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Elderly Viking Kitty with Diabetes
1/4/10 | Battle Axe

Posted on 01/04/2010 5:16:56 PM PST by Battle Axe

Miss Peach has been a Viking Kitty since I have been on Free Republic, but tonight she is in the hospital with severe diabetes.

Is there anyone else how has come across this problem?

What did you do and what was the outcome?

The sugar reading was 417. She will be 15 years old in 7 weeks.


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: catdiabetes; cats; kittyping
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To: boatbums

What a spectacularly beautiful kitty! Gorgeous!


81 posted on 01/05/2010 1:10:10 PM PST by Nepeta
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To: PilotDave
We are all home now. They released her at 4 p.m. She has 499 blood sugar from the jugular vein today, under sedation.

She has a raging bladder infection which the vet said was common in diabetic cats. I have pills for that to start tomorrow.

She is surprisingly back to normal self. She meowed for her wet food and cleaned it up immediately. And has filled the potty box nicely. Now eating some dry food. Vet said to watch for not eating. Not this kitty.

There is very little damage to the liver and kidneys at this point. We need to get the bad bladder infection under control and we are to start our pills tomorrow a.m.

When she is full, I'll put her on the arm of the recliner and get out the comb.

We will cherish our time together.

Bad news is that I fell downs the stairs and have a swollen wrist, there is freezing rain outside and I barely made it home with kitty. We saw one accident were the guy missed a telephone pole by inches.

BA

82 posted on 01/05/2010 2:54:21 PM PST by Battle Axe (Repent, for the coming of the Lord is nigh.)
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To: boatbums

>>> “They are both long-haired so they need the hairball control (especially the Ragdoll). I don’t like the idea of forcing petroleum products down them, if they can get what they need from the food.”

No need for force. Smear it onto their fur. They’ll clean it off & ingest it.


83 posted on 01/05/2010 3:17:52 PM PST by Titan Magroyne (Freedom is taken, not given.)
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To: Battle Axe
Have no experience myself, but a good friend does. He gives his diabetic cat shots of insulin every day. He’s been doing it for years. She seems happy and well enough to me.
84 posted on 01/05/2010 4:05:08 PM PST by LiberConservative (Global Warming/'Climate Change": Biggest Scam in History)
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To: Nepeta

thnx... she thinks so, too!;o)


85 posted on 01/05/2010 4:24:36 PM PST by boatbums (Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life!)
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To: Battle Axe

Your week is not starting out too well, is it? I hope you and kitteh are all better soon. Turn up the heat and have some hot chocolate and love on your baby.


86 posted on 01/05/2010 4:30:34 PM PST by boatbums (Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life!)
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To: boatbums

Just in case, there is a canned food that would meet your requirements.

It is WELLNESS Chicken Formula (Grain Free). Kind of spendy @ $2.50 per 12.5 OZ can, but it is keeping my elderly Japanese Bobtail alive and she doesn’t eat a great deal (little cat, 6 lbs.). The other eight cats eat EVO or the Ancestors Diet, both supposedly grain-free kibble.


87 posted on 01/05/2010 4:30:38 PM PST by SatinDoll (NO Foreign Nationals as our President!!)
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To: Nepeta

Ok...I got some canned and dry of the Blue Buffalo. I’ll give then some canned in the a.m. and mix the dry in with their Royal Canin and wean them off the RC. That should work. Thanks again for the advice. Only what’s best for my kids!


88 posted on 01/05/2010 4:59:18 PM PST by boatbums (Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life!)
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To: Titan Magroyne
Smear it onto their fur. They’ll clean it off & ingest it.

Sure..easy for you to say. We smeared some on Stella's paw (Parmamalt(sp)?) one morning and what she couldn't shake off she wore around all day until it dried out. I finally wiped it off that night so it wouldn't get on the bed. LOL. She IS stubborn!

89 posted on 01/05/2010 5:06:41 PM PST by boatbums (Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life!)
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To: boatbums
Another bit of advice for anyone starting to feed canned food: they HATE cold food. It costs more, but only open cans/can sizes that they will eat in a reasonable period of time--they will eat room temperature food in great preference to canned food that has been re-sealed and refrigerated.

Cold food they won't eat that you throw out is pure waste.
90 posted on 01/05/2010 5:13:33 PM PST by Nepeta
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To: boatbums; All
After reading on the Internet (thanks Al Gore)scar......It appears that the natural food for a cat is a whole mouse. That is 50% fat, 40% protein and 10% carbs.

Then when I looked up cat food recipes, they seemed to make some of the same mistakes. Lots of organ meat means an imbalance of something else. Can't remember with this wrist.

Why can't we buy a whole chicken, a whole fish and then scramble some eggs and cook it all down and make our own. I've never seen any of my cats in the garden eating the peas.

The Freeper who said he hadn't chased his cat out of the corn patch gave me the idea......

BA

91 posted on 01/05/2010 5:17:03 PM PST by Battle Axe (Repent, for the coming of the Lord is nigh.)
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To: Battle Axe
An excess of liver would mean too much vitamin A.

Yes, what kitty really wants to eat is a freshly killed, body temperature mouse. Mice are not without problems--they carry parasites.

If you are going to make your own kitty fodder, be sure that it contains taurine in adequate levels.
92 posted on 01/05/2010 5:23:15 PM PST by Nepeta
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To: boatbums

Wow, that IS stubborn! I stand corrected. :o)


93 posted on 01/05/2010 6:02:42 PM PST by Titan Magroyne (Freedom is taken, not given.)
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To: Titan Magroyne
Yep...that's her middle name! Actually, it's Artois. Stella Artois is an awesome Belgium beer! Had it in the Bahamas on draft and really cold the first time and was hooked.

There is another way though I found to administer the parmamalt and that is to put about an inch on the end of your index finger, grab their face at the jaw, open the mouth and insert the goo between the cheek and teeth. They can't spit it out!!! This is a good way to give any liquid or semi-liquid, but to give a pill, you just have to get it as far in the back of the mouth as possible. I hate disturbing them so if I can get the same benefit from the food, I will.

94 posted on 01/05/2010 6:38:54 PM PST by boatbums (Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life!)
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To: Nepeta; Battle Axe

I remember the comedian, Gallagher, used to have a routine about this. He said you finally find something your cat likes so you go and buy a case, then you make the mistake of letting them see it in the cupboard, then nooo, they don’t like Kitty Vitty anymore, they want Tasty Kitty.

Then I thought, you know, if I was a cat I wouldn’t want the same thing all the time. I’d like a little variety. But then I thought, nah, look where they lick. I think they should make butt flavored cat food, or mouse, or lizard. Did your cat ever bring you home a TUNA???


95 posted on 01/05/2010 6:46:29 PM PST by boatbums (Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life!)
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To: boatbums

They do like what is Forbidden. I have found loaves of bread with graw marks all along the top of the loaf, right through the plastic. They didn’t really want it, but they did want to make sure they didn’t want it.


96 posted on 01/05/2010 6:49:43 PM PST by Nepeta
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To: boatbums
Guess like human doctors, they don’t always get nutritional training.

I have a cat only vet as well. She says that in vet school there is only a very small percentage of time devoted to feline nutrition and even then it comes from the pet food companies. Their reps are the ones giving the lectures about diet.

Since vets have so much to learn about many different types of animals, they don't spend much time on such a small area.

A dry food diet is not the best for an obligate carnivore. If it was, they would feed it to lions and tigers as it would cost less than meat.

A good book about feline nutrition has been written by Elizabeth Hodgekins. She holds the patent for one of the Purina dry food formulas. Since that patent, she now advocates a wet food only diet. Worth checking out.

97 posted on 01/05/2010 6:51:57 PM PST by CAluvdubya (Palin 2012...YOU BETCHA!.)
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To: CAluvdubya

Thanks for the info. We’re never to old to learn!


98 posted on 01/05/2010 7:09:35 PM PST by boatbums (Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life!)
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To: Nepeta

Love it!!! We came home one time and Stella had a peach sticker stuck to her chin. She was just walking around oblivious. I looked in the fruit bowl and, sure enough, there was a peach with a tiny little bite out of it where the sticker was! Yet she had this innocent look on her face like, “What peach, I didn’t bother no peach!”. LOL

We also have to be careful with our new guy Beaux, he will eat anything off the floor, edible or not, he will at least taste it.


99 posted on 01/05/2010 7:15:59 PM PST by boatbums (Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life!)
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To: boatbums
HA! I learned at age 50+. I gave all my kitties dry food until one was diagnosed with diabetes. I've always wondered if any previous kitties of mine were more ill than I knew as most of the time they were outdoors.

I learned a lifetime of info from my little diabetic. He's crossed over the Rainbow Bridge now (from other causes) but he sure taught me a lot!

100 posted on 01/05/2010 7:22:34 PM PST by CAluvdubya (Palin 2012...YOU BETCHA!.)
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