Results tagged “diabetes” from Valley of the Dogs

I was right! The vet started Marcie on Thiamine treatments as well as a tiny amount of insulin. She's going to have to stay there for about three more days. If it's what we think it is, then she probably has Thiamine Deficiency as a result of the diabetes, which causes the Cervical Ventroflexion (man! try to remember how to pronounce that! It took me many tries...heheh). So yeah...that's where we're at right now.

I talked with the vet today to determine what's going on and what kind of treatment we're looking at for Marcie. He determined that she may have signs of Cervical Ventroflexion. I'm not sure but I think the doctor suggested the Thiamine treatment. He ordered the medicine and it should get there by tomorrow (crosses fingers and toes). He asked if I'd rather take her to an internist that has the medication readily available but I just decided to keep her there. Why bring her all the way to a new place again?

So that's what's happening with my girl at the moment. It's a much better prognosis than the possible explosion in the head or a blood clot in the artery like the doctor originally envisioned. I guess he had to go over all the possiblities.

First of all...isn't she cute here? Yeah I'm partial to her! Especially since I've had her for almost 13 years. Her birthday is in August. At least I think it's in August since she was around 8 weeks old when I got her in the month of October.

Anyway...on to the real subject at hand. I recently took her for a follow-up exam regarding the possible Diabetes. Her blood sugar level was a bit higher (212 I think) than the last time but much lower than the first time she was tested (300+). The doctor said that she seems to be all over the map but not diabetic enough in his mind to start insulin shots. So for now we're going solely on diet. Right now I'm weaning her and Hershey (because she has no choice) on Purina DM which my vet likes allot.

I've also been reading up on how to read pet food labels. Talk about convoluted. But through this wikipedia article I found a food table Q&A and Pet Food Nutritional Calculator. The person that developed that calculator has a special place in heaven waiting for him/her. And YAY! This person already calculated nutritional values for a variety of cat foods.

The food I've been feeding them Katz-n-Flocken Cat Food from Solid Gold (great stuff)... but apparently the carbs are much higher than the Purina DM (32.5% whereas the DM dry is 19%). I'll have to check out the canned food to see whether I can feed her that or not. The carbs for the DM canned food is about 3 percent. GAH!! My mind is about to explode!

So far both cats seem to love the new food. We shall see how this will help her in about a month.

Well so far it looks like Marcie DOESN'T have diabetes as stated in this post. Took her to the vet under less stressful circumstances with absolutely no bites or scratches. I still have to watch her water intake and eating habits. She'll visit the vet again in another month. Last time her blood sugar reading was about 300 but today it was around 160 or so. Yeah! That's a big difference.

Heheh! Here's a good way to safely put your cat in a carrier without hurting yourself and without over stressing your cat. Quietly hide the cat carrier in the bathroom the night before (preferably when your cat is in some other part of the house). When it comes time for kitty to go drape a towel over them and wrap them in it. Then march them over to the carrier and put them in there butt first (for easy cat insertion put the carrier upright with the door facing the ceiling...it's easier to gently drop them in there and quickly close the cage door). And keep the towel in there for security. I noticed that marcie seemed allot more at ease with the towel although she still yowled in displeasure.

I still have a hard time training my cats to realize that pet carriers aren't negative things. But what can you do? Indoor cats don't go out much and when they do it's for the purpose of visiting the vet or moving to a new place. So I decided to keep one of the carriers out to see if they get more comfortable with it. It's time to end their (especially Marcie's) or at least lessen their negative association they have with carriers. Not sure how that's going to work because the only time I will use it is for said negative purposes (at least it's negative to them).

But now she's back to her old self and not hating my guts for the horrible things I did to her last week. See this picture? That's the good old Marcie that I know. Yes it looks upside down but that's how I took the picture. One of her favorite pastimes is basking in the sun with belly exposed. :)

I found some really cool ideas for getting your cat to like the carrier here! I'll let you know if the felines in our house respond well to these training sessions.

I seriously think that the less-stressful ride to the vet resulted in a better blood sugar and urine reading. They monitored her throughout the day to make sure it was at a normal range and I'm extremely happy about this. But alas! she is considered geriatric so I must be even more vigilant about her health than ever before.

Yesterday I took my angelic cats to the veterinarian. I say that sarcastically because they were both little devils when I tried to put them in the carrier and I've got the scratches to prove it. They both got a clean bill of health for the most part except that marcie may be diabetic. She always drank allot of water but lately it's been increasing. I know that lots of water is good for cats but I also know that excessive drinking can be a sign of diabetes. So I had them draw blood to check her sugar levels. They said it's elevated but not as high as some other diabetic cats. I'm relieved to hear that. But now I'm bringing her back to the vet and dropping her off for an all-day visit. They want to take the test again when she's in a relaxed state...not sure if that will work being at the vet and all rather than agitated like she was when we first got there. The doc also wants to take a urinalysis to determine if it's really diabetes.

So now I'm searching just about every website about feline diabetes. Feline Diabetes dot com seems to be a great place to start.

Looks like I may have to brush up on my cat injection skills. A few years back I took care of a diabetic cat and was utterly terrified of giving her a shot until I actually did it. It wasn't that bad. Now I'm not so sure how marcie will react but if I do have to give her injections she's just going to have to get used to it.

Giving a cat an insulin shot!