My cat was having trouble in the potty area (tiny, frequent pottys, and anywhere but in his litter box), so I took him to the vet in December. We guessed UTI, put him on antibiotics, and he was fine for a few weeks.

On Wednesday, I realized he was going back to peeing little tiny potty's, and then he peed on the couch. So I took him back to the vet.

They did just about everything : took blood, did x-rays, etc. They put a catheter in him, and had trouble doing so because he was so swollen in his boy area.

Vet put him back on antibiotics, as well as anti-inflammatories. And took a sample of his urine in for analysis.

We got a phone call yesterday from the vet stating that his glucose levels are very high, and all signs point to diabetes. His weight (he is a big cat) does not really help him in this matter. And we need to take him in today for a blood test, to see if he is really diabetic.

From what we have been told and read online, he would possibly need a special food. And the vet mentioned shots 2x/day of insulin.

Does anybody have a cat with diabetes? How do you handle it? Any advice for me (besides attempt to have the cat lose weight, as he is already on a diet...)?

Thanks!!

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"Yesterday my life was duller, now everything's technicolor!"

Feline Diabetes —Diabetes in Cats — Treatment and Diabetic Cat Info — FDMB

This may help you. I noticed it has a message board so it might help you find some answers.

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Brenda

GO #24 JEFF GORDON

We had a cat with diabetes several years ago. He lived for 6 years after diagnosis. He had to have special food and insulin shots 2x day. Be prepared for the expense. His insulin was $70/vial and a vial lasted about a month. He also had to have frequent trips to the vet to monitor his glucose levels. Keep honey in your cupboard in case kitty goes into diabetic shock. If this happens (you'll know when it does), place a kidney bean sized glob of honey on kitty's tongue and force him to swallow it. This will usually bring them out of it fairly quickly. Then try to get kitty to eat something. You have to make sure kitty eats before giving him injections of insulin. Otherwise kitty may go into insulin shock. Our kitty died after going into a diabetic shock during the middle of the night. Those 6 years were not easy but we loved our kitty dearly. Of the various cats we've had through the years, this cat was our favorite because of his dog-like personality.

Yes I have a diabetic cat. Her name is WeeZee and she is 10 years old. She was diagnosed in Sept. and we have been getting her stabilized since then.
She eats Purina DM food which can only be purchased from a vet and it costs me $20 for a six week suppy.
She gets one shot of insulin (5cc) per day. The insulin costs $100 per vial and since Sept. I have used a half vial.
Routine is very important to a diabetic cat the same as any diabetic.
WeeZee gets fed only twice a day and is given her shot after she eats in the morning.
When she was first diagnosed, I had to take her to the vet every week for a glucose test. But since she is fairly stabile now she only needs to go every 5-6 weeks for a test.
Hope this helps.

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It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Well, we took cat back to the vet today to get a blood test to check glucose and other levels.

The urine test did not show diabetic, and now the vet is about 50/50 on the chance he could have diabetes. But upon talking to her more, and the blood test not really showing anything major, we decided to do a major blood panel to check all organs, etc. while we had his blood already. If I didn't do that now, we would possibly have to go back and draw more blood for the panel and I didn't want him to go through all of that.

Poor cat.

And on the way back from the vet he had diarrhea (sorry, if anyone is eating) in his crate and got it EVERYWHERE! So after going on a car trip to the vet, getting blood drawn, and waiting for me while I ran into the grocery store, he got to have a bath when he got home. As well as his nightly antibiotic pill and anti-inflammatory liquid medicine.

This poor baby has been through so much!!

I will know on Tuesday what the results of his blood panel and other tests are. My fingers are crossed that it was just a major UTI. I know he didn't have any crystals in his urine (neutered cats are more prone to them, and that was our first thought) so we don't need to worry about that.

Thanks for the information. If he is diagnosed, I will have lots of people to help it looks like.

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"Yesterday my life was duller, now everything's technicolor!"

I am a long time cat person. There is a absolutely wonderful group that you can join at Yahoo:

cats-healthandbehavior : Friendly discussion of feline health and behavioural issues.

Lots of great cat people with excellent advice on that group. If it does turn out that your cat has specific problems in an area like diabetes or something else, they will be able to help you. I'm pretty sure there are specific yahoo groups for diabetes and other problems, and they will tell you. They often know where to get the special foods or medicines you might need at a cheaper price too. They are just a very good general info cat group.

It is a high volume list, so I would sign up for the digest. I'm pretty sure that you have to write the owner a note when you sign up telling why you want to join the list. They do that to avoid spammers. You can easily unsub at any time.

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Donna

I am not going to say your vet is misdiagnosing(although he could be) BUT I do want to point out that MANY male cats get urinary tract blockages due to NOT getting a low magnesium diet. I had a male cat that had this issue in the past and was told by my vet that it is very common in male cats to get urinary blockages and that they need a low magnesium diet. I put my cat on a low magnesium diet immediately and he never had a Urinary blockage again! Purina ONE Urinary Tract Health Formula is the formula that is designed to help maintain urinary health and this is what we chose. I do not have a male cat anymore but I still give my female cat Purina One food because its always kept my cats healthy.

Good Luck to you and your Cat!

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~*~Live life to the fullest*~*

I switched him a couple days ago to (yuck!) Friskies Low Magnesium Urinary Tract Health canned food (I am used to giving him dry Felidae - this is like night and day for pet food, as Felidae is very high quality food).

I just noticed last night that the poor cat has his throat area shaved. And during the vet visit on Wednesday, they had to shave part of his tummy. Poor thing has bits and pieces of fur missing all over his body, LOL.


I am anxious to get the results of the test back. I need to know what is going on with him. We had to put our female cat to sleep 3 years ago because of kidney failure, and anything unknown to us about our animals automatically makes our heads spin now.

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"Yesterday my life was duller, now everything's technicolor!"