Sue & Emma
Member Since 2020
This is a story with a happy ending. So get something to drink, get comfortable and enjoy. My mission here is to share some smiles and hope. 
Emma is 12 yrs old. I noticed for the last couple of years that she just seemed to hang out in her window hammock and lay around, watching the world go by. She was not very interested in playing with the 3 y.o. cat Tony. Sometimes there were boughts of throwing up, but a hairball was usually found in 3 days. She ate alot and weighed 15.9 pounds. She was drinking water like crazy, I noticed because I kept filling the bowl more often. She often missed the litter box and the scooping was more like scrapping out clay than a ball of litter. It was a perfect storm that finally alerted me to her condition. So let's take a look at that storm.
E ate the Weight Mgmt/Urinary Science Diet. And no matter how I would try to cut back, she never lost weight. (It was as if that food was causing her weight gain. She and T would get 1/2 can of FF as a snack each night.) One night she started taking 3 steps and squatted to wee. She did this all around the living room in front of us. "oh no a uti!!" The vet saw her the next day, gave her an antibiotic shot and a cortisone shot. Neither he nor I knew she had diabetes. The cortisone shot can last for 3 months. ...Oh, and my vet will be retiring at the end of July.
Emma seemed fine. 2 days later, she is squatting again, but this time she roles completely on her back, puts all 4 paws in the air and I can see 1 tiny droplet of wee on her behind. We panic and take her to the ER vet thinking she may have a urinary blockage. 2 and 1/2 hours later!! She still has the uti but no blockage and we go home.
...And so the perfect storm had begun...
The next a.m. we are back at our vet explaining things. Remember it's covid and we can't go into exam rooms with her. My vet came out to the car. Well, he gave me the news that her BG was over 400. He gave her a shot to make it come down. He loves her and is a great vet. But he told me that the cortisone shot can last for a couple of months and is not good for a diabetic cat. And so we might be seeing her BG change until that shot has worn off. I DO NOT blame my vet. This is just something that flew under the radar because I didn't know the early signs to tell him.
He had me switch to Science Diet Glucose Support. She ate this like it was candy. I really mean this. She would gobble, over eat, cry for it. I just knew this couldn't be right and it was THIS WEBSITE that helped me soooo much to understand how that food was going to be just as bad as the first.
.....So let's skip ahead a little...
E's vet testing day: came in at 386, but a 2 unit shot of insulin crashed her to 70 in 2 hours. The new vet is doing the testing and I'm not impressed with her. (My old, now retired vet use to say that if "you inject it in, you can't take out". And so was very conservative.) This is 5pm Friday I pick up E and new vet tells me to give her 1 whole unit if needed after I test. But because I had read THIS SITE, I spoke up and said that I felt that was too much considering how far she dropped in 2 hours and would only give her 1/2 unit. THIS SAVED MY BACON. During this whole process, I've only had to give E 2 or maybe 3 shots. Each time only 1/2, and that's all she needed. The vet was wrong to suggest so much when her office would be closed for the weekend. I would have had to got to the ER vet which stressed Emma out terribly. Thank you God in Heaven for the people on this site who told others to hold their ground and read the BG numbers themselves and read their cats. I am certain it saved my a ton of heartache.
......Okay, you've read alot! But let's just list some steps about that perfect storm, okay?
1) Emma had several early signs of diabetes but I didn't know that.
2) The uti treatment of cortisone sent her BG very high. The shot lasts months.
3) Her dry food was stacked high in carbs. Her "Glucose Support" food was even worse.
4) She was stressed from vet visits and ER visits.
Now I know that Emma is diabetic and I use the word "temporary diabetes" because her numbers came down within weeks if not days and it was all due to a change in her food. She now only eats FF classic pates and has a glucosamine supplement in it for her arthritis. She has lost weight and now weighs 13.5 pounds. But this weight loss was not sudden and it has done her tremendous good. She jumps into the rocking chair, chases the heathen... oh, I mean "Tony" around the house. She hunts on the screened in back porch. She is so active and wants to be petted now all the time. She eats when she's hungry which is mostly at night. ...In other words, her diabetes is in check, she still tests within good limits and you can tell by her activity that she is in great shape. ALL of this was from just changing her food. But I did the work, did the ear pricks and testing, gave the shots at the very beginning when she needed it. And boy was I scared. ...But that's a different post..
To everyone out there, taking care of your precious cats, have hope... Emma is a diabetic cat but needs no further treatment (at this time) than eating the right food. Obviously the vet must list her as a diabetic cat so that she will not get incorrect treatment. But I want you to know, yep you, sitting right there reading this wondering if you can get all those little details straight -will that help my cat? Yes, yes it will. Your cat loves you and knows you are trying. I love you for trying. If my story seems a lot like your own then I hope you too will have a "temporary diabetic" cat.
Sue and Emma
Emma is 12 yrs old. I noticed for the last couple of years that she just seemed to hang out in her window hammock and lay around, watching the world go by. She was not very interested in playing with the 3 y.o. cat Tony. Sometimes there were boughts of throwing up, but a hairball was usually found in 3 days. She ate alot and weighed 15.9 pounds. She was drinking water like crazy, I noticed because I kept filling the bowl more often. She often missed the litter box and the scooping was more like scrapping out clay than a ball of litter. It was a perfect storm that finally alerted me to her condition. So let's take a look at that storm.
E ate the Weight Mgmt/Urinary Science Diet. And no matter how I would try to cut back, she never lost weight. (It was as if that food was causing her weight gain. She and T would get 1/2 can of FF as a snack each night.) One night she started taking 3 steps and squatted to wee. She did this all around the living room in front of us. "oh no a uti!!" The vet saw her the next day, gave her an antibiotic shot and a cortisone shot. Neither he nor I knew she had diabetes. The cortisone shot can last for 3 months. ...Oh, and my vet will be retiring at the end of July.
Emma seemed fine. 2 days later, she is squatting again, but this time she roles completely on her back, puts all 4 paws in the air and I can see 1 tiny droplet of wee on her behind. We panic and take her to the ER vet thinking she may have a urinary blockage. 2 and 1/2 hours later!! She still has the uti but no blockage and we go home.
...And so the perfect storm had begun...
The next a.m. we are back at our vet explaining things. Remember it's covid and we can't go into exam rooms with her. My vet came out to the car. Well, he gave me the news that her BG was over 400. He gave her a shot to make it come down. He loves her and is a great vet. But he told me that the cortisone shot can last for a couple of months and is not good for a diabetic cat. And so we might be seeing her BG change until that shot has worn off. I DO NOT blame my vet. This is just something that flew under the radar because I didn't know the early signs to tell him.
He had me switch to Science Diet Glucose Support. She ate this like it was candy. I really mean this. She would gobble, over eat, cry for it. I just knew this couldn't be right and it was THIS WEBSITE that helped me soooo much to understand how that food was going to be just as bad as the first.
.....So let's skip ahead a little...
E's vet testing day: came in at 386, but a 2 unit shot of insulin crashed her to 70 in 2 hours. The new vet is doing the testing and I'm not impressed with her. (My old, now retired vet use to say that if "you inject it in, you can't take out". And so was very conservative.) This is 5pm Friday I pick up E and new vet tells me to give her 1 whole unit if needed after I test. But because I had read THIS SITE, I spoke up and said that I felt that was too much considering how far she dropped in 2 hours and would only give her 1/2 unit. THIS SAVED MY BACON. During this whole process, I've only had to give E 2 or maybe 3 shots. Each time only 1/2, and that's all she needed. The vet was wrong to suggest so much when her office would be closed for the weekend. I would have had to got to the ER vet which stressed Emma out terribly. Thank you God in Heaven for the people on this site who told others to hold their ground and read the BG numbers themselves and read their cats. I am certain it saved my a ton of heartache.
......Okay, you've read alot! But let's just list some steps about that perfect storm, okay?
1) Emma had several early signs of diabetes but I didn't know that.
2) The uti treatment of cortisone sent her BG very high. The shot lasts months.
3) Her dry food was stacked high in carbs. Her "Glucose Support" food was even worse.
4) She was stressed from vet visits and ER visits.
Now I know that Emma is diabetic and I use the word "temporary diabetes" because her numbers came down within weeks if not days and it was all due to a change in her food. She now only eats FF classic pates and has a glucosamine supplement in it for her arthritis. She has lost weight and now weighs 13.5 pounds. But this weight loss was not sudden and it has done her tremendous good. She jumps into the rocking chair, chases the heathen... oh, I mean "Tony" around the house. She hunts on the screened in back porch. She is so active and wants to be petted now all the time. She eats when she's hungry which is mostly at night. ...In other words, her diabetes is in check, she still tests within good limits and you can tell by her activity that she is in great shape. ALL of this was from just changing her food. But I did the work, did the ear pricks and testing, gave the shots at the very beginning when she needed it. And boy was I scared. ...But that's a different post..
To everyone out there, taking care of your precious cats, have hope... Emma is a diabetic cat but needs no further treatment (at this time) than eating the right food. Obviously the vet must list her as a diabetic cat so that she will not get incorrect treatment. But I want you to know, yep you, sitting right there reading this wondering if you can get all those little details straight -will that help my cat? Yes, yes it will. Your cat loves you and knows you are trying. I love you for trying. If my story seems a lot like your own then I hope you too will have a "temporary diabetic" cat.
Sue and Emma
