? possibly stupid question, worried about travel

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catfool

catfool

Member Since 2022
My family is going out for 4 days, and despite our usual cat sitter that does our cats injections falling through they are insisting it will be fine as we still have someone to feed him they just can't do needles.
They keep saying it will be ok for me to go, and thats not long enough for him to go into crisis as he is on good food and has been on insulin for so long now but I'm still very anxious about him even feeling bad...
Right now I am considering staying to take care of him, but I'm worried. am I over reacting like my family is saying? I have been overly panicky about his health ever since we started, so its possible. Wanted to seek advice from other owners.



EDIT: I am staying with our cats and administering insulin as usual, I am not this cats primary caretaker and the information has been passed on to her regarding at home checking. (she seems on board once they are back however she wants to be there).

I sincerely thank you all for your feedback and knowledge on the subject. I am sorry if I upset anyone through my ignorance.
 
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Not a stupid question at all!

Which insulin is your kitty on? Does he have a history of ketones? Do you hometest or have an idea of what his BG levels are?
Have you looked at websites like Rover for petsitters?
 
Bandit's Mom said:
Not a stupid question at all!

Which insulin is your kitty on? Does he have a history of ketones? Do you hometest or have an idea of what his BG levels are?
Have you looked at websites like Rover for petsitters?
Click to expand...
Thank you! he is on PZI, we don't hometest our vet hasn't brought that up to us yet so we don't know much on that front I'm afraid... However I do know that he has missed days before fine and has never gone into a crisis before insulin, we only figured out after his brother was diagnosed so we decided to check him as well to be sure. As for Rover, we live in a pretty small middle of nowhere town so most petsitters are pretty far out sadly. Thank you for your reply/questions!
 
Vets don’t typically bring up home testing, but it’s important to keep your cat safe and to monitor the dosing. Are you having curves done at the vet then and how many units is he on? And what types of food is he eating? Does he eat well? Ketones was brought up because not eating well and not getting insulin can lead to it. 4 days without insulin is not ideal. Have you checked with your vet to see if any of the vet techs could pet sit?
 
Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA) said:
Vets don’t typically bring up home testing, but it’s important to keep your cat safe and to monitor the dosing. Are you having curves done at the vet then and how many units is he on? And what types of food is he eating? Does he eat well? Ketones was brought up because not eating well and not getting insulin can lead to it. 4 days without insulin is not ideal. Have you checked with your vet to see if any of the vet techs could pet sit?
Click to expand...

I didn't know that it was something I'd have to bring up myself. That's on me, sorry, and thank you for letting me know. That will probably help greatly with my anxiety regarding his health. We have curves done regularly and he is on 6.5mg after each meal and that is working very well according to our vet. He eats well, and we stick to fancy feast pate wet food for him and our senior kitty usually. our vet doesn't offer any services like that.
Right now it's looking best I stay home with him, and I've gotten the good to go on my family about it
 
Curves at the vet are stressful for most cats so they numbers you’re getting there can be artificially inflated or higher due to the stress. we recommend home testing because a lot can change daily and just doing a curve or a spot check now and then is not going to give you the full picture. just like a human tests their bg daily. If you had a diabetic child, you’d never give insulin without testing first, it’s the same for animals since they can’t speak and tell you when they’re going too low.

With a diabetic cat you need:
  • A low carb wet diet that is 10% carbs or under. Most of us use around 4-7% carbs
  • A suitable insulin such as Lantus or Prozinc which are long acting, more gentle insulins than the old insulins.
  • We recommend hometesting the blood glucose with a human meter…it is not necessary to use a pet meter which is expensive to run and is no better. It will keep your kitty safe and you will know how the dose is working for your kitty. Only testing every so often will not tell you what is happening in between those times and an awful lot can happen in even a day.
  • HELP US HELP YOU has information about the spreadsheet, signature and hypo box which you will need to be able to look after your beloved kitty properly
Can you tell us what food he’s eating now?

We are happy to help you with setting up the spreadsheet, sorting out what food to buy, how to transition safely to a low carb diet, how to learn to home test and much more.
 
Any chance the vet has a staff member willing to come by and give Rover his shots while you are gone?
 
Like Wendy suggested, I've had vet techs who had a side gig doing pet sitting. They would come by twice a day to check on my kitty, clean the litter, and give a shot (and hang out a bit with my cats). There may also be pet sitting services in your area. NextDoor is a great app to find services in your area.

Personally, I would be reticent to not give insulin. There are any number of factors that could have an effect on how your cat is doing. I can't imagine what your family would say if this was your infant who was diabetic and you were leaving the child at home with a sitter/relative. I seriously doubt they would tell you it would be fine to not give medication for 4 days.

Is there any possibility of bringing your cat along for the trip?
 
I wanted to update here instead of leaving you all in the dark and dropping the thread.

I am staying with our cats and administering insulin as usual, I am not this cats primary caretaker and the information has been passed on to her regarding at home checking. (she seems on board once they are back however she wants to be there).
Thank you all for taking the time to answer and inform me, as I had mostly entirely been going off of our vets reports. I am sorry for being ignorant on many factors of this and hope I have not caused harm.
 
Don’t be sorry! You found us and we can help. And you’re giving up your trip to stay with the cat so thank you for going above and beyond :bighug::bighug::bighug:

Please refer the caretaker to this site as we’re happy to help her with testing and anything else needed. We welcome any and all questions always!
 
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