Our old boy’s been diagnosed with diabetes.

[Onehappymam]

Sadly, we lost one of our cats at the start of last week. She was 11 and was found in a neighbour’s garden. There were no injuries, so looks like natural causes.

Then our old boy (16) started to go downhill. Wasn’t eating, lost lots of weight, scruffy coat. With hindsight though, he’s not been 100% for a while. He was so weak we thought we were going to lose him.

Vet gave him steroids and antibiotics, but still no improvements, so they kept him in overnight on a drip and ran tests. They’ve discovered he’s diabetic. He has ketones in his urine and started insulin on Thursday and is now home with us.

I’ve joined the FDMB fb group as recommended on here, but I’m finding it a bit overwhelming.

We really thought we were going to lose him, so it feels like we’ve been given a second chance. Any advice gratefully appreciated!

I had a dog who was diabetic, sorry to say this but he died a year later.

We thought we were going to lose him last week, so if we get another year with him that will be fab!

I think the hardest part was checking his sugar levels and giving insulin. Probably easier with a dog than a cat.

Hope he will be okay

No advice but wishing you the best. He’s a beautiful cat❤️

He’s a big soft lump and more than happy to let us jab him. We’ve always joked he’s more like a dog than a cat! He follows us around the house and sits on our lap.

Our 11 yr old has just been diagnosed with diabetes so we will start the treatment next week. Am wondering how it is going with you and is he responding well? Do you inject twice daily and buy special food from the vet? Is it all expensive?

Our previous cat was diabetic. It was daunting at first but we soon got into the swing of it. She had other health issues which made it more complicated and I did frequent glucose curves at home.
We did have a wonderful vet who was so supportive.

One of our two 13yo cats is diabetic, diagnosed last December. It’s taken this long to (maybe) get it under control, so it’s been a bit of a journey. He was meant to have a full glucose curve done at the vets on Thursday but he was so aggressive they only managed three tests … last one was 17, still high but he seems well in himself and has put weight back on, so we’re keeping his insulin dose the same. At last!

He has insulin twice a day, he takes that very well, but the commitment to doing it is a pain - no serious lie-ins and we have to plan going out around him. We can’t go away overnight and leave them with food and water any more (only ever one night). We’ve trained up the neighbour’s 15yo DD to give him his insulin - she does short stays and a professional catsitter does any longer ones.

He eats Royal Canin diabetic food, plus Applaws dry and chicken tins. He’s becoming extremely fussy and demanding after a lifetime of happily eating dry food. As well as weight loss and drinking a lot he initially stopped eating his own food but constantly bothered us for ours. He’s a bit better now but was obsessed with bread at one point (stole a pack of bagels …)

Glucose curves are not fun. He was at the vet for one last week because we really struggle at home. But then at the vet he gets stressed so levels go up … the best thing was having a FreeStyle Libre monitor on him for a while, but that’s quite a performance to ‘install’, plus they tend to fall off - his though stopped working before that happened.

He’s also had repeated bouts of pancreatitis that mean his body stops responding to the insulin. It hasn’t felt like we’ve had much letup from those. But the last one we managed at home, which felt like a breakthrough. He had anti-emetic tablets that we already had in, plus a painkiller we picked up from the vet. After a week he was clearly feeling better. Prior to that the pancreatitis has meant vet stays (including two nights at the emergency vet). We came close to maxing out the insurance …

I think we’ve had a slightly hard run of it, as it’s taken so long to get him stable # and he’s still not conventionally stable. But at no point have we felt close to losing him, at least not really close.

My main tip - don’t leave the insulin out of the fridge. That gets expensive.

My goodness that is a lot of care. We don’t have pet insurance, I’m not sure we could afford all that veterinary care.

We submitted claims for about £5k during the last insurance year 😬 Would have got about £3.5k back due to excesses and a few small non-qualifying items.

Well over £2k was for pancreatitis though, including the 2-night stay at the emergency vet. There’s also another bill over £1k for what must have been an overnighter associated with his diabetes.

If it had been a case of starting the insulin, couple of glucose curves to get the dosage right, all sorted, it would have been a lot cheaper.

Thank you for asking @Cleebope2. He‘a much happier in himself. It was daunting at first, like @Vinorosso74 says, but we’re in the swing of it now.

He’ll be coming on holiday with us if it’s a UK break (will just have to check that dog friendly cottages and hotels also allow cats!) and we’ve found a cattery willing to inject him for our holiday abroad next year.

Wow @DontCallMeBaby that is some expense! So far we’ve been quite lucky cost wise. £350 for overnight stay for diagnosis, £15 per month for insulin. He also gets a painkiller and vitamin B12 to help keep him mobile. Food wise we don’t buy special food (apparently it’s overpriced and poor quality). Any high protein, low carb food (usually wet and in jelly, not gravy) is suitable. We went with Sheba Flakes pouches.

We’ve gone with the vets advice - 2 units twice daily. He’s much more like his old self!

We have bought food from vet but will look into it in case over priced and maybe look for cheaper elsewhere.Good to hear your moggie responding well.

Butcher’s tinned cat food comes recommended on the feline diabetes fb group. It’s the best value I believe.

My darling boy was diagnosed with diabetes age 15. We were determined to give him the best chance of life. He was diagnosed in the sept and I don’t think we ever got on top of it. He let us inject him and take his blood, but he wasn’t as happy.

We had him pts in the December, right before Christmas. It was totally heartbreaking. In hindsight I wish I hadn’t gone along with the vet and had him pts in the sept when he wasn’t so poorly.

If I had another animal with diabetes I would pts. I know it’s easy to treat for some, but it was a horrible 3 months. We had an amazing vet, but we were constantly in the vets. He never looked well. I still have guilt about it now.

@DontCallMeBaby

Interesting about your cat and the bread my diabetic cat became obsessed with cake to the point of ripping it out it hands

He lasted a year after his diagnosis before he developed kidney problems and was PTS but he seemed happy enough

The actually injecting him wasn't too bad like others has said it was more of a pain being in a routine but I found a local cat sitter who was happy to inject him so I could have more freedom