Thank you so much for the warm welcome, support and kind words.
I have been an emotional wreck these past few days. Let's face it, there's a full moon! :lol:
I gave Neeno his first insulin shot this morning (8am, with the exception of the one the vet administered last night) it wasn't perfect, I was shaking like a leaf, but we did it and he didn't freak out or seem to mind much at all. The part I have a hard time with is pulling the plunger back to make sure there's no blood. It's hard to do that while tenting his skin and trying to keep the needle in there and keep him from wiggling. That's when he'd move around. It took 3 tries :? But we got it.
We are a FOUR cat family and all of this came to be in the last 6 months.... WHEW! Below I will give info on Neeno and his treatment and after that the back story on these 4 cats that have come to be my family in the last 6 months
Neeno received his first dose of insulin from the vet last night (as she was showing us how to administer).
He received his second dose from me this morning at 8am.
He's been prescribed Lantus - 1 unit every 12 hours.
Neeno was on dry food when he first showed up (about a month ago) I've been making a transition to wet by mixing some in with his dry. The vet prescribed the diabetic diet food but they didn't have any in stock and I've read from this site and others that Fancy Feast Classics is a good option so we went with that and will probably stick with it for now. He loves it. He was on 90% wet prior to yesterday so we decided to just make the switch.
Yes I am willing to learn to test his blood gluclose at home. I watched a lady do it on YouTube last night. I would like to get a little more efficient at giving him the shots I think before I add another scary aspect to his treatment plan nailbite_smile
After we came home from the vet he drank water like crazy again... for probably 5 minutes straight. Then he inhaled his dinner..... and wanted more. I am a little confused on this.... am I supposed to give him more food? Am I supposed to keep him on regulated portions? I don't give him treats yet because I haven't researched that area enough to know if they will have a huge impact on his blood glucose or if there are treats out there that will be ok for him. He is not obese or over-weight. In fact he's probably under weight.
He has muscle-wasting on his hind quarters :sad: Which was something I thought was strange but of course makes perfect sense after his diagnosis. He had also been eating like a horse but not putting on any weight which I thought was weird because Buggy (my female cat) put on 4 lbs after being put on steroids for her asthma
(In my story below I explain that Neeno has a flea allergy that had gone untreated (prior to him coming to live with me) and he was scabby and itchy and was biting, scratching and pulling his fur out. So the vet gave him a steroid shot to help counteract the inflammation).
Another thing I think is strange is that they did all of his blood work the first time I took him to the vet and the vet said his blood work looked excellent with 1 or 2 exceptions that were most-likely related to his skin allergy. But now he is diabetic..... was it just the steroid shot that put him over the edge? His shape was SO different I knew something wasn't right.... like the muscle-wasting had already started in his back legs prior to him coming to live with me. But if he was far enough along to be muscle-wasting wouldn't the blood work reveal that he was diabetic?
He seems to be handling the insulin well, he's back to his chirpy, trilling self. I'm keeping a close eye on him today. He hasn't hardly taken in water (since his 5-minute drink last night) that I've seen which is good (right?). Because he's on all wet food now and perhaps the insulin is helping bring things back under control so he doesn't have as much sugar that needs to be dumped out through his bladder with excessive water.
A TAIL of 4 Kitties
So I've had to take 3 cats to get vaccinations and treatments for minor things several times in the past 6 months. The female we have, named Buggy, (I rescued her from craigslist) showed up with a horrible cough (like having a hairball) several times a day. I KNEW something wasn't right. So I took a video of her episode and took her to the vet. She has asthma :-| Had to have a steroid injection which has pretty much made the coughing disappear. The first shot lasted about 3.5 months before I had to take her in again. She went from 9lbs up to a whopping 13lbs after the steroid shot. I asked the vet what I could do about getting her weight back down and she advised a grain-free canned food diet and for me to give her slightly less than what I had been. She had to have X-rays and tests and the food change has been a bit expensive, but how could I say no? It broke my heart watching her cough every day and not being able to do anything for her.
The first male showed up before her on our doorstep and had to have all of his vaccinations and booster shots plus he's an indoor-outdoor kitty so I have to give ALL of them flea treatment once a month (NOT CHEAP! But I get it at Costco so I DO save some money).
Chardie & Neeno are two boy kitties both about 8 years old that my ex-husband and I got when we were together. They were kittens when we brought them home. When we split up I couldn't take them because I was living in an apartment with 2 roommates. He and his Dad kept them. Then he moved to California to be with his pregnant girlfriend and left the cats with his Dad. We were not on speaking terms at this point so I figured I'd probably never see my boys again :sad: But about a month ago I received a text from him out of the blue asking if I would be willing to take the boys and/or find them a new home. I figured that Jeff (my boyfriend) would FLIP OUT and say hell no.... but he said, "Tell him we'll take them." I was shocked! But I wasn't going to ask questions at that point. So we made arrangements for my ex to bring the cats over while we were building a screen to sequester them from the two cats we already had. As it turned out, my ex's Dad had a stroke and would be moving down to CA to be closer to him and would no longer be able to care for the cats. His mental health had started to deteriorate and he was NOT taking good care of the cats. From what I understand, he wasn't cleaning the litter box often enough and the cats had started using the hallway as a toilet. Also.... his Dad had started letting Neeno go outside and he never took the cats to vet for vaccinations or check-ups or anything. When the boys were mine, they were indoor-only. When I first saw Chardie he was pretty much like I had remembered him, but quite a bit fatter. Neeno on the other hand was VERY SCRAWNY his fur was falling out/being pulled out, he was scabby and itchy and twitchy and I barely recognized him. My ex had no idea what was wrong with him. I believe the muscle-wasting had already started on his hind-legs. I couldn't believe how scrawny and boney he looked
It was absolutely heart-breaking.
We got him to the vet right away and they did vaccinations and ran a bunch of tests to try and figure out what was making him itchy and chewy all the time. Turns out he has a flea allergy. The vet said his blood work looked excellent with the exception of two minor things that she believed to be related to his skin allergy. They gave him some antibiotics and a steroid shot (for the inflammation) and I gave him Frontline to keep the fleas off. We brought him back home and he perked up and started to act like the cat I remembered. He had a VORACIOUS appetite and drank a LOT of water..... but the vet had told me that he would eat and drink more due to the steroids. We then had a follow-up but he did not receive his boosters because we had been having some vomiting going on. Gave me some pepcid to give him and hairball treatment and set an appointment to come back in.
It was over that period of time that I noticed a MAJOR increase in water-intake and HUGE pee clumps in the litter box. We were also experiencing first-hand the JOYS of having a spraying cat!! ACK! We devoured all the information we could from books and the internet to help with his spraying behavior he was also starting to get aggressive towards the other cats in the house. We have Feliway spray, plug-ins, collars, 3 cat towers, tons of toys the list goes on and on and on as does expenses for all of it. He had always consumed a lot of water, but it was only in about the last week that it really seemed to get out of control and then the spraying and aggressive behavior started and I knew I had to take him back to the vet. And that was yesterday when I received the news that Neeno is diabetic. So here we are :smile:
Thank you for taking the time to read and/or comment. I appreciate your feedback and support!
XO,
Kim
:YMHUG:
Yeah... he's pretty much already my husband. Definitely a keeper and he's been by my side through all of this with ALL of the cats. In fact he did most of the driving back and forth yesterday during our vet visit and to pick up the insulin and back to the vet. I was an emotional wreck.
