11/16 Morgaine lost control of her bladder

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skybar22

skybar22

Member Since 2010
I need some advice and am very concerned about Morgaine. This has happened once before just before her diagnosis of FD. As many of you know, she has been well regulated and doing quite well. Earlier tonight she was peeing a lot and some of it went outside of the box. It was very upsetting as she had not exhibited this behavior since going on insulin. Then, just a few minutes ago she lost control of her bladder all over my bed. She pee'd a little on the floor as she prepared to jump up and then she just let go all over my comforter. I have been concerned about her bladder for a while now and have had her on cosequin for cats for about 2 weeks now. I did do a glucose test on her urine twice today and it was sky high but her BG is not sky high though she was 162 a few minutes ago which could easily be over 200 as the Freestyle runs low. She ate 1.5 hours ago so that is also a food spike number.

I have noticed that she has days where all is very normal and routine and other days where she urinates a lot more often. Yesterday she was perfectly fine except for her nasty bowel movement last night and then today she was urinating more and more.

I am trying to get her an appt. with a vet, do not think this is an emergency yet and have put another litter box out for her. I guess i am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. Like i mentioned, I am concerned about her kidneys but her blood work in june was perfect regarding kidney function. The frequent urination is not a constant with her either. Just perplexing and i am very upset about it all. I can't manage changing my bed as i am disabled and do not have a washer/dryer in my apt. so she is now banned from my bedroom. I also have a new mattress and can't afford to let her ruin it. I have to keep her out of my bedroom. any thoughts, ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated. she is eating normally and seems fine otherwise.

I have several concerns including possible kidney issues but with these glucose reading it just may be FD or maybe a bladder infection.
 
I wish I lived near you so I could take comforter to wash for you. I think we are continents apart though! Could you put some old towels on the bed for when your kitty is likely to jump on the bed to be near you? She will feel upset that she cannot do as she normally does. We've had plenty of inappropriate pee'ing with our kitty's diabetes - he didn't pee last night in his litter box for the first time in months - his numbers were very low and it seems to make a difference with pee'ing if the numbers go high. I would think it could be associated with gyrating numbers.

Do you have friends who might be able to look around for some second hand towels or blankets that you can put over your good linen and mattress (wool absorbs moisture the best). We all feel the same about keeping our things clean and smelling good - my kitty loves a clean blanket to pad down in. I was embarrassed today when my house smelt of cat pee - I think he uses the rugs when he is feeling off. It soaks in and gives off a ghastly odour when the weather condition is the right mix of humitity! :roll:
 
Thanks for the advice. I think she will be okay in the rest of the apt. I am up very late and will make a point of staying out here with her most of the time. I can't handle the constant dirty towels if she does this again and I do think something is wrong. My cleaning gals will be here Thursday and they will do the laundry for me. we have a laundry room here at the apartment complex but i can not get to it and I can't chase morgaine around changing the bed constantly. There is a mattress pad on the mattress but washing that and changing it all out is just too difficult for me without help. So, the bedroom is off limits for now. I feel so badly for her and for me. This is not her normal behavior. Just happened once, and that is what clued me into the fact that something was wrong back in May of 2010.
 
Hi Rosalie, so sorry to hear about Morgaine and the bladder issues. No advice but just some support for you and Morgaine. I've never had it happen with a UTI for Maggie. I hope you can get her in to a Vet. I know Marje was helping you find a Vet. How is Morgaine's appetite and overall behavior?
 
Hang in there. Someone more experienced with this will be along to help you.
Her bg numbers are good, as always. (((hugs to you both)))

I know my vet does has me take J.D. in for bloodwork every six months. His last was in June, so his next is in December.
Maybe it's time for Morgaine to have some more bloodwork done. She's such a gorgeous cat, I hope you can get these bladder issues resolved.
 
I have e-mailed Marje and am hoping she can help me get an appt with her vet.

Morgaine is behaving normally and eating as usual with her usual hearty appetite. She is peeing a lot tonight and drinking more water than usual. Her BG is elevated. I think those numbers, once they get near and above 150 are actually in the 200's since the Freestyle reads lower, especially when the numbers are in the 150 and higher range so I usually add 40-50 to those numbers. It is more accurate in the lower range which is where Morgaine generally is. i also know she has been spilling glucose so perhaps this is the diabetes. As mentioned, her urine glucose is very high, not just trace or +1.

Just tested her again and she was 144 so she isn't coming down much.
 
Hi Rosalie, that's great you E-mailed Marje, as I know she will help right away with a Vet. Good she is behaving normally and eating. I'm trying to think back when Maggie had a UTI. she was peeing a lot and was eating okay. I'm not familiar with the Freestyle, but know a lot here use it. I'm one of the oddballs still using the Alpha Trak, and it reads higher than the human meters, about 25-30 points. The same here with mine being more accurate with lower numbers. Her 144 bg isn't bad. Hang in there; someone should be up soon.
 
Hi Rosalie, no advice from me but we sure understand your concern. Sorry about the comforter. LB issues are no fun. Zener uses piddle pads which we soak in water and vinegar while waiting to launder to help with the smell. Hope you can figure out what's up with Morgaine.
Liz
 
Hi Rosalie,

I know how distressing it is when if feels like control is slipping away. I hope this is "only" one of those fluctuations we see with FD and all will be back to normal soon.
 
skybar22 said:
I have e-mailed Marje and am hoping she can help me get an appt with her vet.

Morgaine is behaving normally and eating as usual with her usual hearty appetite. She is peeing a lot tonight and drinking more water than usual. Her BG is elevated. I think those numbers, once they get near and above 150 are actually in the 200's since the Freestyle reads lower, especially when the numbers are in the 150 and higher range so I usually add 40-50 to those numbers. It is more accurate in the lower range which is where Morgaine generally is. i also know she has been spilling glucose so perhaps this is the diabetes. As mentioned, her urine glucose is very high, not just trace or +1.

Just tested her again and she was 144 so she isn't coming down much.
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Could your meter be wrong/broke. If the urine glucose is high and your meter is reading below threshold for a sugar dumping...something is wrong with that data. I am not sure which test strips you are using but my diastix don't give me the readings of trace, +1 etc. those numbers are for ketones. So could you clarify?

ketodiastix-table.jpg


As much as we say that a fructosamine test is not needed because of the home monitoring, this might be a situation I could see it being a good idea.
 
Hey Rosalie,

I"m sorry Morgaine is experiencing this problem. All I can suggest is that you cross post over on the Health board. Perhaps someone there has had a similar experience.

ETA - did you try the meter on yourself?
 
Sorry, i used to use different urine stix and they were measured as trace etc. She is brown, 2 on the glucose stix and no, my meter is fine. i have 5 meters and test them all periodically. Morgaine has always shown high glucose in her urine when her BG is around 150-200 with freestyle meter. It is a puzzle for me as well and the vet who didn't believe my meter results. I am diabetic, type 1 so I know my meters are not broken. They are all functioning. yes, I tested it on myself and it matches my other meter. As I said, the glucose spilling sems to happen when her BG is elevated and not when she is in the low blues and greens.

I am going to get some sleep and will try to get a vet appt. later today. It is almost 6 AM here and I have not been to bed yet.
 
Oh, my. I'm sending tons of prayers and positive thoughts for Morgaine, and you. I pray that it can be easily solved, and I also pray that she'll make a full and speedy recovery. :YMHUG:
 
Sending Healing vines to you--Please have Morgaine checked for a bladder infection Or urinary infection...
She may have a UTI and this could be the cause of her problem--Kitties urinary systems are quite complex..
I also give Moonie Dasuquin which is the advanced cosequin for her arthritis..It has natural ingredients that supposed to help urinary system--But for now--Please have vet check her--
Wishing you & Morgaine good health!
 
I'm sorry to hear of a new problem cropping up. Tess occasionally has a few accidents when she is sleeping. I would get her checked for a UTI too. Diabetics are more prone to them.

One thing that made life easier for me were puppy pee pads. They're disposable and I would put them where she liked to sleep. For peace of mind on the mattress I'd get a water proof matress pad.
 
Thank you all for the good wishes. I am still up. I ended up calling Abbott labs about the Freestyle because I went ahead and tested my meters with control solution and did BGs on myself. The variance between the freestyle and the Precision was 80 with Precision running much higher. So here is my test. I gave myself a 1 unit bolus of insulin with my pump and if i go low, I will know which meter is more accurate. Meanwhile, Abbott Labs is working on looking into all of this. I will follow up. I didn't have control solution for the Precision.

Morgaine has been fine and has not urinted in hours after going every 2 hours most of last night. This is why I am perplexed as the frequent peeing is intermittent with some days being completely normal and other days being abnormal. Her current BG is 142.

I am going to get her to a vet asap but she really seems okay right now.

As for my bed, I do have a waterproof mattress pad on it but my big issue is not being able to change my own sheets and get things washed in a timely manner. I have severe RA and I am also an amputee so I can not walk far and can not get to the laundry toom on my own so my cleaning gals do that for me. Right now, the down comforter is sitting on my patio in a bag Fortunately i got it off the bed immediately, before it soaked through to my sheets. For now, the bedroom door is closed and off limits to Morgaine. I feel sad about this because we do our cuddling in the bed but I just can't handle the cleaning up physically. As it is, I had to clean out her box and wash the floor in the bathroom and in the cupboard where her box is. she pee'd outside the box and in it, on the sides of it and over the edge onto the cupboard floor and then did my bed. Quite a mess for me but I adore her and will do what i need to do for her.

Thanks again for all the input. I will leave this 911 up amd see if anyone else has any advice. I am praying it is not her kidneys. Wouldn't that be consistent and wouldn't she be drinking copious amounts of water? As I said this is an intermittent problem which seems to get exacerbated with increases in BGs.

A few months ago i had a phone consult with Dr. Lisa and she suggested that perhaps Morgaine had a tubular issue with her kidneys which would result in glucose in her urine but she has had negative readings as well so that may not be the issue. BTW, I also tested for ketones and that is negative. Morgaine has always enjoyed drinking water, more than what most cats do, even as a kitten and young cat. Wish i could afford to have all sorts of tests done but I can't. Basic blood work is all I can manage right now. Sorry to be blabbering like this. No sleep makes me gab a lot.
 
Hi guys .. I'm sorry you had such a rough night with morgaine .. I don't have any experience in the kidney department .. I hope that whatever is causing the extra urination is something that can easily be fixed .. but I know, it has to be known what it is first! Good luck to you at the vet's, when you get the appt ..
 
When we have company over i Have to put Tess and her LB in our bedroom, all carpeted. :? I put the pee pads under and around it, you could also tape them on the walls where Morgaine misses. I would not have that comforter in a plastic bag outside, spread it out the sun will help w/ the odor. Plain white vinegar does a good job of odor control too.

UTI is not always an infection, sometimes it is an irritation. Have they checked for crystals in her urine in the past? I know how the accidents drove me nuts, and you have an even harder time dealing w/ it. :YMHUG: :YMHUG:
 
My dog had a kidney infection that went undetected and she would urinate in her sleep. She still does. I bought the human hospital pee pads from the medical supply store - a few of them. They are like 2.5 feet square. Big, and water proof. I can change them out. I leave them on top of the comforter, not underneath. They don't leak through to the comforter. And I have washed them tons. They have held up to all the washing and drying.

Sending hugs.
 
Given you situation with laundry you might order some of this stuff:

Cat Odor Off

I highly recommend it to all my cat clients and our shelter uses this stuff as well.

It does what it claims to do. When Attie urinated on my new mattress it soaked all the way through into the mattress. Admittedly I was very, very pissed. I called our foster director to let him know what happened. I wrestled the mattress outside to dry and sprayed it with vinegar and water. A few hours later the director came by with this stuff. You simply pour it on and leave it. It worked! It saved my new mattress, my down mattress pad, and my comforter. All from a little quart bottle.

I now buy the concentrate which lasts me about six months because I keep passing out 'samples.'

Second item: I had a client with an older kitty that was very messy around the box. She took a large cardboard box and cut out one end. Cut open several large plastic trash bags and lined the inside and edges. Nothing fancy, because it all got tossed later. Then laid newspaper as the absorbent, and finally the litter box inside. After I did the cat sit I tipped her off to puppy pee pads to line the box, but newpaper was just fine too.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. Will see if we need to use any of these and I will get the odor out product.

Marje worked her magic and got us an immediate appt with her vet clinic and then she picked us up and took us there. We just got home. Big thanks to Marje, a truly beautiful person inside and out. You have no idea how much she helped us and I can now relax and know Morgaine is in good hands as far as having an excellent vet.

She more than likely has a systemic infection, urinary tract infection and was running a fever of 103. She has been started on Baytril. Vet is also concerned about her kidneys and drew blood and urine. Will have results Friday, most likely. Morgaine also has a fungal infection of her nails but we will deal with that later.

So, Morgaine is exhausted and sleeping on my headboard bookcase with the window open for fresh air.

I will report results when I get them.
 
Marje and the LL family are truly wonderful.

How do you know about the nail/fungal infection. Henry's nails are very odd - very discoloured and some are nubs.

I bet the baytril will work and she'll start acting like her old self soon. They couldn't tell my dog had a kidney infection though - just that the symptoms came back even stronger when the two weeks of antibiotics were stopped and her bun/crea were high. She is on a lot of lasix/diuretics which make her susceptible to UTIs and kidney disease. They said her kidneys were diseased and they wouldn't improve and it wasn't an infection. Her numbers went down and they admitted they were wrong after she was on baytril for six weeks.
 
The folks in Lantus Land are all truly wonderful and gracious....

(((((((((Lantus land Family))))))))))))))

And I hope Morgaine gets back to her old self...
 
How do you know about the nail/fungal infection. Henry's nails are very odd - very discoloured and some are nubs.
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Morgaine's paws have been stripped bare of hair around the digits and the vet was able to see the debris on her back paws and said it was a fungal infection. She is picking at her nails a lot, especially the back ones.
 
I am so tired I am leaving things out.

I brought my Freestyle meter to check against the vet's meter and here are the results. she uses an Alpha Trak so i know it runs higher but the AT read 247 and the FS read 140. Since Morgaine had large amounts of glucose in her urine, it is looking likely that the FS is not giving accurate enough reading once it gets out of the low range of greens. My test with my Precision meter confirmed this as well, reading 50-80 pts higher than the FS in the 100-150 range on the FS. So, I am going to need to change meters if I want to know how morgaine is doing when she isn't in the lower numbers. Not quite sure what to do but I am looking at the Relion now.
 
oh rosalie, what a terrible night and morning you had! i'm so glad marj came through for you - she's a keeper, isn't she!? and now, you've got a suggestion for dealing with the urine AND you're on the right track for figuring out what's wrong with morgaine. what started out pretty bad is looking a whole lot better by tonight.

you have my greatest admiration & respect for your devotion to morgaine, in spite of how difficult it is. i'm glad to know you.
 
Thanks for your support Julie and yes, Marje is a keeper. I am so grateful we live in the same city.

As for Morgaine, she is my babe and my dear companion. The love and joy she has brought me over these many years make it easy to care for her to the best of my ability. I just hope she perks up and feels better soon. Fortunately, I am here with her most of the time and have lots of time to care for her. So many people in this community are devoted to caring for their kitties and their dogs. It is heartwarming to be a part of this group.

I went out on the patio earlier and was shocked to see a strange kitty sitting next to the comforter which is still in the bag. Glad i left it in that bag as this kitty looked like he might mark my comforter and was very surpried by my entrance, He ran off when I began talking to him, telling him "don't you dare pee on my comforter, :lol:. When my gals come to clean tomorrow, their primary job will be to get the odor out of the apt and clean the comforter. We are scented in pee pee tonight! Ask Marje.

I am making a comparison chart of BG values now comparing the FS with Precision each time I test myself. I will share it with anyone interested after I get a good sampling of most ranges. At least it will give FS users more info. My BG is not very high too often but i will try to catch some higher numbers too. I tried to use the Precision on Morgaine but failed. The sample size is just too large compared to the FS sample size. This meter stuff has been quite the challenge for me.
 
i think if i were you, i would call the freestyle people and ask to have the meter replaced. i think your particular one must have something wrong with it.

what happened when you tested the control solution?
 
julie & punkin said:
i think if i were you, i would call the freestyle people and ask to have the meter replaced. i think your particular one must have something wrong with it.

what happened when you tested the control solution?
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I was on the phone with them early this AM and they have replaced both meters several weeks ago. Control solution tested out just fine. I also have a 3rd FS meter and same thing. We are still exploring the issue and they are sending me control solution for the Precision and more for the FS so we can double check with new solutions. They are very cooperative and willing to send me any replacements including some free strips for both meter styles. Since others have mentioned this I am just accepting that there is a pretty large variance. It's frustrating yet consistent with all the meters I have tested against the FS.
 
Julie...not to hijack Morgaine's condo but this very thing happened to Lisa/Do Lou with the FS. His numbers were running lovely blue but he was still PU/PD. When she checked the FS against the Relion and AT, it was way off. She is no longer using the FS. Check out his SS.
 
Rosalie, I have two Arkray meters (they're the same as the Relion...Arkray is the maker of Relion) that are still new in their boxes that I got for free when I ordered my strips on ADW. I'd be glad to send you one. They come with a case, control solution, a lancet pen, a few lancets, and a few strips. The strips can be ordered at ADW or bought at Walmart (the Relion brand). Just let me know if you'd like me to send it to you and I'll get it in the mail tomorrow. It shouldn't take too long to get it to you since we're pretty close neighbors. If you want to wait to see what the FS people are going to do for you, that's fine. The offer is good till whenever!!
 
yay, I'm glad Marje was able to help out!

Sorry to bump yesterday's condo, but I'm afraid I'll forget to post if I wait for you to open one today. The woman who runs Siamese Rescue swears by these blankets: Mambe Pet Blankets. She has at least 2 cats with incontinence and she keeps these on most of the furniture. They're not cheap though. :sad: She said they last forever, even if you wash them a lot, and they look nice so it won't be obvious to visitors that you're protecting the furniture.

It looks like they come in different sizes and different colors. Maybe you could get a couple of the small ones and put them where she sleeps. The 30x30" ones would be easy to switch out if they get wet, and they might even be manageable for you to wash in the sink.

I used human incontinence pads when Lucy was in a phase when she liked to pee on my bed. These blankets are prettier, though.
 
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