RobinHarley
Member Since 2018
Hello!
My name is Robin. I am a student in my senior year graduating with my Social Work degree!
I have my kitties and my doggo. This is a bit about us and our journey of being diagnosed.
We recently moved after 20 years to a rural town in Idaho. When we moved it wasn't long after my bed started being peed on. I thought it was my old lady cat, Baby. But I never actually caught her in the act so I wasn't 100% sure. Took her in and we found grave kidney results. Treated with antibiotics and nothing changed so we put her on a k/d diet and added omega-3. Though... the peeing never stopped. Blocked my room off for cat access and got some peace of mind for awhile.
Now... the entire time this is going on Harley is beyond changing, but it ways that never stuck out to me as an ailment. The one I really noticed was he could not get enough food. I free fed, he ate all day long and if you went into the kitchen he was on your heels in the fridge, climbing shelves in the pantry, ripping packages apart, eating any and all human food he could. Eating food out of pots on the stove still cooking even! It was other family members who started noticing his weight loss... so I weighed him (I keep active weights on all the animals)... sure enough in 2 months he had lost 4lbs but was heating like a pig. Then it was a couple weeks later my mom (who has been type 1 since 2 years old) mentioned him drinking excessively and mentioned diabetes. That same evening I caught him peeing on my bed... all in all it was never Baby, though I am lucky I took her in and started treatment for her kidney failure.
Scheduled a vet appointment that next morning, took him in, they all assured me he was far too young and I would be okay and out of there in no time.
Harley is my bottle baby. A litter of kittens were found in our backyard dumped, as day old new borns. Two were passed away, two were alive. I bottle fed and raised them, and Harley stayed with us.
He is 3 and a half years old.
Back to the appointment... The vet did a look over and said he seemed very healthy and really wouldn't be doing any tests except if I would like to do a urine test to check for anything causing him to pee on my bed. He did say he would be willing to do urine and blood too if I really felt like all these changes had gone on and if my weighing him was accurate and I really felt like he had lost that much weight, because he said that was a lot to lose in 2 short months. I said, yes, I do believe everything I told you is true. So he went and ran all the tests came in and said... "Robin, I apologize to you now. I take my words back. This is the youngest cat in the history of this clinic that we are diagnosing with diabetes. His levels are 591 both in urine and blood." Harley also has a nasty bladder infection.
That began our journey! I hope to get to know this community well, I love researching all the time and love communities of people who love animals as much as I do.
My name is Robin. I am a student in my senior year graduating with my Social Work degree!
I have my kitties and my doggo. This is a bit about us and our journey of being diagnosed.
We recently moved after 20 years to a rural town in Idaho. When we moved it wasn't long after my bed started being peed on. I thought it was my old lady cat, Baby. But I never actually caught her in the act so I wasn't 100% sure. Took her in and we found grave kidney results. Treated with antibiotics and nothing changed so we put her on a k/d diet and added omega-3. Though... the peeing never stopped. Blocked my room off for cat access and got some peace of mind for awhile.
Now... the entire time this is going on Harley is beyond changing, but it ways that never stuck out to me as an ailment. The one I really noticed was he could not get enough food. I free fed, he ate all day long and if you went into the kitchen he was on your heels in the fridge, climbing shelves in the pantry, ripping packages apart, eating any and all human food he could. Eating food out of pots on the stove still cooking even! It was other family members who started noticing his weight loss... so I weighed him (I keep active weights on all the animals)... sure enough in 2 months he had lost 4lbs but was heating like a pig. Then it was a couple weeks later my mom (who has been type 1 since 2 years old) mentioned him drinking excessively and mentioned diabetes. That same evening I caught him peeing on my bed... all in all it was never Baby, though I am lucky I took her in and started treatment for her kidney failure.
Scheduled a vet appointment that next morning, took him in, they all assured me he was far too young and I would be okay and out of there in no time.
Harley is my bottle baby. A litter of kittens were found in our backyard dumped, as day old new borns. Two were passed away, two were alive. I bottle fed and raised them, and Harley stayed with us.
He is 3 and a half years old.Back to the appointment... The vet did a look over and said he seemed very healthy and really wouldn't be doing any tests except if I would like to do a urine test to check for anything causing him to pee on my bed. He did say he would be willing to do urine and blood too if I really felt like all these changes had gone on and if my weighing him was accurate and I really felt like he had lost that much weight, because he said that was a lot to lose in 2 short months. I said, yes, I do believe everything I told you is true. So he went and ran all the tests came in and said... "Robin, I apologize to you now. I take my words back. This is the youngest cat in the history of this clinic that we are diagnosing with diabetes. His levels are 591 both in urine and blood." Harley also has a nasty bladder infection.
That began our journey! I hope to get to know this community well, I love researching all the time and love communities of people who love animals as much as I do.
