Cat lovers -- what would you do?

[KiminChicago]

Our cat is driving us crazy! He's 15 years old and has had diabetes for the last 7 years. When he first started having problems with his blood sugar, he would drink tons of water and pee right outside his litter box. So we took him to the vet and for the longest time everything was fine.

Well, the last year he has just gotten stranger and stranger. Part of the problem is that now his thyroid isn't working right, so he needs a pill every day for that. He's lost a lot of weight so the vet has continued to cut down the amount of insulin he gets in each shot (twice daily). He is still fascinated with water and he makes a huge mess splashing in his water bowl. His water bowl is the whole length of the house away from his litter box, but he plays in the water with his paws, then walks to the other end of the house, uses the litter box, gets cat litter all over his wet paws, walks back to his water dish and gets cat litter in the water bowl. I'm constantly changing the water in the bowl to keep it clean, and vacuuming the sofa to get rid of the litter that falls off his paws after they dry.

His new trick is to get three of his paws in the litter box and leave the fourth hanging out and peeing all over the floor. We went out and got him a new larger litter box that has steps leading up to the box and a lower lip to step over and down into the box. I thought it would make it easier for him to get in -- not that he seems to be having any problems with agility, he's also started getting up on the kitchen counters looking for food, but he still only getting the three paws in the box and now he pees on the steps so I'm always cleaning up a mess by his litter box. He has also figured out how to open the lower cabinets looking for food so we had to childproof them or we'd wake up to Doritos and Goldfish all over the kitchen floor.

This morning was just about the last straw. I fed him and then got the kids ready for school. After they left I gave him his insulin shot (approx. 1/2 hour after he was fed). About an hour later he was stumbling around and so I opened a can of wet food and tried to get him to eat. Usually this works to get his blood sugar back on track but today he continued to go downhill. I finally found him stuck behind the door to the laundry room, lying in a pool of pee. He'd gotten behind the door and couldn't figure out how to back out. The vet told me to start feeding him teaspoons of honey, one a minute, to try and bring his blood sugar back up. So I gave him a quick bath, wrapped him in a towel and pried his jaw open for DH to pour the teaspoons of honey in. After a while he seemed to get a bit better but now I'm just waiting for and dreading the next occurence.

Sorry this has been so long but I didn't want anyone to think that we aren't trying to do everything we reasonably can to keep this cat healthy and give him a good life. But it is starting to get to us and I'm not really sure how long we can keep dealing with all the vet visits and the mess. Is there anyone out there who can make some suggestions to solve some of the difficulties we're having? TIA!

 

[shortbun]

I've owned cats since I was one. I'd be less concerned about cleaning up than I would be about my cat. Your cat sounds very sick. Poor kitty.

 

[tinah159]

You poor kitty is very sick. It sounds as if his insulin is not the correct dose for him now. He will need to go back to the vet for another blood sugar "work up" and an adjustment of his meds.

 

[kacaju]

Personally I would put him down.

I had to do this twice. I had a diabetic cat that we did everything for him. Once we found him staggering in the family room, and I whisked him off to the emergency vet and we were able to save him.

The next time he went into a insulin shock on my bed. We didn't find him until it was too late. He has slipped into a coma and we ended up having to put him down.

Just recently another cat (15) also developed diabetes.
This time we, as a family made the choice to put him down. I hated to do it, but right now we are at a point with the kids (and crazy scheduling) that we did not have the time to be sure the cat got his insulin on time, making sure he was eating and I could not go through the worry of him going into insulin shock. to this day I can still see our other cat on my bed when I found him. That guilt was worse then making the decision to humanely put down the second cat.

I am so sorry you are gonig through this. It sucks!!

 

[jackemail]

I was in the same situation--except a bit worse. KP would not use the litter box at all. I tried changing litter types, leaving the top off, moving the litter box, tried new litter boxes--he just would not use it and would go to the bathroom under a table (carpeted!) every single time. The cleaning got ridiculous. I ended up ripping out the carpet, and he still would only go under the table. I had to use foil pans and keep them under the table..when he peed, it sounded like a rad rain hitting a hot tin roof!

I swear I spend 3 years cleaning constantly because the vet and I never could figure out why he did it...I just dealt with it. He also did the play in the water thing, making a mess. I also had to keep Caro syrup around in case he had an insulin problem, which only happened a couple of times in the 3 years.

Was it worth three years of cleaning ? Yep, even though I often fussed while doing all the clean-up. Until some other health problems cropped up, he still had a relatively good quality of cat-life. He had to be put to sleep after 3 years of diabetes, but it wasn't because he was so messy, he just got too sick.

 

[bballmom56]

We had a diabetic cat also. I would take your cat back to the vet and see if they can't adjust the insulin dosage to see if that helps. We had to do that with ours and it made a big difference.

 

[John VN]

My cat would be put down.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I would also put the cat down. It sounds like the cat's quality of life is just not there.

 

[jobhunter]

Don't panic or give up yet--I think that you have some definite room to improve here. Thanks for all you do for your kitty--I know it's been challenging!!

I would visit www.felinediabetes.com message board and post your question on the Health board. You will get a lot more experienced answers than you will here because EVERYONE there has or has had a diabetic cat.

First off, I have a diabetic cat and I would never shoot insulin without checking her blood sugar first. It takes less than 2 minutes for me to do this and administer her shot. Depending on the number I get, I may or may not shoot, or I may shoot a reduced dose. What insulin are you on? Is it NPH? Lantus? PZI? You might consider a switch of insulin, especially if you are on NPH.

My cat has been diabetic for 4.5 years, hometested 2 times day, and we have never had a hypo (knock wood). Of course, incidents can always happen even with extreme vigilance but that is an awesome track record so far and hometesting gives YOU the control.

Also, I hate dry food but for incidents like this, I would keep it on hand. Just for a snack with a quick blood sugar boost if he gets into trouble. You are doing great to feed the wet food all the rest of the time.

If he likes playing with water, a running fountain might kill that urge to splash--he might just like to watch it there.

You have a lot of options here, so I think the suggestions to put him down are a bit premature. I am not seeing a general lack of quality of life, I am seeing a seesaw of unregulated diabetes.

Please consider posting at the diabetes forums and I really would like to know what insulin. That can be a major part of your problem right there, especially if it is NPH.

 

[lovetoscrap]

I agree you need a trip to the vet to get the meds straightened out.


Assuming that can be done and give him some more quality time and the mess is your concern then here are some suggestions. My Abby wasn't making it all the way into the box at the end. At the pet store or even at Walmart they sell what I call Piddle Pads. They are generally marketed to Dog owners for puppy training but they are very absorbant and disposable. We made a "carpet" of them under and around the litter box to take care of the accidents. Just pick up the wet ones and put down new ones.

Get one of those really rough door mats, that you would scrape your shoes on and put it near the litter box in the line of traffic, and in a way that the cat is unable to avoid it. That will help to get the litter off of her paws. Some towels put down can also help with this and to dry her paws.

You may want to put her water closer to her box, or at least add a 2nd bowl. If you need to go out and are worried about the mess see if you can confine Kitty in one room or area with the litter box, food and water and a comfy bed (old pillow or comforter would work) so you don't have to worry about accidents or mess.

Good Luck and . It does sound like you are nearing the end stages. It is so hard to watch them suffer. If he doesn't bounce back from this episode then it may be time to say good-bye.

 

[DizBelle]

I agree with the PP that suggested you test his blood sugar at home and give the insulin dose based on the result rather than giving the same dose every time and hoping it is the right dose. If the insulin dose is proportional to his blood sugar at the time of his dose, he may feel more normal and then act more normal.

You can get a standard glucose meter that humans use. I suggest you find one that works on the smallest amount of blood possible. Wal-mart has one (house brand called ReliOn) that is pretty inexpensive. The smallest sample size we found was .3 microliter which really is an itty bitty amount. This really is not a difficult thing to do and is a small price to pay for a happier and healthier cat.

There are videos out on youtube showing how to test your cat's blood sugar.

You may just be driving your cat's blood sugar too low which is causing his weird behavior. If you get his blood sugar regularly normal and he is still acting weird, then look at other things. But his blood sugar issues seem to be the number one and easiest thing to get a handle on and normalize.

For me, "it's too much trouble" is not a good enough reason to put my cat down.

I applaud you and thank you for dealing with a diabetic cat for 7 years so far. That's is so much more than many would do. Humans live with diabetes for many, many years. There's no reason a cat can't. They just need help from their human to deal with it. It is so easy to control. You just have to take the time.

 

[auntie]

You poor kitty is very sick. It sounds as if his insulin is not the correct dose for him now. He will need to go back to the vet for another blood sugar "work up" and an adjustment of his meds.

I agree. His insulin levels are not correct. THAT is the problem. Do you test his urine at home?..They sell strips so that you can do this. Your vet probably has told you about them. This way you can adjust the amount of insulin he/she needs. His stumbling around..is that he's going into diabetic shock...and he is loosing control of his urine. The excessive thirst is another sign that his diabetes is not under control, and adjustments need to be made to his insulin dosage. It could be as simple as finding the right dosage of insulin for your pet. If you aren't able to do this yourself, you may want to leave him in the vets care for a few days, and try to have them regulate it..and then start testing the cat yourself to maintain and adjust the levels. Certainly this is worth trying for a pet who has been a member of your family for 15 years. Poor kitty Hope he gets to feeling better real soon.

 

[photobob]

I would also put the cat down. It sounds like the cat's quality of life is just not there.

I'd have to agree.

 

[jmpurdy]

I work for a cat vet. Get your cat in for the day to get the glucose tested. It takes several hours. We check the levels throughout the day to determine if the dosage is correct or needs adjusting. We do this for all our diabetic kittys routinely. The dosage can change at any time! Your cat is telling you the dosage is possibly incorrect (as others have indicated).
Whenever we have kittys that are giving symptoms, we always have them come right in to get tested. And we always tell our clients to monitor them carefully and if they start acting weird, to give us a call right away!
Keep water in several areas of your house. Keep more litter boxes near the water! These are all easy fixes. I agree with other posters. You do have many options here. Please get your cat in to be evaluated for the day. If your vet doesn't think this is needed, I'd be looking for another vet. Hope this helps!

 

[Linda in sunny SC]

I also want to agree with the previous poster who recommended www.felinediabetes.com The message boards have been invaluable to me in caring for my diabetic cat these past 3.5 years. Testing with a human glucometer is not hard once you get used to it. My cat tollerates it better than the shots now. You can save yourself lots of money by doing your testing curves at home instead of the vet. And the results will be more accurate without vet stress on the cat. Please at least investigate the possibilities before making a decision to put your cat down.

 

[robinb]

I would also put the cat down. It sounds like the cat's quality of life is just not there.

I agree. There comes a point where you have to look at the quality of life of the animal and make the decision to let the animal go or to try to keep him alive. Was he a happy kitty in the last few months? Or has he been declining in health and is just holding on for you? If you think this is a blip in his insulin level and you have the $$ for a ton of tests then by all means have him seen by your vet and see if it helps. But ... if his quality of life has been steadily going down hill then maybe it's time to let him go over the rainbow bridge. 15-years is a long life for a cat, especially one who has been on insulin injections for half that time!

{{hugs}} to you and your family no matter what you decide to do.

 

[auntie]

My cat would be put down.

I would also put the cat down. It sounds like the cat's quality of life is just not there.

I just want to reply that...obviously the quality of life isn't there. The cat is diabetic...and receiving the WRONG dosage of insulin. It would appear they are driving the blood sugar level too low. Ajustments in the insulin need to be made. While an incovenience..and maybe more than some pet owners would want to deal with..getting that under control isn't really a huge deal. It may require a visit to the vet..and possibly leaving the cat there during the day so as to have the glucose level monitored. The situation is similiar to a human diabetic. The OP hasn't had any issues with giving their cat insulin shots. So that's apparently not been a problem. Adjusting the levels will probably rectify things. Unless...there has been some damage already done to the cats brain/or other organs because of the incorrect dosage. From the post it seems they are upset that the cat is missing the litter box. AGAIN... this is connected to the incorrect insulin levels. Something that can be rectified without too much difficulty.
We had a cat that lived quite nicely for 17 years and the last six years as a diabetic. This is something quite a few cats face as they begin to age.
I just think it's worth trying to fix before putting the cat to sleep. If a change in meds isn't doing it..then of course, you need to do what's right by the pet.
Only it's worth the little bit of effort that it takes to try and rectify the situation before making that decision.

 

[mackeysmom]

Hi -

As the mother of a diabetic cat - I just wanted to wish you luck and good thoughts

Mackey just turned 13 a few weeks ago and has been living with diabetes for the past 5 years. I had his blood sugar under control for several years, when suddenly we hit a wall. Accidents outside the litterbox, blood sugar lows, etc. It was only after leaving him at the vet for 48 hours where they could monitor him and accurately test/adjust his insulin/sugar levels were we able to get just the right dosage.

We haven't had any incidents since. (I've recently had to put him on anti-anxiety medication recently - but that's another story and not related to the diabetes.)

Good luck,
Laura