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Hailey & Kitty

Member Since 2023
Hi everyone!

My name is Hailey and I have a ~9 year old female cat (Kitty is her name) that was diagnosed in March.

Since then, the vet has slowly increased her dosage of Lantus to 2 units twice a day.

This past Saturday, I got home from a night out and noticed she had thrown up twice. Sunday morning, she wouldn't eat so I didn't give insulin, and then she was acting very lethargic and breathing heavy. I took her to the ER vet that wanted almost $1,000 for blood work and since it was almost 3 am I decided to wait until her regular vet opened that morning at 7.

I took her in Monday morning, and (forgive my lack of medical knowledge) they said that she had a few things not looking super good, most notably her liver. They said it was most likely that she had an infection that her body wasn't capable of fighting off on its own due to something else (i don't remember the name) being very low. They prescribed her antibiotics.

I took her back Tuesday to do the blood work again, and they said things were looking a bit better and she even ate a few bites of food while there. Yay! She acted better Tuesday night & Wednesday morning, still not eating though but drinking water and moving around a bit.

Then, last night, she started acting lethargic again, not responding to her name, only walking a few steps before laying down. I am waiting on a call back from the vet, but wondering if anyone has any advice or experience with this.

She still hasn't eaten since Saturday aside from the little bit she ate at the vet, so she also hasn't had insulin since Saturday, but her sugars were at 341 Tuesday when she was at the vet.

She's also just laying down near her water bowls (I have 4 throughout my apartment) or under my bed. She doesn't respond to her name or any noises I make. She was acting like she wanted food and coming out when I gave my other cat food, but isn't doing that today.

I'm getting really worried, and have already maxed out two credit cards and now am also in a payment plan with the vet between her diagnosis and follow-up visits and now this.
 
Please make a trip to the pharmacy and pick up Ketostix. These are strips that you dip in a cat's urine to test for ketones. Ketones can be very dangerous. Can you also take a good look at her gums. Are they yellowish? If there's a liver problem, jandice can result.

Do you have your cat's lab results? If you can link them, we may be able to provide some insight.

I'm also removing the "GA" from your subject line. It refers to a kitty who's a Guardian Angel/Gone Ahead -- in other words, the cat has died.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
Please make a trip to the pharmacy and pick up Ketostix. These are strips that you dip in a cat's urine to test for ketones. Ketones can be very dangerous. Can you also take a good look at her gums. Are they yellowish? If there's a liver problem, jandice can result.

Do you have your cat's lab results? If you can link them, we may be able to provide some insight.

I'm also removing the "GA" from your subject line. It refers to a kitty who's a Guardian Angel/Gone Ahead -- in other words, the cat has died.
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Sorry! I wasn't sure what it stood for. Thank you. They did test for Ketones on Monday & Tuesday and said everything looked normal there. I don't have her lab results unfortunately. I'm waiting on a call back from the vet and can ask for them. I believe they said that her liver tests were too high and then the other two things they mentioned were low. I know it was some type of cells because they said they would need to send them off to a lab because the vet wasn't sure what it meant. Her gums don't look yellowish but she also won't let me get a super good look. They said on Tuesday that her levels were slowly going back to normal, but now she's back to acting not like herself. It also seems like she may be struggling to drink water? Her front legs and chest were wet when I just grabbed her to look at her gums. She just looks miserable and I don't know what to do. It's now the 5th day with no eating and no insulin.
 
Cats need to eat. If they aren't eating for more than 3 days, it can cause liver complications (i.e., hepatic lipidosis -- or "fatty liver"). If there's some sort of infection or inflammation, and she's not eating and not getting insulin, there's an increased risk for ketones developing. I really think she needs to see the vet.
 
Hi and welcome, the symptoms you describe sound so similar to my cat Hendrick when he went into diabetic keto-acidosis (DKA) and nearly died. Diabetic kitties need their insulin shots or ketones can build up very quickly in their system which essentially act like a poison making kitty very weak, lethargic, no appetite. Hendrick would stumble over to the water dish and sit there kinda zoning out, wobbling back and forth a bit. He was hospitilized for two days and it was a ton of money.

The way to keep DKA at bay is to make sure kitty has their insulin, gets extra food and water. If she won't eat you might want to look into appetite stimulants or nausea meds if you can't afford another vet visit. She sounds like she is in peril to me with not eating for 5 days now and no insulin so I would act quickly.
 
Hendrick Cuddleclaw said:
Hi and welcome, the symptoms you describe sound so similar to my cat Hendrick when he went into diabetic keto-acidosis (DKA) and nearly died. Diabetic kitties need their insulin shots or ketones can build up very quickly in their system which essentially act like a poison making kitty very weak, lethargic, no appetite. Hendrick would stumble over to the water dish and sit there kinda zoning out, wobbling back and forth a bit. He was hospitilized for two days and it was a ton of money.

The way to keep DKA at bay is to make sure kitty has their insulin, gets extra food and water. If she won't eat you might want to look into appetite stimulants or nausea meds if you can't afford another vet visit. She sounds like she is in peril to me with not eating for 5 days now and no insulin so I would act quickly.
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Thank you. Yesterday at the vet they did give her insulin and syringe fed her, and gave her fluids. They essentially said that the only way to move forward from here would be to get further testing including an ultrasound, all of which I can't afford (almost $1,000 for everything) so right now it's just a wait and see if she feels better. I feel terrible that I can't afford the tests. I already owe the vets office $800 that I have no idea how I'm going to get. I've reached out to a few organizations for financial help but they either don't help diabetic cats or they have an extensive waiting list. I don't know what to do.
 
Hailey & Kitty said:
Thank you. Yesterday at the vet they did give her insulin and syringe fed her, and gave her fluids. They essentially said that the only way to move forward from here would be to get further testing including an ultrasound, all of which I can't afford (almost $1,000 for everything) so right now it's just a wait and see if she feels better. I feel terrible that I can't afford the tests. I already owe the vets office $800 that I have no idea how I'm going to get. I've reached out to a few organizations for financial help but they either don't help diabetic cats or they have an extensive waiting list. I don't know what to do.
Click to expand...
She is also on nausea medicine (since Monday)
 
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