New member: happy to be here for my sweet sugar peebag

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Elisavet

Elisavet

Member Since 2020
hi!

Pointed here by Jenna from DCIN. So grateful for her kind words & advice & all the info here!!

We have a sweet little diabetic formerly stray girl.
Diagnosed in July & put on Novolin N, then switched to Basaglar several weeks ago which works out great bc I'm on it too!!
Her sugar has been around 350-368.

Next step is getting her off dry food going forward.

( I'm a little worried bc we have four other cats who have always been free fed dry (cracky Luvsome - Kroger brand)& given wet fancy feast breakfast and dinner. One of them is an elderly lady with major food issues from being a front declawed street cat for at least two years that we know of before we found her. Super nervous about changing her food routine but hoping she will benefit from a wet food only diet as well.)

Miss Tabby is a good sweet little love who owns our hearts & we want her healthy and happy.

We had intended to try to re-home her before she came here but after finding out about her health issues, realized a diabetic cat who won't pee in a litterbox would probably not be the most adoptable lol.

She was found by my ex hanging around his back patio last February.
He took her in & she started peeing EVERYWHERE. they thought it might be bc his female pug was being aggressive with her so she came to live with us in July & went for a vet visit first. That was when we found out she was diabetic. Blood sugar 666 & she was 13lbs.

She's got the sweetest temperament, nothing bothers her, she's calm & confident & all she wants is to cuddle & be loved on but she has not ever used the litterbox & that's starting to kill us. I'm asthmatic so the smell is pretty rough esp now that it's too cold to have the windows wide open & it's on the old man to do the pee mopping. He wasn't super geeked about one more cat but he's in love with her now too.
In fact, she's his girlfriend now & I've become the side chick lol.
(In her mind but I'm not about to tell her she's wrong LOL)

we've tried SO many things (Feliway, Bach's Rescue Remedy, calming collars, new cat litter, new boxes, pee pads, more boxes, Elavil pills & chicken juice flavor suspension, transdermal Prozac, gabapentin) but nothing has helped yet.

Hopefully getting her sugar controlled will fix the pee problem. We threw away two pair of shoes today after we found she's been peeing in the shoe tray near the front door. Ugh.

Probably going to try to find another vet bc the last one we saw hasn't been super helpful & has given us extremely conflicting info from one vet tech to another at the same practice as well as repeatedly insisting that we purchase a pet specific blood sugar meter (which I found was completely unnecessary after doing some online research) when I already have the one I use.

Thank you all for this incredibly helpful forum & have a wonderful holiday!!
 

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Aw, she's looks like my Rover. Thank you for taking her in. And taking in the others as well.

Yes, it could be the diabetes that is making her not want to use the litter box. Novolin is a hard insulin for cats to handle. Hopefully once she is regulated, she will feel better.

If you can set up a spreadsheet, we can help you with dosing questions. Holler if you need help. There are a couple of people here who can do it for you in minutes.

 
WELCOME TO FDMB ELIASVET AND MISS TABBY! We're glad you were directed here. Sounds like youve already been on a journey. Well we are here to help you along that journey.
First I'm going to ask you to please read here:
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
Please pay particular attention to the Profile /Signature section. Your signature will appear at the bottom of each of your posts giving any member that comes to help you, all the information they need to make quick decisions. This way you wont have to be answering the same questions over and over.
I see Kel has provided you with the most important spreadsheet. This will help us help you track how insulin is working in Miss Tabby's body.
You have landed in a safe place with good people that just want to help.;)

WELCOME TO OUR FAMILY:bighug:

We look forward to getting to know you both.
jeanne
 
What a regal looking cat your Miss Tabby is!

Many, many years ago we had a cat who peed everywhere. She'd been doing it for long before I married into the household, so it was a well-established behavior. Even after we removed the carpet, replaced the subflooring and put down hardwood floors -- Zena just peed on the hardwood. It was only barely tolerable during the warmer months, since she was an indoor/outdoor cat. However, Minnesota winter was approaching and I really didn't like the idea of outdoor cats. (All my cats have been indoor cats.)

Here's what worked for us. During the day she was on her own, wherever she wanted to be, but at night she was restricted to a multi-level "cat condo" with a lovely nest/bed on the upper level, food & water on the middle level, and a litter box on the lowe. She used the litter box just fine at night while in her "winter palace."

I don't recall how long it took for us to realize that she was no longer peeing inappropriately during the day, but she did stop peeing outside the box. This was 25 years ago, so my memory is hazy, but I think it was only a matter of weeks. I think she just learned to use it again. We never had a problem with it after that. (I suspect she developed her LB aversion because the teenagers charged with keeping her box clean simply were not doing so. Who could blame her for not want to set foot in it? I'm sure a change to clumping litter, cleaned regularly, may have played a part in her change of behavior.)
 
Hi!!

Thank you all for the incredibly sweet & warm welcome! I hope everyone had a great holiday if you celebrate it!

We had a leak in the living room ceiling coming in thru the roof where some shingles were blown off. Thankfully the landlord had someone over to fix it pretty quickly.

The critters seem to be kind of ok with the removal of the free feeding dry food & bowls of wet food in their place. We did sneak a small bowl of dry up on Nena's widows walk (the top of a small shelf in the front dining area window she likes to hang out on where Sugar can't rly jump up) but Triisha(Biggy) can't jump up there either & she's definitely missing her dry food. The meiin kitteh & Lil Butler don't seem to be bothered one bit.

Miss Sugar is perfectly happy with strictly wet food & is eating a LOT of it. Like four whole Fancy Feast pate cans maybe a little more. Is that ok? Im under the impression that I should let her eat as much wet food
as she wants...?

Also her BS isn't rly going down yet. In fact, it went up to 399 on Saturday after she ate. It did start out a bit lower than it's ever been rly (288) before breakfast.

Shes a hider so I'm not giving her insulin exactly 12hrs apart bc I can't always find her until she's good and ready to make an appearance. Also makes it tough to monitor her BS when I want to. I'm getting as close as I possibly can tho & trying to get 3 readings a day even if they're not exactly 8 hours apart.

The peeing is off the hook out of control.
It's fully moved from the basement to the living room & just today, she peed three times up here right in front of us. She has no concerns, no concept that she's doing anything not ok. It's not like she's sneaking or trying to hide it, nope, she's peeing like she should be peeing on the rug lol. Even when we say 'OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?' she just has no clue. It's got to be diabetic brain fog. I've had it myself & I guarantee I might have peed on the rug too when it was that bad.

An enclosed cat area is a GREAT idea (THANK YOU!!) so we are trying to scrape up enough to get one of those playpen style ones so we can keep her around us & put a tarp under it to keep
pee off the living room rug. It'll keep her around & unable to hide so I can give her doses& test her on time too!!
 

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I would confine her to a small bedroom or bathroom for a few days and see if she starts using the litterbox. Buy her a new box that is all he own with no other cat smells maybe get two with two different types of litter. Maybe a pine litter will feel more outdoorsy to her. you could try feline pine and dr. elsey's cat attract. You can also try puppy training pads. I have a cat who doesn't like to pee in the litterbox and that's our compromise.
I have six cats.

Funny story... about 10 years ago my cat Zim started peeing around. We started watching him really closely, and every time he went in a box we made a big deal out of it and gave him a treat. Well it worked too well, and after a few days he started jumping into the box every time we were near the bathroom (not to pee) and then ran to the kitchen waiting for a treat. hahahahahaha

BTW. My two favorite cleaners are Anti Icky Poo Unscented which has NO scent at all and angry orange concentrate... Which obviously smells like orange. Both found on Amazon.
 
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Just a quick note: she's not peeing out of the litter box because she's bad or misbehaving or doesn't know what the litter box is. She's peeing uncontrollably because her diabetes is uncontrolled. Diabetic cats pee a LOT. If the litter box isn't being scooped multiple times a day, it's probably filling up too fast for her to want to use it. Or she's having urgency from the diabetes or neuropathy issues that make going in and out of the box a challenge.

Punishing her isn't going to help anything.
 
my phone died & it ate my reply.

Quick attempt to answer again. Ugh sorry.

We never punish her for peeing. Ever.
I'm diabetic so I'm intimately familiar with diabetic brain fog. I've yelled out of knee jerk response like OMG WTF ARE U DOING?!? but not rly AT her.

We don't have a room to close her off in. We think a playpen is probably going to work best for us - it has the advantage of her still being around us & not locked away by herself. She wants nothing more than to be near me cuddling up on the couch napping & being petted (when she's not hiding)& I want to be able to keep an eye on her.

She was tested for a UTI back in July but can't afford another one right now plus I was told that if her pee doesn't smell HORRIBLE, it's less likely she has one.
It's on my list of things she needs but we just can't do that right now. Thankfully she is using the same insulin I do so that's a HUGE expense we don't have.

Im trying to test her 3x a day when I can grab her. I'm definitely testing her prior to giving her insulin (1.5 units Basaglar 2x a day) and trying to get a middle of the day test in when I can.

I have anti icky poo unscented & I just snagged two gallons of Biokleen on sale so that was super lucky. Nature's miracle's scent KILLS me but we have a gallon so we try to save that for the basement where it won't be right in my face.

I had intended to re-home her & only took her in bc my ex's dog was being super aggressive towards her & she was unhappy there. I figured she'd be happier here until we found a good forever home for her & then I found out about the diabetes & pee problem & any real possibility of finding someone who would want to take her kind of went out the window. We love her so it's not rly a huge issue to keep her, it's just kind of chaotic right now with everything going on.

Thank you SO SO much for the info & recs!!
 
Elisavet said:
my phone died & it ate my reply.

Quick attempt to answer again. Ugh sorry.

We never punish her for peeing. Ever.
I'm diabetic so I'm intimately familiar with diabetic brain fog. I've yelled out of knee jerk response like OMG WTF ARE U DOING?!? but not rly AT her.

We don't have a room to close her off in. We think a playpen is probably going to work best for us - it has the advantage of her still being around us & not locked away by herself. She wants nothing more than to be near me cuddling up on the couch napping & being petted (when she's not hiding)& I want to be able to keep an eye on her.

She was tested for a UTI back in July but can't afford another one right now plus I was told that if her pee doesn't smell HORRIBLE, it's less likely she has one.
It's on my list of things she needs but we just can't do that right now. Thankfully she is using the same insulin I do so that's a HUGE expense we don't have.

Im trying to test her 3x a day when I can grab her. I'm definitely testing her prior to giving her insulin (1.5 units Basaglar 2x a day) and trying to get a middle of the day test in when I can.

I have anti icky poo unscented & I just snagged two gallons of Biokleen on sale so that was super lucky. Nature's miracle's scent KILLS me but we have a gallon so we try to save that for the basement where it won't be right in my face.

I had intended to re-home her & only took her in bc my ex's dog was being super aggressive towards her & she was unhappy there. I figured she'd be happier here until we found a good forever home for her & then I found out about the diabetes & pee problem & any real possibility of finding someone who would want to take her kind of went out the window. We love her so it's not rly a huge issue to keep her, it's just kind of chaotic right now with everything going on.

Thank you SO SO much for the info & recs!!
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you are so wonderful and patient for taking her in. An extra box in the room she hangs out in might be the best option if she has an emergency... with low sides so it's fast to get in. I also put pee pads just outside the box and attached to the wall with command hooks so that my PITA cat Julie can go there. hahahaha (She's lucky I love her.)
 
JanetNJ said:
nny story... about 10 years ago my cat Zim started peeing around. We started watching him really closely, and every time he went in a box we made a big deal out of it and gave him a treat. Well it worked too well, and after a few days he started jumping into the box every time we were near the bathroom (not to pee) and then ran to the kitchen waiting for a treat.
Click to expand...
:D

That's hilarious! :cat:


Mogs
.
 
Critter Mom said:
Can't recommend them highly enough. They're brilliant, and a really good investment. :)


Mogs
.
Click to expand...

I'm checking craigslist regularly right now but if nothing great comes up by the time I can afford the purchase, I'm going to buy a brand new one off Chewy. There's a decent looking one for about $34. That's rly not bad. Sweet little Sugar Peebag deserves the best
 

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LOL OMG!! that's so good!! TY for sharing it!!

We always say 'imagine if cats had WINGS?!?!'

You wouldn't be able to leave the house without full body armor & a firearm lol!!
 

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