Miriam and Putty (GA)
Member Since 2009
My heart was broken today. I am so sad to have to post this....
We found Putty at six weeks old from our local MSPCA. He was born June 25th 2003. My daughter was very picky about which kitten she wanted but as soon as she put Putty on her lap he fell asleep and she knew he was the one for us. I was not a cat lover at the time. They were cute and nice I supposed but not for me....so I thought. It took less than 24 hours for me to fall in love with that little gray and white ball of fur.
He was so cute and so silly that my daughter named him Silly Putty which we eventually shortened to Putty. I said I would never allow him to sleep in my bed but within 3 months there he was curled up on my legs every night...so much for rules. He was so much fun and so full of energy. He was a people cat. He never hid from anyone. When we had a party he was always in the center of the crowd.
Putty was diagnosed with FD on August 21st 2008 when he was only 5 years old.
All the vet did was show us how to give insulin and sent us home with a bag of prescription dry food. The best thing she did was put him on Lantus. I spent hours on my computer until I found this forum. I joined right away and my eyes were opened to a world of information from some of the greatest group of people. My husband ran out and bought a glucometer, test strips, wet food and anything else that was suggested for us to try.
Although Putty was a sweetheart most of the time he did not take well to testing. It took two of us an hour to get one test the first time. I had to wrap him in a blanket and hold him on the couch while my husband tested. I never in a million years thought I could do it on my own.....I told my husband he had to quit his job if we had any chance of having Putty regulated or even go into remission. After about a month and lots of treats Putty allowed me to test him without a problem.
Diabetic cats are so scheduled that they become your clock and Putty was no exception. He would jump out of bed every morning about 15 minutes before his morning routine. He would very politely poke me in the head or touch my face to let me know he was hungry. If that didn't get a response he would knock the jewelry off my nightstand...not working...he would go to my husband's nightstand and knock off his keys, cell phone and any papers that happened to be in his way. Not getting a response he went on to slam our bedroom door shut. When that failed he went into our bathroom to slam the door only to lock himself in day after day. He was very jealous of my husband. I was usually in bed when my husband left for work so when he would come over to kiss me Putty would jump on the bed and push his face away so he could groom my hair.
Putty was very healthy despite his diabetes. I found a vet I loved and together we learned all we could about feline diabetes. To this day she says everything she learned about FD was from my research and not from veterinary school. He remained pretty healthy with a few bumps along the way but nothing that couldn't be treated very easily.
The last year he was definitely on the decline. Up until 3 years ago he was between 12 and 13 pounds but started slowly losing some weight. He was tested for thyroid disease several times but it was always negative. His dose of insulin went from 1 unit down to less than .25 units to a few drops. His weight also fell to about 9 pounds a year ago to 7.5 pounds the last few months. November of 2014 the vet thought one of his organs was enlarged He had x-rays which showed a shadow on his liver. An ultrasound did not show anything. In July of 2015 at his annual check up his blood work showed his liver enzymes were elevated. Another ultrasound was performed which showed an enlarged liver. His kidney values were also a little off but nothing to worry about at that time.
In November of 2015 I really started to notice he was not himself. He did not come upstairs very much to sleep, his eating was off just a little but he has always been a great eater. He walked a little slower but he was over 12 so I figured he was getting older. Brought him to the vet early December and his liver enzymes had gone up again. A few other things on his blood work did not look great and he had a mild case of pancreatitis. He was not himself at all. He pretty much stayed on the first floor and only came upstairs to let us know he was hungry which seemed to be all the time.
Two weeks ago I took him back to my vet to see what she thought....I did not want to Putty to suffer just because his family wanted to keep him around. She said he was doing ok...his liver enzymes actually went down just a little but in the right direction. She did say everything could change for him very quickly.
Yesterday Putty could not keep any food down. Last night his bg went from 389 at shot time to 40 four hours later. He was given a little high carb which he couldn't hold down. He started to go up. Around midnight he started dropping again and I rubbed Karo syrup in his mouth. At 2 am his bg was 28 and no amount of Karo was bringing him up. We brought him to the ER clinic where they kept him on a glucose drip. When his bg was stable they did blood work and x-rays and were going to keep him for a day or two to monitor. We left the clinic at 4:30 am. At 6 am the vet called me. She said he was much sicker than she originally thought. The blood work showed his liver enzymes were very high, his sodium was also very high, his white blood cell count was not good and electrolytes not good. The x-ray showed a very enlarged liver, kidney stones and a very large nodule in his chest. The vet thought most likely he had cancer based on a few other nodules she saw on the x-ray. He was very weak. I asked the vet what she would do in my case. She said individually some of his issues could be treated, collectively he had so many issues that the treatment would be very timely and most likely the outcome would not be successful. That is when we made the decision that we could not let him suffer or put his body through any more tests.
Fly free my sweet boy. You will be missed more than you could ever imagine. The void in my heart and our home will be so hard to fill.
We found Putty at six weeks old from our local MSPCA. He was born June 25th 2003. My daughter was very picky about which kitten she wanted but as soon as she put Putty on her lap he fell asleep and she knew he was the one for us. I was not a cat lover at the time. They were cute and nice I supposed but not for me....so I thought. It took less than 24 hours for me to fall in love with that little gray and white ball of fur.
He was so cute and so silly that my daughter named him Silly Putty which we eventually shortened to Putty. I said I would never allow him to sleep in my bed but within 3 months there he was curled up on my legs every night...so much for rules. He was so much fun and so full of energy. He was a people cat. He never hid from anyone. When we had a party he was always in the center of the crowd.
Putty was diagnosed with FD on August 21st 2008 when he was only 5 years old.
All the vet did was show us how to give insulin and sent us home with a bag of prescription dry food. The best thing she did was put him on Lantus. I spent hours on my computer until I found this forum. I joined right away and my eyes were opened to a world of information from some of the greatest group of people. My husband ran out and bought a glucometer, test strips, wet food and anything else that was suggested for us to try.
Although Putty was a sweetheart most of the time he did not take well to testing. It took two of us an hour to get one test the first time. I had to wrap him in a blanket and hold him on the couch while my husband tested. I never in a million years thought I could do it on my own.....I told my husband he had to quit his job if we had any chance of having Putty regulated or even go into remission. After about a month and lots of treats Putty allowed me to test him without a problem.
Diabetic cats are so scheduled that they become your clock and Putty was no exception. He would jump out of bed every morning about 15 minutes before his morning routine. He would very politely poke me in the head or touch my face to let me know he was hungry. If that didn't get a response he would knock the jewelry off my nightstand...not working...he would go to my husband's nightstand and knock off his keys, cell phone and any papers that happened to be in his way. Not getting a response he went on to slam our bedroom door shut. When that failed he went into our bathroom to slam the door only to lock himself in day after day. He was very jealous of my husband. I was usually in bed when my husband left for work so when he would come over to kiss me Putty would jump on the bed and push his face away so he could groom my hair.
Putty was very healthy despite his diabetes. I found a vet I loved and together we learned all we could about feline diabetes. To this day she says everything she learned about FD was from my research and not from veterinary school. He remained pretty healthy with a few bumps along the way but nothing that couldn't be treated very easily.
The last year he was definitely on the decline. Up until 3 years ago he was between 12 and 13 pounds but started slowly losing some weight. He was tested for thyroid disease several times but it was always negative. His dose of insulin went from 1 unit down to less than .25 units to a few drops. His weight also fell to about 9 pounds a year ago to 7.5 pounds the last few months. November of 2014 the vet thought one of his organs was enlarged He had x-rays which showed a shadow on his liver. An ultrasound did not show anything. In July of 2015 at his annual check up his blood work showed his liver enzymes were elevated. Another ultrasound was performed which showed an enlarged liver. His kidney values were also a little off but nothing to worry about at that time.
In November of 2015 I really started to notice he was not himself. He did not come upstairs very much to sleep, his eating was off just a little but he has always been a great eater. He walked a little slower but he was over 12 so I figured he was getting older. Brought him to the vet early December and his liver enzymes had gone up again. A few other things on his blood work did not look great and he had a mild case of pancreatitis. He was not himself at all. He pretty much stayed on the first floor and only came upstairs to let us know he was hungry which seemed to be all the time.
Two weeks ago I took him back to my vet to see what she thought....I did not want to Putty to suffer just because his family wanted to keep him around. She said he was doing ok...his liver enzymes actually went down just a little but in the right direction. She did say everything could change for him very quickly.
Yesterday Putty could not keep any food down. Last night his bg went from 389 at shot time to 40 four hours later. He was given a little high carb which he couldn't hold down. He started to go up. Around midnight he started dropping again and I rubbed Karo syrup in his mouth. At 2 am his bg was 28 and no amount of Karo was bringing him up. We brought him to the ER clinic where they kept him on a glucose drip. When his bg was stable they did blood work and x-rays and were going to keep him for a day or two to monitor. We left the clinic at 4:30 am. At 6 am the vet called me. She said he was much sicker than she originally thought. The blood work showed his liver enzymes were very high, his sodium was also very high, his white blood cell count was not good and electrolytes not good. The x-ray showed a very enlarged liver, kidney stones and a very large nodule in his chest. The vet thought most likely he had cancer based on a few other nodules she saw on the x-ray. He was very weak. I asked the vet what she would do in my case. She said individually some of his issues could be treated, collectively he had so many issues that the treatment would be very timely and most likely the outcome would not be successful. That is when we made the decision that we could not let him suffer or put his body through any more tests.
Fly free my sweet boy. You will be missed more than you could ever imagine. The void in my heart and our home will be so hard to fill.
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- Officer Putty will undoubtedly keep them in line.
