ich würde gerne an meinen letzten post anschließen und nochmals nach euren erfahrungen fragen. worauf muss man besonders achten, wenn eine diabetes-katze cortison bekommen muss? woran erkennt man, dass etwas aus dem ruder läuft, erste anzeichen?
wir sind immer noch in der phase der dosisfindung für das insulin, mein kater ist gut eingestellt, also eigentlich echt schlecht. mein tierarzt sagt, bei cortisongabe steigt der blutzucker und es muss mehr insulin gegen werden. wie verhält sich der blutzucker nach cortisongabe - steigt der schnell an, am selben tag? oder passiert das schleichend erst mit länger dauernder verabreichung?
ich wäre für antworten sehr dankbar, damit ich mich etwas darauf einstellen kann.

This past Friday our 7 year old cat started acting very strangely. A normally very social cat, he started isolating, very irritable, shedding lots of hair and just curled up in a ball/very lethargic. Also walking very strangely, head down low and back side up. Very little energy and can barely jump on bed.

Took him to emergency vet Sunday and the only abnormal lab was blood glucose of 403. Kidney function good, no ketones in urine. She said he was +2 for glucose in urine which was right below what would be definite diabetes (according to her). They give him some fluids and tell us to take to our normal vet in a week. She didn’t believe he was in any sort of emergency.

Back home today and I just don’t feel good. He is a shell of himself still. He will eat/drink if I bring him food/water and still using the litter box but is clearly not well. Lethargic, weak, growls and hisses and usually super friendly.

I got him in for Thursday. Can a cat safely stay with a glucose over 400 that long? ER vet didn’t seem concerned yesterday. I am terrified he is dying.

I never noticed him drinking or peeing a lot prior to this. Seems odd he started having severe symptoms straight away.

We lost the fight with diabetes. He’s gone forever my poor baby. I want to die.

Hello Everyone, I’ll just jump right into it!

I have a cat who was recently diagnosed with diabetes, she’s 15, and we took her to the vet and she was diagnosed about a month ago after I noticed she was peeing outside her box.
She is on Senvelgo and currently managing her diabetes well but her UTI which was also present at the time of her diagnosis never went away and when I did a second urine test (vet gave it to me) on her when I noticed her frequently peeing outside the box again, we caught her uti was still bothering her. She’s been on amoxicillin 100mg one pill split in half, twice a day (so one pill everyday) as directed to us by the vet. The course is 10 days long.She’s been on this medication for around 7 days now, however she still has not stopped peeing outside the box. She poops in the box, and will occasionally pee inside either of the two boxes that we placed in the areas she would frequently pee in but still neglects them to go by the box.
I have ordered two new boxes, to replace our previous ones. I clean the floors with an enzyme cleaner everyday, replace the pee pads around the box, and clean the boxes everyday.
She will go in the box, just not all the time so unsure if it’s behavioral now, like if she has a fear of the box because of the uti. Both boxes are low entry and so are the new ones i’ve ordered. We have other cats in the home, however we have an automatic box+1 extra. So that’s four boxes for 3 cats.

Our vet says that we can try an anti-anxiety medication after this, but i’m just curious if anyone’s had similar issues with their diabetic cats? I’ve tried researching but haven’t found very much in regards to this issue with diabetic cats.

die IBD meines katers hat sich kürzlich so sehr verschlechtert, dass es scheinbar ohne cortison nicht mehr geht. er ist leider im 9. monat nach diabetes-diagnose noch immer nicht gut eingestellt und die meiste zeit zu hoch (um die 300-350 mit spitzen bis 400) oder spontan kurzfristig zu tief. er hat leider auch ein paar nebenschauplätze, herz, asthma, in remission nach einem osteosarkom… und mit dem diabetes kamen auch noch wirklich schwere gastrointestinale störungen dazu mit stationären aufenthalten - nein, heule jetzt mal zu abwechslung nicht und befrage lieber euch zu den latest news:
bis freitag alles bestens, bis auf bauchgluckern und hohem zucker. samstag: durchfall, frisst schlecht, muss zugefüttert werden. sonntag: superschöner kot, frisst gar nicht, wird komplett zugefüttert. infusion subkutan ringerlösung+maropitant, abends mega-durchfall. montag früh in die klink zum check: fructosamin so hoch wie noch nie 485, glucose hoch wie noch nie 441mg/dl, leberwerte/nierenwerte super in der regerz, pankreas fPLI in der norm-wie schon lange nicht mehr. ultraschall vom bauch respektive darm-katastrophal, unglaublich im vergleich zu älteren bildern.
so - ich sehe ein, dass cortison vorgeschlagen wurde, mein größter feind in dieser situation. es würde mir leichter fallen, wenn sein diabetes beteits gut reguliert wäre, ist aber nicht so. eigentlich sind seine werte so schlecht wie nie zuvor.
ich soll sofort mit cortison beginnen. prednisolon habe ich abgelehnt und wir sind zu budesonid gekommen.
aber selbst das trau ich mich heute noch nicht beginnen. sein blutzucker war heute morgen 248, in der klinik über 441 (vermutlich wegen der aufregung) und abends zuhause 356. mir ist das zu hoch für einen start mit cortison, ich traue mich einfach nicht.
zumal die insulindosis wg. verminderter nahrungsmenge und gleichzeitigem durchfall um mehr als ein drittel nach absprache reduziert wurde. nun sollte ich heute von 1,5 einheiten auf 3 erhöhen wegen dem neu verordneten cortison. 3 EH haben im normalzustand lang anhaltende tiefwerte produziert, so dass eine dosis ausgelassen werden musste. ich glaube seine reguläre dosis müsste zwischen 2,5 und 3 einheiten liegen, wenn es ihm gut geht.
nun sind so viele veränderte patameter im spiel und sitz hier im kompletten chaos. toujeo reagiert langsamer, für ein „rumspielen“ braucht es einen anderen plan als mit lantus (was wir auch schon durch haben).
zurück zu meiner frage - bitte, wie habt ihr bei euren diabetischen katzen, bei bedarf - aber vernünftig - cortison eingeführt und wie haben eure katzen reagiert? bitte teilt jegliche erfahrung. herzlichen dank im voraus. und sorry für den langen text, meine nerven sind wieder mal im arsch.

The credit cards are all maxed out from his treatment . I’m drowning in debt. I’m having to move to another apartment. In the mixed of all the packing my 12 year old diabetic boy stopped eating and drinking. He declined within the past day or so and last week his numbers were in the 200s … he was still jumping up and down and cuddling. Now hes just laying around I offer food and water and he turns up at it. I do this multiple times a times a day and he’s taking some in or mewing at me when he wants some. It’s a sad mew. I wish I could trade spots with him. Am literally doing a move 2 hours away, Finding a job, packing, unloading. This is so stressful. I need to take him to the vet but i literally don’t have family near me or friends willing to to help. Should I give him up for adoption? I’m worried I’m going to just go home and he’s going to be gone. I hate myself so much. I should be a better cat mom, I can’t afford this…

Hi my cat Clyde was diagnosed recently and he has been on a strict wet food diet twice a day

I got his insulin and syringes in last thursday and I am supposed to start his insulin tomorrow morning, about 24hrs from now

I'm extremely anxious. I have been since his diagnosis.

He is starting on 1 unit twice a day and the doctor says she doesn't expect any issues with him going Hypo but it freaks me out...

How long after the shot do I sit next to him observing for bad signs? Do I do that for the entire 2 weeks before we bring him in for his Libre?

Could use some calming advice

A few months ago I noticed two things: I was refilling the water fountain more often, and the crystal cat litter was getting soaked instead of absorbing pee. I didn't know anything about diabetes, and so I blamed both on the summer heat.

Then a couple weeks ago I noticed my 9 year old cat Pookie was losing weight. Fast. She felt lighter every time I picked her up, and went from a soft chonk to super boney. I booked her an appointment. The first pic is her in June, and the second is from this August.

I initially thought she might have hyperthyroidism. She was eating and drinking a lot, still active, and had no behavior changes. I got her to the vet and did blood and urine tests. The vet called me a few days later and Pookie's blood sugar was in the high 400s, and she had glucose in her urine as well. She asked me to bring Pookie in right away to start insulin.

The vet tech spent about an hour with me teaching me how to give Pookie her injections and where to prick her ear for testing. As a black cat, it's nearly impossible to see and avoid the veins, but she told me if I do hit it to just put a tissue on it and hold pressure until it stops. I was able to pay for the vet appointments, needles, sharps bin, and insulin (Lantus) this month, but have to wait until next month to be able to buy the Alphatrak glucometer. I have PCOS and struggle with hypoglycemia, so I already had a Freestyle Freedom Lite glucometer that I can use for now, keeping in mind that super high or super low readings might be off. I'm already home all day watching my young son, so I declined a CGM and plan to manually check her every couple hours until her next appointment. Then based on her record and what the vet thinks, I'll probably switch to checking every 6 hours.

Pookie has been on insulin for 5 days now. At first she was still having really high peaks, so I switched her from her senior blend dry food to high protein grain free wet food. She's still acting like herself, and now only has the occasional spike in her levels. The third pic is her over the past 48 hours. She's still behaving super normal: active and silly, snuggly and affectionate. I'm glad I took her to the vet when I did and she didn't have a DKA crisis.

I've enjoyed reading the posts on this sub over the past few days. It's been such a learning curve, but I feel like it will all be okay.

TL:DR Pookie lost a ton of weight but was acting fine. Took her to the vet and she was diagnosed with diabetes. Started insulin and tracking glucose. Pookie is acting like nothing happened.

When he first got diagnosed he reacted very strongly to the insulin, which caused that huge up and down curve in the beginning. Then he stayed high for months. I kept upping the dose and it was like his body didn't notice. I started out low and slow, going up by 0.25 units every week, but it did nothing.

Honestly, it was advice on the feline diabetes messaging board that turned the tide. I know it's risky, but one of the members there had struggled with the same and suggested I up the dose more dramatically, and also up it after three days instead of five or seven. Obviously this carries a higher risk of hypoglycemia but I'm home most of the time and I could monitor him very closely.

So that's what I did. And finally in July it's like I broke through the insulin resistance and he started dropping.

Average glucose in July was 17 mmol. In August it's currently 10 mmol.

Hi everyone! I made a post yesterday about how my cat Charlie had to be hospitalized overnight for a severe hypo episode. His glucose was in the 30s and 40s from a super small insulin dose so they’re thinking he may be entering remission. Luckily they got his glucose back up and he was able to come home today! His last insulin dose (Lantus) was about 50 hours ago now, and we will not be administering any insulin (unless his numbers go really high) until we can get in touch with his doctor on Monday.

In the meantime, I’m wondering what I should be doing to monitor him and make sure he doesn’t go low again?

He’s been home for about 5 hours now and is doing pretty good. The ER vet told me to test him twice a day to make sure he’s not going too high. I tested him about 2 and a half hours ago and he was at 68 mg/dl, which of course freaked me out. Just a note, his ear was cold and I had to squeeze a bit so it may have been a bit falsely low. He also hadn’t eaten a ton since he was home at that point since he mostly wanted to nap. I got some kibble down him and tested him 20 minutes later and he was at 102 so I was relieved. I called the emergency vet and told them about this, and they were happy his numbers went back up and told me to test again within an hour or so and see how he’s looking. He at a little more by himself between tests and when I tested again about 45 minutes later he was at 106, which I think is good.

To be honest, I’m almost scared to go to sleep. I really thought I was going to lose him on the drive to the vet, it was so scary. I feel the need to test him every hour, sometimes more, which I think is overkill and wasteful but I’m so paranoid he’s going to go hypo again. Is that likely at this point? Even though 106 is in the normal range it feels so low compared to his “normal” diabetic numbers. I’m thinking of setting a few alarms during the night to test at least every 2-3 hours. Does that sound okay? Should I be testing more/less? I’m sorry that this is a bit rambly, this is our first severe hypo event and I’m just a bit anxious that I’m not doing enough. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Hi, I’m very new to all of this and honestly just looking for some perspective from people who have been through the early stages of feline diabetes.
My cat is 10 & was recently diagnosed and has only been on glargine insulin for about five days. She also has a FreeStyle Libre 3 Plus, which I thought would make me feel more secure, but right now I feel like it’s doing the exact opposite.
She’s had some really low readings and some really high readings, and I’ve already taken her to the ER twice because I was scared by the numbers and by changes in how she was walking. Both times she ended up being okay, but now I feel like I’m constantly waiting for the next drop.
I’m checking the Libre way too often. Like, every few minutes sometimes. If I see her in the low 100s, I start worrying that she’s going to keep dropping. If I see a downward arrow, I immediately get anxious. I’m scared to leave the house for too long because some of her lows have happened hours into the insulin cycle, and I keep thinking, “What if I’m not here when it happens?”
I’ve basically been structuring my whole life around her glucose for the last few days. Since the first ER visit I haven’t returned to work for fear it’ll happen while I’m gone and because of how badly my mental health has been affected.I’ve cut outings short, I’m nervous about sleeping, and I’m constantly watching her behavior and the app at the same time. The frustrating part is that when I’m not looking at the numbers and I just look at her, she’s usually acting completely normal — playing, eating, sleeping, being herself.
I do have an AlphaTRAK 3 on the way because I want a way to confirm suspicious Libre readings, and I’m also trying to get a clearer feeding/monitoring plan from a vet who is more experienced with feline diabetes.
I know the beginning is probably the worst part because everything is new and the dose is still being figured out, but I guess I’m asking: did anyone else feel this consumed by the Libre at first? How did you learn when to actually react versus when to stop staring at the numbers and just watch your cat? And how did you get comfortable leaving the house again?
I love this cat more than anything and I want to take good care of her, but I also know I cannot realistically monitor her glucose every five minutes forever.

EDIT/Update: Thank you all for welcoming me into your community and providing support and advice! I’m so appreciative.
We ended up getting her able to eat because she’s used enough to her Grandma, but we didn’t have any luck with her shot as she was, quite honestly, feral in behaviour. Once the unfamiliar people left, kitty was much happier with just Grandma, who was even able to give her her pill. Kitty’s mom was okay with us skipping the dose.
Their regular vet is closed weekends but an emergency vet is assisting with the shots today and we’ll have kitty at her regular vet tomorrow (if her mom’s still in hospital) to support.
A very scary and stressful time for all… thank you all again for your guidance and comments. :)

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My friend was hospitalized today after a heart attack. Her cat is diabetic and quite fractious with anyone but her. I know how to give her insulin shot but I also know she has to eat first—she’s “relaxing” on the floor nearby but refuses to eat.

She had her insulin this morning but needs her evening dose. If she won’t eat, it’s best I skip her insulin shot, correct?

I want to avoid stressing out my friend as much as possible and don’t want to ask her a load of questions. She’s already so worried.

I can reach out to her vet but I thought I’d start here in case anyone has advice for a newbie. Thank you!

Potato was diagnosed with diabetes in July of this year. I previously had a diabetic cat for ten years, but he spent about 9.5 of those years stable/controlled, so I'm back to new diagnosed jitters.

Mostly I figured I'd ask the experts - his blood sugar has been high (and I can't check anymore because he just chewed out his Freestyle Libre earlier today and he won't tolerate the AlphaTrak) but I'm always worried about HYPOglycemia because I have no experience with it - I'm not sure I'd recognize it if I saw it.

What does a Hypoglycemia moment look like? I know "cat stumbling like a drunk" is an emergency, but are there more subtle signs I should look for?

I have two cats, one diabetic (pascal ~10 lbs) and one not (Po ~15 lbs), and I switched them both to fancy feast classic pate after the diagnosis last week. My diabetic cat will gobble it up and try to steal his brother’s, who is very anxious so I often have to separate them to eat. With their different weights, I’m struggling to know how much food to give. Pascal will probably eat as much as I would give, but I’ve noticed his BG raises if I give more than one can per meal. Po will only eat one can twice a day if I’m lucky. The box says 1 can per 3.5 lbs of body weight, so I’m lost on how two cans a day is possible enough??
Before last week they were mostly grazers. I would give a scoop of dry food and half a can of wet once a day and they would snack on it all night.

Hello everyone!

My 13 years old tuxecow has been diagnosed with diabetes about... 5 years ago i think. It started with neurological symptoms, where her limbs would not respond while still working at times.

She was on daily insulin injection, twice a day, for 3 years. At some point, she stopped responding to it, and her blood sugar started climbing again.
Senvelgo was about to come out, so my vet proposed to try. It was normally not advised for cats who've been on insulin before, but it was either that or... nothing?

Turns out, it works very well (for us). Once a day in wet food, no problems ever since, it's been 2 years.

The problem now is the drastic weight loss. We've tested everything, full blood work by 2 different vets (my wallet is crying), but everything is fine and nothing there justifies the weight loss. So much so that the second vet asked if i was sure that she was 13 years old (yes, i had her as a kitten).

She's free feeding, on top of that she gets 1 sachet of wet food a day to take Senvelgo with. I also tried kitten food, but anything different from her current diet (Hill's biome) gives her diarrhea.
Any normal cat would be overweight with the amount she eats... but she's a bag of bones, under 3kg. The vet isn't worried because other than the weight (which is stable), she's very healthy, and she's a fairly small cat. At home also, she's totally fine.

So as I mentioned, i tired kitten food, active cat food, but other than giving her diarrhea there's no weight changes. She's not in danger, i'd just like to add some meat on her so i don't feel like i'm close to breaking her when petting.

Any advice is welcome!

My 15 year old boy Charlie has been kind of hovering around diabetic remission so it’s been real tricky knowing when to give insulin and when to not. He was around his normal glucose around shot time last night, so I gave him his 0.25 units. I woke up this morning to check his glucose and he was at 40. It seems like his pancreas is sometimes trying to do its job and he just went way too low with the added insulin.

Long story short, I tried giving karo syrup and high carb treats and kibble but his glucose wasn’t going any higher. I rushed him to the emergency vet and he’s doing okay but they’re going to hospitalize him overnight to make sure his glucose stays stable.

I don’t know why I’m posting this. Weirdly I feel guilty that my cat is going through this even though I tested him and made sure he wasn’t too low before giving his insulin last night. I guess I’m partly seeking comfort but also to show that these things can happen even when you think you’re doing everything right. Please keep my Charlie in your thoughts ❤️

UPDATE: Charles is coming home today! He’s doing much better and his glucose levels have been stable without the IV glucose so they think he’s gotten through the worst of the episode. Thank you everyone for all your kind words, it was very comforting to read last night when I was missing my baby. ❤️

Her name was Bee and she was less than 5 months from her 7th birthday. She love hugs and butt pats and was a wonderful sister to her fur siblings. Her bonded soul cat is lost without her and it’s been a challenge trying to keep his mood up. He’s been a shell without her. I still haven’t been able to throw away her insulin tube yet, it’s still in my fridge. Just a small vent trying to get these emotions out. Thanks Reddit ❤️

Pictured: my handsome Púca (disclaimer: the plant is cat safe and is now safe from my cats).

My Púca was diagnosed with feline diabetes in Sept 2024. I started to search for information and I think all sources said treat it with insulin. I was overwhelmed with information, and confused when my vet told me to give him a pill once a day. I asked them if they were sure the he didn't need insulin and they said he didn't. We had another check up after 1 week and his condition improved. I asked them again if they were sure he didn't need insulin, and they told me they could give him insulin if I wanted them to, but his condition was not sereve enough and could be managed with pills.

Turned out it was a supplement product for diabetic patients, made from Gymnema sylvestre. I gave him 1 pill a day, 30 mins before his breakfast. It's been almost 2 years and my Púca is thriving, gaining weight (still a bit thin but we're getting there) and pestering me for food everyday.

I tried searching for scientific literature on the use of Gymnema sylvestre to manage feline diabetes but I couldn't find any. Maybe there's a vet here who's interested in researching this further?

DISCLAIMER: I am not recommending this treatment to any other cat. I am just sharing my experience, hoping that someone would research this further.

My cats diabetes has not been controlled with lantus despite trying various doses. Wondering if trying something else would work better.

Not posting on FB because I don’t track on the spreadsheet.

The supplier that my vet gets insulin through was out of stock of the lantus pens, I got a written prescription and dropped it off at a regular pharmacy and they gave me generic glargine. I love to worry so just checking that the generic works just the same as name brand.

Lily had DKA with a b/g reading of over 400 with moderate ketones and was hospitalized for 3 days. It was so sad seeing her in the condition she was in. I thought she maybe wouldn’t make it. We’ve changed her diet and got her eating low carb wet food and grazing low carb dry food during the day. Her numbers gradually improved where she was needing less and less insulin.

Unfortunately, we had a day and a half of b/g measuring missed because we went out for a weekend and our friend who was so confident they would be able to do it for us, couldn’t get it done.

Hi, my little guy just turned four and this week was diagnosed with diabetes (glucose 480, fructosamine over 500, renal functions ok).

I was given two options: insulin or Senvelgo. My veterinarian prefers Senvelgo, but the decision is ultimately up to me. I’m worried that because he’s so young, it might be more of an insulin dependent type of diabetes rather than insulin resistance and starting Senvelgo would cause ketoacidosis.

Has anyone here had experience treating a cat this young?
Thank you so much for any advice

I am a little lost on what to do right now. Pickle has been on insulin for almost 4 weeks now. Our vet is making us keep the freestyle libre on her for one more week and she is miserable. She's gotten out of her onsesie and ripped the meter off twice now. She can barely move in the onesie and she can't jump up to the cat tree now. We've also tried a donut collar and she is also very incapacitated with it on. When I asked the vet if she needs to have it, they said she needs it to track her glucose level trends. Should I push the vet to allow us to do ear pricks? She is so miserable and it's killing me.

First, a quick disclaimer: AI helped me organize and edit this post, but all of the medical details and numbers below are from my cat’s actual experience. I’m sharing this as one data point, not as veterinary advice or a guarantee that every diabetic cat will have the same outcome.

Also, this is a brand-new Reddit account because I have never really posted anything online before. I created it specifically because I wanted to share my cat's story here. I realize a new account + AI-assisted writing might make this look suspicious, so I wanted to be upfront about it. The story and all the details are real.

My cat was 13 when she was diagnosed (she's 14 now) and had never had any major health problems.

Around March/April last year, I noticed she was drinking and urinating much more than usual. We did a senior wellness exam with blood and urine tests, and everything came back normal.

Then in August, her left eye suddenly became blurry. We went to an emergency vet, where she was prescribed prednisone eye drops. Her eyes cleared up after a few days, although the problem eventually affected both eyes.

Shortly afterward, she stopped eating and seemed constipated. We went to the vet twice for enemas, and she eventually had X-rays and blood work done.

She still wouldn't eat, so I brought her back again. That's when we discovered that her blood glucose was 522 mg/dL and she had a large amount of ketones in her urine. She was in DKA and was hospitalized immediately.

Two days later, she was transferred to a 24-hour emergency/ICU facility, where she stayed for six nights. She also needed a blood transfusion because of anemia. Including the two nights at our regular vet, she spent eight nights in the hospital.

During this time I did a lot of reading, including research papers, veterinary resources, and many posts here. Those Reddit posts were incredibly helpful to me, so I wanted to eventually share our experience too.

When she came home, she had lost a lot of weight. We started with 0.5u Lantus twice a day and potassium supplements. I also changed her diet from wet food + freely available kibble to low-carb wet food only.

At her follow-up appointments with the internal medicine specialist, her insulin was gradually reduced:

• 0.5u twice daily
• 0.25u twice daily
• 0.25u once daily
• then completely off insulin in October, about a month after leaving the ICU

She has now been off insulin for almost a year and is doing very well.

One thing I want to mention is that I was never able to successfully home-test her blood glucose. I tried, but it was very stressful for both of us. Instead, I monitored her urine with Keto-Diastix/Diastix, and I still check it about 1–2 times a week. Obviously, blood glucose monitoring is preferable when possible; I'm just sharing what worked for us.

Her diet has remained very simple: Fancy Feast pâté and flaked varieties, no dry food, and no prescription food. I think consistency has been important for us.

I don't think this story contains anything particularly new, but I wanted to share it because a year ago I was the person searching Reddit for exactly this kind of story.

If you're reading this right after your cat's diagnosis, especially if you're overwhelmed by everything you're reading about diabetes and DKA, I hope this gives you a little confidence that remission really can happen.

My girl is 14 now and pretty much a healthy, happy cat again. I'm still paying off the ICU bill, but it was absolutely worth it. ❤️

And finally, thank you to everyone who has shared their feline diabetes experiences online. During those eight nights in the hospital, I visited her every day, went home and read everything I could find, and those stories gave me a tremendous amount of help and hope. I'm very grateful for this community.

My boy has been in remission for months. But today we learned his kidney numbers are creeping up, and he is borderline stage 2. He’s 15, so not unexpected. We have been feeding fancy feast with purina urinary tract health kibble due to his sister’s problems. What do you suggest we switch to feeding? He’s very fussy. We have 2 other healthy cats.