt]

Our eldest boy (17-yr-old indoor DSH) has just been diagnosed with the above.

The decision has been made to manage the diabetes with a twice-daily low dose (1.5ml) of insulin, and a diet protocol for the CKD.

This boy is a bit, er, spicy with strangers, but our vets are excellent and I'm not worried about doing the jags (OH is a different matter, but he'll get used to it!).

Does anybody have any experience or stories of similar to share?

Both should be fairly simple to manage I assume you mean 1.5IU of insulin which is actually a fairly high dose for cats most of my long term patients are stable at 0.5 to 1Iu twice daily.

@Lonecatwithkitten

Both should be fairly simple to manage I assume you mean 1.5IU of insulin which is actually a fairly high dose for cats most of my long term patients are stable at 0.5 to 1Iu twice daily.

Sorry, yes, it is 1lu of insulin - 1.5ml twice a day subcutaneously for the next three months, to see how he responds.

@AffIt are you not having any monitoring for three months many cats go into remission with their diabetes. There should be some checks before three months.

[quote Lonecatwithkitten]@AffIt are you not having any monitoring for three months many cats go into remission with their diabetes. There should be some checks before three months.[/quote]
I hope so - to be honest, when we got the diagnosis, our vets were having to deal with about three emergencies, so I don't think we got the full picture! My vet is going to phone this week to clarify things, though (so I may have misremembered the three month figure).

That's interesting to hear about the remission? I know Type 2 diabetes can be resolved in humans, is it the same with cats?

I personally am not sure I'd go down the route of insulin in such an elderly cat. When we started our boy on insulin his blood sugars went nuts and the vet said that giving them insulin can cause their bodies to start 'chucking sugar at at'

No idea if that's true but sadly despite our best efforts, regular insulin and checks he ended up going into liver failure and being pts.

If he seems okay, not in pain etc at 17yo id op for conservative management personally.

@AffIt

Our eldest boy (17-yr-old indoor DSH) has just been diagnosed with the above.

The decision has been made to manage the diabetes with a twice-daily low dose (1.5ml) of insulin, and a diet protocol for the CKD.

This boy is a bit, er, spicy with strangers, but our vets are excellent and I'm not worried about doing the jags (OH is a different matter, but he'll get used to it!).

Does anybody have any experience or stories of similar to share?

There's a fb group called "UK Feline Diabetes Support Group" that has lots of helpful info on how to take care of the sugar kitty. 3 important things to be possible to go remission:

• change to low carb. diet (they have a list of different brands of low carb food available in the market. some cases with change of low carb diet will lead them into remission)
• home monitoring (very important to check your kitty's blood sugar level before giving insulin. high blood sugar is no good, but too low blood sugar level ("hypo") will kill. Also, stress will spike the blood sugar level, going to the vet is a big stress to kitty. better to do the "curve" at home
• insulin (the fb group has lots of tips on how to give insulin)

With diabetes and CKD I think I'd be going down the palliative route for such an elderly cat.