How Much Insulin To Give To A Diabetic Cat?
How much insulin to give to a diabetic cat? Interesting question. All cats, like humans are different, so I think it is very much a case of trying an average dose for the weight and age of cat and then adjusting as necessary. As usual your veterinary surgeon is best placed to advise.
I came across a recent article on this exact question on a North Jersey News website. The person who asked the question was confused because the dosage recommended by his vet was not working and the cat’s blood sugar levels were going through the roof.
“I have an old male cat. He was diagnosed with diabetes one month ago. For the first three weeks, I was giving him insulin twice a day. The vet said “fill to the first line.” Last Saturday I took him in for a check-up because he was not responding to the insulin, and found that the first line on my syringe was different than the vet’s. I was giving only half doses!”
The owner then learnt that he was using a different type of syringe than the vets and was actually only administering half the recommended dosage. So a good lesson to learn here! Make sure you know the exact dosage to give and make sure that is what you give.
I actually blame the vet in this case. As a professional he should know that there isn’t such thing as a standard syringe, so he should have told the owner the exact dosage in standard units of measurement and not just said fill to the first graduation line, unless of course he was also giving the owner a quantity of syringes.
That’s whats great about how our bodies are designed. A closed loop feedback system that knows exactly how much insulin to give and when to give it.
Unfortunately when this system stops working and we are forced to administer insulin manually we are for the most part guessing and seldom is the dose exactly what is required, This then leads on to problems caused by too much or too little insulin.
So how much insulin to give to a diabetic cat is a great question to ask but a very difficult one to answer.
Here is a link to the article:-
What also caught my eye in the article was a comment by a reader which implied that the vet was actually giving wrong information in terms of telling the owner not to worry when the cat’s blood sugar levels were in the 500s and 600s…..hmmmmmm. How much insulin to give a diabetic cat? I guess I’m right and there is no easy answer!
