GA EDITED…fly high my boy. Moocifer 5/10/19-12/29/25

M

MoocifersMom

Member Since 2025
NEW HERE SEEKING HELP

my boy was acting off this AM, only wanted wet treats not regular food. He ate some pate finally also, had 2u of lantus. I gave him some sq fluids (100ml bolus) as he has intermittent FLUTD flares (never blocks, just gets symptomatic) and I noticed the litter box didnt have as much pee in it. Checked on him just now and he was completely different, meow sounds gravelly, hes slow, little interest in food. He got up and walked to the water bowl, drank a bit, then peed on a blanket on the floor…i found this is apparently where he has been peeing recently (no wonder catbox is less full)! I immediately checked BG and freaked out, then checked his breath and there it is - acetone smell.

I know ANY urinary issues can spike BG but this seems way high. Although during the course of his normal treatment of twice a day, Lantus at two units, he would periodically spike at numbers this high or even into the 500s and then be back down near 200 a couple of hours later. He has been difficult to manage. I do not have a spreadsheet, but now that I am here in this forum I will start keeping one.

Should we go to the ER IMMEDIATELY? Or do we keep up with the aggressive fluids, add hydracare and give him a small bit of Novolin N to try to being him down quicker? Funding is a huge issue with christmas having just passed and especially with still trying to recover from a six month loss of income, plus two of our vehicles totaled in the last 3 months :(

Im very capable of care at home as we have several “special needs” furbabies but i know i cant monitor his electrolytes thats the one thing I know I cant do since theres no home test i am aware of.
 
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Welcome to FDMB
We are here to help you , you are not alone, I will tag several members that have lots of medical knowledge and can answer your concerns, give them a bit for them to plug in, Can you please go back to your thread Title and place a 911 in front of it, this way it will catch immediate attention once your post is answered you can remove the 911 :cat: 🤗


@Sienne and Gabby (GA)
@Wendy&Neko
 
FWIW, Moocifer was diagnosed 3/17/25 at 23.5 lbs, at 5yrs 10mo old. He was put on 2u of lantus (twice daily) and was directed to feed “lower carb), but his care instructions said “feed 1/2 cup and 1/2 cup of wet food daily, TOTAL.” I moved him to wet food but i know we fought to keep him out of his housemate’s kibble and he succeeded once in a while at getting it. But the vast majority was canned pate with freeze dried salmon as treats or the occasional Churu. He was still desperately trying to get to the crunchies so after researching we started BOTH cats on Dr Elseys Clean Protein (to remove the forbidden food element). He has lost weight since dx (yay!) and is currently about 15-16 lbs. He gets additional water in his kibble and has a water fountain. He takes a probiotic and also Renal K+ just to be safe because he does get a lot of water.
 
Perhaps it will be ideal to slowly change the food with all cats, vomiting can be a diet change effect, I also include in each meal 1 tsp of water in both my cats food, four meals a day 1/2 can each . After Corky came out of the hospital he became traumatized with the water bowl, lately he visits the bowl every so often and of course his sister Coco is Monkey see monkey do😂
@Diane Tyler's Mom GA
 
Both cats have been on Dr. Elsie‘s clean protein food for a couple of months now. He is absolutely not himself right now and has now become lethargic so I’m hopeful I can afford to do something at the veterinarian because my funds are extremely low.
 
We are at emergency. Anything i should ask about, besides pancreatitis? Im sure theywill check his urine too.

Also… can prolonged stress cause dka?? This past week has been very stressful for everyone and on top of holiday stress our neighbors have been setting off big LOUD fireworks nightly. We have a Feliway diffuser and he eats calming treats but im sure those only do so much. (Edit: i googled and confirmed prolonged stress can potentially push a sugarkitty into dka)
 
I’m glad you are at the vet, especially since you mention the acetone smelling breath. It could very well be DKA, which is difficult to manage at home.

The basic recipe for DKA is is an insufficient supply of insulin + inappetance + infection or other systemic stresses. Other signs of DKA from one of the info stickies we have:

Signs of Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA)
  • Drinking excessive amounts of water OR no water
  • Excessive urination
  • Diminished activity
  • Not eating for over 12 hours
  • Vomiting
  • Lethargy and depression
  • Weakness
  • Breathing very fast
  • Dehydration
  • Ketone odor on breath (smells like nail-polish remover or fruit)
Depending on how sick your cat is, the vet will be better equipped to correct dehydration, electrolyte depletion, to reverse the high ketones in the blood and the metabolic acidosis if present.

Hope he feels better soon.
 
Vet just popped to take a quick eyes-on look to assess his status visually. Said he may be just barely starting toward DKA (acetone breath, high BG of course), but his BG wasnt as high as he would expect with a fully DKA cat who would be throwing tons of ketones just yet (like 6-700BG) and he also doesnt “look like a dka cat” in his opinion. He said of course we will only know the actual story once the labs (blood and urine) are all run because those may tell a different story or they may be evidence that we caught it early and to give myself some grace (which made me sob). He said maybe we just need something as simple as a tiny bump up of his dose but we cant even guess on a plan til labs are run. My poor boy is so so so scared right now. So is his mama. At least this dr seems to put off a vibe of understanding this illness a bit! Please - juju or prayers for my boy. Mom is a wreck (and, tmi perhaps, in the past few months ive had both a mental health crisis and a major physical illness, plus a marital separation and my soul girl a senior dog quickly descending into dementia, so I of course sit here blaming myself like “did i skip doses? Did i mess up and cause this in all holiday BS and chaos?”)
 
Christie & Maverick said:
I’m glad you are at the vet, especially since you mention the acetone smelling breath. It could very well be DKA, which is difficult to manage at home.

The basic recipe for DKA is is an insufficient supply of insulin + inappetance + infection or other systemic stresses. Other signs of DKA from one of the info stickies we have:

Signs of Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA)
  • Drinking excessive amounts of water OR no water
  • Excessive urination
  • Diminished activity
  • Not eating for over 12 hours
  • Vomiting
  • Lethargy and depression
  • Weakness
  • Breathing very fast
  • Dehydration
  • Ketone odor on breath (smells like nail-polish remover or fruit)
Depending on how sick your cat is, the vet will be better equipped to correct dehydration, electrolyte depletion, to reverse the high ketones in the blood and the metabolic acidosis if present.

Hope he feels better soon.
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Sorry i didnt hit “reply” to your comment before, i just started typing a new one)

On the list, he has only had:
Acetone breath
Diminished activity/depression
Vomiting
And all of these just today. 🤞🏼
 
Sending lots and lots of positive and healing light! :bighug:. I do think you caught it quickly, especially if he still is acting fairly well at the vet. Ketones can build up quickly and there have been cases where the cat’s BG doesn’t have to be sky high. It is possible he will only need a bit of help at the vet since you are able to give subq fluids at home. Please keep us posted.
 
Christie & Maverick said:
Sending lots and lots of positive and healing light! :bighug:. I do think you caught it quickly, especially if he still is acting fairly well at the vet. Ketones can build up quickly and there have been cases where the cat’s BG doesn’t have to be sky high. It is possible he will only need a bit of help at the vet since you are able to give subq fluids at home. Please keep us posted.
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I will keep you posted. Im glad he was at least being realistic like you may have caught it early which is great but you were aware enough no matter what, even if the labs ahow he is full blown, you are here NOW not two days from now so give yourself credit. (It’s hard for me to do.)
 
Christie & Maverick said:
Sending lots and lots of positive and healing light! :bighug:. I do think you caught it quickly, especially if he still is acting fairly well at the vet. Ketones can build up quickly and there have been cases where the cat’s BG doesn’t have to be sky high. It is possible he will only need a bit of help at the vet since you are able to give subq fluids at home. Please keep us posted.
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He does look a bit “slower and quieter” right now so im trying not to panic. Thank you for the LIGHT!!!
 
At least I am still getting the tail flip when I say his name 🥹 and he is moving around a little going from towel to tile and under the chairs.
 

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Wendy&Neko said:
Hoping your boy gets better quickly. You were right to take him in as soon as you did.

Might be something to help you in this post: Financial Help Links
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Thank you so much! One of my adult children pulled the money out of his savings account and sent it to me to pay for almost 2/3 of what our bill will be for one day of hospitalization so I am a sobbing crying mama tonight over the despair I feel for my fur baby and the endless gratitude I feel toward my amazing son. I will still have to put quite a chunk on a credit card, but at least I know that I have enough to do that.

This darn cat and his symptoms UTI is likely what partnered with all sorts of stress and threw him into the state He’s in right now. I will say though financially painful I’m glad it happened the way it did and that I didn’t just go off trying to treat simply the blood glucose on its own and let that UTI go for even longer.
 
So now that all of the adrenaline has worn off, and I have driven to the pharmacy to pick up his next bottle of insulin to have it at the ready… I’ve noticed that the hospital estimate shows Alpha track glucose monitoring strips as an item on it… Quantity of 12… Cost $44 per… Coming out to almost $600 just for that. Is there some sort of high-tech Alpha track strip that I can’t seem to find information on via Google that would make it cost this much per strip ? Or is this normal?
 
Here is the link to those test strips on Amazon. What you are quoting is not normal pricing. In fact, most of us use human BG meters and strips for 3 reasons. First, much, much cheaper test strips. Relion Premier at Walmart is a common meter used here. Second, our dosing methods use human meter numbers as they were developed before the AT existed and started heavily marketing to vets. Third, so much easier to get more test strips when you need them in a hurry.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Here is the link to those test strips on Amazon. What you are quoting is not normal pricing. In fact, most of us use human BG meters and strips for 3 reasons. First, much, much cheaper test strips. Relion Premier at Walmart is a common meter used here. Second, our dosing methods use human meter numbers as they were developed before the AT existed and started heavily marketing to vets. Third, so much easier to get more test strips when you need them in a hurry.
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Oh, I agree completely that the human test strips are far far more affordable. But this is the estimate for the testing that will be done during this next 24 hours that my cat will be in the hospital… 12 test strips are on the estimate at a cost of $44 each, which tells me they’re testing probably every two hours or something to that effect. But that brings the price of just the test strips alone to almost $600. Does that sound right? Just wow!
 
MoocifersMom said:
Oh, I agree completely that the human test strips are far far more affordable. But this is the estimate for the testing that will be done during this next 24 hours that my cat will be in the hospital… 12 test strips are on the estimate at a cost of $44 each, which tells me they’re testing probably every two hours or something to that effect. But that brings the price of just the test strips alone to almost $600. Does that sound right? Just wow!
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Ok not almost $600 … but still $528! :)
 
Can you supply your own test strips? I never got charged that much per test strip, though it might also include a testing charge, ie. tech time.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Can you supply your own test strips? I never got charged that much per test strip, though it might also include a testing charge, ie. tech time.
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Yeah, I’m wondering if it’s including the tech time also because that would at least make a little bit more sense? I left a message earlier asking if I was understanding the estimate correctly and if it’s possible for me to send a box of test strips in rather than spend $538 for 12 of them …
I just havent heard back.
 
MoocifersMom said:
Yeah, I’m wondering if it’s including the tech time also because that would at least make a little bit more sense? I left a message earlier asking if I was understanding the estimate correctly and if it’s possible for me to send a box of test strips in rather than spend $538 for 12 of them …
I just havent heard back.
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It indeed counts toward the staff members doing the blood draw and yes plus the strips
 
Mr Moocifer, Moocefus, Mr Catcat, Moocifermeowmeow… fly high my boy. 🪽🐾🪽

You were the best boy meowmeow.

Thank you everyone for your input today. His body was being ravaged by a silent, symptomless UTI that suddenly took over. Also said pancreatitis may have been at play. He recognized me overnight when i came to visit but was struggling just to breathe. I opted not to have cpr done if he coded which he nearly did…he crossed very quietly and very quickly (before the final shot).
 
MoocifersMom said:
Mr Moocifer, Moocefus, Mr Catcat, Moocifermeowmeow… fly high my boy. 🪽🐾🪽

You were the best boy meowmeow.

Thank you everyone for your input today. His body was being ravaged by a silent, symptomless UTI that suddenly took over. Also said pancreatitis may have been at play. He recognized me overnight when i came to visit but was struggling just to breathe. I opted not to have cpr done if he coded which he nearly did…he crossed very quietly and very quickly (before the final shot).
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Oh no! I am so very sorry that your special boy has gone. My heart goes out to you. I know how excruciating it is. Hug!
 
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