Angelavenger
Member Since 2011
Hello everyone,
My name is Angel and my recently diagnosed sugarcat is Artemis.
We've been through a hellish two weeks.
Two weeks ago our cat suddenly stopped eating. She lost weight super fast and became like a little skeleton. She's always been very petite as it was and this just made her look deathly. So i scheduled a vet appointment and was starting to freak. I had tried changing her food since sometimes my cats get picky and refuse to eat something till you find something else they like. But nothing was working. Then a few days before the vet could see her she started eating again but this time ravenously yet still not gaining any weight. Seemed almost like she was still losing weight. So we take her in and the vet runs some tests and says looks like your cat is diabetic. Not only that but she has severe (ketone?) lvls. That she's near deaths door and might not make it through the night. Refers us to a specialty vet hospital an hour away. Tells us that they've never seen a cat as young as ours (only three years old) and as healthy weight come down with diabetes.
That night we rush her to the ER an hour away. Once again they tell us that they don't think she's going to make it through the night and maybe we don't want to spend this several thousand dollars on her. We sign up for carecredit and tell them to treat her. She's our baby how could we not try! Then they say because she's so young for diabetes its most likely she has some horrible incurable disease causing the diabetes. So they schedule to test her for just about every disease for cats out there. They schedule a sonogram to check her organs they do tests on her kidneys, pancreas etc..
I'm of course in hysterics not understanding how a perfectly healthy seeming cat who's so young is suddenly so ill. To hear my baby might not make it through the night...
next morning i call the vet. They say she did make it through the night and miracle of miracles she responded to the insulin treatment extremely well. They decide to keep her for few more days to make sure she makes it through the ketones and stabilizes. They run all the tests and they all come back negative. She has no diseases other then the diabetes. They check the organs all healthy and well formed. It's just the diabetes. At this point we are relieved but nervous.
So now me who is horrible with blood and needles is learning to give my kitty shots twice a day.
The vet has her on lantus, 1unit twice a day. We've been feeding her at 7am/pm, giving shot at 7:30 am/pm, He's put her on the m/d diet. with her still being so underweight he said it would be better then the w/d cause it has higher protein. Luckily he has several other diabetic patients so seems to know what he's doing. We've ordered the ipet glucose reader and got it in the mail. Supposed to go in and be shown how to use it today and they are going to test her with it and theirs to compare them and make sure its doing close enough readings. I've been the paranoid mama that calls him crying. Several times now that i've given the shot but have done it wrong and gone through the skin and can feel the wetness on her furr afterwords. Usually in the am shot, i seem to do better in the evenings when my husband is there to help. We had a scare when she refused to eat anything before the shot. Having read on here quite a bit didn't give her the shot but then started panicking that she wasn't having her insulin. Call doctor in tears, doctor calms me down and says i made the right choice and to never give the shot if she doesn't eat. Has me start putting her food away during the day so she'll eat at shot times. Works perfectly and she starts eating at shot times the very next day.
Sorry for the novel lol. Glad to see this forum and all the support and information and most of all knowing I'm not the only one who's gone through or is going through this.
I love her so dearly i'm trying everything i can to help her. Ironically I'd never even heard of pets have diabetes before this. I thought it was just a human thing...go figure.
My name is Angel and my recently diagnosed sugarcat is Artemis.
We've been through a hellish two weeks.
Two weeks ago our cat suddenly stopped eating. She lost weight super fast and became like a little skeleton. She's always been very petite as it was and this just made her look deathly. So i scheduled a vet appointment and was starting to freak. I had tried changing her food since sometimes my cats get picky and refuse to eat something till you find something else they like. But nothing was working. Then a few days before the vet could see her she started eating again but this time ravenously yet still not gaining any weight. Seemed almost like she was still losing weight. So we take her in and the vet runs some tests and says looks like your cat is diabetic. Not only that but she has severe (ketone?) lvls. That she's near deaths door and might not make it through the night. Refers us to a specialty vet hospital an hour away. Tells us that they've never seen a cat as young as ours (only three years old) and as healthy weight come down with diabetes.
That night we rush her to the ER an hour away. Once again they tell us that they don't think she's going to make it through the night and maybe we don't want to spend this several thousand dollars on her. We sign up for carecredit and tell them to treat her. She's our baby how could we not try! Then they say because she's so young for diabetes its most likely she has some horrible incurable disease causing the diabetes. So they schedule to test her for just about every disease for cats out there. They schedule a sonogram to check her organs they do tests on her kidneys, pancreas etc..
I'm of course in hysterics not understanding how a perfectly healthy seeming cat who's so young is suddenly so ill. To hear my baby might not make it through the night...
next morning i call the vet. They say she did make it through the night and miracle of miracles she responded to the insulin treatment extremely well. They decide to keep her for few more days to make sure she makes it through the ketones and stabilizes. They run all the tests and they all come back negative. She has no diseases other then the diabetes. They check the organs all healthy and well formed. It's just the diabetes. At this point we are relieved but nervous.
So now me who is horrible with blood and needles is learning to give my kitty shots twice a day.
The vet has her on lantus, 1unit twice a day. We've been feeding her at 7am/pm, giving shot at 7:30 am/pm, He's put her on the m/d diet. with her still being so underweight he said it would be better then the w/d cause it has higher protein. Luckily he has several other diabetic patients so seems to know what he's doing. We've ordered the ipet glucose reader and got it in the mail. Supposed to go in and be shown how to use it today and they are going to test her with it and theirs to compare them and make sure its doing close enough readings. I've been the paranoid mama that calls him crying. Several times now that i've given the shot but have done it wrong and gone through the skin and can feel the wetness on her furr afterwords. Usually in the am shot, i seem to do better in the evenings when my husband is there to help. We had a scare when she refused to eat anything before the shot. Having read on here quite a bit didn't give her the shot but then started panicking that she wasn't having her insulin. Call doctor in tears, doctor calms me down and says i made the right choice and to never give the shot if she doesn't eat. Has me start putting her food away during the day so she'll eat at shot times. Works perfectly and she starts eating at shot times the very next day.
Sorry for the novel lol. Glad to see this forum and all the support and information and most of all knowing I'm not the only one who's gone through or is going through this.
I love her so dearly i'm trying everything i can to help her. Ironically I'd never even heard of pets have diabetes before this. I thought it was just a human thing...go figure.
Sounds like you have an awesome vet too.
