November is Pet Diabetic Month

November is Pet Diabetes Month. Diabetes in cats can be managed with proper diet, blood glucose checks and regular insulin injections at home.  If your cat has diabetes, or you suspect has diabetes, you can check out the AAFP's website for additional information.  

 

It is quite easy to manage diabetes but not cheap. We recently started a new drug on my cat Merry called Pioglitazone.  This drug replaces glipizide for him.  It has been amazing.  Brought down his insulin from 7 Prozinc units and 5 Vetsulin units to 3 Prozinc and 2 Vetsulin.  So glad my vet continues to do research for my cats and discovers new drugs.  After Thanksgiving we will probably try this medication on Pippin too.  The only thing that is no fun about it is right after starting it you have to do constant Glucose checks to make sure they don't bottom out or that the Glucose is too high.  I would recommend giving this drug a try.

Last month Merry's eyes did dilate differently one morning.  For no reason.  I called the vet and took him in right away.  By that time his eyes has dilated normally.  We suspect that the Acromegaly tumor moved around.  The vet told me that if it happened again he would probably have to be put down because the tumor may have moved up against nerves.  His eyes have been normal ever since!  So maybe the tumor moved a little but is now back to where it is fine.  Phew!  That was scary.  

So far things with the cats have been going well.  With winter here they mostly sleep.  Be sure to get your cats checked if you suspect diabetes.

Updates

Hello!  I haven't updated in a while since things have been going well.  We went on a vacation recently which is always hard when you have a diabetic cat (or cats in my case).  Really it has come to the point where asking friends is a hassle. After my cats having diabetes for two years asking for a favor to have people come over has really just run it's course.  No one wants to do it anymore.  Maybe if my parents or sibling lived here it would be different since they are family, but we only have friends who live around us.  So then we had to go on the hunt to actually hire someone (though we did offer friends the same amount of money it would cost to board them).  Luckily we were able to find someone at our vet who also goes to people's homes to take are of their cats.

What is really great about this is that the vet allows this.  It's not actually through the vet at all, they have their own boarding in the building.  But they do allow the workers to tell people they would come to their house.  So nice. I really prefer keeping the cats at the house. AND since she works for the vet if anything bad happened or the cats looked sick she could either ask my vet or take them up to the vet. It wasn't cheap but I had piece of mind.

Then.. the night we got back, I completely forgot to give them shots.  I couldn't believe it.  The only reason why I even realized it was because the next morning my husband woke me up to ask what time they got their shots and I couldn't remember.  It dawned on me because I couldn't remember giving it to them.  Being on vacation 8 days I guess will do that.  I forgot to also set my alarm on my phone for the shots.  I felt terrible. I know they probably didn't feel good at all. Luckily, there were no seizures or deaths. Which is what I was afraid of. 

Soooo.. needless to say everything is back to normal.  Curves have been coming out good.  We will do another one next weekend.  Pippin is on 7 units Prozinc, 5mg Glipizide twice a day, 1 steroid in the evening. Merry is on 6 units of Prozinc, 4 units of Vetsulin, 5 mg Glipizide twice a day.

Arthritis in Cats

Everything has been going really good with the cats... which is why there has been a lack in posting.  I will say we have a hard time going on trips.  We recently went on vacation and had someone lined up to watch the cats and give them shots and they bailed two days before we left so we had to scramble to find someone else to come over two times a day and give shots.  We always pay people to watch them since they are hard to take care of.  Pippin is now on 7 units of Prozinc, 1 Glipizide, 1 steroid in the morning and 1/4 Cerinia at night.  Merry is on 6 units of Prozinc, 4 units of Vetsulin 1 glipizide pill.

I have noticed Merry has been limping a lot lately on his back left leg. I am pretty sure he has full blown arthritis now.  I googled it, and it seems that there are a few ways to help this starting with medicine.  Sigh... even more meds.  It said either a NSAID or steroid depending on how bad it is.  I am sure my vet will want to see him first before prescribing anything so there is $50 for that.  I am going to give him this week and see if stays the same/gets better or wise.  Hoping it goes away.  So we'll see.  I really don't want this to be the reason he dies.  I had a golden retriever growing up and eventually we had to put him down because his hips gave out from arthritis.  So sad. So here's hoping. Since Merry is overweight from all his other issues this makes his chances of having arthritis worse.

Merry

Any advice for someone with a cat with arthritis?

Teeth Cleaning Success

If you read the previous post on the blog you know we weren't able to clean Merry's teeth last week.  He wasn't able to go under because he couldn't breath on his own.  So this week my vet tried again using a different anesthesia.  It was successful this time. Though it turned out quite expensive.  When Merry went in the previous week my vet could tell he has a lose tooth, but that was all she could really see at the time.  When I picked him up he had like 8 teeth pulled!  I did have his teeth cleaned in May 2012 so I didn't think it had been that long and then 2 years before that.  He has never had teeth pulled before now.  I don't know how they got so bad.  She did say that when a cat is diabetic their teeth will go bad... but that bad~!!  He was under anesthesia for 50 minutes and so she didn't take xrays because he was under so long.  Merry gets sooooo moody at the vet.  I had to go in the back and move him into his carrier.

The vet did say she wants to see him in two weeks but she can't even get near him.  I asked her how she would look at his mouth and she said from a distance.  Well I am not going to pay $50 for her to stand away from him and say he looks good.  I have been feeding him wet food for the week, and of course he is on all kinds of medication.  I am going to start softening his diabetic dry food so he can eat that from now on.  I think with all those teeth gone it's going to be too hard for him to eat normal hard food.  His eyes also wigged out the night after his dental.  One eye was fully dilated and the other was not.   I googled this and of course this is a major sign of stroke.  Luckily my vet will email after hours if you email her so I emailed her right away! She did say this was a symptom of coming down off morphine.  But it was still very scary.

Be sure to get your cat's teeth cleaned. I had NO idea this is how bad his teeth were.  I would've never know he was in pain.  His breath did stink real bad so that's how I knew it was time.  Plus my vet had 10% off this month for dentals so I saved a lot of money there too. 

Yellow teeth are the ones removed

Teeth Cleaning

Merry's breath has not smelled good lately and it's been about 1 1/2 years since the last time he had his teeth cleaned.  I think it's important to take care of your cat's teeth.  Imagine a painful mouth!  Cats can't tell you when their mouth hurts so I try to do it every now and then (I don't do it as often as recommended though). If your cat has bad breath though then it's time.  Most likely there is plaque stuck somewhere in their teeth.

He fasted during the night but since he is diabetic he had to have a little food this morning. No shot though, no food or water during the night.  After dropping him off I called and check on him a few hours later.  Turns out he couldn't breath on his own while he was gassed so my vet decided to not do it today.  She was able to get some plaque off some of his teeth, but went ahead and woke him back up.  He does have one lose tooth so she wants to try again.  Next week we will bring him in and she will use a different anesthetic.  She said they would be able to tell before he is under whether or not he can breath.  I am hoping it works because a lost tooth can be very painful and I am not sure what the next option will be for this tooth.  This month is dental health month for pets so my vet also offers 10% off cleanings.  I wasn't charged for today either which was really nice of them.   I don't brush my cat's teeth though I should.. I do have a tooth brush and tooth paste for them for the vet but it is tough work. Be sure to get your cats teeth checked out especially if they are diabetic.  I'll update next week about how that appointment goes.

Missed Shots

The worst feeling is when you and your significant other don't communicate right on who is giving the meds and shots and the cats miss it.  This morning we both thought the other one was going to do it and then no one did it.  Then becomes the debate... when to give the shots/pills.  Right away or wait a couple hours and get them back on schedule right away. I feel terrible thinking that they don't feel good right now because of our mistake. This has only happened twice in the 2 1/2 years since they have been diabetic but it's AWFUL!