Hello All,
My name is Natalie and my cats names are Jack and Boo. Jack was diagnosed w/diabetes in September 2011. It took a while but with a lot of work & teaching from my vet we got him stabilized. I was giving 4 units of insulin twice daily (Jack weighs about 15 lbs). His BG was on the high end of normal but the fructosomine test came back with reasonable scores and his clinical signs were gone, so we were in what I thought was "the new normal". I'm pretty confident in my ability to give the shots, and the new food (Science Diet R/D) was pricey but in my range.
In the last 48 hours though we've had a major crisis. Jack has had an URI, and he wasn't eating as much as I thought. Boo was eating some of his share I think, because there wasn't any change in the amount of food consumed by both cats. I woke up Saturday morning to find him in a major hypoglecemic episode. It was utterly horrifying. I put some honey on his gums and rushed to the vet. They stabilized him (BG was 37 when I brought him in - they got it up to 208) but since they aren't 24/7 they recommended that I bring him to a 24/7 hospital. He's been there since 5pm yesterday. They've run all the major bloodwork and done an abdominal ultrasound - everything was normal. The consensus is that he's not eating because of the URI. The awful part for me is that I have to take him home tomorrow even though he's not eating. This hospital is great but it's been $3000 over 2 days and I just can't afford it. So tomorrow I'm going home with a diabetic cat that won't eat and I'm terrified. Objectively I know that I have a great local vet backing me up, and I've read the articles on this board about syringe feeding and home glucose monitoring. I understand almost everything I've read and written down questions for the vet on the stuff I'm unsure of. But theory and practice are two different things and I am really scared of screwing this up.
These boards have so much information, and I'm going through it as quickly as I can - but it's overwhelming. I guess I'm just looking for some virtual reassurance, and maybe a bit of direction as to what posts/articles to read first. There's no way I can get through it all before he comes home tomorrow.
Thanks for listening,
Natalie (for Jack & Boo)
My name is Natalie and my cats names are Jack and Boo. Jack was diagnosed w/diabetes in September 2011. It took a while but with a lot of work & teaching from my vet we got him stabilized. I was giving 4 units of insulin twice daily (Jack weighs about 15 lbs). His BG was on the high end of normal but the fructosomine test came back with reasonable scores and his clinical signs were gone, so we were in what I thought was "the new normal". I'm pretty confident in my ability to give the shots, and the new food (Science Diet R/D) was pricey but in my range.
In the last 48 hours though we've had a major crisis. Jack has had an URI, and he wasn't eating as much as I thought. Boo was eating some of his share I think, because there wasn't any change in the amount of food consumed by both cats. I woke up Saturday morning to find him in a major hypoglecemic episode. It was utterly horrifying. I put some honey on his gums and rushed to the vet. They stabilized him (BG was 37 when I brought him in - they got it up to 208) but since they aren't 24/7 they recommended that I bring him to a 24/7 hospital. He's been there since 5pm yesterday. They've run all the major bloodwork and done an abdominal ultrasound - everything was normal. The consensus is that he's not eating because of the URI. The awful part for me is that I have to take him home tomorrow even though he's not eating. This hospital is great but it's been $3000 over 2 days and I just can't afford it. So tomorrow I'm going home with a diabetic cat that won't eat and I'm terrified. Objectively I know that I have a great local vet backing me up, and I've read the articles on this board about syringe feeding and home glucose monitoring. I understand almost everything I've read and written down questions for the vet on the stuff I'm unsure of. But theory and practice are two different things and I am really scared of screwing this up.
These boards have so much information, and I'm going through it as quickly as I can - but it's overwhelming. I guess I'm just looking for some virtual reassurance, and maybe a bit of direction as to what posts/articles to read first. There's no way I can get through it all before he comes home tomorrow.
Thanks for listening,
Natalie (for Jack & Boo)