Anyone with experience with diabetic Cat?

[wovenwonder]

Our cat [Baby] will be 7 in August. In February we found out that he had a life threatening heart problem. He is since being treated for it and it appears to be under control. But, since Feb he has gone from 14 pound to 10.6 pounds. He is a bag of bones right now. I just had him at the vet and they drew blood. His sugar was 572! My vet wants to consult with the heart specialist to see if there is any problem giving insulin with the current heart meds.

My question is ----

Does anyone have experience with giving insulin to a cat? Or just having a cat with diabetes in general?

This has me feeling low right now. 'Baby' is truly 'MY Baby'.

 

[Cindy B]

My parent had a diabetic cat for many years. I want to say the cat lived at least 5 if not close to ten years with the diagnosis.

The shots weren't too terrible. My dad/mom would fix them up, and give it to the cat when he was eating. At first it was hard to do, but the cat never noticed, and just kept on eating.

They did find that mail order supplies were cheaper than buying from the vet.

The cat just recently passed away at 19 years old.

 

[Carole]

Our dog was diabetic. He had to be kept on a regular schedule of shots twice a day - 12 hours apart. I know cats are a little different. We purchased our needles and insulin at Walmart - no prescription is needed. The vet will tell you exactly what type to purchase and how much to use. It may take several months or longer to get exactly the right dosage. The vet also taught us how to give the shots - I never did but my DH and kids all learned to give them. We also had a dog sitter familiar with giving shots so vacations were never a problem.

Good luck!!

 

[Pugsley]

Yep, I have one. I was all happy because he was overweight and he started losing weight. I thought he was just getting more exercise because we had a new kitten in the house. And that also made it harder for me to notice that he was drinking and peeing more. Anyway, I do have to give him insulin shots twice a day, 12 hours apart. He doesn’t mind the shots at all and he seems to be in perfect health. He was diagnosed about 4 years ago and he’s 14 now. It’s difficult for me since I live alone (I’m the only human, I mean), so I have to consider him whenever I make any plans. Don’t worry, they can live a perfectly normal life with diabetes.

 

[addicted_to_WDW]

I have a diabetic cat. Mo was diagnosed in January, and started on insulin 2x per day. At the same time, his diet was switched from a dry diet (they are all high in carbs) to a very low carb canned diet. His sugar ended up getting much too low and his insulin was reduced within about a month. In April, he was taken off insulin altogether and is now controlled by the low carb diet. His blood glucose isn't perfect, but it stays in the 200 range. For diabetic kitties, "regulation" is between 100-300, so our vet is happy.

 

[KiminChicago]

I posted about this a couple of months ago when my baby was diagnosed. We're still working on getting his blood sugar down to the acceptible levels, Max is one tough cookie! We started out with pills twice a day, which were even easier than insulin shots, but, as the vet warned us, it doesn't work well for most kitties. We are now up to 6 units of insulin twice a day and we've finally gotten his blood sugar down under 250, so we're getting closer.

The only real problem we have so far with giving the insulin shots is going on vacation. So far we haven't found anyone to come in and give Max his shots twice a day, so he's going to stay at the vet's while we're out of town.

 

[wovenwonder]

What kind of cost are we looking at for the insulin?

 

[MerryPoppins]

I also had a kitty that was diabetic. She was on insulin for several years and then didn't need it anymore. Our vet said that cats will do that sometimes. She didn't mind her shots. I think she knew they made her feel better. We'd call her and she'd jump up on a chair for us to give it to her. I was thankful that she was not an outdoor cat. That would have made me worried that she wouldn't come home in time for a shot.

The insulin wasn't very expensive and each bottle lasted quite a while. I guess that would all depend on the number of units prescribed. Our vet gave us permission to use each syringe twice, to save a little. We just stored it with in the fridge with the insulin after the first use.

 

[luvflorida]

Our Black Lab was diagnosed as diabetic about six months ago. He's actually our son's dog, so he is the one to give him his shots. He gets two shots a day, morning and evening, and he's doing fine. He losts a few pounds, but he was a little overweight, so that was good. He is as active as ever! By the way, we have a kitty named "Baby", also!

 

[KiminChicago]

I checked with my DH and he told me that it cost us about $15 for the insulin and another $15 for 100 syringes. The insulin lasts for a long time because you don't use very much. The bottle we have contains 10 ml and each ml is 100 units, so a bottle contains about 1000 units. Since we only use about 12 units a day, this is a three month supply. The part that I found just a little odd is that we don't need a prescription for the insulin, just the syringes.

Does anyone have a good method for disposing of the syringes? We've just been keeping them in a box in the pantry. I keep thinking that there must be a way to recycle them, I don't want to just toss them in the trash and have them end up in a landfill somewhere!

 

[Pugsley]

wovenwonder, I’m just estimating here since I really don’t keep track of it, but a bottle of insulin costs around $25 and it lasts me about three months (my cat’s dosage is pretty high, 7 units twice a day). A box of 100 syringes is also about $25. So the cost really isn’t bad.

 

[Pugsley]

Kim, that’s no fair – things are always more expensive here! Maybe I need to check into getting this stuff online. I take my used syringes back to my vet and they dispose of them.

 

[Cindy B]

Originally posted by KiminChicago
I.

Does anyone have a good method for disposing of the syringes? We've just been keeping them in a box in the pantry. I keep thinking that there must be a way to recycle them, I don't want to just toss them in the trash and have them end up in a landfill somewhere!

Well, my parents kept them in a coffee can with a lid... sort of like the sharps container in the doctors office. When the coffe can got filled up... they dropped it off somewhere... I think it was the vets office to dispose of properly.

As for reusing the syringes, they did that as well. It was only for one cat. None of the other cats had diabetes.

 

[MerryPoppins]

We were told to snap the needles off and just trash them, so that is what we always did.