Mariette
Member Since 2020
This forum has been such a blessing this past week. I'm reading and searching all the time so big thanks to all who contribute.
Buddy's a feral who had been visiting on and off for the past 4 years. He's struggled with some parasite or allergy for ever and always had wounds on the head. In April he suffered some injury and arrived with a terrible limp. I just grabbed him and closed the door behind him. In the past he would kick up such a fuss when trapped but he accepted it. We have a lot of coyotes in the area and I think he knew he was safer inside.
We took him to a vet for the works. Blood tests and xrays. He was also neutered. His blood work was good except it showed he was fiv+ and had arthritis.
He's done very well - gotten the hang of litterboxes etc. I fed a variety of wet foods twice a day but left some dry out all the time because I thought it would make him less anxious being trapped inside with a constant food source in view. Unfortunately I didn't do a good job tracking how much dry he was consuming. But I did notice the preference for dry starting to increase. Which I found odd. When he was outdoors he used to not go for dry at all.
Recently his water consumption and litterbox use have increased. I feel terrible that I didn't realize that it was a big red flag. Last Thursday evening he had a serious diarrhea bout. All through the night.
We took him to the vet on Friday. Thank goodness our usual vet was there because she's really supportive and gentle with Buddy. His blood sugar was 501. And she said we should start with insulin right away.
He had also gained 4 pounds since April! He went from 14 to 18 pounds.
She prescribed 2 units of ProZinc two times a day.
With Covid out of control in our area we couldn't be with the vet for demonstrations so it's been lots of videos and forum studying for me. I'm finding the shots super intimidating. I start getting stressed about an hour before the shot time.
Measuring the blood glucose is very difficult too. Buddy has cauliflower ears from the parasites and I think theres a lot of scar tissue to get through. When I do get blood it's a tiny little pin amount. This morning it took me 20 tries. At least he was patient with me.
I think maybe scar tissue between the shoulders and scruff too because I find it hard to push the needle in. And he doesn't like getting skin grabbed between the hips.
Sorry long post. Just wanted to say hi and thanks for the big archive of information.
Here's some current and before shots of Buddy.
Buddy's a feral who had been visiting on and off for the past 4 years. He's struggled with some parasite or allergy for ever and always had wounds on the head. In April he suffered some injury and arrived with a terrible limp. I just grabbed him and closed the door behind him. In the past he would kick up such a fuss when trapped but he accepted it. We have a lot of coyotes in the area and I think he knew he was safer inside.
We took him to a vet for the works. Blood tests and xrays. He was also neutered. His blood work was good except it showed he was fiv+ and had arthritis.
He's done very well - gotten the hang of litterboxes etc. I fed a variety of wet foods twice a day but left some dry out all the time because I thought it would make him less anxious being trapped inside with a constant food source in view. Unfortunately I didn't do a good job tracking how much dry he was consuming. But I did notice the preference for dry starting to increase. Which I found odd. When he was outdoors he used to not go for dry at all.
Recently his water consumption and litterbox use have increased. I feel terrible that I didn't realize that it was a big red flag. Last Thursday evening he had a serious diarrhea bout. All through the night.
We took him to the vet on Friday. Thank goodness our usual vet was there because she's really supportive and gentle with Buddy. His blood sugar was 501. And she said we should start with insulin right away.
He had also gained 4 pounds since April! He went from 14 to 18 pounds.
She prescribed 2 units of ProZinc two times a day.
With Covid out of control in our area we couldn't be with the vet for demonstrations so it's been lots of videos and forum studying for me. I'm finding the shots super intimidating. I start getting stressed about an hour before the shot time.
Measuring the blood glucose is very difficult too. Buddy has cauliflower ears from the parasites and I think theres a lot of scar tissue to get through. When I do get blood it's a tiny little pin amount. This morning it took me 20 tries. At least he was patient with me.
I think maybe scar tissue between the shoulders and scruff too because I find it hard to push the needle in. And he doesn't like getting skin grabbed between the hips.
Sorry long post. Just wanted to say hi and thanks for the big archive of information.
Here's some current and before shots of Buddy.
