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My cat has diabetes. Why are his back legs wobbly and weak?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | American Longhair | Male | neutered | 4 years and 7 months old | 20 lbs

Hi! My cat was recently diagnosed with diabetes. He’s taking insulin and taking antibiotics for a Uti. It’s been 4 weeks and he wobles when he’s walking. He can’t jump up on the bed like he used to.He’s blood sugar is 250 it’s better than it used to. I don’t understand why he’s so wobbly.

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Paula Simons

Veterinarian

Published on May 30th, 2020

Cats can develop what's called diabetic neuropathy, where their hindlegs become progressively weak. The best thing to do is try to get his diabetes under control as quickly as possible. Here is a link describing the conditon: http://www.diabeticcatcare.com/DCCCOK/Neuropathy.htm

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Oneal Bogan, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on October 12th, 2017

    Hello, I'm sorry to hear about Chino. A couple different things could be going on with him. Occasionally cats will get something called diabetic neuropathy where their nerve stop functioning because of their diabetes. This will cause weakness and they will walk with a sunken gate. It could also be that your cat needs a different does of insulin and he is hypoglycemic which is why he is so weak. Depending on the cause of what's going on he may recover, but I would recommend using the veterinarian that you work closely with to check his blood glucose levels to see if that's the cause. That is easy to fix. There can also be circulatory issues that cause what you are seeing and that is something that your vet could also assessed for you. Hope that is helpful and good luck with your talk.

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