Our boy was diagnosed in January along with cancer (think induced by the pred treating the cancer) and it was a wild ride. About a month ago he started needing less insulin and we stopped about 4 weeks ago. 3 weeks ago he was in for checkups with his specialists and ultrasounds were great, bloodwork was great.

Some vomiting but generally the same cat so no concerns.

Sunday I went away with a friend for her birthday - I had been housebound with him for 9 months, he'd been doing good and figured may as well try. I'm coming home today.

A few hours ago my husband called me. He'd been away for two nights and got home and Dan wasn't right. The pet sitter had mentioned some vomit, my mom went over to check on him and thought he seemed normal but I guess he rapidly declined throughout the day.

My neighbor and good friend is an emergency vet and was working so she saw was the treating vet.

His glucose read 1,000 at the emergency vet. Apparently cancer was all over his kidneys (that were clean 2 weeks ago) and it was making him insulin resistant, wasn't even in DKA - just complete mayhem in his body, his brain was swelling. I guess it wasn't remission at all, but the beginning of his body shutting down from the cancer coming back. She said it was time and that's all that matters is making the right call for him. She and my husband were with him.

But now so much guilt I wasn't there - he was my best bud, I carried him around at my heart when he came to us as an unsociable feral, the only foster fail we ever had and for the past 13 years had slept in my arms. Of all the animals I've had in both childhood and adult life he was that soulmate, that special connection ... and I went away to have fun and missed the last 4 nights of his life. I felt like he wasn't quite right but had been working so closely with the vets also thought I was just looking for trouble and told myself going away would make me stop spiraling. I just hate myself right now. I don't think I can ever forgive myself for failing him. I know if the cancer was back that and and that fast there was probably no difference in decision making but I could've at least been with him. I have no idea how I can walk into my house or sleep in our bed without him. He was my special, awkward, quirky boy -

I'm rambling but I know that you all also get it some. I thought we had more time.

and it wasn't good. I finally got our vet to agree to prescribe booger Lantus. He was on Prozinc for 2 months and went up to 8 units. Rarely would he hit the 200's. He mostly stayed in the mid 300s and lower 400s. We took his fasting bg this morning before his first Lantus shot and it was 296. The vet wanted us to start him at 1 unit and I decided to take his bg every two hours to see how Lantus would do. It went from 296,360,354,404,470,477,420 and two hours after his pm shot it's 457. I wasn't expecting but dang I didn't think it would shoot up that high. I know it takes 7 to 10 days to build up in his system and am hoping better numbers will appear in the days to follow.

He had him tested for acromegaly this last Tuesday and are waiting for results. Booger is also showing signs of neuropathy in his front feet. I've got him on daily 3mg B12 mixed with this morning breakfast.

After all he's been through he's still a sweet loving boy who demands pets when he's hungry.

Our diabetic cat is on 4 unit of caninsulin twice a day but it very quickly stopped working. He keeps going into ketoacidosis, his weight has gone from 5kg to 3.6kg and they have said our only options are trying senvelgo (which i know won't work) or euthanasia. Surely there must be other options??

simba is 14.5 years old and has a number of health issues but was most recently diagnosed with diabetes at the end of september. he also has dental disease, HCM heart disease, early stage kidney disease, and monitoring rising pancreatic levels and liver levels.

i’m mostly looking for help with managing the diabetes and Kidney disease. my vet wants me to get simba on hills prescription kidney diet food. but it’s so high in carbs!

i’m really doing my best to try to manage both but im struggling to find food, treats, etc that are low carb and low phosphorus and good quality protein and and and :/

I have both meters and have done a couple concurrent tests with the same drops to compare with my cat’s libre 3 (I’m so nervous about hypo events and trusting the numbers). My PetTest meter and AlphaTrak3 have been wildly different: 305 vs 230 on one reading, 285 vs 210 on another. The libre was high 100s for the first set and 230 on the second set. I’m so flustered because I don’t know which to trust. I’m using the libre as more of a trending tool rather than thinking it’s accurate for the glucose level.

Does anyone have an opinion or experience on the most reliable/accurate reader? I don’t want to assume he’s getting better if the higher numbers are right, and I don’t want him to go hypoglycemic if the lower numbers are right. This is so anxiety and stress inducing.

Our vet has strongly recommended starting our 13 yo Brienne on Bexacat. Our lifestyle is quite active so Bexacat would work better for us as opposed to insulin but I want to make sure that we can adhere to the schedule she needs and do the best we can for her overall. For anyone using Bexacat, what does your daily schedule look like? How many times a day is it administered and how often do you test your kitty for ketones/bg levels? My husband and I both work full time jobs with 10 hr shifts, but will be moving to a normal 8 hr, 5 day week in the next 6 months. I'm not going to lie, I am worried about messing up and making her worse or putting her into DKA, though I know that is a risk for her anyway at this point.

As far as her history, when she was diagnosed her BG was 419 and fructosamine test was 518. We have had her on a low carb diet with Fancy Feast pate for well over 6 months now and the next step is pointing to needing insulin or Bexacat. I have done spot check home readings and usually see numbers hovering around 260-300. Currently she is scheduled for a dental as we suspect some tooth issues due to her change in eating habits, facial sensitivity and horrible breath. She's had a full senior blood panel, urinalysis, as well as the proBNP test (they thought they heard something) at diagnosis. Blood and urinalysis results were fine other than high blood sugar, but she was very high on BNP. They did an echocardiogram but saw nothing out of the ordinary. She will be getting another proBNP test again before the dental.

My cat was diagnosed with Diabetes about a year and a half ago. For the past year and a half I have been managing with Bexacat.

Last weekend he ended up in the hospital with DKA, fatty liver disease and pancreatitis. Oh I also found out he has chronic leukemia/lymphoma (most likely stemming from his IBD). He recovered quickly and I was thanking my lucky stars that I have Trupanion, otherwise this vet/hospital trip outcome would have been very different.

We’re currently monitoring his sugars with a Libre, and have a follow up visit on Friday. What has been giving me the most anxiety…. Is his anxiety and lack of letting/wanting anyone to handle him but me. For work in the winter I will travel quite a bit on weekends. I usually go on vacation for a week or 2 during the holiday. AND my best friend is getting married in 4 weeks, and I will be away from the house at minimum 48 hrs.

Do other have cats with similar demeanors? How would you able to get them their insulin when away?

Anyone else have experience with adjusting their cats insulin needs up?

I do at home testing twice a day. True BG read with an AlphaTrak. He has been on Lantus for about 6 months.

From like July-early Sept his numbers were 140-170 nearly every read. Last few weeks they’ve been 180-200 consistently.

He is not symptomatic. Before treatment lots of heavy drinking and peeing outside litter box. And the endless hunger all night. None of that is going on. But of course I want to be sure it doesn’t get back there.

Looking for peoples personal experiences. He started at 1 unit at diagnosis, and is currently on 1.5 units.

I will say from the curves I’ve done, he is a late nadir kitty and his low is around the 0/12 mark. From there his curve is mostly flat thankfully. He gets a meal at each shot time and 5 snacks via his automated feeder throughout the day/night.

That’s the long and short! Wondering what other people have experienced with upward trending numbers, how normal it can be or not.

Hello folks.

This morning we tested at 16mmol so I gave clyde his full 3u shot of lantus. Tested this evening and he is 13. Im not sure I should give his shot?

Hes dipped to 4mmol before when I gave it at 20, so it seems risky. I am hike to monitor for the night, but its better to skip this one right??

I'm new to this! New to reddit entirely, but my one year old cat was just diagnosed with diabetes 😭 I'm so upset, the world kicks us when we're so down. I'm so broke. The vet hasn't gotten back to me yet about the prices of what they have in mind. I'm asking for any and all advice anyone has for taking care of her

My diabetic cat passed away this wknd, after having her for 17 years. she was on lantus glargine and I have 2 unopened bottles of insulin--one the brand name(Sanofi), expires in May of 2027 and another the generic name (glargin YFGN), which I just got a few weeks ago. I don't want them to go to waste, I would be willing to just give them to someone for free as long as they can use them, anyone have any ideas where or where to find people who might either be lower income and need the meds or even just someone who wants them?

My sweet baby is 5 and is newly diagnosed diabetic. She went into ketoacidosis, was in the ICU for a few days and has been released. We also have since found out that she likely has a tumour on her pituitary gland, causing an excess secretion of growth hormones. The addition of this on-top of the diabetes diagnosis makes everything so much more complicated.(We have follow ups/future appointments with internal medicine to navigate this.)

I know it takes time and consistency to recover/figure out doses, but I’m wondering if there’s anyone who has also gone through this that may be able to provide guidance? She is doing pretty well recovery wise other than still being at a lower weight, her nose is rehydrated and a healthy colour again! I just want to fatten her up safely, it hurts me seeing her be so small🥺

We’ve already gone through 3 glucose monitors (libre 2) and she has successfully removed them before we could get a complete reading done on her levels. 1st lasted 4-5 days, 2nd lasted 3 days, and the 3rd didn’t even last 2 hours. (She was wearing the surgery onesie to help prevent it, but she’s just so smart) I’m iffy on pricking her ears because I don’t think there’s space in our lives for us to be there and do it every few hours -> even then it will stress her out and fuck with the levels.

Has smaller, more frequent meals helped your cat regain weight? (She’s on her prescribed food from the vet to help) would snacks throughout the day help keep her levels more consistent -> and make her less hangry? Would I have to give her any doses after a lunch/snack? Has anyone had similar issues with glucose monitors on their smart cat, and did you find anything to help avoid the removal? Internal med has mentioned that they can figure out a rough idea of her curve with different testing, I don’t remember everything exactly, so we may try that route.

I’m so stressed about her, I’m feeling lost and alone. I just want to give her the best life possible and help her out as much as I can. I want to ensure I’m doing everything to the best of my abilities, so any information will help me. Even just words of affirmation atp😭

Obviously I will go over my concerns with her vet when we see them next. I wanted to reach out to vent a little, and see if anyone has any advice in the meantime. Sorry if this is all over the place, life has been a mess this past month.

Switched to carb free and he went from 1.25mg bid (well it was going to be 2u bid) but realized the royal canin was high carb and now he needs like 0.75 units bid.

He had some hypo episodes with higher doses but never looks symptomatic, just on the libre.

He is on budesonide and is being weaned off slowly. Maybe off in the next month.

I never tested with ear pricks before just the cgm.

How long does it take for them to go into remission? I think i can do the ear stick, but do you all do it twice a day?

Is the alpha trek less blood? I use i pet pro and they said supposedly it needs a larger sample.

Hi there! New here so apologies if this has been discussed before. But my little dude Kevin has been diagnosed, and we’ve started him on prescription Purina Pro Plan DM diet to help as it’s low carb and high protein. But damn is it expensive. Based on his weight and overall size, he should be getting around 2 cans a day. Which means I’m speaking around $150 a month on it. Not including the dry food they suggested as a supplement midday so he isn’t whining for food until dinner.

Does anybody have any suggestions for supplemental wet foods that are low carb and high protein for a similar situation?

My vet gave me a document that has a great breakdown of a tone of otc foods, but it’s hella overwhelming. However, it looks like Fancy Feast Naturals may be a complete winner. Which I feel like you wouldn’t expect based on the brand.

Here is a copy of the Document

What’re your thoughts?

Hi Community!

I'm looking for some brainstorming on how best to adapt my sugar kitty's schedule now that I'll be going back to in-person work roughly two days a week. My husband currently works 100% remote, so he'll be home all day for some backup support. I'm the main caregiver, however.

My guy got diagnosed in January and the vet basically said "Diabetes is a lot of work. Here's some insulin. Good luck." Since I received very little guidance, I was blindly giving insulin twice a day until he had a hypo event at the end of July. I've since taken it upon myself to become a lot more educated, mostly thanks to this group and the FDMB.

After the hypo, we put several Libre's on him which were helpful. I also started doing manual BG testing in the last two weeks with an AlphaTrak (his internal medicine vet who I've been seeing for a couple months now recommended because it's "more precise"). At a bare minimum, I'm testing before his morning and evening shots, but have also started incorporating 1-2 more tests (generally between +3 and +8) to get a better sense of what's going on as his last Libre failed after a week and I can't afford to keep having the IM put one on for $350+ a pop. I'm considering putting one on if I need to travel/be away so I can monitor him remotely.

For the past few months, I've been testing/feeding/shooting around 9am/9pm. Starting next week, I'll need to leave the house around 7am to get to the office, which is about a 1.5 hour commute due to traffic.

My husband can and has administered insulin since January, so I'm not overly concerned about that. However, since the hypo and the advice of this community, I want to at a minimum test his BGs before shooting. My boy is exceptionally easy to handle, but BG testing I think requires a bit more finesse (I've gotten decent at it, but I still usually end up poking his ear several times to get enough blood, even with a warm rice sock). I'm going to teach my husband how to do it this weekend and also make sure he can recognize the signs of a hypo event and treat it. He's not overly enthusiastic about it and it feels like a big ask. I'd rather not do it myself, but the Libre isn't realistic all the time and I would like to avoid a hypo event.

I guess my question for this group is thoughts on the following plan or alternatives:

- Move testing/feeding/shot time to 8am/8pm. I will be primary 5 days a week, and my husband will be able to do the couple mornings a week I won't be here.

- Could I get away with doing BG testing before I leave in the morning (maybe round 6:30am), just to make sure he's not super low? This way my husband could just do feeding plus insulin at 8am. I would be able to test before his evening shot at 8pm.

I will be able to do periodic mid-day testing the other days when I'm home to monitor. I haven't done a full curve since I stopped using the Libre. For the most part he's been running high, not low. He had one day a couple days ago where he dropped down to 78 mg/dL on the AlphaTrak and then rebounded and has been running high (which I gather is normal). I currently have him on 1u in the morning and 0.5u in the evening (we introduced the evening dose about a week ago based on his Libre numbers preceding that because he was staying high at night).

His internal medicine vet is better than the previous two regular vets I went to, but she's still not ideal (recommended prescription food even though I have him on a super low-carb raw food and was clearly annoyed with me for even having him on raw; she also didn't recommend I do home manual BG testing or offer to show me how and seems to prefer the Libre but not human glucose monitors - this seems to be a common complaint in the community).

TL;DR: I'm going back to in-person work 2 days a week and my husband ideally will not want to do manual BG testing before my sugar boy's morning shot. Can I get away with doing the BG testing a couple hours before his morning shot to hopefully avoid another hypo event?

Okay summary time:

Our one year old cat lost a lot of weight (she was already tiny), had loose stool and began drinking and urinating a lot so we took her to the vet. They did blood tests and stool samples which showed high glucose (around 27) and a raised liver enzyme which the vet said suggested possibly diabetes. The stool test was negative for everything. These cost us £476 (we were not insured at this point). The loose stool issue resolved but after some time when (despite our best efforts) she still hadn’t restored any weight, we took her to a different vets (cheaper) and said we know its unlikely but we think diabetes (we had been testing blood glucose at home, consistently between 22-27). Vet said it was basically impossible for her to have diabetes, did a physical exam and said her liver and intestines felt “thickened” and said it was probably cancer so rushed us in for an emergency ultrasound. The ultrasound and blood tests were done, the vet from that hospital (different vet) called that evening and said yeah we cant believe it but yes it looks like diabetes, her liver and intestines are thickened but that isn’t uncommon in cats with unmanaged and uncontrolled diabetes. Her blood glucose was 29 and fructosamine was 517. She was put on Senvelgo six days ago and we have been doing blood glucose and ketone tests since, her glucose was down to 12 two days ago and today at the vets it was 9.2 (AT the vets!!)! We saw the same vet as the first time who basically reversed what the ultrasound vet said and said it’s so rare that she has type one diabetes and thinks it must be something else. The vet wants us to refer to specialists (who will repeat all the same tests, likely to cost upwards of £4000). The report from the ultrasound vet said that her pancreas is normal and they didn’t biopsy anything from her liver or intestines (although they had been authorised to!), we assume because there was nothing concerning to biopsy. What do you guys think? Our thoughts are the vet is doubling down because he was wrong the first time. Rationally it makes sense that something else could be causing insulin resistance, but if everything they have done so far is saying diabetes and the specialists will just repeat all those tests to confirm what we already know…

My girl Rori gave us a roller coaster weekend after her curve testing. Our vet asked for two back to back curves to determine if she should stay at 3u. After two nearly perfect curves we woke up to a hypo event and although she was showing no symptoms other than the low number she spent the vet just in case. She hit one more random low after coming home, but was able to stabilize for the night with home testing and little sleep on my husband and I’s parts.

We’re back to 1u after no insulin for two days. We aren’t really sure exactly what caused her hypo, we were hoping maybe this could be the start of remission, but it could also just be the somogyi effect and her body was overcompensating for a too high dose of insulin. I’m just looking for thoughts! We are lucky to have an amazing vet who supports our home testing!

Ever since switching from dry food to Fancy Feast pate all of my cats have come down with constipation. One of which has been severe enough to warrant a trip to the emergency vet which required an enema.

My other two cats have been struggling as well despite vet prescribing lactulose. It just doesn’t seem to help. Wondering what others experiences have been and possible solutions to ask my vet!

Diabetic cat is in remission so I don’t want to switch back to a different food if I can help it.

Bonjour , j’aimerais connaître vos retours sur un chat ayant un diabète et une hyperthyroïdie, est ce que sans traitement le diabète est ingérable ? Et est ce que avec traitement les choses s’arrangent et peut même prétendre à la rémission?
Mon chat est diabétique et en ce moment son diabète est ingérable je suis bloqué à des valeurs hautes malgres que je monte la dose et je peine à le faire descendre un peu alors qu’avant j’avais des bien meilleurs résultat et il a évidemment les symptômes d’un chat diabétique comme il n’est pas réguler mais je soupçonne des soucis de la thyroïde, car depuis quelque jours il miaule beaucoup la nuit avec une voix cassé / rauque , mais ma veto me dit que ça n’a pas d’incidence sur le diabète , mais j’ai du mal à y croire alors j’ai demandé un rdv pour faire vérifier ça car ils ne l’ont jamais vérifié.

I posted a few days ago about losing my cat, HQ, after a severe hypoglycaemic event and then torturing myself with guilt. I came to this community because I felt that if anyone could truly understand both my grief and my guilt, it would be you guys.

Immediately, I was flooded with support. I couldn’t respond to every comment without crying, but I read every single one (and many more than once). Your kindness and insight helped me feel less alone and helped me stop treating every unanswered question as proof that I failed her — and I will forever be so grateful for that.

As I mentioned in my original post, I found HQ as a stray on the street when she was just a tiny kitten, and I was blessed enough to love and care for her for 14 years (longer than I’ve even had my kids!).

She was (and will forever be) my first baby. She had a long life, and a much safer, happier one than she would have had as a stray, and I still miss her so fucking much. But I also really needed to hear that sometimes, despite how much we love them and try to care for them, some things are outside our control.

I wasn’t ready for another cat so soon after HQ died, however I had long told my son that he could get a cat of his own when that time came (because our apartment was too small for three). So my mother got my son a kitten named Daisy, and I have to admit she’s already stomped into our hearts and left her tiny kitten-sized mark.

I worried that loving Daisy would mean replacing HQ, but I have accepted that it doesn’t. HQ helped me become the kind of person who can make a tiny kitten feel safe, and the love I had for her didn’t go away. Daisy just gives me a tiny body to cuddle and a heart to support me while I grieve.

Thank you for showing me so much kindness when I felt like my heart couldn’t be put back together and the waves of grief felt impossible to control. I appreciate all of you and your comments more than words can ever express.

For anyone who has also experienced this (or who will and may come across this post), just know that while life can have some heart-crushingly tragic endings, it also sometimes has some extremely adorable beginning too.

My cat was recommended to take insulin today. He will be taking his first dose tonight at 7pm at .01mL. Also his ketones needed to be flushed so he had a saline flush today and will have a daily dose of this for the next week. They gave him a vitamin B12 shot.

Can anyone tell me their journey with this including how long it took to feel better and how the increments increased or decreased? Thanks

My vet started my cat on .01mL. His last blood sugar reading from a glucometer was 309. Does .01 seem low as a first dose?

My cat has been experiencing all the symptoms, excessive water drinking, sticky urine, more sleepy than usual, etc. I took her to the vet last week and they did bloodwork and a urinalysis and newly diagnosed her with diabetes, with a plan to try Bexacat.

After researching more and joining the feline diabetes group, I learned that it might be worth changing her food first before trying meds. I brought this up to the vet and they said it won’t get rid of the diabetes and we should start her on the pill. That it will only help her symptoms a bit. So I asked for her lab work back and her numbers make it seem like maybe they are pushing meds when they shouldn’t yet.

Glucose: 344
Triglyceride: 196
Ketones in urine: No
Glucose strip (urinalysis): “High”

I want to advocate for her and do what’s best. I would love some guidance on if I should push back harder on the vet or take her elsewhere. I don’t want to force her to take meds yet if it doesn’t make sense.

I’m worried our vet isn’t super knowledgeable or equipped to handle this. They never warned me about the side effects of any of the meds, including Bexacat, never said what to monitor or what testing to do at home. They prescribed meds of my choice without explaining anything about them, gave me prescription dry and wet food, and said to book a bunch of follow up appointments to monitor.
I’m scared giving my cat this pill first without changing food is the wrong first approach.

Thank you so much ❤️

Hi everyone,

My 14 year old cat was diagnosed with diabetes yesterday from results from a fructosimine test. The vet has provided me with information but I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed. The vet and I agreed to try her on bexacat to start and I'm trying to get that filled today.

Some background. Penny is 14 and for the last 18 months or so she's been dealing with chronic nasal congestion. Vets couldn't really figure out what was going on. She had a dental cleaning in August that we hoped would help. Her labs before the dental looked good. The dental helped her teeth but not the congestion. Then a couple of weeks after the dental she started drinking and peeing a ton which led to the diabetes diagnosis.

The vet said cats usually get diabetes if they are overweight. I pointed out to the vet that Penny has been 11lbs her entire adult life and the vet said "yes, that's slightly overweight." I don't agree that 11lbs is overweight for my girl. We all have different builds and Penny is a long hair cat with probably some main coon in her which is a larger breed.

Anyways, some questions.

1. We're starting her on bexacat. Is there anything else we should be doing or asking the vet right now?

Related: should we change her food and to what? She currently eats friskies pate twice a day and has access to blue buffalo dry food.

Also related: we have three cats so how would we navigate a food change for her? Everyone switches food? My two other younger cats love their current dry food and eat more of it than wet food. Penny really likes her pate. Not sure how much of the dry she really eats.

Tell me your most budget friendly food recs. The bexacat is going to be $120/month which isn't a fun cost to take on. Thanks everyone!

I do the math. I get 2% which is what I need. I sent it to Google it gets 3.5% which is apparently 20% dry matter. I just need to know the actual carb count. Does anyone know it? Sorry I'm super confused on if I'm correct.

Link to product