Fat Boy has Diabetes

My name is Michelle and I am new to the board. I have two cats, Choobie who is 12 1/2 years old and 20# and Alyssa who is 4 years old and a slender 9#. The week before last, Choobie (fat boy) began drinking and peeing alot, losing weight and his coat looked messy. Right away I thought diabetes. He really got rough looking last weekend and unfortunately I had to attend a funeral and other get-togethers. Last Saturday night he was hiding in the closet and Alyssa was guarding him. Right away I thought he was dying and called ER vets. The woman was very nice and she said it sounded like Renal Failure and that he could wait until Monday to see a vet. Well I got on the computer and researched Renal Failure, and it is terminal and I became convinced that he was going to die. Whenever I could be with him I would lay with him and just cry. I have had him since he was 6 weeks old and my child. I was so worried, I was sick about it. On Monday I called a clinic near home, since our vet in St Louis Park had retired, why go all that way when I had a pet hospital less than 5 minutes away? They couldn't get him in until Tuesday. The doctor examined him the best she could (he is awful with any vet because of many problems when he was younger). She then said that it could be a number of things, including renal failure and diabetes. He had to have a blood work up. They did that and his kidneys were fine, however his blood sugar was off the charts. They had to get a urine sample to determine definately that it was diabetes. So I left him overnight so they could get the sample and they were going to try to do a glucose level during the day on Wednesday. Well, he acted up and they were unable to get the glucose level. So he has been put on a low dose of insulin as well as prescription diabetes food. He is to be fed twice a day and if he doesn't eat at least half his food, he doesn't get any insulin because low blood sugar in the short run is more deadly than high blood sugar. He has been doing okay, though he is having a tough time with the feeding regimen. He has to be fed twice a day 12 hours apart and have insulin 1/2 hour after. So far he has only been actually eating enough food one time daily, though when he doesn't eat enough I give him a saline shot so that he is used to having 2 injections a day. He is already looking a lot better. I am also training my sister and two other friends to give him his insulin because sometime in November I will be having my stomach removed and we don't know how long I will be hospitalized in Rochester. Its all good, he is better...and the surgeon and GI at Mayo have figured out why I've been throwing up for 15 years after my VBG. For more details on that you can read my profile. Hopefully I will be eating and keeping down solid food by the end of the year. Michelle An extra tidbit: the vet hospital gives complimentary baths and nail clipping. Now Alyssa doesn't recognize his scent and is constantly hissing at him. Hopefully soon they will be buddies again. May all your cats give you love and happiness and may all your clothing have cat hair on it. LOL

Michelle, I know what you are going thur. I adopted a 10 year old diabetic male cat from the clinic that I worked at. He is now 13 years old. We go thur periods where his sugar does great and then we hit a bump in the road and have to adjust and then we do alright again for awhile. I love that old grumy man to death. I actually have a glucometer and a spiecal lansing device that I use to check his sugar routinely. When ALigar's sugar is getting too high I notice the same symptoms as you described and when it's getting too low I notice that he starts to drool and stumbles and seems delirous, but Aligar has always been a difficult case even when he lived at the hospital, most cats aren't as bad as he is. I also have 3 other cats and they get fed free choice. It takes sometime to get them used to their feeding schedule but it will happen. Good luck to you on your surgery and good luck to your kitty.

There is a a web site called http://www.felinediabetes.com/ You can get help on the message board faster than you can on the main board here. The people there are very friendly and helpful, they live with feiline diabetes 24/7. Most test there cats blood sugar, I did. The board is full of animal lovers. They have a ton of knowledge on there site. I hope you go there and check it out and find some help there. Good Luck. Molly

Hi Michelle... I have a diabetic kitty as well, but let me tell ya..it gets better! I moved to a new house 3 years ago and my 8 yr old Tigger passed from congestive heart failure. His 9 yr old brother Caesar took it really bad (so did I, I gained alot of weight!) Anyway, 4 mos later I got a new baby kitty, Logan, and he had ringworm and passed it on to Caesar who should have been able to fight it, but when he didn't, we discovered he was diabetic. He gets 3 units of Humulin insulin 2x a day, and now he acts just like a kitten again! He just turned 12 and you'd never know he has anything wrong with him! He even reminds me if I'm too slow to give him his shot!. As far as the hissing thing...it happens every time I take one out of the house for more than an hour or so, bath or no bath! The last time they needed check-ups, I took them together and they were fine! It was alot to handle, but worth it in the long run. And don't worry, ALL my clothes are furry!