My Vet Almost Made Me Kill My Own Cat: The Completely Misunderstood & Misdiagnosed Diseases of Feline Diabetes & Feline ECG-Eosinophilic Granuloma Complex
CONTENT WARNING: some photos in this article may be graphic to some readers. You will see photos of Calcifer's infected/hurt paw as it progresses with infection. If that's not your thing, this may not be the article for you.
I adopted my second cat, Calcifer, from the Humane Society of Pulaski County in the fall of 2019. Not only is Calcifer super cute, but he has the most incredible personality and has stolen the hearts of over 100,000 people on Instagram..
At the end of 2024, starting in November, I began to notice that Calcifer's front paw seemed to be bothering him. One of Calcifer's toes was sticking out at a slightly weird angle and, when I went to pick him up and take a closer look, I noticed that the space between his paw pad and beans looked red, irritated, and chapped.
Calcifer has shown signs of allergies in the past, with the occasional hot spot appearing on his back legs, stomach, and chest. I assumed it was likely something related to allergies, and began to monitor Calcifer's paw for any significant changes.
In a little more than a week, Calcifer's paw went from slightly-chapped looking to dark and swollen, and he began walking with a limp. I knew then that I would need to take him into the vet and booked him an appointment immediately. At the vet for the first time, they did a deep clean of his paw and gave me cream that is usually used for treating burns. They said they were not sure what caused it, but to let them know how it was healing after the cream.
Another week goes by and Calcifer's paw begins to get worse. The discoloration has spread around his entire paw pad, and he's clearly in pain as he limps everywhere he goes and holds his little paw up delictately when standing still. I bring him back to our vet who is still as perplexed as I am, especially considering Calcifer is an indoor-only cat, and ultimately she decides we need to biopsy Calcifer's paw to find out what's going on.
After keeping him away from food overnight, I droppped Calcifer at the vet to be sedated for his biopsy. They ask to run a blood test to make sure there are no infections and I agree. When the vet calls me to tell me that the biopsy went well, it would be sent off for analysis, and that Calcifer was ready to be picked up, they also asked me if I knew Calcifer was diabetic? Which completely shocked me because no, this was mind-blowing news to me. According to my vet, Calcifer's blood sugar was high and he had sugar present in his urine, both of which are indicative of feline diabetes.
Not only was Calcifer required to wear a cone for the next two weeks as his paw healed from the biopsy, he was now also prescribed insulin indefinitely. And although my vets had been quick to get Calcifer seen for his ailing paw, I felt severly underinformed when it came to their rapid-fire instruction for giving Calcifer insulin twice a day while handing me a large and intimidating sharps container. This was also right before Christmas where I was planning to visit my family out of town, with a trusted cat-sitter who would be coming by to check on the kitties while I was away. I asked if I could delay insulin a few days until I came back home and was told by my vets that would be fine.
Calcifer's feline diabetes diagnosis was genuinely earth-shattering to me. I was beginning to wonder what life would look like with a diabetic kitty, and how long Calcifer had had it without me knowing. There was massive guilt, because I thought maybe somehow I had caused it. I wondered if it was the main reason his paw wasn't healing. And I felt immensely under-prepared, like my vet had kinda nonchalatanly thrown me to the wolves over something that is actually pretty serious.
Thankfully, I have a best friend who has had a diabetic cat in the past and she not only calmed me down, she also referred me to a Facebook group called Feline Diabetes Support Group.
My bestie told me that this group was insanely knowledgeable about all things feline diabetes, and that the people in this group often know even more about the disease than most vets. This is because diabetes is massively understudied in cats, and diabetic cat-owners have had to take extra steps in order to ensure their "sugar babies" live the longest and healthiest lives possible.
It was in this group that, while with my family over the holidays, I made a panicked post explaining our situation. I asked for guidance and reassurance as to what my next steps would and should be. (I find I am especially Millennial in this regard, I am quick to seek out online groups of people with shared lived experiences in order to learn things and find community--so sue me.)
I am eternally grateful to all of the kind people of the Feline Diabetes Support Group on Facebook for not only being so very considerate and welcoming to newly-diagnosed cat parents, but for having and sharing actual life-saving knowledge.
It was on this post that I made that I learned two VERY IMPORTANT THINGS in regards to feline diabetes:
1) Your cat cannot be considered truly diabetic unless your vet has done what is called a fructosamine test. The fructosamine test measures a cat's blood sugar levels over a span of weeks. When cats are under stress, like being sick AND at the vet, both their blood sugar can be high and sugar can be present in their urine. Therefore, the only way to know for sure if your cat has feline diabetes is to perform a fructosamine test.
2) Giving a cat insulin who doesn't need it can kill them, so it is always better to abstain rather than administer when in doubt.
Armed with this newfound knowledge, plus the fact that Calcifer presented no other signs of feline diabetes, I chose not to give Calcifer any insulin until I could make sure my vet performed the fructosamine test.
I took him in after the holidays and asked my vet to perform the fructosamine test. She said she would, but also said that if Calcifer was not diabetic, it would be a first for her. They also ran another blood test to confirm.
Not only was Calcifer's current blood sugar completely normal, so was his fructosamine test! Which means that Calcifer does NOT actually have feline diabetes. My vet was authentically stunned, saying that this outcome had never been the case before.
But it began to make me wonder, was Calicfer truly her first feline diabetes misdiagnosis, or had she misdiagnosed other cats in the past? If it weren't for trusting literal strangers in a Facebook group, I could have blindly listened to my vet and administered insulin to Calicfer... which would have ultimately killed him.
The biopsy results for Calcifer's paw finally came back, and it turns out that Calcifer's actual diagnosis is feline eosinophilic granuloma complex or ECG for short. Essentially, ECG is an auto-immune overreaction to allergies. It is usually caused by some type of bug bite, food allergies, or environmental allergies. According to Cornell University's department of veterinary medicine, "Most such lesions emerge when certain immune system cells (eosinophils) mistakenly release inflammatory chemicals to counter the invasion of parasites when, indeed, no such invasion has occurred."
Like I mentioned earlier, Calcifer has had many hot spots in the past over the years, but nothing as long-lasting and as negatively impactful as the wound on his paw. Now that Calcifer has been properly diagnosed, he has been taking an oral medication called Atopica (cyclosporine) in order to suppress his immune system so his lesions could heal for the last few months. However, if I do not figure out what is causing the allergic reaction in the first place, Calcifer will continue to struggle with his feline ECG.
As of this blog post written in early March of 2025, Calcifer's paw looks exponentially better and I am thrilled with how it is healing; but, Calcifer is currently battling a hot spot on his side which means we have more allergy-work to do. Sadly, neither of the presently available allergy tests for cats are 100% effective so I am not sure if it's worth pursuing at this time.
I've used our current vet for years now, but this misdiagnosis (while sadly not their first) was by far the most egregious.
The first time, I took my cat in for a suspected UTI and instead they told me she was simply constipated. Two days later we were in the emergency vet due to blood in my cat's urine and I was out an additional $1300 for something that could have been cleared up with routine antibiotics.
The second time they said my cat had an upper respiratory infection when she actually had food lodged in her nasal cavity. She received an expensive antibiotic shot that did absolutely nothing for her, and she suffered needlessly for days before dislodging the piece of food herself.
To then misdiagnose a third cat with something as major as diabetes, send me home with potentially-fatal medication, and then not bend over backwards to make it right when they realized their mistake is honestly something else. I had to ask if I could get my money back for the insulin and sharps they wrongly sold me. I feel I should have a few free vet visits comped too. Change is hard, but I am starting to look at new vets in the area.
I ultimately wrote this blog post for a few reasons:
I love and respect vets for the incredibly hard and difficult work they do, but they are human and imperfect and definitely make mistakes. It is ok to question their judgment, especially if their advice feels off. It is more than ok to get other opinions.
Our pets canNOT speak for themselves, and therefore we HAVE to be their biggest advocate. If something doesn't make sense, ask a million questions. And then ask some more.
There is a hierarchy when it comes to the study of animal medicine and cats have long been left by the wayside. We as a society have so much to learn about cat health and what may be true today may not be true tomorrow. But we know our own cats best.
Don't give up! It took us over a month of testing and poking and prodding to finally be able to get a diagnosis for Calcifer. Now that I am informed, I can start making decisions that will hopefully improve his quality of life for years to come.
I hope this post will help at least one cat parent out there looking to do their absolute best for their own fur babies. It's been a stressful and expensive journey thus far, but I would do it all again to make sure Calcifer feels his best.
Thanks for reading,
Mauren
Cat Lady Tails
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