Living with a diabetic cat...
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Goodnight Princess
It was less than two days since her last checkup at the vet. Renewed insulin meds, and got her some stuff for her arthritis, and even a shampoo to help get her fur nice again. Old age didn't suit her. Her diabetes wasn't a disability with her, and certainly not the cause of her passing. It simply was her "time", and she had grown weary of the many years. I'm glad we didn't give up on her because of her illness, in the same way she didn't give up because of it.
As horrible as it was, I'm glad we were with her, and she hadn't been whisked into an emergency vet. I would have hated her to have died alone.
She was very much loved, always missed.
Goodnight my princess.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Ooops....
Anyway, the results of the blood tests were excellent, unfortunately not excellent enough to require a lower insulin dose, but good enough to mean that there was no need for the Vet to want to have Cleo in to do a series of tests to check her glucose levels throughout the day.
Other than that, there's no real news to update. The jabs are going well, no hiccups, Cleo seems very settled with them. Am still checking the food charts and making my own with some stats from Whiskas and the packs of food for the other 2 civvies, I wasn't entirely sure I was doing the sums correctly and so asked for some help to look them over but that's not resulted in anything yet. I then looked up some other versions, which gave me a new set of formulas to use which takes into account the DRY levels, even of the wet/tinned food. These give a very different outlook, and although I'm more confident in understanding these, I'm still not sure they're entirely there. More investigation required!
Once I've checked them all again, including some more stats I've now got, I'll see about posting them up on here.
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Blood test day!
Cleo is doing same as always, a lot brighter than she used to be, jumps around more, tackles those tricky "table to sofa to chair" jumps without hesitation whereas there used to be 5mins of bobbing up and down calculating angles best suited. She's been hanging round the water bowl again, which is a bit of a worry. We tend to notice her drinking more than the other two, but generally thats because she's noisier when she does it, lapping away at the water so loudly we turn to look. She does stick her chin into the bowl more than the others, as when she comes for cuddles she's often got a chin of soggy fur that she eagerly rubs against your hand. Tsk! Feeding is going well, she's got a good appetite and is even trying to snatch mouthfuls of the food from the others (we're still keeping her on the diabetic food for the moment, till we fully see how she's doing on insulin etc).
The vet then took a sample of blood, she didn't whimper or anything but wasn't looking best pleased at this, but the nurse was at hand to hold her steady just in case. Full results due in a few days, a quick check of her blood glucose level had her at 14.7 which the vet said was about twice that of a non-diabetic kitty, but he wasn't overly worried about this and said it's expected.
We'll see what he says in a couple of days when lab results are in...
Saturday, 17 January 2009
All is sweet in the house
Time prepping insulin, and syringe: 1-2 mins (probably quicker, but I don't like rushing this)
Time finding cat: 30 seconds (unless she's not in the chair, not happened yet...)
Time lifting scruff and injecting: 30 seconds.
Anyway, back to the plot, the vet was impressed, apparently he had a feeling I'd be quite calm with it all. I guess since Cleo is the one with the medical problem, and if she's dealing with it so well, there's no point me stressing about it. The action of injecting doesn't bother me either, I wanted to be a Vet when I was younger, then a Veterinary Nurse (wanted more interaction with the animals and the care, plus bonus of less study and exams! That said they still have years and years before qualifying), and I'd done work experience in a local vet which was fantastic, they'd seen my enthusiasm and were keen to show me all sides, so I'd watched operations, even helped out with minor bits like putting in a stitch, and developed x-rays, and I'm pretty sure, even done an injection back then. It's a shame I didn't follow that up. The enthusiasm is still there, circumstances changed though and years at University wasn't going to be an option for me, but hey ho, in the end if that means Cleo and me do well with injections now then all is good.
The vet gave Cleo a quick check over, no tests just yet. She looks well, so that's good. Still drinking a lot of water (more than the other 2 cats at least), but she's not hanging around the water bowl as much as she used to, a couple of months ago she'd lie often with her chin in the water bowl, occasionally lapping at it. We've another appointment on the 27th when they'll do a blood test to see how her levels are doing with the injections after 3 weeks of treatment. Depending on that result, Dr O said he'd like to try testing the levels every few hours throughout the day to plot a graph of how her body reacts to the insulin. Usually they keep them in for a day for this, but since it'd taken Cleo 24 hours to settle in during her 5 day vet visit at the start of the month he wasn't sure this would work for her, her stressing out would ruin her levels and spoil the work we'd done, so he did mention that we might do that at home - but either way, this wasn't confirmed yet so he didn't want to go into too much detail or planning or, as I believe, risk worrying me the owner out too much. I'm not worried, the home testing is something I'm still considering from having read up on the FDMB site, where it's highly recommended. I'm still looking at the different blood glucose meters, they all seem pretty much the same, some need more blood in the testing sample than others, so I'm weighing up small samples with ones that have most recommendation from other users, and those that will be easiest to find replacement strips for.
So, with the check up done, and another appointment in a while, all is well with us. Fingers crossed it stays that way.
Saturday, 10 January 2009
All is well in the house
Friday, 9 January 2009
Cleo's home again!
At long last, kitty is back home with us. She was very fidgity in her carrier whilst I was settling the (large) bill, and since coming home has insisted on double checking every nook and cranny to make sure nothing has changed. Took 3 go's to take this pic, she'd sit happily for a second but was eager to go investigate the house some more, so leapt down and pottered about within seconds.
She smells a bit funny... not her usual warm fuzzy smell. Will have to brush that out of her coat and wrap her in her blankie until she smells more familiar.
The veterinary nurse had said she'd been wonderful, a bit moody at first but soon accustomed to it all and was lovely. Aww.
Hope she stops investigating tonight and curls up on my duvet where she belongs :)
Thursday, 8 January 2009
Visiting day!
Monday, 5 January 2009
Empty...
The beginning...
Anyway, fast forward to the latest bout of pained whimpers, and another vet appointment where it was decided to test her urine and blood and check her over completely. I'd not been there for that appointment, lack of sleep had left me in a grump and I'd not cleared time off work, so my dad took her in. A week later the results were due, so this time the appointment was made for first thing in the morning so I could go with for the diagnosis before work. The vet, a lovely man called Mr Olsen, told us that Cleo was diabetic, and that as a result she would need constant treatment. As we were by now only a few days before Christmas, and the surgery would be closed until the New Year, we were given two options, either leave her in then so that they could regulate her blood sugar levels for a few days and get her used to the insulin then, or (and this was recommended) to take her home and feed her solely on the special Diabetic food and then make an appointment in the New Year. This was recommended as the vet himself was away over Christmas and so would be able to keep a dedicated eye on her treatment if it was postponed until the start of January. The latter option seemed the best as it was a hectic time anyway, Cleo would need several days in the surgery as well as a couple of appointments where we would go in to learn how to treat her at home. As she was happy in herself and certainly not in need of any emergency treatment this was certainly the best option. Dr Olsen kept trying to make it clear that it wasn't the end for Cleo, it was manageable. Although aware it was serious, my initial thoughts were just "oh great, this'll be expensive" added with a side-order of "drat... I literally have no TIME for this!". That sounds awful now, but work had been insane recently, redundancies and new tasks to learn so I'd been stressed to pieces, and then with Christmas coming up it'd been so manic that I'd had to cancel plans for extra days off over the holidays. I'm not really that heartless. I don't particularly like my job, and would easily shove it aside if needed for a vet appointment, but at that precise time it was one more thing that I couldn't quite deal with in my head, which also helped with the suggestion of starting treatment in 2009.
Christmas came and went, Cleo loved her diabetic dry food, me and my dad are just about getting used to watching the cats eat. We have three in all, Cleo (eldest b&w kitty, around 15 now I think), Chelsea (tortoishell, aka the fluffy one, around 9 yrs old) and Joey (tabby brother of Chelsea, also 9 yrs old). As Cleo isn't meant to eat the normal food, and the others aren't going to get their greedy gobs on the expensive stuff unless specifically required, we watch them eat and remove anything left over so there's no chance of anyone scoffing each others' leftovers. Considered splitting them up to feed, but they've got into their habit and generally only eat from "their" bowl, so it wasn't so much of a hardship really. Must remember to bring a book or something... I always say that after feeding.
Apart from drinking lots of water (something she's done since getting older, and has been mentioned to the vets at the annual vaccination/check ups) and the occasional bout of infection and meowing, Cleo hasn't really seemed to be affected much by diabetes. She's older - so jumping and coordination is a little off, but nothing serious as she'd never been great with feline aerobics since tearing a tendon as a kitten in an Indiana Jones style leap that didn't quite work out. At least this is what I thought. Now this could be entirely unrelated to her diabetes diagnosis, but on the Saturday just after Christmas (always the late evening on a weekend... when vets are closed, tsk) she had a bit of an episode. I'd been working on my computer downstairs and heard the tell-tale sound of a cat hacking up a furball. I tiptoed around, calling for the kitty to try and find which of the three was the culprit, and then spotted Cleo at the top of the stairs. She spat whatever was displeasing her onto the landing as I started walking up the stairs, making the soothing sounds that I have no idea work or not but to try and not make her freak out and run under the bed to deposit the rest of the furball. I'd barely put a foot on the bottom step when Cleo leaned back as if half sneezing and then just toppled down the stairs! Not fell, not lost balance, but actually toppled. It was as if she'd passed out for a second as she made absolutely no attempt to stop herself falling and I ended up diving at her as she reached half way, holding out my hands to stop her falling further but reluctant to grab her in case she'd injured herself rolling down the stairs. With my heart pounding in panic, she recovered instantly and stood up, pottering around my shaking hands and continuing down the stairs as normal. No ill effects shown, she enjoyed the fuss I made of her afterwards but didn't seem to need it, although I myself felt sick with shock! Presumed it was something to do with blood sugar level, Or possibly just her age. No reoccurance, so didn't make any emergency vet visits that night, just decided to keep a close eye on her and mention it when she went in after the New Year. The furball was pathetically small too, you'd imagine if it results in momentary unconsciousness that it'd be something big affecting it.
Now it's Monday 5th January, and Dr Olsen is back in the surgery so on my way to work this morning I dropped Cleo off. They were expecting her (us?) and so it didn't take long before I was out the door again. The house will seem strange without her for a few days...she'll probably be in a grump when she does eventually come back home, but I can't wait.