Squeaky and KT (GA)
Very Active Member
Greetings to all 2 and 4 legs! I am 'Squeaky', aka Lyresa, our newly diagnosed sugarcat is 'KT', a beautiful, BIG flame and white Maine Coon mix. He was rescued as a kitten after riding 120 miles trapped in the brake control box of a Katy Railroad train thus his name. He's now 8 years old and is the sweetest furbaby we've ever had. He seldom gets upset about much of anything, is always soft pawed. When it's shot time, I show him the syringe, he understands and immediately lays down so I can give it. I believe he's been diabetic for quite some time but didn't really show us enough to realize there was something critically wrong until a little over a month ago. When we had the vet do a full blood panel, we discovered his blood sugar at 447. We began 3 units of Humulin N twice daily. We had hoped it was pancreatic lesions that would heal and get him off the juice. After a week on it, his number was down to 75. After 3 weeks, took him off for 2 days, sugar was right back up. The 'sort of' issue I have with the readings is that KT hates to travel, gets quite upset and complains the whole way - 20 minute drive. I'm wondering if those numbers were truly correct or if they were because of the stress. The 75 number sort of disturbs me - with the stress of the drive, was that actually HIGH and he was getting too low? I cannot yet afford the meter/strips to learn to hometest but I'm a'savin' up the pennies. We just can't do those trips with him often. If we can't get him off the juice, I do want to change to one of the other insulin's as we can afford to do so.
We are a retired couple on fixed income that live in a rural area where people come to dump their animals. Many find their way to our house in various conditions. We take them in and do the best we can for them. We also have an asthma cat as well as others with various conditions. We have LOTS of legs here - 12 cats and 7 dogs, all rescues from 1 year to 14 years old, some blind, some deaf but all very loved and happy. We never quite know how many cats we feed nightly as I put out 3 bowls in the back corner up high and all are gone each morning. There is a feral colony nearby but it's getting smaller and smaller as we slowly convert them. We find homes for as many as possible but if they've been thru too much, we keep them here forever.
Finding this board was a HUGE blessing - I feel like I'm home. Our vet is wonderful in any general illness but he's not the best at follow-up BUT, in his wonderful defense, he charges $10 for an office visit, $60 for a full blood panel and $40 for xray. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be able to begin to care for all our blessings. Unfortunately, he didn't tell me much about caring for a diabetic cat other than showing me how to do the injections in the scruff, drop the dry food and feed him soft food twice a day. I asked about home testing, he indicated it was done using the ear vein but wasn't easy. I'm learning SO much here.
I thank every one of you for taking time to post information and help - you let us keep and care for our babies. We also have quite a few Guardian Angels hanging around here and others waiting at the Bridge. I read a post somewhere about where the ferals go when they cross. I'll be gatherin' up and hugging every one of them that want to go on over the bridge with me! We'll make quite a grand entrance!
Hugs to everyone!
Squeaky aka Lyresa...and
Kittys - KT, Snowshoe, Nuisance, Pepper, Scruffy, Peanut, Lilly, Spike, Boots, Noah, Shadow and Smoke - all that tolerate the 7 dogs - Lacey, Sasha, Sassy, Harley, Chloe, Star and Samson.
We are a retired couple on fixed income that live in a rural area where people come to dump their animals. Many find their way to our house in various conditions. We take them in and do the best we can for them. We also have an asthma cat as well as others with various conditions. We have LOTS of legs here - 12 cats and 7 dogs, all rescues from 1 year to 14 years old, some blind, some deaf but all very loved and happy. We never quite know how many cats we feed nightly as I put out 3 bowls in the back corner up high and all are gone each morning. There is a feral colony nearby but it's getting smaller and smaller as we slowly convert them. We find homes for as many as possible but if they've been thru too much, we keep them here forever.
Finding this board was a HUGE blessing - I feel like I'm home. Our vet is wonderful in any general illness but he's not the best at follow-up BUT, in his wonderful defense, he charges $10 for an office visit, $60 for a full blood panel and $40 for xray. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be able to begin to care for all our blessings. Unfortunately, he didn't tell me much about caring for a diabetic cat other than showing me how to do the injections in the scruff, drop the dry food and feed him soft food twice a day. I asked about home testing, he indicated it was done using the ear vein but wasn't easy. I'm learning SO much here.
I thank every one of you for taking time to post information and help - you let us keep and care for our babies. We also have quite a few Guardian Angels hanging around here and others waiting at the Bridge. I read a post somewhere about where the ferals go when they cross. I'll be gatherin' up and hugging every one of them that want to go on over the bridge with me! We'll make quite a grand entrance!
Hugs to everyone!
Squeaky aka Lyresa...and
Kittys - KT, Snowshoe, Nuisance, Pepper, Scruffy, Peanut, Lilly, Spike, Boots, Noah, Shadow and Smoke - all that tolerate the 7 dogs - Lacey, Sasha, Sassy, Harley, Chloe, Star and Samson.
