Libby and Lucy
Member Since 2009
Today is a special day for Lucy and me. Three years ago today, Lucy joined my family. It seems like we’ve known each other forever, but maybe that’s just because of the wild ride we have been on. Lucy is still only about 8 years old. This year I am determined to help her get some weight off so she can be with me for a long, long time.
Forgive me, this is probably the longest post I’ve ever written, but I have been very emotional today thinking about the last three years. The amazing beginning to our story is in my old board profile, linked in my signature. 12 days after I adopted Lucy, I came home to find her (I thought) dead in my closet. She was alive, but barely. Took her to the vet, where the vet grabbed her from my arms and rushed her to the back. Initial diagnosis: diabetes, with a BG of 649. Later it was determined that she also had DKA and hepatic lipidosis. Her temperature wouldn’t stay up, despite being kept under a warming lamp. The odds were virtually zero that she would make it, but her eyes told me that she wanted to try.
I remember taking her to the ER vet when my vet’s office closed on Saturday morning. I thought she was leaking blood. The vet said no, that’s her urine, there’s just that much blood in it. He told me I was wasting my money trying to keep her alive. I told him that it was my money and I’ll waste it if I want to. Then I went out into the parking lot and cried. I was fairly certain I would never see her alive again. But she lived through the night! The next day when I went to visit her, she purred!!!! I cried, of course. I sat there petting her for as long as they would let me stay, and she kept purring. She couldn’t hold her head up, but she purred! I knew then that she would pull through. That ER vet, as much as I disliked him, certainly earned the money I “wasted” there.
The next day when I took her back to the regular vet, she was a different kitty. Still very weak, but she actually tried to jump out of the vet tech’s arms to run away (she couldn’t, but she tried). I cried again, it was beautiful to see her try to struggle. The vet came into the room just then, and she cried too. She told me that when I left with Lucy that Saturday, she knew Lucy wouldn’t be back, yet there she was trying to run away. She came home on a Tuesday. I had made a bed in my closet out of piddle pads since she was still incontinent, and bought a very low sided litterbox since her hind legs weren’t working and she was too weak to stand. Incredibly, she didn’t need them. As soon as she got home she found some strength, not a lot but enough to get to the litterbox and move around the room a little. It was a couple of days before she started eating on her own again, but once she started eating her improvement was miraculous. Lots more crying after that, but happy tears. :smile:
I found FDMB right away, but I lurked on Health and never posted. We started on N, then PZI. I didn’t know how to get her numbers under control, and I was afraid I would mismanage her to the point where I would kill her, after all her hard work to get better. She kept having UTI’s. When I moved to South Carolina that December, the vet suggested Lantus. PZI was being discontinued, and it wasn’t working for us anyway, so I eventually agreed to switch. I knew I couldn’t do Lantus without help, so as shy as I am, I took the plunge and posted for help. D/Noisy and D/Shadow grabbed me from Health right away and brought me to LL. And here we are! So much drama and so many late nights, but my brave girl went OTJ after 10 months in LL (17 months on insulin).
It was really amazing to watch her personality change as she got better, especially because I didn’t know what her real personality was before she got sick. You all see old behaviors returning in your cats, but I didn’t know what her old behaviors would be. It turns out that I have a major goofball on my hands! Lucy is silly and makes me laugh every day, her fur feels like sable and she undulates under my hand and ROARS with purrs when I pet her. I Love Lucy! Thank you Jill and Jojo and Diahann and everyone else who guided me along the way, you all are miracle workers. Oh, and I'm supposed to have a number to have a condo - last night Lucy gave me one of her better OTJ numbers, 73. :mrgreen: You go girl!
Click below to see Lucy's slideshow!
Forgive me, this is probably the longest post I’ve ever written, but I have been very emotional today thinking about the last three years. The amazing beginning to our story is in my old board profile, linked in my signature. 12 days after I adopted Lucy, I came home to find her (I thought) dead in my closet. She was alive, but barely. Took her to the vet, where the vet grabbed her from my arms and rushed her to the back. Initial diagnosis: diabetes, with a BG of 649. Later it was determined that she also had DKA and hepatic lipidosis. Her temperature wouldn’t stay up, despite being kept under a warming lamp. The odds were virtually zero that she would make it, but her eyes told me that she wanted to try.
I remember taking her to the ER vet when my vet’s office closed on Saturday morning. I thought she was leaking blood. The vet said no, that’s her urine, there’s just that much blood in it. He told me I was wasting my money trying to keep her alive. I told him that it was my money and I’ll waste it if I want to. Then I went out into the parking lot and cried. I was fairly certain I would never see her alive again. But she lived through the night! The next day when I went to visit her, she purred!!!! I cried, of course. I sat there petting her for as long as they would let me stay, and she kept purring. She couldn’t hold her head up, but she purred! I knew then that she would pull through. That ER vet, as much as I disliked him, certainly earned the money I “wasted” there.
The next day when I took her back to the regular vet, she was a different kitty. Still very weak, but she actually tried to jump out of the vet tech’s arms to run away (she couldn’t, but she tried). I cried again, it was beautiful to see her try to struggle. The vet came into the room just then, and she cried too. She told me that when I left with Lucy that Saturday, she knew Lucy wouldn’t be back, yet there she was trying to run away. She came home on a Tuesday. I had made a bed in my closet out of piddle pads since she was still incontinent, and bought a very low sided litterbox since her hind legs weren’t working and she was too weak to stand. Incredibly, she didn’t need them. As soon as she got home she found some strength, not a lot but enough to get to the litterbox and move around the room a little. It was a couple of days before she started eating on her own again, but once she started eating her improvement was miraculous. Lots more crying after that, but happy tears. :smile:
I found FDMB right away, but I lurked on Health and never posted. We started on N, then PZI. I didn’t know how to get her numbers under control, and I was afraid I would mismanage her to the point where I would kill her, after all her hard work to get better. She kept having UTI’s. When I moved to South Carolina that December, the vet suggested Lantus. PZI was being discontinued, and it wasn’t working for us anyway, so I eventually agreed to switch. I knew I couldn’t do Lantus without help, so as shy as I am, I took the plunge and posted for help. D/Noisy and D/Shadow grabbed me from Health right away and brought me to LL. And here we are! So much drama and so many late nights, but my brave girl went OTJ after 10 months in LL (17 months on insulin).
It was really amazing to watch her personality change as she got better, especially because I didn’t know what her real personality was before she got sick. You all see old behaviors returning in your cats, but I didn’t know what her old behaviors would be. It turns out that I have a major goofball on my hands! Lucy is silly and makes me laugh every day, her fur feels like sable and she undulates under my hand and ROARS with purrs when I pet her. I Love Lucy! Thank you Jill and Jojo and Diahann and everyone else who guided me along the way, you all are miracle workers. Oh, and I'm supposed to have a number to have a condo - last night Lucy gave me one of her better OTJ numbers, 73. :mrgreen: You go girl!
Click below to see Lucy's slideshow!
I glad Lucy didn't pay attention to those odds! And look at her now! She is gorgeous!!! It's funny to see a beauty like Lucy being called a "goofball" but it must have been so wonderful for you to realize the wonderful girl she really was....and to see her regaining her health. I loved the slideshow...great pictures of her. (none of them arm-in-arm with Jazzy I see!) :lol: 
But lookit her now! Pity about the bellie....how can something so smooshable be so unhealthy? How about getting her on one of them treadmills like I see there on the Youtube? :mrgreen: 
It's really no wonder she started purring. 
