Ashe & Chim
Member Since 2016
Chim was diagnosed with diabetes in February 2016. We started him in March on Lantus, 2 units AM and 2 PM. His numbers quickly went down from the 450-550 range to the 50s, so the dose immediately backed off to 1 unit twice a day.
It was rough going – I had a hard time with the testing, tried a couple of different meters, but we finally got a routine established. With a diet change from dry food to the canned Fancy Feast (thanks everyone here for that recommendation – SO much better than the RX food from the vet), he was pretty well regulated by May and went into a remission toward the end of June.
Unfortunately, he’s had other health issues since then. For several years, he had little cysts on his body. For the most part, they didn’t bother him. We had them checked out at the vet before the diabetes came up, and determined they were benign.
Last May he started messing with one on his right side and tore it open enough to require a trip to the kitty ER. A few days later he had surgery to remove it and close up the skin around it, and that seemed to be the end of it.
In September, he picked at another one, this time on his tail. This one, he removed completely, leaving behind a wound, but nothing like the (gross) one on his side. After a few days, it was pretty clear it wasn’t going to heal on its own. I guess this is pretty common for diabetics? We took him in for a second surgery.
His BG has been all over the place since September. He was in the 300-400 range pretty regularly until the surgery at the end of September, pain meds, and two doses of IV antibiotics to fight off the infection in his tail as a result of him picking at it. We kept him in the cone until a few days after his stitches came out, per the vet’s instructions, did the laser therapy to try to promote healing, the works.
We were all the way back down to 0.5 unit of Lantus twice a day when he got out of the cone… And immediately re-opened the wound on his tail. Not only that, but opened one on his left side as well. Had a third surgery, this time removing the rest of the cysts to try to stop him from self-medicating and whatnot.
I felt AWFUL after that. He was in the cone, and a t-shirt to protect the multitude of incisions all over his poor little body. His patchwork haircut hasn’t even fully grown back yet. Two weeks later, the stitches came out, we kept him in the cone for a few more days to make sure things were as well-healed as possible… And less than fifteen minutes after taking it off him, he was chewing at his tail again. Drew blood, and he's been back at square one ever since.
Now there are two masses, one near the base of his tail and one right above that (closer to the tip of his tail), both of which he’s bitten at until they bled. We’ve tried vet tape and bandaging them to keep him from messing with them, and to get him out of the cone. That just led to his tail swelling up so much he would yowl every time we touched it, and making a looser wrap meant he got it off after about 15 minutes. Tried spraying it with the bitter yuck stuff, and he doesn’t even care – he just chewed the bandage right off.
He acts completely depressed in the cone. He sits or lays on the couch or in the living room chair, won’t get up except to eat (when we take the cone off) or to use the bathroom. He doesn’t play, he doesn’t run around and chase his brother, and every time I tell him we’re doing everything we can I feel like he’s looking at me like he doesn’t believe me.
His BG has stabilized a little – he’s been in the 150-200 range on 1 unit 2x per day, but I know it’s just a matter of time before the pain and the stress get to him, or before his tail gets infected again and we have to start this whole process all over.
Our vet recommended a soft tissue specialist, to see if more can be done, or to amputate. She said she can’t do anything more because of the amount of abnormal tissue on his tail. Her concern is that the one mass (the main one that he’s been messing with) is so close to the base of his tail that the whole thing would need to be removed. I’ve done some reading and it sounds like this can affect a cat’s ability to use the bathroom, and basically require someone to help them use the litter box for the rest of their lives.
For the short times he’s out of the cone and has the energy to play, like when his tail was bandaged (before it swelled up), he’s so energetic and playful. He’s his old self – he seems so healthy the thought of putting him to sleep is insane. I feel terrible just thinking it, but I can’t stand the thought we’re going to put him through so much more stress and pain and just end up in the same place.
So, with all that in mind, I just need some thoughts or support or something. I don’t know what to do. I’m terrified that when we take him to the soft tissue vet on Thursday, even if there is something else we can try, it’ll just make him even more miserable. I don’t want to put him through more surgery and more pain if it’s just going to make his life more difficult.
Sorry for the really long post. I just didn’t know where else to go – I needed to talk to someone and this was the only place I could think of to go.
It was rough going – I had a hard time with the testing, tried a couple of different meters, but we finally got a routine established. With a diet change from dry food to the canned Fancy Feast (thanks everyone here for that recommendation – SO much better than the RX food from the vet), he was pretty well regulated by May and went into a remission toward the end of June.
Unfortunately, he’s had other health issues since then. For several years, he had little cysts on his body. For the most part, they didn’t bother him. We had them checked out at the vet before the diabetes came up, and determined they were benign.
Last May he started messing with one on his right side and tore it open enough to require a trip to the kitty ER. A few days later he had surgery to remove it and close up the skin around it, and that seemed to be the end of it.
In September, he picked at another one, this time on his tail. This one, he removed completely, leaving behind a wound, but nothing like the (gross) one on his side. After a few days, it was pretty clear it wasn’t going to heal on its own. I guess this is pretty common for diabetics? We took him in for a second surgery.
His BG has been all over the place since September. He was in the 300-400 range pretty regularly until the surgery at the end of September, pain meds, and two doses of IV antibiotics to fight off the infection in his tail as a result of him picking at it. We kept him in the cone until a few days after his stitches came out, per the vet’s instructions, did the laser therapy to try to promote healing, the works.
We were all the way back down to 0.5 unit of Lantus twice a day when he got out of the cone… And immediately re-opened the wound on his tail. Not only that, but opened one on his left side as well. Had a third surgery, this time removing the rest of the cysts to try to stop him from self-medicating and whatnot.
I felt AWFUL after that. He was in the cone, and a t-shirt to protect the multitude of incisions all over his poor little body. His patchwork haircut hasn’t even fully grown back yet. Two weeks later, the stitches came out, we kept him in the cone for a few more days to make sure things were as well-healed as possible… And less than fifteen minutes after taking it off him, he was chewing at his tail again. Drew blood, and he's been back at square one ever since.
Now there are two masses, one near the base of his tail and one right above that (closer to the tip of his tail), both of which he’s bitten at until they bled. We’ve tried vet tape and bandaging them to keep him from messing with them, and to get him out of the cone. That just led to his tail swelling up so much he would yowl every time we touched it, and making a looser wrap meant he got it off after about 15 minutes. Tried spraying it with the bitter yuck stuff, and he doesn’t even care – he just chewed the bandage right off.
He acts completely depressed in the cone. He sits or lays on the couch or in the living room chair, won’t get up except to eat (when we take the cone off) or to use the bathroom. He doesn’t play, he doesn’t run around and chase his brother, and every time I tell him we’re doing everything we can I feel like he’s looking at me like he doesn’t believe me.
His BG has stabilized a little – he’s been in the 150-200 range on 1 unit 2x per day, but I know it’s just a matter of time before the pain and the stress get to him, or before his tail gets infected again and we have to start this whole process all over.
Our vet recommended a soft tissue specialist, to see if more can be done, or to amputate. She said she can’t do anything more because of the amount of abnormal tissue on his tail. Her concern is that the one mass (the main one that he’s been messing with) is so close to the base of his tail that the whole thing would need to be removed. I’ve done some reading and it sounds like this can affect a cat’s ability to use the bathroom, and basically require someone to help them use the litter box for the rest of their lives.
For the short times he’s out of the cone and has the energy to play, like when his tail was bandaged (before it swelled up), he’s so energetic and playful. He’s his old self – he seems so healthy the thought of putting him to sleep is insane. I feel terrible just thinking it, but I can’t stand the thought we’re going to put him through so much more stress and pain and just end up in the same place.
So, with all that in mind, I just need some thoughts or support or something. I don’t know what to do. I’m terrified that when we take him to the soft tissue vet on Thursday, even if there is something else we can try, it’ll just make him even more miserable. I don’t want to put him through more surgery and more pain if it’s just going to make his life more difficult.
Sorry for the really long post. I just didn’t know where else to go – I needed to talk to someone and this was the only place I could think of to go.
