Willow
Member Since 2016
Wow it has been a crazy few months for our family and our fairly new adopt cat Willow.
We adopted this 14 year old female cat September 2015, we ended up spending around $1,000 within the first month due to the condition she was in. After having to get her spaded I noticed she was drinking and peeing a lot. I took her into the vet were they advised she is diabetic. The testing at the start was another $800 to determine the amount of insulin she was going to need. The vet gave us a prescription for cat food and insulin, advises give her a shot once a day come see us in a month .
This was the beginning of the nightmare to follow! A complete totally lack of communication on the vet part would end up costing us $8,000+ in vet bills over a three week period and counting.
We went home, got her the food and started giving her the shots as advised. Over the next month I would call the vets office three time saying our cat is not acting right what should I do? They advised to give her syrup and not to worry. After a month our cat was looking really bad. I ordered a blood tester for cats and had it next day, I also started reading everything I could find regarding this disease in cats. I took her into the vets office on a Sunday they said she was in really bad shape, was dehydrated, backed up and blood work was not looking good overall. They kept her overnight, Monday night the vet advised we had to take our cat to a overnight vet to be monitored or she would die. She now had Keytones and was DKA. The overnight vet was 45 minutes away from our vet, their hours are 7pm-7am at a cost of $700 a night, we have to pick her up and take her back to our daily vet from 7am -6pm, this went on for over a week back and fourth, with our cat getting worst. Our day vet advised I should think about putting our cat down, the cost of trying to get our cat under control could go on for weeks or even months. Our cat had now turned yellow and we were advised her liver and kidneys have stopped working, again the vet advised I should put the cat down. My wife and I wanted to spend one last night with Willow. We picked her up and took her home to say goodbye, my wife went and bought her a coffin because I was going to burry her next to my other cats.
Over that night Willow was walking around and came to me as she had from day one. The next morning I took her into the vet and advised them to keep treating her, the vet asked me why was I doing this? At this point I'm pot committed, what is another $1,000 considering how much I have spent so far, I have never backed off on something I have committed too and I'm not going to start now. I asked if I could do the night monitoring to try and save on the $700 a night for the night vet? What would I have to do? I would have to check her blood every two hours, syringe feed and water, check her pee and poop, her peed was dark brown and poop black.
Okay I said, I will stay up and do this, not to mention I had caught that cold that has been going around, I was sick as a dog, head stuffed up, sweating so bad I would have to change my shirt 4-5 times a night. Over the next three night I lived downstairs in a sleeping bag staying up all night checking her blood, feed and water her and give her the insulin shot as needed, I would then drop her off at the vet at 7am with all of my night notes for the vet. This went on for three nights. Need to note our vet is a large veterinarian, they have five vets working there and we had to deal with three different vets during this time. On the fourth night we were having an Oscar party at our home. I advised the vet not to give Willow any shots that night because I only had three test strips and could not Monitor her that night. If a cat gets blow 50 they are in the danger zone, cats that have this disease range from 200-400mg better to be too high then too low because they can die very fast being too low. The night of our party my wife had gone all out, we had 55 of my clients at our home, fully catered an over the top event. Around 8 pm for whatever reason I went to check Willow, she was non-responsive, tongue was hanging out of her mouth, her blood was 19! I raced out of my house with her in my arms, I knew time was against us, I called the night vet while racing there to advise them I was on the way. I not going to say what I had to do to get there so fast I'll leave it to your imagination. I made it there is 22 minutes, rushed her in and they gave her a shot that saved her. She was in really bad shape at this point.
The vet at the ER advised me to put her down, her liver is not working, her numbers are all over the charts, that she is going to die. Again I refused he advises!
Over the next few days I did the same thing, drop her off at the day vet and take her home to be checked every two hours. After another few days our day vet advised we need a different kind of insulin at a cost of $300 a bottle to give her two shots a day. Good thing I did not follow the vets advise or Willow would be dead. Willow at this point was 5lbs, so skinny and yellow, her eyes looked like she was going do die any time. I had to force feed food and water. She would barff up some times and her poop was black when she did go.
Her numbers were all over the place. From 750 to 113mg in a few hours.
I read online it is very important to not give a cat a shot if they are 200mg or below and this happened a few time at the vets.
Over the next few weeks I was able to nurse Willow back to health with hand feeding and watering. Willow had started eating and drinking on her own, her pee was yellow/green and poop light brown. I had to leave for three days so my wife took over while I was gone, my wife was scared to death because she was so afraid Willow would die on her watch. When I came back Willow was much fatter and her blood levels were really high again and having a hard time getting them down to good numbers. And this is where we are at today. Willow does not like the wet food and will only eat the dry. She also does not eat a lot of food at once, she eats a little amount all day.
As she has become healthier and stronger her numbers have gone up and I'm trying to figure out the correct amount of insulin to give her(don't really trust the vets at this point)
This past week she went from the 300 -489 range to 565-700 range. We were giving her 1 unit of glargine insulin twice a day, when I checked her in the afternoon her numbers had not come down much. I raised her to 1.5 and it helped for a few days then her numbers shot between 686- 725mg. As of last night I started to give her 2 units twice a day and checked her every two hours. This seem to work as her numbers started to come down 100mg per hour.
A note! Last week we had to leave town for a day and paid the vet to send a tech to our house to give Willow her shot. The vet who took over my case had been on vacation for 10 days called me and requested if the tech could bring Willow into his office he wanted to check her out, free of charge. I said okay. When we went into pick Willow up the vet had done a curve, blood work and was amazed Willow was still alive. He said her liver and kidneys numbers looked good. He said he did not beleive this was the same cat because of how she looked. This vet is a good guy, he is doing the best he can, the problem is he is not an expert with this problem and what I'm finding most vets aren't.
My advises is if your cat is diagnosed with this disease, is to educate yourself really fast, the vets are just guessing at best and since this is your cat you need to know what is going on and not just follow the advises of the vet. If you follow your vets advise 100% your pet could end up dead!
We adopted this 14 year old female cat September 2015, we ended up spending around $1,000 within the first month due to the condition she was in. After having to get her spaded I noticed she was drinking and peeing a lot. I took her into the vet were they advised she is diabetic. The testing at the start was another $800 to determine the amount of insulin she was going to need. The vet gave us a prescription for cat food and insulin, advises give her a shot once a day come see us in a month .
This was the beginning of the nightmare to follow! A complete totally lack of communication on the vet part would end up costing us $8,000+ in vet bills over a three week period and counting.
We went home, got her the food and started giving her the shots as advised. Over the next month I would call the vets office three time saying our cat is not acting right what should I do? They advised to give her syrup and not to worry. After a month our cat was looking really bad. I ordered a blood tester for cats and had it next day, I also started reading everything I could find regarding this disease in cats. I took her into the vets office on a Sunday they said she was in really bad shape, was dehydrated, backed up and blood work was not looking good overall. They kept her overnight, Monday night the vet advised we had to take our cat to a overnight vet to be monitored or she would die. She now had Keytones and was DKA. The overnight vet was 45 minutes away from our vet, their hours are 7pm-7am at a cost of $700 a night, we have to pick her up and take her back to our daily vet from 7am -6pm, this went on for over a week back and fourth, with our cat getting worst. Our day vet advised I should think about putting our cat down, the cost of trying to get our cat under control could go on for weeks or even months. Our cat had now turned yellow and we were advised her liver and kidneys have stopped working, again the vet advised I should put the cat down. My wife and I wanted to spend one last night with Willow. We picked her up and took her home to say goodbye, my wife went and bought her a coffin because I was going to burry her next to my other cats.
Over that night Willow was walking around and came to me as she had from day one. The next morning I took her into the vet and advised them to keep treating her, the vet asked me why was I doing this? At this point I'm pot committed, what is another $1,000 considering how much I have spent so far, I have never backed off on something I have committed too and I'm not going to start now. I asked if I could do the night monitoring to try and save on the $700 a night for the night vet? What would I have to do? I would have to check her blood every two hours, syringe feed and water, check her pee and poop, her peed was dark brown and poop black.
Okay I said, I will stay up and do this, not to mention I had caught that cold that has been going around, I was sick as a dog, head stuffed up, sweating so bad I would have to change my shirt 4-5 times a night. Over the next three night I lived downstairs in a sleeping bag staying up all night checking her blood, feed and water her and give her the insulin shot as needed, I would then drop her off at the vet at 7am with all of my night notes for the vet. This went on for three nights. Need to note our vet is a large veterinarian, they have five vets working there and we had to deal with three different vets during this time. On the fourth night we were having an Oscar party at our home. I advised the vet not to give Willow any shots that night because I only had three test strips and could not Monitor her that night. If a cat gets blow 50 they are in the danger zone, cats that have this disease range from 200-400mg better to be too high then too low because they can die very fast being too low. The night of our party my wife had gone all out, we had 55 of my clients at our home, fully catered an over the top event. Around 8 pm for whatever reason I went to check Willow, she was non-responsive, tongue was hanging out of her mouth, her blood was 19! I raced out of my house with her in my arms, I knew time was against us, I called the night vet while racing there to advise them I was on the way. I not going to say what I had to do to get there so fast I'll leave it to your imagination. I made it there is 22 minutes, rushed her in and they gave her a shot that saved her. She was in really bad shape at this point.
The vet at the ER advised me to put her down, her liver is not working, her numbers are all over the charts, that she is going to die. Again I refused he advises!
Over the next few days I did the same thing, drop her off at the day vet and take her home to be checked every two hours. After another few days our day vet advised we need a different kind of insulin at a cost of $300 a bottle to give her two shots a day. Good thing I did not follow the vets advise or Willow would be dead. Willow at this point was 5lbs, so skinny and yellow, her eyes looked like she was going do die any time. I had to force feed food and water. She would barff up some times and her poop was black when she did go.
Her numbers were all over the place. From 750 to 113mg in a few hours.
I read online it is very important to not give a cat a shot if they are 200mg or below and this happened a few time at the vets.
Over the next few weeks I was able to nurse Willow back to health with hand feeding and watering. Willow had started eating and drinking on her own, her pee was yellow/green and poop light brown. I had to leave for three days so my wife took over while I was gone, my wife was scared to death because she was so afraid Willow would die on her watch. When I came back Willow was much fatter and her blood levels were really high again and having a hard time getting them down to good numbers. And this is where we are at today. Willow does not like the wet food and will only eat the dry. She also does not eat a lot of food at once, she eats a little amount all day.
As she has become healthier and stronger her numbers have gone up and I'm trying to figure out the correct amount of insulin to give her(don't really trust the vets at this point)
This past week she went from the 300 -489 range to 565-700 range. We were giving her 1 unit of glargine insulin twice a day, when I checked her in the afternoon her numbers had not come down much. I raised her to 1.5 and it helped for a few days then her numbers shot between 686- 725mg. As of last night I started to give her 2 units twice a day and checked her every two hours. This seem to work as her numbers started to come down 100mg per hour.
A note! Last week we had to leave town for a day and paid the vet to send a tech to our house to give Willow her shot. The vet who took over my case had been on vacation for 10 days called me and requested if the tech could bring Willow into his office he wanted to check her out, free of charge. I said okay. When we went into pick Willow up the vet had done a curve, blood work and was amazed Willow was still alive. He said her liver and kidneys numbers looked good. He said he did not beleive this was the same cat because of how she looked. This vet is a good guy, he is doing the best he can, the problem is he is not an expert with this problem and what I'm finding most vets aren't.
My advises is if your cat is diagnosed with this disease, is to educate yourself really fast, the vets are just guessing at best and since this is your cat you need to know what is going on and not just follow the advises of the vet. If you follow your vets advise 100% your pet could end up dead!
