Newly Diagnosed - highly stranger-aggressive 19lb boy

[Toulouse's Mom]

Hi all!

I am the mom to two wonderful cats, Toulouse and Remy. Toulouse will be 8 next week and was recently diagnosed with diabetes. He is 19lbs (so no surprise re: diagnosis) but the main issue here is his complete and total fear of all other people, besides me. His last vet appointment required 50MG of Trazodone and 5ML of Gabapentin just to get him in the door, where he then had to be fully sedated for the appointment. He is a sweet boy to me but scared/aggressive towards anyone else who comes into our home.

My main fear moving forward is not just in my ability to give him his shots and check his BG (I've already read a lot about this thanks to this forum), but in my complete inability to be away from him for more than 12 hours if no one else is able to administer his medications. I feel completely lost and terrified that I will fail to care for him in the way he needs to be healthy. The vet is wonderful and sending me a books-worth of information and resources on how to best manage things at home, but I am scared. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Pookie (GA)]

Hi all! ...

We have a fear-aggressive cat. Kitty Prozac did nothing. Amitriptyline only turned him into a speedbump.

But Lorazepam! For us, that's the ticket. The vet calls in a scrip for .5mg tablets to the local pharmacy. One-half tablet makes him real mellow, a bit too mellow for our tastes so we give him 1/4 tablet unless we anticipate something stressful (like strangers in the house).

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

in my complete inability to be away from him for more than 12 hours if no one else is able to administer his medications.

While every 12 hour shots are best, depending on the type of insulin you use, there can be more "wiggle room" with some than others.....and even with those, it's not a life or death thing if you end up occasionally shooting a little late or early.

There have even been times when people here have actually had something really special (like an Elton John concert) so they skipped that evening's shot all together....on purpose!

Once you're shooting, there will be times when you do what we call a "fur-shot"....it's when you shoot but some (or all) of the insulin went somewhere other than inside the cat (when this happens though, you never re-shoot since you never know for sure how much insulin actually went into the cat).

So if you have an offer you just can't refuse some evening, well oops! Dang furshot!....LOL