How soon should diabetic cat improve with insulin?

Did your vet do a full blood panel? If not get your cat back in ASAP and
have this done immediately. Unregulated cats can suffer from life
threatening ketoacidosis and if this is what is going on she needs to be
hospitalized. You can go to any pharmacy and buy urine test strips
called Ketodiastix. You simply dip it in your cat's urine or hold it in
the urine stream if you can catch her urinating and it will tell you if
she has ketones. If she does you need to get her to the vet right away.
You also need to get a glucometer and learn to test your cats blood
sugar at home. You can read more about diabetes he
http://community.webtv.net/getcathelp/diabetes and make sure to join the
feline diabetes messageboard at http://www.felinediabetes.com for long
term help that is available 24/7

Megan



"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing."

-Edmund Burke

Learn The TRUTH About Declawing
http://www.stopdeclaw.com

Zuzu's Cats Photo Album:
http://www.PictureTrail.com/zuzu22

"Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one
elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and
splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then
providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and
material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his
way."

- W.H. Murray

On 2005-01-19, worried penned:
My 15-year-old cat was diagnosed this weekend with diabetes and a severe
bladder infection. She had been very sick for a day and a half, although I
realize now that symptoms were showing up almost three weeks ago (some of
it, I thought was just her age catching up with her).

She was on insulin and antibiotics overnight at the vet, brought her home
last night, and she still seems lethargic. She eats and drinks, purrs when
petted, but just seems like a zombie.

The vet said we should look for real improvement in about a week, after
she's been on the insulin a while and the bladder infection has cleared up.
I can understand that, but it seems that I should be seeing gradual
improvement in her day by day. So far, this morning, she still seems
lethargic. How soon should I see some evidence that the insulin is helping
her? She receives two units twice a day.

I really think you should listen to your vet on this one.

Some things take a while to improve. For example, if you take antibiotics,
the problem area typically doesn't improve for several days.

--
monique, roommate of Oscar the (female) grouch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eros was adopted! Eros has a home now! *cheer!*

Our Amaretto has been a diabetic for 6 years--he's on 4 units of
Humulin L twice a day. Amaretto always has a problem whenever we have
to medicate him--usually with Clavamox, the antibiotic of choice of
many vets. His sugar goes out of whack and he often will eat only a
limited amount until we are done with the Clavamox, then he snaps back
very quickly. We strongly recommend that you continue the pills for
the bladder infection--but keep a very careful eye on the blood sugar
levels at the same time. Home testing for blood sugar is easily done
on a cat--Amaretto is so used to it that he practically lies down on
the bed and waits for us to test him every day and night before meal
time. Once you are done with the antibiotics, the behavior should
return to normal, but still maintain a careful eye on the blood sugar.

Best,

PegNDerek


On 19 Jan 2005 16:18:04 GMT, worried wrote:

My 15-year-old cat was diagnosed this weekend with diabetes and a severe
bladder infection. She had been very sick for a day and a half, although I
realize now that symptoms were showing up almost three weeks ago (some of
it, I thought was just her age catching up with her).

She was on insulin and antibiotics overnight at the vet, brought her home
last night, and she still seems lethargic. She eats and drinks, purrs when
petted, but just seems like a zombie.

The vet said we should look for real improvement in about a week, after
she's been on the insulin a while and the bladder infection has cleared up.
I can understand that, but it seems that I should be seeing gradual
improvement in her day by day. So far, this morning, she still seems
lethargic. How soon should I see some evidence that the insulin is helping
her? She receives two units twice a day.

"worried" wrote in message
...
My 15-year-old cat was diagnosed this weekend with diabetes and a severe
bladder infection. She had been very sick for a day and a half, although I
realize now that symptoms were showing up almost three weeks ago (some of
it, I thought was just her age catching up with her).

She was on insulin and antibiotics overnight at the vet, brought her home
last night, and she still seems lethargic. She eats and drinks, purrs when
petted, but just seems like a zombie.

The vet said we should look for real improvement in about a week, after
she's been on the insulin a while and the bladder infection has cleared
up.
I can understand that, but it seems that I should be seeing gradual
improvement in her day by day. So far, this morning, she still seems
lethargic. How soon should I see some evidence that the insulin is helping
her? She receives two units twice a day.

Two units per day is the normal 'jumping-off' point for initiating insulin
therapy in a diabetic cat, but the daily dosage that restores your cat's
good health will be that which causes blood glucose levels to be managed in
a range of 50-200 mg/dL throughout most of the day. If you really want to
understand how to get there, I would suggest you spend some time perusing
the following:

http://www.felinediabetes.com/index.html
http://www.petdiabetes.org/
http://sugarcat_simon.home.att.net/
http://www.vet.cornell.edu/Public/FHC/diabetes.html
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/sac/med...etes/home.html

Please sign onto the message board at www.felinediabetes.com. Those
people are very experienced and have run into about every diabetic-cat
situation out there.

Is your vet testing your cat's blood sugar frequently? If she is very
sick, the vet should be keeping a very close eye on the blood sugar
level. What's good one day may be too much another. Low blood sugar can
make your cat lethargic, as could an infection.

You can talk to the people on that message board and they can give you
details on how to test the blood sugar at home. Glucometers are easy to
use these days. It's also less stressful on the cat instead of running
them into the vet all of the time (which can also cause a false sugar
level elevation due to stress.)

Good luck,

Rhonda



worried wrote:

My 15-year-old cat was diagnosed this weekend with diabetes and a severe
bladder infection. She had been very sick for a day and a half, although I
realize now that symptoms were showing up almost three weeks ago (some of
it, I thought was just her age catching up with her).

She was on insulin and antibiotics overnight at the vet, brought her home
last night, and she still seems lethargic. She eats and drinks, purrs when
petted, but just seems like a zombie.

The vet said we should look for real improvement in about a week, after
she's been on the insulin a while and the bladder infection has cleared up.
I can understand that, but it seems that I should be seeing gradual
improvement in her day by day. So far, this morning, she still seems
lethargic. How soon should I see some evidence that the insulin is helping
her? She receives two units twice a day.

"worried" wrote in message
...
My 15-year-old cat was diagnosed this weekend with diabetes and a severe
bladder infection. She had been very sick for a day and a half, although I
realize now that symptoms were showing up almost three weeks ago (some of
it, I thought was just her age catching up with her).


She may have a self-perpetuating cycle going on. Its quite possible her
diabetes caused or contributed to her bladder infection. Sugar in the urine
(glycosuria) is an excellent breeding ground for bacteria. An infection
anywhere in the urinary tract or in the mouth can also cause insulin
resistance.

If she's overweight - that will also add to the problem. Obesity causes a
*transient* insulin resistance that's usually reversible with weight loss.




She was on insulin and antibiotics overnight at the vet, brought her home
last night, and she still seems lethargic. She eats and drinks, purrs when
petted, but just seems like a zombie.

The vet said we should look for real improvement in about a week, after
she's been on the insulin a while and the bladder infection has cleared
up.
I can understand that, but it seems that I should be seeing gradual
improvement in her day by day. So far, this morning, she still seems
lethargic. How soon should I see some evidence that the insulin is helping
her? She receives two units twice a day.

It usually takes a few to several days for a cat to equilibrate to the
insulin if the cat is *truly* diabetic. Otherwise, the insulin will have
the opposite effect - similar to the symptoms you're describing and
potentially very serious.

How was your cat's diabetes diagnosed? Did your vet check her urine glucose
as well as her blood glucose? This is very important. Many cats that
aren't diabetic are "diagnosed" as diabetic and put on insulin which can
have very deleterious effects. The mistake is often made because cats are
notorious for "stress (physiologic) hyperglycemia". A routine trip to the
vet's office is usually enough to cause a physiologic hyperglycemia.

Here's a common scenario:

*First the cat is woken up and/or chased and trapped and put in a carrier -
most cats don't like to be forcibly restrained and confined. Cats also
associate the carrier with unpleasant experiences such as a car ride and
trip to the vet.

*Then the cat is put in a car -- cats generally don't like the unsettling
motion of car rides.

*When you get to the vet's office, the cat's carrier is usually placed on
the floor in a waiting room near other cats and dogs and hundreds of
scents from past and present animals.

*Then the cat is placed on a cold exam table, where she's palpated from head
to tail;

*Then a thermometer is shoved up her rectum!

*Finally*, she's restrained for drawing blood, and gets stuck with a needle
in her foreleg or neck. My BG is rising just thinking about it...

Now, from the time she was put in the carrier until her blood is drawn,
about an hour passes. This is more than enough time for her defensive
mechanisms to kick in and for stress (physiologic) hyperglycemia to develop.
Stress hyperglycemia can send BG to 300 mg/dl or higher.

The reason why its so important to also check urine glucose is because
stress or excitement-induced hyperglycemia is *transient* and doesn't last
long enough for glucose to accumulate in the urine. Ideally, your vet
should have confirmed your cat's hyperglycemia with a serum fructosamine
test - SF isn't affected by transient stress and or excitement and is a very
reliable marker for her average BG over the past couple of weeks.

The best way to check your cat's BG is at *home* - where she's not stressed,
frightened or excited. Checking a cat's BG is very easy. Here's a video
another post made that shows you how to check your cat's BG:

http://www.maxshouse.com/bgtest%5B1%5D.mpg

http://www.maxshouse.com/bgtest.rm


Also, you might want to pick up a tube of Chemstrips urine test strips
("dipsticks") for glucose and ketones or ideally, Multistix 10 SG Reagent
Strips. Multistix tests for glucose, ketones, pH, blood, protein,
leukocytes (helps detect infections), urine specific gravity, and a few
others. Multistix helps you monitor her kidney function as well as diabetes
and ketoacidosis - which is a true life-threatening complication of
diabetes. A vet charges about $25 for all those tests -- Multistix cost you
about .50 each.

A note of caution: dipsticks should be used in conjunction with, and *not*
in place of blood glucose monitoring. Dipsticks have some serious
limitations when used in cats. First of all, cats have a higher renal
threshold for glucose than humans - can be as high as 200-290 mg/dl. IOW,
urine that tests negative for glucose could mean the cat is regulated fairly
well -- or it could mean that the cat isn't *regulated - glucose doesn't
"spill" into the urine until the cat's BG is 200-290 mg/dl.

Also, you should *never* use dipsticks to make adjustments in insulin doses
because the the urine in the bladder has been accumulating for the last few
hours. IOW, the urine glucose at the time of testing has been accumulating
for hours and doesn't represent the cat's actual urine glucose at that time.
Also, there's a lag time of a few hours before BG spills into the urine.
IOW, a cat can be hyperglycemic but her urine can be negative for glucose.
This can lead to an underdosing of insulin followed by a spike in BG and a
compensatory overdose of insulin.

I gotta run - check my traps. If you have any questions, post them.
There're a few people here with a lot of experience testing and regulating
diabetic cats.

Keep the faith!

Phil.

"With the qualities of cleanliness, discretion, affection, patience,
dignity, and courage that cats have, how many of us,
I ask you, would be capable of being cats?' --Fernand Mery
Feline Healthcare & Mo http://maxshouse.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline..._and_Behavior/