Jeffty is one of 3 cats in our household. He is the youngest cat in
our family at 8 years. Morgana (11) our oldest cat has been diagnosed as
hyperthyroid since August 2001. My husband and I decided not to treat Morgana
since our family had just increased by our baby girl Miranda. The best
treatment our vet could offer was radioiodine and we didn't want to subject
our new infant (not to mention Morgana) to the radiation. Her thyroid tumor
was advanced by the time we found it so there were no guarantees that we
really would be giving her more time with any of the treatments.
Morgana is still happy over 1 year later. She enjoys her diet of kitten
chow and the occasional Hamburger Happy Meal to keep weight on her.
We thought for a while that the new overwhelming smell in the littler
box was related to Morgana's illness. She is a tiny cat and we were skeptical
that she could produce the huge amounts of urine that began to appear Summer
2002 in our litter boxes. We read up on polydipsia and polyuria on the
web. We suspected that Jeffty was becoming diabetic. He was a 20 lbs cat
that loved to eat. We started restricting his food to see if we could get
his weight down.
In August 2002 my Mother (Jeffty's human grandma) was diagnosed as diabetic.
We took an overnight trip to see her. When we came home the water bowl
was dry (this never happens) and Jeffty drank for a couple of minutes when
I filled it up. We knew it was time for a trip to the vet. Jeffty weighed
in at 15 lbs and had a sugar level around 500. The vet kept him for two
days to get him started on insulin. We were surprised at how much happier
he seems to be now that he is getting the insulin. He does not seem to
be starving all the time. So far he is being very tolerant of his shots
as if he knows they are what make him feel better.
He is just beginning his insulin. He is still on the starter dose of
2 units Humulin N twice daily. He now travels with us when we go to see
family. Traveling with a cat and a toddler is a new adventure. Jeffty is
Miranda's favorite cat and we are trying to keep him as healthy as we can.
The main struggle is trying to get him to eat his special diet of W/D while
feeding Morgana kitten chow and our 3rd cat a "normal" diet. With a toddler
we are already somewhat schedule driven so adding his shots to the mix
is working so far. We are going to start taking his BG at home so that
adventure is still to come for us. |