Showing posts with label feline diabetes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feline diabetes. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

he is a little bit gross...


Its hard to tell from the picture, as its dark and Im using my phone instead of a real camera, but, his head is squished back into his neck, his 2nd eyelids are showing and his mouth is open. He is in the middle of a dream I think, happily lay-sitting on our couch.  Sweet and kind of disgusting at the same time.

The diabetes is easier on us now. I am a pro at giving injections, although still needle phobic myself! We have switched him to an all canned food diet. Research I have done has suggested the carbohydrates in dry food cause more severe blood sugar highs and lows. Cats are carnivores and I agree that maybe they shouldn't be eating all the corn normally packed into their regular dry food.

His thirst issues are back to normal, suggesting the insulin is doing its job. We do still see him get wobbly each day and will have to address this with the vet at his next visit. He is happier now, much more himself. He goes outside everyday for a little bit, pending its not too cold. He loves to lay in the sun and eat the grass. He also prefers to do his business out there, which keeps me happy, but you didn't want to hear that!

The diabetes treatment is expensive and takes a lot of care and time. I know its worth it, rather, we don't have an option. We accepted him into our home and owe it to him as a living thing, person or animal, regardless.

All in all, things are on the upswing. Slowly but surely.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

out and about and ready to play!!

(again, I apologize for the poor picture quality, the late, dark evening seems to
produce poorer pictures. my new handy-dandy phone is just so simple to snap a pic,
email it to myself and post it no cords needed!!)

Okay, thats an exaggeration. But, he is doing much, much better.

Dave ate on his own today!! He made a 'number two' yesterday. And, here you see, he just ventured out into the living room!! It has been over a week (full 7 days) since he has done each of these. (except the #2, he did one of those last tuesday, sorry, TMI)

He has been such a sick baby. Just a mess really. He is down 9 pounds from 6 months ago. We never thought we would have to force feed him with an oral syringe just to keep him alive!

We are both so thankful he has made such a huge turn around. We will be able to sleep better tonight.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Feline Diabetes


We have spent every waking moment taking care of this big guy here. Saturday I discovered that he wouldn't come out from under the bed. Sunday he was not eating and seemed very lethargic. Monday we decided we better take him to the vet. We discovered Dave has diabetes, and we should not have waited so long to get him seen.

He was almost to diabetic coma state. He was at the point right before seizure. He spent 24 hours at the trauma clinic we were transferred to and is home now. They wanted to keep him for a couple more days but I convinced them that I could take care of him, plus our bills were almost at $1000 and we just didn't have anymore money. Never in my life has finances dictated health care. Something is really screwed up with the medical system, at least for vet care when payment plans are not even an option.

He had gained a lot of weight over the past few years being an indoor cat. My mother kept telling me I was going to kill him by feeding him too much. Harsh, I thought. No, she was right. When we moved in to our new home a few months ago he began going outside and running free and happy on our 7 acres. He got thin quickly. We were really happy to see him looking so good.

We didn't know his rapid weight loss was actually his body no longer producing insulin. Besides always eating a lot, we saw no signs.

I am watching him around the clock. Feeding him food and water with a medicine dropper, giving him glucose to bring him out of his constant hypoglycemic state and injecting him with insulin. This is my first time ever using a needle. Sorry for the practice, buddy. Tomorrow I have to go purchase a glucose meter thing because I think the insulin dosages may be causing increased hypoglycemia.

This is my first personal experience with diabetes and it sucks. I have learned a lot in just these past couple of days. I know it will get better. I know he will get stronger and be able to walk and feed himself soon. Hopefully not too much longer, this is hard.

I just needed to write this down on paper. It feels good to share, thank you for listening.

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