Vacation

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manors18

Member Since 2012
My cat sitter isn't willing to give my diabetic fluff his insulin, and I can't find a medical boarding vet in my area.

Sooo...my family agreed to visit the home once a day and take care of all of our cats and give him insulin. I tried to convince them to take him to their home so they could give him his 2x daily injections and maintain the feeding cycle, but his sugar is still unregulated (working with vet on slowly raising the dose) and he has 'accidents'. They have an older home and don't want cat pee on their floors. Sigh.

I am going to isolate him to a bedroom so he only has access to his own food (soft cans). His insulin dose will be 2U once a day, in the evenings, instead of an additional 2U in the mornings. This will be for about 6 days total.

Should I leave diabetic dry food out for him to have while we are gone? Before his diagnosis, I would usually free feed dry food when we are on vacation since they usually all get fed twice a day and my cat sitter could only come once. He won't be getting insulin in the morning but he also won't be getting fresh food, and I hate that he'll be starving all day until his next dose and feeding each evening!
 
What are his BGs like when on 2U? What insulin? Will they stay with the cat until it finished its food before injecting? oes you cat every vomit or regurgitate after eating?
I would likely not leave out dry sync my cats would quickly engorge themselves with dry.
 
How about calling your vet's office to find out if any of the vet techs do cat sitting on the side? There may also be pet sitting agencies where they can come twice a day and give shots. I'd also suggest posting on NextDoor if that's in your area. The folks in my area frequently ask for pet sitters there.
 
I would certainly make sure he is getting enough food over the 24 hours. If you reduce the insulin to once a day, and reduce the amount of food, you could run into real trouble with ketones possibly developing, especially as it is over 6 days.
I would be making an effort to try and get someone to give the insulin twice a day and food put down twice a day.

When you have time, a spreadsheet and signature would be helpful.
 
You may have already gone on vacation, but for future reference, you could use a setup like we do for some of our foster kitties -- a playpen, with a waterproof tarp or sheet of plastic underneath and extending out a couple feet on all sides, and pee pads spread all around on the floor inside that could be easily swapped out for fresh. The largest playpens are big enough for a small litterbox, food, water, and for privacy you can drape a sheet over the top so they don't get as stressed. Maybe with a setup like this, your family would be willing to keep him at their house in a quiet room? The stress alone could raise his BG a little, but at least he would be getting insulin twice a day. Here's the playpen that we use but there are plenty of this style to choose from:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SJQJBF...t-supplies&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw

Other than that, I second the recommendation for vet techs. We have had really good success with that in the past. And you can also tell us what city you live in, on the off chance that someone on this forum lives near you and could either help directly or recommend someone local who could.
 
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