Diabetes with cats

General
Diabetes is not rare with cats, you often find it with older cats (10 years and older) and corpulent cats. Diabetes is caused because of the fact that the body (the pancreas) produces too little insulin. Insulin is a hormone which takes care of it that the body can absorb the sugar in the right way. Since the body cannot absorb the sugar, the cat can start to feel very sick and the concentration of sugar in the blood increases. The body will, as a consequence, “pass” the sugar via the urine which causes more urinating and more drinking. Besides, the cat will start to eat more due to the enormous sugar shortage in his organs.

Symptoms
•    Much urinating
•    Hunger 
•    Weight loss
•    Vomiting

The treatment:
Usually it is first checked if the urine contains an increased concentration of sugar. The definitive diagnosis is made if a too high glucose content is found in the blood. In such a case you must start to give the cat insulin so that the sugar can be absorbed by the body again. In the beginning you must see your veterinarian a couple of times so that he can determine the right insulin quantity. Cats can only be treated with an injection which must be administered (very important!) on the same moment every day.  A regular check by a veterinarian is necessary during the cat’s whole life (usually once a year).  

Below you will find the story of Alette, who also has a cat with diabetes…

Herewith my contribution to cat’s plaza. First of all I would like to say that I will tell about my experiences. I know that each cat with diabetes will react differently, which makes this disease so hard.

In December 2000 I noticed that our cat Joeri, 11 years old at that time, drank a lot. He drank each water bowl (his own and the water bowl of the dogs) very greedily. I had to fill his water bowl 3 times a day. Besides, he lost weight. Joeri is a huge cat (just as huge as a Maltese dog). He used to weigh about 10 kg. Now, he only weighed 8 kg. He didn’t seem slender, but really skinny. Especially on the back of his back.

To the veterinarian. We immediately thought of diabetes. The blood was checked and the glucose content appeared to be very high. Joeri had to stay with the veterinarian for a couple of days. He gave him insulin and checked his glucose content regularly.

On 31st December I could pick him up. I could give 2 vitamin injections at the veterinarian so that I could practice. This was rather easy. I placed the cat against me (the best way is to place the cat on a table so that you don’t have to bend). One arm under his head and the other hand over his body. You feel at rib’s height and go a bit down. Take the skin between your fingers and inject in the direction of the heart. Pay attention to it that you don’t inject through the skin, I mean that the needle will come out again on the other side. I always feel if his skin is wet. If it is wet, you failed. It has never happened to me but of course it might happen. Don’t inject again then and very important: Pay attention to it that you never inject yourself! Very dangerous!! Nowadays we are used to injecting and I am also able to inject him while he is lying.

Important: You must always inject on the same moment. I do this at 10 pm (11 pm at the latest). My husband and I are always at home on that hour (or we make sure that we are at home). Choose a moment which is most convenient for you. You cannot inject in the morning on Monday and in the evening on Tuesday. A margin of 1-1.5 hours is the maximum.

After injecting I give the cat a bit of food. Your cat should immediately eat after being injected. I always make sure that I have chunks (diet food from Hill's WD feline) available. Joeri eats small portions during the whole day. This is a subject of discussion, in a lot of literature. The insulin’s manual also indicates that the cat may only eat on one certain moment, immediately after the injection and then 7-8 hours later. In between no food.

If I do this, Joeri will definitely get hypoglycemia (too low blood sugar content).  He will not react at all, has very large pupils and will usually start sniffing in a corner. His paws are shaky, as if they have been made out of rubber. They can also get this disease due to stress. Or if you have injected too much insulin. You must immediately react if your cat gets a hypo. I always get thick syrup and place some dollops on his tongue with my fingers (some people give sugar water). You will see that he will react normal again soon. You give him some food afterwards.

Important things you have to keep in mind if your cat has diabetes and you decide to start the treatment: * Your cat needs a very regular life, avoid stress! * Is the cat allowed to go outside? Keep in mind that he needs his injection on the same moment every day. * If you go on a holiday is there anyone available who is prepared to give the injections? My experience is that you will not find a person who is prepared to do so soon.

Costs: • Hill’s diet food 5 kg € 38.18
• can insulin (The insulin) + 10 injections: € 35.97 This contains 10 bottles of 2.5ml. One injection contains 1 ml. It is divided in 40 units.
• Injections: insulin injections (can insulin) : € 4.09 for 10 injections
• I take a new needle every day and a new injections every 3 days. Needles 0.45x12 costs € 0.69 for 10 needles.

Nowadays I have the glucose content checked only once a year. As long as he reacts well on the insulin quantity I don’t change this. After all, it is very stressful for Joeri!  I am lucky that Joeri doesn’t produce any insulin at all, so I have to inject the same each day. If your cat still produces insulin you might have to take a blood sample each day. Well, I hope that I haven’t scared you when you read this and after you veterinarian told you that your cat has diabetes. I don’t regret it at all that we treat Joeri. He is a very sweet cat, but you mustn’t underestimate the consequences.

N.B. Since a couple of months we have noticed that Joeri becomes really old. If he walked, it was very laboriously. Stiff hind paws. Since  It is a complaint on the long nerves (are damaged by high blood sugar contents). This complaint is called Perifere Beuropathy and it also occurs with people who have diabetes. He describes a few plain tests which you can do in order to check if your cat has this. According to me, Joeri also has it. Very important. the veternarian describes that a vitamin should help. A variant of B12, Methyl cobalamine. I bought these vitamins. The manufacturer Similia (from Schoten, Belgium) produces them. This morning Joeri jumped on a wall in our garden…………something he hadn’t done the last couple of months!!

Update September 2003
Joeri was ok. I finished my article with the methyl cobalamine pills. I stopped giving them to Joeri since there wasn’t any result. He kept having stiff hind paws. But…….since August we didn’t have to inject him anymore. Joeri had had three hypos in two weeks. A sign that his insulin was too high. I bought a glucose measuring instrument. I take blood samples in Joeri’s ear. His glucose content seemed to be very low, so less insulin. Every time I took a blood sample his glucose content remained low. Consequence: No more insulin and since one month Joeri doesn’t have diabetes anymore. His skin has become much nicer, he isn’t unstable or stiff anymore and is much more alive. Hopeful for other owners.

Not long after my update (september) in which I told that Joeri didn’t have diabetes anymore he got a tumor in his mouth. It grew very fast. Unfortunately, we had to put him asleep on 12th December 2003. Apparently such a tumor absorbs sugar. So pat attention if your cat suddenly recovers from diabetes. Of course I had a lot of grief. Such a decision is hard. Anyone who still wants more information or just wants to chat is free to do so.

Below the story of Pauline who also has a cat with diabetes…… We have 4 cats. Beertje is one of them, a castrated Siamese tomcat of almost 10 years old. We got Beer when he was 4 years old, from the animal home. Beer suffered from his gums, pain in his beak and inflammations due to which he couldn’t eat and had a lot of pain. The only thing which helped was giving prednisone. Since he kept having the same complaints and prednisone isn’t a pleasant medicine he had to have all teeth out and the problem disappeared. He doesn’t need prednisone and never has pain in his beak anymore. Whether it is caused by using prednisone or not, we don’t know. However, one year ago we went to the veterinarian for his yearly vaccination. I told the veterinarian that Beer drank and urinated a lot. The veterinarian wanted to take a blood sample and so he did. Beertje appeared to have a very high glucose content and the only remedy was: injections with insulin. We were shocked, diabetes is not that bad, but are we able to administer the injection on regular hours and what about holidays etc? Enough worries but we didn’t have a choice and started giving injections. We practiced at the veterinarian once and did it ourselves from that moment on. We have to inject twice a day (I read that Annette only has to inject once). There must be 12 hours in between so we inject at 8.30 am and at 8.30 pm. There is always food so that is not a problem. All cats can go outside and Beer reports himself at the right time since he waits on his milk (+ injection) in the morning and on his food (+injection) in the evening. Administering the injections is very simple, he barely notices it. We inject him while he eats/drinks or if necessary while he sits or stands. Many people think that injecting is hard, but, especially with Beer, this is very simple. It is much harder to be at home in time than to administer the injections. But we are very flexible. You may inject one hour later and sometimes, if we are not at home, he misses an injection or he will get half a dose a couple of hours later. There are a couple of other persons who are able to inject Beer as well. They usually think that it is hard, but once they have seen us giving the injection, most of them want to try it. We had to take Beer to the veterinarian often to take a blood sample and test the glucose. He slowly improves and needs less and less insulin. It seems that some cats can fully get well again (it occurs). Since Beer needs less and less insulin, we must keep a close eye on him. Each behavior change might indicate that Beer might need less insulin again; he often is listless then. We check him regularly. Fortunately, we don’t have to pay much concerning veterinarian costs; not consultation costs every time, otherwise it would be very expensive. We only pay the real costs (blood examination, insulin, needles etc). The most important thing we learnt: We were shocked, a cat with diabetes, having to be at home on fixed hours, how should we handle it? But, by adapting your life a little bit, everything goes well. You learn how to inject and other people around you also learn this. The care is not that much. I have heard that some people have put their cat asleep for that reason. This is really unnecessary, under the condition that you don’t have a difficult cat which doesn’t allow to be injected. It isn’t hard and it is worth it.