Pets Care

If your cat has been diagnosed for diabetes, one of the major items that should be on your agenda during discussions with the veterinarian is that of home care. Make sure that you discuss monitoring diet and blood sugar levels at home along with how to store, handle and administer insulin. Another thing that you should understand are the various symptoms of diabetes in cats especially signs of hypoglycemia, low blood sugar.

Diabetes in cats can be managed for long periods with dietary management and oral medication without resorting to insulin. It is however, recommended that insulin be used first to control the sugar levels before an assessment is made about whether the condition can be managed only with home care and dietary modifications.

One of the primary modalities of monitoring a diabetic cat involves the aid of a blood glucose meter. Invest in a good quality device and learn how to use it. Some cats may prove to be too difficult to manage while trying to obtain a blood sample but perseverance always pays. You also need to know from the veterinarian about the normal range of blood sugar levels and the levels that require veterinarian intervention.

A blood glucose curve is a diagram of blood glucose levels during the day. You can learn to read the variations of the levels and understand whether it is being caused by an overdose or an under-dose of insulin. Levels of glucose in urine too can be monitored but these are not too reliable. However, monitoring urine sugar levels is better than not monitoring at all in cases where drawing blood from the cat is not possible.

While your cat is on insulin you should schedule and plan the mealtimes of your cat. Again, this depends upon the type of insulin the veterinarian has prescribed. Certain brands of insulin have prominent peak action times and the mealtimes have to be adjusted accordingly. If your cat is used to eat small quantities throughout the day, it is better to use slow-acting insulin rather than disturb the animal’s schedule. The end goal is to try to keep blood sugar levels in a comfortable range by timing insulin injection and diet intake.

Care has to be taken that the blood sugar level does not shoot up from low levels too fast. If the dose of insulin is to be increased by, say 0.5 units, then you must adhere to it rather than thinking that such a minor variation is not going to make any difference. Rapid increases can make the cat resistant to insulin.

Make sure that you are feeding a diet meant for diabetic cats. The diet should be low on carbohydrates and high on proteins. If at all carbohydrates are needed they should be the ones that have a low glycemic index.

If you are not monitoring blood sugar at home and also want to save on laboratory tests, it is advisable to keep a regular check on whether the cat is drinking, urinating and eating normally or not. If yes, then the insulin dosage should not be increased. However, this is fraught with dangers. If the blood sugar level crosses the ‘renal threshold’ diabetes in cats can lead to organ failure.

Some of the important aspects of caring for your diabetic cat at home include understanding:

* Symptoms of diabetes in cats
* Timings and regularity of check ups
* Quality, amount and timing of meals
* Testing blood sugar levels at home and making a blood glucose curve
* Regularity of insulin injections and the manner in which to inject them
* Type of insulin to be used and the right syringe to inject it with
* The manner in which changes in diet and type of insulin should be made

While all the above are important, knowing the peak action of the insulin that has been prescribed is equally significant. Ignorance on this aspect of home care can lead to hypoglycemic episodes. Hypoglycemia is the opposite of hyperglycemia. It is abnormally low level of sugar in the blood. While hyperglycemia is manageable, hypoglycemia may be difficult to control unless immediate action is taken. A slight oversight can result in the death of the cat.

Adequate control of diabetes in cats requires long-lasting insulin injections once or twice a day. Individual cats respond to insulin differently. Once the veterinarian has fixed a dose after studying the blood glucose curve, it should not be disturbed since a higher dose or a missed meal can be dangerous.

Knowing the lowest level of blood sugar in your pet is necessary because you may be tempted to increase the dose on the basis of pre-injection glucose level. On the other hand even if the pre-injection level of blood sugar is high it can still drop to abnormally low level after the injection. Adjusting insulin dosage without knowing all the data and information about the type of insulin and its correlation to diet is something that you should never do.

Symptoms of low blood sugar include listlessness, confusion, convulsions and coma. If hypoglycemia develops there is no room for complacence. If the cat is able to eat then it should be fed its normal food immediately. If feeding is not possible the next best thing is to rub corn syrup on the gums.

Attempts should be made for the cat to swallow it. Forcing fingers, foods and fluids into the mouth of a convulsing or comatose cat is not the right thing to do. Such actions can harm your cat to a large extent.

Cats that are otherwise healthy can be treated for hypoglycemia with oral medications like glipzide. Glipizide acts to lower blood glucose and has little or no side effects. Some of the side effects that may surface in some cats include vomiting, loss of appetite and liver damage. If the condition persist even after two months of glipzide or the cat develops acute acidity (ketoacidosis), the drug should be discontinued and the cat should be put back on insulin.

Cats that require excessively high doses of insulin (more than one to two units per pound per day) should be checked for some underlying disease that might be behind the need for an increased insulin dosage. Sometimes the insulin injection and poor absorption may be the reason why your cat needs higher doses of insulin.

Diabetes Mellitus is characterized by excessive urination and thirst. It is a metabolic disorder marked by a relative or absolute deficiency of insulin, a hormone secreted by the pancreas. There is no major variation in the incidence of diabetes in cats and dogs but recent figures reveal that the condition is becoming more common in cats. Roughly 5% to 20% of cases of diabetes in cats are type 1 classifications and the rest experience type 2.

Both type 1 and type 2 have similar symptoms and consequences but have different causes. The end cause in both types is the inability of the pancreas to produce insulin to prevent hyperglycemia (elevated sugar levels). Type 1 diabetes is often caused due to autoimmune responses that destroy the beta cells of pancreas, which produce insulin. Although some disability of beta cells is necessary for type 2 diabetes, it is basically characterized by insulin resistance of the target tissue.

Due to the inability to utilize glucose effectively, the level of sugar in the blood increases. Over time, this level of sugar also increases in the urine. Despite a good appetite, the cat starts loosing weight as the tissues are unable to use glucose for their growth. Glucose is an important source of physiological energy and as the condition progresses the cat starts becoming weaker.

Symptoms of diabetes in cats are almost similar to those in humans and include excessive urination, persistent thirst, weight loss and an increased appetite. A typical symptom of feline diabetes is that the cat starts walking on its hocks or the gait becomes stilted or wobbly.

Diabetes is not breed-specific but is usually more prevalent in older, obese and male cats. The exact cause of the disease is not known but a genetic predisposition, obesity, pancreatitis, hormonal imbalances and drug side effects cannot be ruled out.

A diabetic cat requires adequate control of sugar levels in the body. This is affected with the aid of long-acting insulin injections that may be given once or twice daily. As every cat responds differently to insulin, the type, dose and frequency of insulin has to be determined individually. To establish the requisite dose, an 18 to 24 hour profile is studied, which requires hospitalization for checking blood glucose profiles frequently.

Monitoring of dosage and blood sugar levels is critical as an overdose can cause hypoglycemia, low blood sugar, which is equally dangerous. If blood sugar levels drop, the cat should immediately be given its normal food. If the cat is unable to eat, remedial steps like rubbing something sweet on the gums or forcing it down with a syringe have to taken.

Cats usually respond well to long-lasting insulin and low carbohydrate diets. An early detection and treatment can even result in total remission of the disease. Cat owners should be observant of any apparent thinning of the skin or fragility. These are serious signs of progression of the disease and the cat breaking down its own body fat for survival. A common progression from this point onwards leads to dehydration and even death.

While you may not mind a bi-monthly or quarterly visit to the veterinarian for check ups, the matter does not end there if the symptoms of diabetes in cats and dogs have been confirmed and the pet shows high blood sugar levels.

Treating diabetes is a long process that sometimes may last a life time. If your pet has been diagnosed for diabetes, there is a strong possibility that you will be required to take care of the pet at home. Home care of a diabetic pet involves monitoring blood sugar levels and injecting insulin on a daily basis. This necessitates the need for some expertise in checking blood sugar and injecting insulin.

Diet modifications can help manage blood sugar levels in many cases. However, administering insulin is almost a key aspect of the treatment of diabetes in cats and dogs. While you learn the process of injecting insulin from your veterinarian make sure to ask about the type of syringe that should be used for the injection.

First of all, have a close look at the needle. It consists of a bevel, point and heel. Needle length is important because a 12.7 mm long needle may be too big for thin pets and likely to go right through the pinched skin and out the other side. Insulin should preferably be injected subcutaneously and an 8 mm long needle suits most pets as it makes it easier to get the insulin into the fat layer under the skin.

The capacity of the syringe is measured in cubic centimeters (cc) and is interchangeable with milliliters. One cc of insulin in the syringe is equal to 1 ml and so and so forth. The strength of insulin is measured in international units (I Us). The two common strengths are U40 and U100, which means 40 units and 100 units per milliliter. There are different types of syringes designed for both the strengths.

Earlier, these were differentiated with color codes but the practice seems to have been discontinued now. It will do you good to check the barrel to be sure. Syringe barrel size too is important and depends upon the dose that you have to inject.

The correct way to inject insulin in pets is to first pull the skin up and insert the needle, bevel side up, firmly into the skin and parallel to body. The tent that you make by pulling the skin ensures that the insulin is injected into the skin flap. Make sure that the needle does not pass through the tent. To ensure that you do not bend the needle while drawing out insulin from the ampoule, make sure that you do not insert it all the way into it. If by any chance you bend the needle discard it and start all over again.

Insulin syringes have needles that are silicon coated to protect against contamination of insulin. This is also done to make the injection as painless as possible. Using the same syringe and needle again may wear off the protective coating, causing more pain. This can also interfere with the insulin action. It may also contaminate the insulin and white precipitates may form in the vial over time.

Used syringes must be disposable according to the state laws as they are a potential health hazard. This is due to the sharp lancet and the fact that drug remnants are likely to get spoilt. Destroying disposable syringes is also essential to prevent re-use by unscrupulous elements.

Male cats are more susceptible to diabetes and so are obese cats of either gender. Genetic predisposition is usually suspected to be behind this condition but steroids and other clinical conditions like a pancreas disease and steroidal drugs used for treating other diseases are also known to cause diabetes. An increased incidence has also been observed in neutered cats above six years old.

Diabetes is a metabolic disease where insufficient insulin production causes the blood sugar levels to rise. As the disease develops within the cat’s body, sugar is revealed in the urine as well. It is a complex disease and symptoms of diabetes in cats can remain concealed for a long time. Many times the disease is discovered when the cat’s blood is checked for another evident disease.

The pancreas in the cat’s body, situated close to the stomach, has two primary functions – that of releasing insulin and enzymes meant for digestion. Due to certain reasons, not yet firmly known to veterinarian science, the pancreas are unable to produce sufficient insulin, necessary for the storage of glucose in the liver and the oxidation of sugar in cells.

In some cases tissues develop resistance to insulin and cannot make good use of the glucose, which is necessary for building energy. Both the conditions lead to high sugar levels in the blood, a condition known as hyperglycemia.

Chronic hyperglycemia persists even on fasting and is a common characteristic of diabetes mellitus. Even if your cat has high blood sugar it is wrong to presume that it is suffering from diabetes. In certain cases stress and medication can cause a temporary condition of transient hyperglycemia.

Prognosis of diabetes is fair to good provided it is detected early. Knowledge of symptoms of diabetes in cats can enable owners to assess them and seek early medical aid.

Primary Symptoms

* Polyuria: This is a primary symptom associated with diabetes in cats. It is a renal disorder characterized by large volumes of pale dilute urine.
* Polydipsia: It is the excessive thirst caused by diabetes or a kidney dysfunction. There is an apparent obsession with water and you may see your cat hanging around taps and faucets.
* Excessive weight loss.
* Changes in appetite: The cat may start eating three times its normal diet or refuse to eat.

As the disease progresses, it can lead to poor hair coat, liver disease and frequent secondary bacterial infections.

Diabetes is a highly progressive disease and severe conditions may lead to diabetic neuropathy. It is caused by glucose toxicity and cell starvation, which damages the myelin sheath of the peripheral nerves. The hind legs of the cat become weaker and the cat abandons its normal stance of standing on its toes. Instead the cat assumes a plantigrade stance, which is walking on the whole sole of feet like humans.

In quadrupeds this translates into walking on hocks. The cat may also have difficulty in walking and jumping and may need to sit down after a few steps. Weak legs can be caused by other conditions as well. Before assuming neuropathy it is advisable to consult a specialist first.

Diabetes is also associated with acidosis, abnormally high acidity of the blood and other body tissues leading to accumulation of ketone bodies. This may lead to a dangerous condition called ketoacidosis. Such a condition may cause refusal of food, vomiting, diarrhea and respiratory problems. Ketoacidosis is extremely dangerous and should be attended to immediately Left untreated it ultimately leads to death of the animal.

Diet plays as important a role as drugs and insulin injections in treating diabetes in cats. Actually, diet control and management must be concomitant to medication. It is futile to expect medication as a standalone treatment to provide an effective cure for diabetes.

Diabetes is a condition where the pancreas is unable to produce enough insulin for regulating glycogen and oxidizing sugar. There is always some amount of glucose in the food that you feed your cat. If the intake is not regulated, there can be no limit to the amount of exogenous insulin that the cat may require to process the glucose.

Moreover, it is only cats with pronounced and persistent hyperglycemia that require insulin injections. Symptoms of diabetes in cats, with blood sugar levels only slightly above normal, can be treated with dietary management or oral pills only. Further, diabetic cats must be fed regularly to prevent a situation of overdose of insulin.

Obesity is one of the risk factors for diabetes in cats. Diabetic diet for cats should consider the weight factor before anything else. The weight loss of the cat should be gradual, preferably 3% of body weight per week. A diet with high fiber content and complex carbohydrates is most suited for loosing weight. It also helps in controlling blood sugar levels immediately after meals.

Underweight cats should be fed a high calorie diet till the time their body weight reaches the recommended level. The diabetic diet for maintaining weight can be started thereafter.

Diet for cats on insulin should be monitored based on the type of insulin that they are given. If the injection is being given once in a day, the cat should be fed half of the recommended diet at the time of the injection. The other half, when insulin reaches the peak of its activity. Cats receiving two injections in a day must be fed at each administration.

Cats are naturally carnivorous and their body is adapted to process proteins efficiently. The enzymes required for efficient processing of carbohydrates for energy are missing in cats. Whether a cat is diabetic or not, it requires very low amounts of carbohydrates – a mouse or a bird that cats eat contain only 3-5% carbohydrates. A low carbohydrate content in cat food helps not only in preventing diabetes but also aids during treatment.

At the same time it must be clarified that all carbohydrates are not the same. There are simple and complex carbohydrates. In as far as carbohydrates for diabetic cats are concerned the benchmark should be the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load. These benchmarks reflect the speed with which a specific carbohydrate increases blood sugar levels and the extent of its overall impact on the diabetic state. The lower the index and load the better it is for a cat with diabetes.

The diet should always be appropriate to the species it is being fed to. The general rule for a diabetic diet for cats, despite assertions by advertisers that dry food or canned food is better is that all types of grain should be avoided.

Diet should contain only those carbohydrates that have a low glycemic index and load. A high fiber diet should be used only for the purpose of weight loss. If you stick to these guidelines right from the beginning, there is a great possibility that your cat may not have diabetes at all.

If left untreated, feline diabetes like diabetes in all animals and humans can lead to complications. The complications that arise may be difficult and in some cases, impossible to treat. Continuous and abnormally high levels of blood sugar, hyperglycemia, can adversely affect the nerves, kidneys, retina and bones leading to complicated diseases.

* Diabetic neuropathy is the most common complication of chronic hyperglycemia leading to a peculiar symptom of diabetes in cats. The femoral nerve is the most commonly affected. An affected femoral nerve can lead to a plantigrade gait, which is walking on the whole sole of the foot like rabbits, bears and humans. In cats this takes the shape of walking on hocks, the tarsal joints of hind legs.
* Diabetic nephropathy or renal disorder is a more serious complication of diabetes and takes precedence over heart disease as far as illness or death from diabetic conditions are concerned. Flooded with more blood sugar than the kidneys can handle, the overworked organ gradually stops functioning and ultimately leads to death of the cat.
* Chronic diabetes leads to early hardening and thickening of the walls of blood vessels, a condition normally associated with advanced age. With the passage of time the cat develops atherosclerosis, a condition in the blood vessels become narrow as fatty deposits accumulate.
* Hardening, bulging, bleeding and severing of the veins and capillaries of the retina are typical to diabetic retinopathy. From diminished vision and decrease in field of vision, the disease proliferates to bleeding and detachment of the retina leading to total blindness.
* Another complication of diabetes surfaces is in the shape of digestive disorders that manifest as ulcers, inflammation of the colon, symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and abdominal pain.
* Perhaps one of the most feared complications is that of hypoglycemia, abnormally low blood sugar. Diabetes must necessarily be treated with insulin injections if oral medications are not successful in treating diabetes in cats. If you miscalculate the quantity of insulin needed, accidental infusion of excess insulin can reduce blood sugar levels drastically. Such a condition can also result from a missed meal after insulin has been injected. Hypoglycemia can result in instant death of the cat.
* Diabetes is a metabolic disorder. Ketones are a natural by product of metabolism of fats. Lack of insulin in the body can lead to accumulation of ketone bodies in cases of uncontrolled or poor management of diabetes. This results in another acute complication known as diabetic ketoacidosis, which can lead to a life threatening diabetic coma.

Treating diabetes involves regular monitoring of blood sugar levels. It also involves regulated insulin injections. Managing of diabetes involves dietary modifications while keeping in mind the obligate carnivorous nature of cats.

Cats are poor in processing carbohydrates and their diet must necessarily include animal proteins from where they can derive energy easily and most efficiently. Regular insulin injections with strict adherence to dosage and timing of injections and correlating them with mealtimes are of utmost importance if you want to avoid diabetic complications.

Diabetes in cats is treatable and normally has a good prognosis. Cats usually respond to lasting insulin and low carbohydrate diets. If diabetes is detected early, treatment is usually successful in preventing nerve damage and in some cases, even remission. However, if left untreated it can lead to organ failure, blindness and even death.

Diet

In many cases diet alone is able to treat diabetes in cats . A low carbohydrate diet lowers the requirement of insulin in diabetic cats. In cats and dogs, carbohydrates are converted to blood glucose must faster than fats and proteins. A low carbohydrate diet thus reduces the risk of extreme blood sugar highs immediately after meals. Home cooked food, however, is always the preferred option than commercial foods since canned food tends to have a higher proportion of carbohydrate. Try to get hold of a cat food calculator and determine the type and quantity of fats, proteins and carbohydrates that you can safely feed your cat with.

Oral pills

Oral anti-diabetic drug, Glipizide, stimulates the release of insulin from pancreas and in some cases even curbs production of glucose. These drugs can be useful only if the pancreas is working. Moreover, these drugs are known to adversely affect pancreas, which can reduce the chances of remission in cats. it is better to switch to injectable insulin because in certain cases Glipizide can even damage the liver.

Insulin

Insulin usually metabolizes faster in cats than in humans. A particular type of insulin that lasts, say, for a day in humans will remain effective only for 12 hours in cats. As such a twice-daily dose is recommended for cats. Beef based or human synthetic insulin is most suited for cats. The choice of which insulin brand suits your cat the most and the requisite dose can be determined with a little experimentation.

Effective treatment of diabetes is based on the severity of the disease. Intensive acre is required in cases where the disease has progressed beyond the initial levels. Cats with ketoacidosis require fluid therapy to check dehydration and electrolyte imbalances and short-acting insulin rather than the preferred long-acting one.

Dosage

Both dosage and mealtimes have to be regulated. If the cat is on pronounced peak action insulin, the meal timings need to be scheduled and planned to match it. If your cat is used to eat freely throughout the day, make sure that slow-acting insulin is used so that blood sugar levels are maintained all through the day. As cats metabolize insulin very fast, slow-acting insulin is not generally recommended for cats.

Diabetes can be fairly managed and treated without any major danger to the cat’s life but like all diseases, prognosis of diabetes too depends on early treatment. Even initial symptoms of diabetes in cats, like excessive urination and/or thirst should be reported to a veterinarian so that a proper diagnosis is done. You never know, the condition might be curable simply by diet modification.

All cells in the body need glucose for energy. There is a typical method by which glucose enters the cells. Insulin is a hormone secreted by the pancreas that signals the opening of a ‘door’ so that glucose can enter the cell. Any disruption in this mechanism means that cells do not get the energizing glucose that they need and excess glucose remains in the blood stream. This results in high blood glucose levels.

Inflammation of the pancreas is a primary cause of diabetes in cats , dogs and humans as well. Type 1 diabetes is the inability of the pancreas to produce sufficient insulin. Type 2 diabetes is a combination of a similar problem as in type 1 diabetes accompanied by a condition known as insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance is characterized by the inability of the cells to accept glucose. This leads to a viscious circle wherein due to the elevated blood sugar level a signal is sent to the pancreas for production of more insulin. Sometimes this excess production overrides the excess blood sugar and the pancreas exhausts itself and gradually stops funtioning.

Just as overweight humans are at a higher risk of developing diabetes, obesity is one of the major causes of diabetes in cats also. Adipose, commonly known as fatty cells produce a substance that increases the resistance of the body cells towards insulin. In addition, cats are not efficient at processing carbohydrates since they are obligate carnivores and therefore derive their energy from proteins and fats and not from carbohydrates.

While diabetes is mostly related to metabolism, stress hyperglycemia (abnormally high blood sugar temporarily) can sometimes complicate a diagnosis. Diabetic conditions caused by stress can sometimes reach hyperglycemic levels and cause glucosuria, a condition where glucose is passed out through urine.

Glucose is necessary for life and the normal reaction of the body is to preserve it at all costs. Though the kidney works as a barrier that restricts the loss of glucose in urine, the extra glucose in the blood must go somewhere. Since the cells are not accepting the glucose, the kidneys are swept over by an excess of sugar that spills over into the urine.

For its expulsion through urine, the glucose has to be in liquid form. To enable this expulsion process, an increasing amount of water is drawn from the body towards the bladder. This gives rise to two of the characteristic symptoms of diabetes in cats – excessive thirst and excessive urine.

Despite a fair amount of research, science has still not been able to determine the real cause of diabetes in cats with reasonable surety. In some cases, diabetes is caused due to an underlying disease. Risk factors like obesity, carbohydrate rich diet, treatment with corticosteroids, stress and shock are considered to be the biggest causes for diabetes in cats. Recent studies suggest that it may be an auto-immune disease but a genetic predisposition cannot be ruled either.

Although diabetes in cats is manageable, it requires constant observation of symptoms and close monitoring of blood sugar levels. The amount, quality and timing of meals should be decided based on the type of insulin that you are injecting.

The diet should be regulated based on the frequency with which the insulin is administered. The difference lies in the fact that some types of insulin are slow acting and others have a pronounced peak action. Switching the type of insulin requires a compensatory change in diet.

Cats and dogs are usually treated with animal based insulin (beef based insulin being the most similar to a cat’s natural insulin) or with synthetic human insulin. The veterinarian will suggest the most suitable type of insulin for your cat after considering the results of a series of blood tests for determining the effect of each type on blood sugar levels.

Cats metabolize insulin faster than dogs and the speed with which insulin is metabolized depends upon the type of insulin administered. Fast-acting synthetic human insulin may work for dogs but it is not recommended for cats. Most veterinarians recommend slow acting insulin for diabetic cats.

There will be instances when your cat may require a change in dose or type of insulin for better management of diabetes. Switching insulin can prove to be as problematic as the initial determination of the right kind of insulin to use for your cat.

The veterinarian will suggest a series of blood tests and make a record of the cat’s response to the new type all over again and prepare a blood glucose curve. A blood glucose curve is a diagram of sugar levels during the day.

It is generally prepared by noting the blood sugar level at the time of the morning meal and then after every 2 to 4 hours during the day. This helps the veterinarian in establishing the response of the body to the new insulin. This is valuable information for the veterinarian that can be used to select the right kind of substitute and the right dose for the new insulin.

While switching the type of insulin, the diet plan also needs to be reconsidered. Depending upon whether the insulin is slow acting or otherwise, you may be required to change the frequency of meals. The focus is on regulating the blood sugar level by managing the timing of the injection, the intensity of the insulin and timing and amount of food.

The initial dose, whether it is the first time or a switch over to a new type of insulin, needs to be monitored closely. It usually varies between 0.5 to 2 units daily with a frequency of two doses per day. The affect of the insulin change may not be significant on the symptoms of diabetes in cats. However, close monitoring is necessary because a sudden fall in blood sugar can cause hypoglycemia that can lead to immediate death of the cat.

The initial small dosage is increased gradually and with extreme care. With every increase in dosage, further blood tests need to be done to monitor the affect of each increase before the dosage is settled for a considerable period.

Diabetes in cats is a common disorder. However, since it is a manageable disease there is no reason why your cat should not live the full length of its life if you can take proper care and visit your veterinarian as and when the situation arises.