1st Time Sugarcat Momma

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

Donna R

Member Since 2023
I'll start off with a little background on me. I am a street cat rescuer, taking cats in off the street and getting them in to rescue. I've been doing this for over 10 years. Unfortunately, our county animal control won't do anything for cats. I get a lot of calls about abandoned and injured cats, and cats needing to be rehomed due to people dying, going in to nursing homes, and other reasons.

Friday, I had someone reach out to me. They knew a home health caregiver who was trying to find someone to take their client's two cats, Geanie and Levi. The owner was hospitalized for hospice care due to cancer. The owner's power of attorney (POA) was coming to do Levi's shots, driving 50 miles roundtrip, twice a day. I messaged my contact Saturday morning to see if I could come evaluate Levi for behavior and get some pictures because I was told he was "difficult." I've never had a diabetic cat, so I was hoping he could go to an experienced diabetic cat foster. Well, I found out that Friday night the POA was hospitalized with broken ribs. The caregiver was unwilling to try giving him shots, so I immediately went to pick up the pair.

Levi and Geanie are 9 years old, brother and sister. They are both fixed, but not up to date on their shots. Levi has been on M/D dry food only, and receiving 3 units of ProZinc insulin in the morning and 2 units in the evening. They were not checking his blood sugar at home. I have a vet appointment for both cats on the 24th to do senior exams, blood panels, and update shots.

I got copies of their vet records today and gave a copy to my vet. Levi weighs 15 pounds, based on the last vet visit, and is obese. He has a history of matted fur on his back, probably due to his weight and being difficult to groom himself. His last fructosamine bloodwork was 464, which leads me to believe his diabetes has not been properly controlled for a while. I didn't look closely enough to see when he was first diagnosed.

Now, on to the challenge with Levi. He is understandably upset at the moment, with his owner leaving him, and being taken out of his home and placed in a crate by someone he didn't know. I did put Geanie in the crate with him thinking it would help. He is aggressive to the point of lunging at me, and he gets worse if i try covering him with a towel or blanket. I walk in to the room and he immediately starts growling. He is not really eating much, and every time I go to give him a shot, he freaks out. I have had to use a cat bed to cover his head and hold him still so I can give him his shot. Geanie has also started acting aggressive, probably due to his behavior. This could also be ramping up his aggression.

I have a Feliway diffuser which I just started in the room. I can't let them out of the crate until their shots are updated due to past foster cats potentially have panleukopenia, and that stuff is hard to eliminate. I've tried making friends with him using the treats that the POA gave him, and some canned Fancy Feast pate. He refused both, and has drawn blood on me each time I've given him a shot. He is not a good candidate for rescues unless we can get his behavior under control, so it looks like he might be with me a while.

I'm in information overload, but I'm hoping Levi decides I'm not a threat, and I'm trying to help him. My game plan is to try getting Geanie in a separate crate so she can go back to being a sweet girl. I'm also hoping to find a liquid treat he likes so I can give him a little gabapentin to calm him down before shots until he decides trying to kill me is not an option. I'm also hoping to be able to do regular at home blood sugar checks. Once they get their shots updated, he is going to get the bathroom as his new living quarters until he starts approaching me and letting me give him his shots without a fight.

I'm hoping to get him on a canned food diet so we can work on getting him to a healthy weight, and get his diabetes under control.
 
I would just give him a little time to decompress. With all of the changes it is not a surprise (to me) that he is a bit fractious. Personally (likely not supported by most) I would focus on more and calming him than anything else. His glucose isn't regulated now; stress will cause it to rise - so calming him is important. I would try (whenever you have some time avail) just sitting in the room not initially even looking at him and just talking. Read a book etc. Get him used to your voice. Not being scared/handled every time someone walks in, etc. Thank you for helping these two.
 
You've taken on a lot but Karma is on your side now. It's much better that you knew what you were getting into as compared to all those Covid adoptees that ended up right back where they started. Our dog is the one and only thing my wife's brother wanted taken care when he died and it's been a joy but he also came with a trust fund. Diabetes is not a tragedy but it can get expensive, does the POA have anything set up for you?
We've had cats that just walked in, looked around and picked out their spot but we also have an alpha male that after almost ten years still torments one of our rescues. Time is sometimes the only cure.
Know you're in the right place. We all started somewhere and here there's no mocking and definitely no such thing as a stupid question. It is a lot to take in but for us what looked like a tragedy turned into a mere inconvenience. Keep posting.
 
Noah & me (GA) said:
You've taken on a lot but Karma is on your side now. It's much better that you knew what you were getting into as compared to all those Covid adoptees that ended up right back where they started. Our dog is the one and only thing my wife's brother wanted taken care when he died and it's been a joy but he also came with a trust fund. Diabetes is not a tragedy but it can get expensive, does the POA have anything set up for you?
We've had cats that just walked in, looked around and picked out their spot but we also have an alpha male that after almost ten years still torments one of our rescues. Time is sometimes the only cure.
Know you're in the right place. We all started somewhere and here there's no mocking and definitely no such thing as a stupid question. It is a lot to take in but for us what looked like a tragedy turned into a mere inconvenience. Keep posting.
Click to expand...

As far as I know there is no kind of trust fund for these cats. Luckily I have several Facebook friends who helped me with expenses for cats that I take in. I'm also going to guess that I'm going to be doing a lot more delivery work on my days off to pay for vet expenses. I need to do some research into the best pate canned food to see if I can find something that he will eat. It's definitely going to be an interesting journey.
 
First of all thank you so much for taking them in and for all you do for the cats in your area. You’re truly a hero :bighug::bighug::bighug:

food is luckily not what makes diabetes expensive. Fancy feast and even Friskies are okay as long as it’s wet and low carb. The challenge right now for you is that we don’t recommend changing the diet until you’re home testing because going from high card dry to low carb wet can drop his blood glucose by as much as 100 points and then his current dose could become too much and lead to a hypo. I don’t know as much about prozync but I believe all insulin works best when you give the same dose x2 a day so 2.5 x2 a day as opposed to 3 and 2. But again without testing is hard to tell and you’re having a hard time even with the injections. Would giving him treats immediately after the shot help with building positive association? His entire world just changed completely so it’s understandable he’s upset. I’m hoping with a bit of time he’ll start to decompress and get that you’re trying to help.

FOOD CHART have a look on this chart and choose foods that are under 10%. But again, I wouldn’t change anything now. Sometimes going from HC dry to LC wet is enough to put a cat into remission so it would be dangerous with his current dose.

You will also need some higher carb foods for that hypo box..information in the help us help you link.

This is an excellent site for diabetic cats…it has been around for more than 25 years and has very experienced people to help you.

Keep asking lots of questions.

Fingers and paws crossed he’ll come around soon!!
 
One of the reasons I'm trying to find a wet food that he will eat is so I can try doing gabapentin before dosing, for something to distract him with while I'm trying to do his shot and/or test his blood sugar, and something to convince him I'm not evil
 
Donna R said:
there is no kind of trust fund for these cats
Click to expand...
Sorry for getting off track here. My wife and I are putting together a trust for our four cats and one dog and it gets complicated real fast. We have to notify the city, fire department and four local shelters if the worst were to happen. We have friends at two clinics and two other close friends who are all in it but we had to make it clear it's not a guilt trip. All four cats are seniors and two have serious medical issues. The dog is a year past his 10 to 12 year life expectancy and in just over a year we've already burned through his $5,000 trust. All the local shelters are no-kill so that's good but Lewis can be a nasty cat and won't end up with some young family.
In August we're flying on a Max8 just to make everything so much more fun. It's something to think about.
Our local fire department really does have this equipment but maybe because it would fit an infant.
After this I'll stop clogging up the thread
 
Have you tried baby food? That’s what I used to disguise meds for Minnie. Any Gerber pure meat flavor works like chicken, turkey, beef or ham. The only issue is I hear gabapentin is bitter so not sure it will work.
 
Wow. That's quite a story. If I can help you with the ProZinc once you get started, I'll be happy to do so. There are a couple of us over there on that forum to help out. There's a lot of good information in the sticky notes over on that forum. Have you considered having a Freestyle Libre monitor put on him so that you can monitor his blood glucose without actually having to do an ear prick (sound like that would be out of the question at this time.) I am not sure if he would tolerate it but a lot of cats do. They will last about two weeks. I'm not sure if this is possible due to the expense either. Hopefully, you can get him to take some Gabapentin and calm him down a bit and hopefully he will also learn to trust you.
 
Suzanne's suggestion of the Freestyle Libre is a good one if it's financially feasible.

Feeling overwhelmed by information on feline diabetes is pretty normal at the early stage of the process. You may find that getting the cats off of a dry food diet will be one quick bit of help. The dry food, even the prescription diabetic dry food, if way too high in carbohydrates. The food chart that Ale linked gives you lots of choices of canned foods that are lower in carbs. However, many people opt for Fancy Feast or Friskies pates due to their being more friendly cost-wise.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top