Hello fellow kitty lovers!
My wife and I are the proud owners of the 3 best kitties in the world (I'm sure we all say that, lol)! Our oldest is Forest who is 16 but still runs around like he's 5, Sleazy is our middle child who is 13 and Bob, the Peter Pan of cats because he just won't realize he's not a kitten anymore, is our youngest at 10. They are all boys that are all people loving and extremely social and friendly kitties.
Back in December, poor little Sleazy was diagnosed with feline diabetes. Last year was a rough year for him, he had a nasty ear hematoma that had to be removed surgically in the summer and then the diabetes in December...poor little buddy. Our vet started him on ProZinc insulin and with the insulin and a change in diet we haven't had any trouble controlling and keeping his blood sugar levels where they need to be. What made us notice something was wrong though and take him to the vet in the first place was that we noticed he started walking funny, like something was wrong with his back legs. He was walking on the hocks of his back legs and kind of dragging his back legs behind him instead of up on his toes like he should be. That prompted us to take him to the vet where we got the diabetes diagnosis and he was also diagnosed with severe nerve neuropathy and muscle loss in his hind legs. We were hoping the hind legs would improve as we got his blood sugar levels under control and we knew it might take a while for that to happen. The vet we had been taking him said that there wasn't really anything they could do for the hind legs other than just wait and see and that he could be like that for the rest of his life. Although we liked that vet and they never did anything wrong we just didn't like that answer and thought it may be good to go to a different vet and get a second opinion.
While we were at the specialty pet food shop, they highly recommended another vet so we thought we'd take him to her and see what she thought. Thank goodness we did! Our new vet was actually very excited to treat him...she said that almost all the cats that came in with diabetes either had caught and controlled the diabetes before any nerve neuropathy happened or by the time they were diagnosed the neuropathy had progressed so far that there wasn't a lot anyone could do. She said Sleazy was kind of in the middle and wanted to try some more experimental things on him that may help reverse the neuropathy. So we started taking him to her 2-3 times a week for deep tissue laser treatments. Since he didn't seem to mind the laser treatments and was behaving himself while there she asked if we could start dropping him off in the morning and leaving him there all day (picking him up at the end of the day after work) so she could try some physical therapy with him. We said ok but we may not be able to afford all that. She said that she wanted to use him as a case study on diabetes caused nerve neuropathy and would only charge us for the laser treatments (which really aren't that expensive). So, we started this regimen of taking him 2 days a week and leaving him there all day, this started in January.
I am so happy to report that in the past few weeks little Mr. Sleazy has started walking up on his back toes again instead of walking on his hocks and dragging his back feet. There were several times over the last 4-5 months where my wife and I talked about not taking him anymore since we were seeing minor improvement but not a tremendous amount of progress. Now all of the sudden a few weeks ago he kind of did a 180 and we're seeing tremendous results. Not only is he walking normal again but he's jumping up on the bed on his own again and jumping up on things all over the house that he's not supposed to be jumping on, lol. The muscles in his back legs are coming back strong as well. Along with the deep tissue laser treatments he does a lot physical therapy...standing on the exercise ball, walking with braces on his back legs to keep them straight so he can't get down on the hocks, walking an obstacle course over sticks that forces him to lift his legs up, being put over this inflatable thing that looks like a big pill/cylinder that they roll him back and forth on to force him up on his toes and even swimming...yes, a kitty swimming! They put a harness on him and put him in this big tub which makes it a lot easier to get up on his toes since he doesn't have his body weight working against him. He loves it and especially loves the big blow dryer that they attach to the cage door to dry him off after he's been swimming.
The funniest thing is that before all of this he was our worst vet cat, he hated going to the vet and was always very grumpy and bad when he'd be there. He's been at our new vet so often and so much now that he's extremely comfortable there now and walks around like he owns the place. I'll never forget one afternoon that I was there to pick him up. I was sitting in the waiting area waiting for them to bring him out and I was checking an email on my phone. I look away from my phone and look down and there's little Sleazy staring up at me. I had no idea where he came from, they said he heard me talking and decided to walk out of the back area to come see me.
For any of you out there that are dealing with not only the diabetes but also dealing with nerve neuropathy/muscle loss please know that there is hope and there are things that can be done to help reverse or heal the nerve and muscle issues. We really can't believe how good our little buddy is doing and the improvement we're now seeing. If any of you happen to live in the central New Jersey area (Cranford, Westfield, Garwood, Clark, Roselle Park, etc. area) I highly recommend Cherrybrook Premium Pet Supplies in Garwood, they have an extremely nice, helpful and knowledgeable staff as well as a lot of great specialty foods and other things for diabetic cats. I also very highly recommend Elizabeth Veterinary Clinic in Roselle. Dr. Tucker has been a god-send and a saint for us and especially for little Sleazy. She is a tremendous cat lover and one of the rare vets out there that genuinely cares about your kitty. If it wasn't for her dedication, empathy and willingness to try new and experimental techniques little Sleazy might not be walking at all right now and would certainly have much less quality of life.
Best of luck to everyone and their kitties!!!
My wife and I are the proud owners of the 3 best kitties in the world (I'm sure we all say that, lol)! Our oldest is Forest who is 16 but still runs around like he's 5, Sleazy is our middle child who is 13 and Bob, the Peter Pan of cats because he just won't realize he's not a kitten anymore, is our youngest at 10. They are all boys that are all people loving and extremely social and friendly kitties.
Back in December, poor little Sleazy was diagnosed with feline diabetes. Last year was a rough year for him, he had a nasty ear hematoma that had to be removed surgically in the summer and then the diabetes in December...poor little buddy. Our vet started him on ProZinc insulin and with the insulin and a change in diet we haven't had any trouble controlling and keeping his blood sugar levels where they need to be. What made us notice something was wrong though and take him to the vet in the first place was that we noticed he started walking funny, like something was wrong with his back legs. He was walking on the hocks of his back legs and kind of dragging his back legs behind him instead of up on his toes like he should be. That prompted us to take him to the vet where we got the diabetes diagnosis and he was also diagnosed with severe nerve neuropathy and muscle loss in his hind legs. We were hoping the hind legs would improve as we got his blood sugar levels under control and we knew it might take a while for that to happen. The vet we had been taking him said that there wasn't really anything they could do for the hind legs other than just wait and see and that he could be like that for the rest of his life. Although we liked that vet and they never did anything wrong we just didn't like that answer and thought it may be good to go to a different vet and get a second opinion.
While we were at the specialty pet food shop, they highly recommended another vet so we thought we'd take him to her and see what she thought. Thank goodness we did! Our new vet was actually very excited to treat him...she said that almost all the cats that came in with diabetes either had caught and controlled the diabetes before any nerve neuropathy happened or by the time they were diagnosed the neuropathy had progressed so far that there wasn't a lot anyone could do. She said Sleazy was kind of in the middle and wanted to try some more experimental things on him that may help reverse the neuropathy. So we started taking him to her 2-3 times a week for deep tissue laser treatments. Since he didn't seem to mind the laser treatments and was behaving himself while there she asked if we could start dropping him off in the morning and leaving him there all day (picking him up at the end of the day after work) so she could try some physical therapy with him. We said ok but we may not be able to afford all that. She said that she wanted to use him as a case study on diabetes caused nerve neuropathy and would only charge us for the laser treatments (which really aren't that expensive). So, we started this regimen of taking him 2 days a week and leaving him there all day, this started in January.
I am so happy to report that in the past few weeks little Mr. Sleazy has started walking up on his back toes again instead of walking on his hocks and dragging his back feet. There were several times over the last 4-5 months where my wife and I talked about not taking him anymore since we were seeing minor improvement but not a tremendous amount of progress. Now all of the sudden a few weeks ago he kind of did a 180 and we're seeing tremendous results. Not only is he walking normal again but he's jumping up on the bed on his own again and jumping up on things all over the house that he's not supposed to be jumping on, lol. The muscles in his back legs are coming back strong as well. Along with the deep tissue laser treatments he does a lot physical therapy...standing on the exercise ball, walking with braces on his back legs to keep them straight so he can't get down on the hocks, walking an obstacle course over sticks that forces him to lift his legs up, being put over this inflatable thing that looks like a big pill/cylinder that they roll him back and forth on to force him up on his toes and even swimming...yes, a kitty swimming! They put a harness on him and put him in this big tub which makes it a lot easier to get up on his toes since he doesn't have his body weight working against him. He loves it and especially loves the big blow dryer that they attach to the cage door to dry him off after he's been swimming.
The funniest thing is that before all of this he was our worst vet cat, he hated going to the vet and was always very grumpy and bad when he'd be there. He's been at our new vet so often and so much now that he's extremely comfortable there now and walks around like he owns the place. I'll never forget one afternoon that I was there to pick him up. I was sitting in the waiting area waiting for them to bring him out and I was checking an email on my phone. I look away from my phone and look down and there's little Sleazy staring up at me. I had no idea where he came from, they said he heard me talking and decided to walk out of the back area to come see me.
For any of you out there that are dealing with not only the diabetes but also dealing with nerve neuropathy/muscle loss please know that there is hope and there are things that can be done to help reverse or heal the nerve and muscle issues. We really can't believe how good our little buddy is doing and the improvement we're now seeing. If any of you happen to live in the central New Jersey area (Cranford, Westfield, Garwood, Clark, Roselle Park, etc. area) I highly recommend Cherrybrook Premium Pet Supplies in Garwood, they have an extremely nice, helpful and knowledgeable staff as well as a lot of great specialty foods and other things for diabetic cats. I also very highly recommend Elizabeth Veterinary Clinic in Roselle. Dr. Tucker has been a god-send and a saint for us and especially for little Sleazy. She is a tremendous cat lover and one of the rare vets out there that genuinely cares about your kitty. If it wasn't for her dedication, empathy and willingness to try new and experimental techniques little Sleazy might not be walking at all right now and would certainly have much less quality of life.
Best of luck to everyone and their kitties!!!
