My cat Athena (about 13 y/o—she was an adult when I adopted her 10 years ago) is in the ICU with diabetic ketoacidosis. We are a complete mess and terrified. She has been there since very early Friday morning. Her blood sugar was in the high 200’s. She was severely dehydrated, unable to stand or hold up her head.
She seemed fine up until this week, save chronic ear infections. My boyfriend took her in to the vet (a brand new vet, since we just moved a few months ago) on Monday for her ear, and they diagnosed it with an infection and gave her a steroid shot (depo) and sent her home. She started acting weird by Tuesday evening (lethargic, little interest in food, which is NOT normal for her). Wednesday she spent all day sleeping on the back porch. Wednesday night she threw up water several times (my boyfriend was up with her), and he took her to the same vet again on Thursday. I left town Thursday morning for vacation, but really didn’t expect any big news—I thought she was just having side effects from the steroid that would wear off soon.
The vet ran some tests and diagnosed her with diabetes. He gave her some fluids under her skin between her shoulder blades, and a shot of insulin, and said to come back the next day.
She continued to refuse food and water, and got to the point where she couldn’t stand up. He said he put her in front of the food dish, and she just fell over and gave up. He kept thinking maybe if we just waited it out, once that steroid shot was out of her system she’d start eating again.
A few hours later, She was struggling to breathe, wheezing, so he took her to the ER in the next town. They diagnosed her with diabetic ketoacidosis, and said it was not looking good. She’s severely dehydrated. They have been giving her fluids and a feeding tube. 20 calories every 6 hours, they said. I asked if they were giving her insulin, and they said no, because they didn’t want to “rock the boat” and they were sticking to fluids for now to see if fluids alone could lower her blood sugar.
Are we doing the right thing? Up until Monday, she seemed to have most of the “zest for life” that she’s always shown-trying to sneak food off our plates, laying in our laps purring, playing with her laser pointer, watching squirrels from the screened in porch, etc.
The last update I got was late last night (about 20 hours after she was admitted) and they said her blood sugar was still about the same as it was when they got there, but that she did seem stronger (holding her head up, using the litter box on her own, albeit very weak, etc.). They said if things took a turn for the worse into the night they’d give me a call. I’m sure they have to say those things, but that didn’t make me feel any better.
