tobakett
Member Since 2018
New poster, decided to post here since I have a lot of questions and the intro thread wasn't for questions.
So this is Gizmo’s story. I apologize in advice that it’s very long, I’m a rather neurotic long winded person when it comes to my kitties.
I have a 10-year-old neutered male, Gizmo, who will be 11 in May, and a 9-year-old spayed female, Widget who will be 10 in August.
About a year ago, Gizmo was pretty constipated due to hairballs and since he had started vomiting a bit more than his occasional “scarf and barf” I decided to take him in to the vet. After about 2 hours and giving him some fluids, an anti-nausea, an enema, an x-ray, blood work and urine (and an $850 bill which just about knocked me out for a non-emergency visit since that is more than half my monthly income) he came home, and took a nice big hairy poop and was back to his normal self. He has commonly had hairball issues since he LOVES grooming….so much that he also grooms his sister which is when he runs into trouble if I don’t catch it in time. I've gotten much better since finding the furminator and getting Widget a little more on board with me brushing her on a regular basis without it turning into a battle.
Vet called back after a few days and said upon looking closer at the X-ray they saw there were tiny stones in his bladder and kidneys and that if I did not put him on a prescription diet they would grow larger and cause blockages and kill him. Since I didn’t feel it was my place to question the authority of a medically trained professional, and from past experience I knew I had to switch both of them as I can’t feed them separate since they both refuse to eat then, I adjusted my own life to afford the food. Like, skipping some of my own medication and getting used to eating plain oatmeal or just skipping breakfast and eating ramen for lunch every day. Since he was a large boy (18 pounds) they wanted him on Royal Canin Urinary SO moderate calorie. I asked the vet how much he should eat and explained after much back and forth and hanging my head in shame that I simply could not afford to feed 2 cats an all wet prescription diet, the vet advised I could feed a blend of the wet and dry and to just “follow what the bag says”. At a follow up visit a week later I told her the bag said 1 cup per cat per day was the feeding recommendations but since I was doing half a half I was thinking of doing half a cup of dry for each cat per day and half a can of the pate wet food per day for each cat, split into 4 meals (at the time, my ex-husband and I were still living together and he worked a different shift so they could get fed at 4 set times) the vet said that sounded fine. When Gizmo would get finicky and refuse to eat it (since he routinely would get “bored” with a food” I would mix in part of a can of the morsels with gravy SO for a day or two and that would get him back on it.
(Yes I realize in hindsight how ridiculous this is and shame on the vet for even pushing that food so hard but in the moment I just felt shame and guilt for being too poor to properly take care of my cat, and being that I was just starting a divorce at the time, I felt extra guilt because I was taking the cats away from a human they loved for reasons they couldn’t understand)
Fast forward to about a year, present day. Now that I am moved into a new place, new life, new relationship, life is mostly good (unfortunately worse financial situation, but eh, still better than a lot of people so try to count my blessings) I decide it’s about time to get them in for a checkup. Gizmo has lost weight, just like the vet wanted, but I am a little worried that he is looking a bit skinny in the butt, but I kinda shrug it off as me possibly just overthinking it and realizing that I might have an unrealistic view on what a healthy weight is for a cat. And everything else about him is normal. Still jumps on top of everything, still tears around the house, still loves his water fountain. Both cats pee and drink a lot, but the vet said the urinary SO food makes them do that, so I did not think much of it, and neither have had any problems with the litter box.
The vet I see this time is a different vet (I think the vet I saw last time is no longer there, I did not get a clear answer but her picture is no longer on the wall, it’s a walk-in clinic with late non-emergency hours and 24-hour emergency hours) and she is very concerned with his weight…. he lost 4 pounds in a year, which is apparently pretty bad. Widget on the other hand had not lost nearly as much, only about a pound. Again in hindsight this should have concerned me more, but Gizmo is VERY active and Widget is VERY lazy and my human scale at home is not terribly accurate so the difference I just chalked up to their activity levels. (All this hindsight really has me feeling like the worst catmom ever)
So we run bloodwork and urine, give them their booster shots and head home. After a VERY long weekend of me over-analyzing EVERYTHING and worrying, I get the call. Gizmo is diabetic.
Vet recommends changing to an all wet Royal Canin Glycobalance diet and advises that Lantus is the best option but that it is $150 per pen and I have to buy 5 pens upfront but also offers Vetsulin that they sell in their office for $80 per vial that will last 2 months. She says with his temperament she thinks he is the ideal candidate to test at home and directs me towards Amazon to get the Alpha Trak 2 monitor and that I have to bring Gizmo in so we can train on how to do injections and blood testing. I let her know I need to do some research on the medications and talk to my boss on if I can get out of work early at all and figure out what I am going to do. It’s of course snowing here because Michigan is stupid so I tell her it can’t be tonight because I won’t put that stress on him tonight.
I spend the next 36 hours basically not sleeping and sneakily spending every moment between calls at work and after work researching EVERYTHING and panicking because there is NO way I can afford all this. I get mad at myself for failing to being able to support him and then I find all these resources. I read all the food info and links I find on this website. I read about how much cheaper Lantus is in Canada. I read the papers and studies and decide Lantus really is what I want to do because the science backs it up. Call the vet, and she is wary about ordering online because she said you never know how roughly the post office might handle your package, especially international, and that from Canada it could take weeks to arrive and that waiting weeks is a bad idea.
I spend another 12 hours panicking until I come across a thread that mentions you don’t need a prescription to get Lantus pens in Canada. And I live in Ann Arbor, which is not far from Detroit. The Costco in Windsor Canada is a 1 hour, 45 minute drive away or less depending on traffic. I already called them confirmed the price (seriously America – what the heck?!) and that I would not need a prescription and they even helpfully let me know that if I was coming from the states to just call them the day before and let them know so they could make sure they had enough stock since it’s a very popular request. I am still figuring out all the logistics of what I need to take with me (cooler? Ice packs? Bubble wrap? thermometers?) but that suddenly makes that part doable.
After a lot of research, I decided to pay for the more expensive Alpha Trak, because I have zero experience with this. If the Lantus does not put him into remission quickly and I need to, that’s a minimal cost to change to a cheaper tracker and learn the math and stuff at that point. With everything else going on, I figure if that is where I just bite the bullet, then that’s where I do it.
Then food. I literally put together a 3 page document, cited sources and everything gearing up for a battle with my vet on this. I must admit, I am still a little lost on exactly what my plan is. I don’t even know if they needed the Urinary SO diet because I looked at his urinalysis from last year and the one done this last weekend and both time there were no crystals in the urine. From the blood work just done it specifically notes that it appears his kidney function is fine. I’ve been reading Dr. Pierson’s cat food chart and I’m really confused because I saw several posts saying Friskies classic pate is now too high in carbs, but the list is only showing 5% for the carbs. They used to love Weruva BFF cans as a treat before the prescription food days and I’m debating doing a mix of those and a cheaper food like Friskies or 9 lives since I don’t think I can afford to feed just BFF (since I am trying to be more sensible and take better care of myself too).
I am planning on doing these transitions slowly as to not upset them too much. One of the things I found that upset me that that I was seriously underfeeding them. Luckily this new vet seems to get me a lot better and helped me figure out an actual number of kCals to be aiming for which makes a LOT more sense to me because it means I can make adjustments and just use math.
One thing I am trying to figure out is that as they have had dry food their whole life and Gizmo is very intelligent and food motivated, I don’t want him to lose that activity. During the day he would actually have puzzles and a “no bowl” feeding system where he would have to “hunt” for food since he had problems with wolfing down food and them vomit (but only with dry food, he never had the issue with wet food) What I am thinking is if I get some of those freeze dried all meat treat and just put like 1 or 2 treats in each mouse (there are 5 mice total) that would be on average 10 calories for each cat. And then have a couple of treats I put in their puzzle board and just subtract those calories from their daily calorie allotment. My concern is if 10-20 calories is enough calories to be concerning for blood levels while I am at work if he is on Lantus.
Is there anything I am missing? I feel so overwhelmed and feel like I have read everything I possibly can and yet so worried I am going mess everything up and ruin him. Our training at the vet went not as well as I hoped. I am needlephobic and I tried so hard to be brave and steady and I did so good until the vet tech couldn’t get blood from his ear and showed me how to prick his paw pad but accidently got some of his blood on me and I got woozy and almost passed out. I sat down and Gizmo just calmly got up and quite matter-of-factly jumped off the table to go jump up into my lab and snuggle up onto my chest to snuggle me and purr and then would not leave my side the rest of the visit. Like seriously, how did I ever deserve a cat this good? He’s the one who is sick and getting poked and prodded and having to go on scary car rides and yet he still thinks nothing of putting that aside to come comfort me.
So now I am just trying to figure everything out.
Some of my questions I asked the vet that I did not get clear enough answers for were:
What is “too low” of a number? The vet was kinda wishy washy on it, she said she’s had some cats that are having trouble walking at 80 and others that are fine at 45 so it’s a game of figuring it out but that 50 is probably a number to be concerned at…does that sound right?
She mentioned that if I am unsure about a number, then just skip a dose since its better to be too high than too low, but given the fact she was having trouble really describing good ranges I am a little hesitant. When they initially ran his blood his glucose was 368. During the injection training it tested at 298. What is the proverbial “no shoot” number, or how do I figure that out?
I asked the vet what to do if his number drops too low and she said “feed him” I asked if there were any special things to keep on hand like human diabetics have like glucose tabs and she said you can try rubbing karo syrup on his gums but that feeding him is better. How do I know how much to feed? Will he even eat if his number is too low?
She has me starting him on 1 unit of Lantus twice per day and that they should be 12 hours apart. She said you can fudge the numbers by 2 hours if needed, though try to not do early if you can ever avoid it and its always better to err on the side of caution and skip. She also mentioned there is a chance he could go into remission right away because he’s in such good shape, but I am not sure if that is just her trying to be optimistic and lift my spirits?
I am really sorry this is so long, I just want to do everything right by him and just feel like I have failed him despite my best efforts and I’m scared
So this is Gizmo’s story. I apologize in advice that it’s very long, I’m a rather neurotic long winded person when it comes to my kitties.
I have a 10-year-old neutered male, Gizmo, who will be 11 in May, and a 9-year-old spayed female, Widget who will be 10 in August.
About a year ago, Gizmo was pretty constipated due to hairballs and since he had started vomiting a bit more than his occasional “scarf and barf” I decided to take him in to the vet. After about 2 hours and giving him some fluids, an anti-nausea, an enema, an x-ray, blood work and urine (and an $850 bill which just about knocked me out for a non-emergency visit since that is more than half my monthly income) he came home, and took a nice big hairy poop and was back to his normal self. He has commonly had hairball issues since he LOVES grooming….so much that he also grooms his sister which is when he runs into trouble if I don’t catch it in time. I've gotten much better since finding the furminator and getting Widget a little more on board with me brushing her on a regular basis without it turning into a battle.
Vet called back after a few days and said upon looking closer at the X-ray they saw there were tiny stones in his bladder and kidneys and that if I did not put him on a prescription diet they would grow larger and cause blockages and kill him. Since I didn’t feel it was my place to question the authority of a medically trained professional, and from past experience I knew I had to switch both of them as I can’t feed them separate since they both refuse to eat then, I adjusted my own life to afford the food. Like, skipping some of my own medication and getting used to eating plain oatmeal or just skipping breakfast and eating ramen for lunch every day. Since he was a large boy (18 pounds) they wanted him on Royal Canin Urinary SO moderate calorie. I asked the vet how much he should eat and explained after much back and forth and hanging my head in shame that I simply could not afford to feed 2 cats an all wet prescription diet, the vet advised I could feed a blend of the wet and dry and to just “follow what the bag says”. At a follow up visit a week later I told her the bag said 1 cup per cat per day was the feeding recommendations but since I was doing half a half I was thinking of doing half a cup of dry for each cat per day and half a can of the pate wet food per day for each cat, split into 4 meals (at the time, my ex-husband and I were still living together and he worked a different shift so they could get fed at 4 set times) the vet said that sounded fine. When Gizmo would get finicky and refuse to eat it (since he routinely would get “bored” with a food” I would mix in part of a can of the morsels with gravy SO for a day or two and that would get him back on it.
(Yes I realize in hindsight how ridiculous this is and shame on the vet for even pushing that food so hard but in the moment I just felt shame and guilt for being too poor to properly take care of my cat, and being that I was just starting a divorce at the time, I felt extra guilt because I was taking the cats away from a human they loved for reasons they couldn’t understand)
Fast forward to about a year, present day. Now that I am moved into a new place, new life, new relationship, life is mostly good (unfortunately worse financial situation, but eh, still better than a lot of people so try to count my blessings) I decide it’s about time to get them in for a checkup. Gizmo has lost weight, just like the vet wanted, but I am a little worried that he is looking a bit skinny in the butt, but I kinda shrug it off as me possibly just overthinking it and realizing that I might have an unrealistic view on what a healthy weight is for a cat. And everything else about him is normal. Still jumps on top of everything, still tears around the house, still loves his water fountain. Both cats pee and drink a lot, but the vet said the urinary SO food makes them do that, so I did not think much of it, and neither have had any problems with the litter box.
The vet I see this time is a different vet (I think the vet I saw last time is no longer there, I did not get a clear answer but her picture is no longer on the wall, it’s a walk-in clinic with late non-emergency hours and 24-hour emergency hours) and she is very concerned with his weight…. he lost 4 pounds in a year, which is apparently pretty bad. Widget on the other hand had not lost nearly as much, only about a pound. Again in hindsight this should have concerned me more, but Gizmo is VERY active and Widget is VERY lazy and my human scale at home is not terribly accurate so the difference I just chalked up to their activity levels. (All this hindsight really has me feeling like the worst catmom ever)
So we run bloodwork and urine, give them their booster shots and head home. After a VERY long weekend of me over-analyzing EVERYTHING and worrying, I get the call. Gizmo is diabetic.
Vet recommends changing to an all wet Royal Canin Glycobalance diet and advises that Lantus is the best option but that it is $150 per pen and I have to buy 5 pens upfront but also offers Vetsulin that they sell in their office for $80 per vial that will last 2 months. She says with his temperament she thinks he is the ideal candidate to test at home and directs me towards Amazon to get the Alpha Trak 2 monitor and that I have to bring Gizmo in so we can train on how to do injections and blood testing. I let her know I need to do some research on the medications and talk to my boss on if I can get out of work early at all and figure out what I am going to do. It’s of course snowing here because Michigan is stupid so I tell her it can’t be tonight because I won’t put that stress on him tonight.
I spend the next 36 hours basically not sleeping and sneakily spending every moment between calls at work and after work researching EVERYTHING and panicking because there is NO way I can afford all this. I get mad at myself for failing to being able to support him and then I find all these resources. I read all the food info and links I find on this website. I read about how much cheaper Lantus is in Canada. I read the papers and studies and decide Lantus really is what I want to do because the science backs it up. Call the vet, and she is wary about ordering online because she said you never know how roughly the post office might handle your package, especially international, and that from Canada it could take weeks to arrive and that waiting weeks is a bad idea.
I spend another 12 hours panicking until I come across a thread that mentions you don’t need a prescription to get Lantus pens in Canada. And I live in Ann Arbor, which is not far from Detroit. The Costco in Windsor Canada is a 1 hour, 45 minute drive away or less depending on traffic. I already called them confirmed the price (seriously America – what the heck?!) and that I would not need a prescription and they even helpfully let me know that if I was coming from the states to just call them the day before and let them know so they could make sure they had enough stock since it’s a very popular request. I am still figuring out all the logistics of what I need to take with me (cooler? Ice packs? Bubble wrap? thermometers?) but that suddenly makes that part doable.
After a lot of research, I decided to pay for the more expensive Alpha Trak, because I have zero experience with this. If the Lantus does not put him into remission quickly and I need to, that’s a minimal cost to change to a cheaper tracker and learn the math and stuff at that point. With everything else going on, I figure if that is where I just bite the bullet, then that’s where I do it.
Then food. I literally put together a 3 page document, cited sources and everything gearing up for a battle with my vet on this. I must admit, I am still a little lost on exactly what my plan is. I don’t even know if they needed the Urinary SO diet because I looked at his urinalysis from last year and the one done this last weekend and both time there were no crystals in the urine. From the blood work just done it specifically notes that it appears his kidney function is fine. I’ve been reading Dr. Pierson’s cat food chart and I’m really confused because I saw several posts saying Friskies classic pate is now too high in carbs, but the list is only showing 5% for the carbs. They used to love Weruva BFF cans as a treat before the prescription food days and I’m debating doing a mix of those and a cheaper food like Friskies or 9 lives since I don’t think I can afford to feed just BFF (since I am trying to be more sensible and take better care of myself too).
I am planning on doing these transitions slowly as to not upset them too much. One of the things I found that upset me that that I was seriously underfeeding them. Luckily this new vet seems to get me a lot better and helped me figure out an actual number of kCals to be aiming for which makes a LOT more sense to me because it means I can make adjustments and just use math.
One thing I am trying to figure out is that as they have had dry food their whole life and Gizmo is very intelligent and food motivated, I don’t want him to lose that activity. During the day he would actually have puzzles and a “no bowl” feeding system where he would have to “hunt” for food since he had problems with wolfing down food and them vomit (but only with dry food, he never had the issue with wet food) What I am thinking is if I get some of those freeze dried all meat treat and just put like 1 or 2 treats in each mouse (there are 5 mice total) that would be on average 10 calories for each cat. And then have a couple of treats I put in their puzzle board and just subtract those calories from their daily calorie allotment. My concern is if 10-20 calories is enough calories to be concerning for blood levels while I am at work if he is on Lantus.
Is there anything I am missing? I feel so overwhelmed and feel like I have read everything I possibly can and yet so worried I am going mess everything up and ruin him. Our training at the vet went not as well as I hoped. I am needlephobic and I tried so hard to be brave and steady and I did so good until the vet tech couldn’t get blood from his ear and showed me how to prick his paw pad but accidently got some of his blood on me and I got woozy and almost passed out. I sat down and Gizmo just calmly got up and quite matter-of-factly jumped off the table to go jump up into my lab and snuggle up onto my chest to snuggle me and purr and then would not leave my side the rest of the visit. Like seriously, how did I ever deserve a cat this good? He’s the one who is sick and getting poked and prodded and having to go on scary car rides and yet he still thinks nothing of putting that aside to come comfort me.
So now I am just trying to figure everything out.
Some of my questions I asked the vet that I did not get clear enough answers for were:
What is “too low” of a number? The vet was kinda wishy washy on it, she said she’s had some cats that are having trouble walking at 80 and others that are fine at 45 so it’s a game of figuring it out but that 50 is probably a number to be concerned at…does that sound right?
She mentioned that if I am unsure about a number, then just skip a dose since its better to be too high than too low, but given the fact she was having trouble really describing good ranges I am a little hesitant. When they initially ran his blood his glucose was 368. During the injection training it tested at 298. What is the proverbial “no shoot” number, or how do I figure that out?
I asked the vet what to do if his number drops too low and she said “feed him” I asked if there were any special things to keep on hand like human diabetics have like glucose tabs and she said you can try rubbing karo syrup on his gums but that feeding him is better. How do I know how much to feed? Will he even eat if his number is too low?
She has me starting him on 1 unit of Lantus twice per day and that they should be 12 hours apart. She said you can fudge the numbers by 2 hours if needed, though try to not do early if you can ever avoid it and its always better to err on the side of caution and skip. She also mentioned there is a chance he could go into remission right away because he’s in such good shape, but I am not sure if that is just her trying to be optimistic and lift my spirits?
I am really sorry this is so long, I just want to do everything right by him and just feel like I have failed him despite my best efforts and I’m scared
You've come to the right place! No, you aren't a bad cat mom - you did what you thought was right and what you could manage. Now I'm going to give you a r-e-a-l-l-y l-o-n-g answer! 
