lostfound18
Member Since 2012
Hi,
I have two siamese cats from the same litter (born in 2001). In the summer of 2010, Emma got extremely sick. We rushed her to the vet and she was diagnosed with diabetes and in a state of diabetic ketoacidosis. After a week in hospital, going jaundice, refusing to eat and many other things, she made a turn for the better and we were able to bring her home. In December of the same year, our other cat, Anna became ill suddenly. We rushed her in and she was diagnosed with diabetes, but we had caught it before it had gotten as serious as the condition Emma was in. We were told it was genetic. Emma has had a couple of other illnesses during her life (respiratory illness, skin infection etc.) and they think there was something off about the blood line of the cats. They are always indoors, with lots of love and free reign of the house.
For the last 2.5 years, we have been giving insulin injections 2X per day and monitoring glucose levels through a home glucometer at least 1X per week. They have had episodes at times when sugars crashed but nothing we haven't been able to treat ourselves. Overall, health has been pretty good but they do vomit a lot. We usually see a correlation with sugars increasing. Though they eat the same amount every day, they have become finicky and often take upwards of an hour to eat their food (coming back and forth to the plate) so it has been a challenge to know that they are both eating the amount they should.
We have not been able to go on vacation with our 4 year old son at all because we couldn't get anyone to take care of them. We tried to hire someone who quit shortly before our trip. Our clinic wouldn't take them. There was another clinic but they would be locked in a cage separately and we knew Emma would refuse to eat then.
My brother in law was trained in on how to feed and give injections but it was too much to ask to get him to try and do glucose checks. We finally went this summer on a 16 day trip and things went really well. They could stay in their home, they were fed and given injections. A couple of vomit episodes but overall good. Sugars good when we got home.
For my stepdad's 65th birthday, we surprised him with 10 day trip to florida 2 weeks ago. My brother in law agreed to do the same for the cats. The cats were well before we left but I have noticed Emma being just quieter than ever lately over the last few months. She just seems tired. After 2 days, they had started throwing up again. Again - with two this is always a challenge because we don't know who it is if we don't see it. My brother in law also informed us that for a day he thinks he wasn't getting them enough insulin as the vile he started with was close to empty and hard to get out. So my husband and I treated it like potential high sugars, got him to get a new vile and very slightly increased from 1.5 units to 1.75 units for the next 2 feedings. He had to close off the bedroom and keep them in the main part of the house as they were hiding under the bed and he was challenged to get them out for feedings. After that, he said everyday, he didn't necessarily see them eat as he had to get to work himself, but the food was always gone and the cats were there and alert. No vomit.
This past Tuesday morning, he arrived at 6AM to find Emma on the floor and called us immediately. We treated as hypoglycemia and started with corn syrup and I called emerg from Florida. She was fairly unresponsive except for moving her gums around. Rushed her in to our vet and they worked on her for over an hour. She was severely dehydrated, low body temp and unresponsive. They called me and said they had induced coma further due to twitching and mouth chewing, but after examination, said she was brain dead from seizures and we had her put down as they said eyes were fully dialated and no response, just a faint heartbeat.
I am completely devastated. I loved her so much and we've done everything we could for the last 2.5 years to treat the diabetes, but due to a busy lifestyle and a young son, we couldn't necessarily watch to make sure they each fully ate their meal every sitting where they wouldn't eat right away. We always kept an eye and tested sugars if we noticed anything out of the ordinary in behaviour. I'm at a loss for what happened. My brother in law feels horrible. I just wonder if anything else had started to go wrong with her liver, kidneys etc. We think we found a dried urine stain on our good chair in the back of the family room where she sat alot. My other cat actually had high sugars but ok. She is so lost without her sister. This is our second night home in the house and probably only the second time in my life I've seen my husband cry. We're blaming ourselves for leaving on vacation, for adjusting the insulin slightly up, for not thinking of scheduling a vet visit halfway through the trip just to check them out, for not giving more extra hugs sometimes and a host of other things. Things had just gone so well on our other vacation at the end of june.
Is there anyone else who has had anything like this happen? It may simply have been that her sugars were up, then dipped and she didn't eat as much (either because she missed us or she just felt off for some reason) but was getting the same insulin injection. When Anna is low, I can tell right away. When Emma is as low as 0.8, she doesn't show any symptoms. Our vet even cried when we went to see her yesterday and said Emma is just one of those cats that doesn't show symptoms until she is very very ill. I'm thankful to have had 2.5 years extra with her since the ketoacidosis and what she had to come back from including extreme jaundice, but selfishly at 11.5, I wanted more time with her.
Scared for Anna now. She's missing her so much and has never been without her. She was with the body when they found Emma. I wish i could turn back the clock and have not gone away.
Sarah
I have two siamese cats from the same litter (born in 2001). In the summer of 2010, Emma got extremely sick. We rushed her to the vet and she was diagnosed with diabetes and in a state of diabetic ketoacidosis. After a week in hospital, going jaundice, refusing to eat and many other things, she made a turn for the better and we were able to bring her home. In December of the same year, our other cat, Anna became ill suddenly. We rushed her in and she was diagnosed with diabetes, but we had caught it before it had gotten as serious as the condition Emma was in. We were told it was genetic. Emma has had a couple of other illnesses during her life (respiratory illness, skin infection etc.) and they think there was something off about the blood line of the cats. They are always indoors, with lots of love and free reign of the house.
For the last 2.5 years, we have been giving insulin injections 2X per day and monitoring glucose levels through a home glucometer at least 1X per week. They have had episodes at times when sugars crashed but nothing we haven't been able to treat ourselves. Overall, health has been pretty good but they do vomit a lot. We usually see a correlation with sugars increasing. Though they eat the same amount every day, they have become finicky and often take upwards of an hour to eat their food (coming back and forth to the plate) so it has been a challenge to know that they are both eating the amount they should.
We have not been able to go on vacation with our 4 year old son at all because we couldn't get anyone to take care of them. We tried to hire someone who quit shortly before our trip. Our clinic wouldn't take them. There was another clinic but they would be locked in a cage separately and we knew Emma would refuse to eat then.
My brother in law was trained in on how to feed and give injections but it was too much to ask to get him to try and do glucose checks. We finally went this summer on a 16 day trip and things went really well. They could stay in their home, they were fed and given injections. A couple of vomit episodes but overall good. Sugars good when we got home.
For my stepdad's 65th birthday, we surprised him with 10 day trip to florida 2 weeks ago. My brother in law agreed to do the same for the cats. The cats were well before we left but I have noticed Emma being just quieter than ever lately over the last few months. She just seems tired. After 2 days, they had started throwing up again. Again - with two this is always a challenge because we don't know who it is if we don't see it. My brother in law also informed us that for a day he thinks he wasn't getting them enough insulin as the vile he started with was close to empty and hard to get out. So my husband and I treated it like potential high sugars, got him to get a new vile and very slightly increased from 1.5 units to 1.75 units for the next 2 feedings. He had to close off the bedroom and keep them in the main part of the house as they were hiding under the bed and he was challenged to get them out for feedings. After that, he said everyday, he didn't necessarily see them eat as he had to get to work himself, but the food was always gone and the cats were there and alert. No vomit.
This past Tuesday morning, he arrived at 6AM to find Emma on the floor and called us immediately. We treated as hypoglycemia and started with corn syrup and I called emerg from Florida. She was fairly unresponsive except for moving her gums around. Rushed her in to our vet and they worked on her for over an hour. She was severely dehydrated, low body temp and unresponsive. They called me and said they had induced coma further due to twitching and mouth chewing, but after examination, said she was brain dead from seizures and we had her put down as they said eyes were fully dialated and no response, just a faint heartbeat.
I am completely devastated. I loved her so much and we've done everything we could for the last 2.5 years to treat the diabetes, but due to a busy lifestyle and a young son, we couldn't necessarily watch to make sure they each fully ate their meal every sitting where they wouldn't eat right away. We always kept an eye and tested sugars if we noticed anything out of the ordinary in behaviour. I'm at a loss for what happened. My brother in law feels horrible. I just wonder if anything else had started to go wrong with her liver, kidneys etc. We think we found a dried urine stain on our good chair in the back of the family room where she sat alot. My other cat actually had high sugars but ok. She is so lost without her sister. This is our second night home in the house and probably only the second time in my life I've seen my husband cry. We're blaming ourselves for leaving on vacation, for adjusting the insulin slightly up, for not thinking of scheduling a vet visit halfway through the trip just to check them out, for not giving more extra hugs sometimes and a host of other things. Things had just gone so well on our other vacation at the end of june.
Is there anyone else who has had anything like this happen? It may simply have been that her sugars were up, then dipped and she didn't eat as much (either because she missed us or she just felt off for some reason) but was getting the same insulin injection. When Anna is low, I can tell right away. When Emma is as low as 0.8, she doesn't show any symptoms. Our vet even cried when we went to see her yesterday and said Emma is just one of those cats that doesn't show symptoms until she is very very ill. I'm thankful to have had 2.5 years extra with her since the ketoacidosis and what she had to come back from including extreme jaundice, but selfishly at 11.5, I wanted more time with her.
Scared for Anna now. She's missing her so much and has never been without her. She was with the body when they found Emma. I wish i could turn back the clock and have not gone away.
Sarah
Unfortunately Emma's death sounds like it was to hypoglycemia, or insulin overdose. It could have been brought on by her not eating enough - especially if they were on a dry food (high carb) diet. If they were on a higher carb food diet, the high carb load would have been counteracting the insulin you were giving... but when she stopped eating, there was nothing stopping the insulin from hitting full strength. This would be compacted if you were using a hard and fast hitting insulin like Humulin N or Caninsulin.