Cat may have Diabetes

[eybic]

Hellooooo,

For a few days my cat Ted has been drinking and weeing a LOT, in every other aspect he seems normal.

My Brother took him to the vet for me (can't get time off work) today and they suspect he has Diabetes but want to keep him in for 5 days to run tests, start meds and monitor him for side effects.

My Brother said it is likely he will need injections twice daily if it is as suspected.

Does anyone on here have a cat with Diabetes? What is their quality of life like? Should the injections let him lead a normal life or is it a losing battle we're trying to fight? Ted is an indoor cat and not particularly active and never has been.

Apparently his 5 night stay and some meds will cost around £600.

Thank you

[bexVN]

Cats can and do live good lives with diabetes. Most will need twice a day injections but most of ours are kept on the same dose long term with minor adjustments when necessary.

They will want to try and rule out other medical reasons such as a pancreatic tumour.

A good quality high proton low carb diet would be beneficial, wet food would better as dry is much higher in carbs. These type of foods are more expensive than your bog standard Felix but can help stabilise the condition, however it is more important the cats eat regularly so keeping to there old diet is better than them not eating a new one.

Once stabilised the main costs will be the insulin and needles and blood test prob every 3 month's.

Sorry to ask but is your cat overweight?

[eybic]

Hi Bex,

Thanks for your reply. Yes Ted is a bit overweight, he's a big cat anyway but could probably do with trimming up a bit lol.

It's good to read that they can live normal lives on meds. Any idea what kind of costs I'll be looking at for a monthly supply? Is there a good source or should I just get it from my vet? He normally eats science plan dry food so I don't generally get him crap food.

Thanks again

Nathan

[bexVN]

Helping him trim down will help make stabilising the diabetes easier. If you are very lucky and the diabetes has been caught early enough you can get a reversal of symptoms in cats. It's a small chance though but wt loss may help with this.

The science plan will probably still be too high in carbohydrates but I would not change his diet at this stage (unless your vet advises you to of course)

How old is he?.

[eybic]

I would guess that he's about 8 or 9, he adopted us about 7 years ago.

[bexVN]

I was asking because there is a form of diabetes than can affect male cats mainly of middle age called acromegaly. However it is not a common form of diabetes and usually only considered if they don't stabilise or if they have the appearance of having it (usually a change in facial features).

It's early days, your vets will be able to guide you through it over the next few days, it'll bepart of life soon enough

[eybic]

Ok, I haven't noticed any changes apart from drinking and peeing more. Do you know what sort of money the meds are?

[eybic]

I went to see Ted today and he wasn't happy to see me he tried his best to ignore me and stay just out of reach. His weight on admission was 5.6 kgs so he's lost about 1.5 kgs since November 2011 when he was just over 7kgs, I'm not sure if that is due to me feeding him less or his illness, I guess he would have lost a lot more if he'd been ill for a while?

Edited by eybic on Tuesday 18th June 19:24

[bexVN]

They know how to make you feel bad don't they!! That weight loss over that length of time is a nice steady and safe weight loss, illness usually causes a much quicker loss. However we don't really know when he lost most of that weight I.e. he could have lost 1kg of that weight in the last 6 months (I hope that makes sense!)

Sorry I didn't get back to you on cost, tbh you'd be best to check with your vets they should be able to give you a long term picture of cost.

[eybic]

Ted is home!!!

I picked him up this afternoon and surprisingly he was pleased to see me lol. The vet said we seem to have caught it early which I was pleased to hear.

I've got a vetpen to administer 2 units of insulin twice a day along with royal canin diabetic wet food for his main meals and the same but in dry form for snacking throughout the day. Thankfully he doesn't seem bothered by the injections and I've already managed to stab myself with the needle on the first injection.

He's got an appointment on Wednesday for a check up, I'll update again when we've been to that.

Once it's under control they estimate it will be around £50 a month for treatment which is a relief.