Max's Diabetes
Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. It's over a little too soon, if you ask me. It's been wonderful having Moe here, that's for sure, but today we must return her to Whitehorse to catch a plane to Vancouver. Very sad. We'll miss her tonnes.
It's been a bit of a crazy holiday for us. For those of you that don't know: when we returned from picking Moe up two days before Christmas Max (one of our beloved cats) could hardly walk. He's been sick for awhile: peeing everywhere in big floods, living in the bathroom-we honestly thought he was rebelling against the new kitty litter but he was bad off that day we returned so we rushed him off to our vet. Turns out Max is diabetic. A result of a life lived overweight. I guess most owners put their cats down when they find this out as it is a rather expensive and time consuming proposition to get your cats blood glucose regulated. But we love Max and so out came the Visa card. We've learned how to hometest and give insulin shots, we record everything, and are messing with his food trying to get him well again. He is so grateful it makes me cry. When you get everything together to test and give him the shot he gets excited. He lets you rub his ears (to warm them so you can prick them to test his blood) and then comes into your lap and waits patiently while you do the test and give the shot....all because he knows he's gonna get his Fancy Feast when you're done. And since we always have to do this at the same times am and pm he starts asking for it about an hour before. He seeks you out and meows and meows. It's pretty cute. The sad part is, like so many undiagnosed diabetic cats (he's likely been somewhat diabetic for years), he's developed neuropathy which affects his hind legs (and perhaps his tail, too). He walks on his hocks now. Sad. But we're going to try to get a supplement we heard about in Whitehorse called Methyl-B12 which may help his legs. Since we have to go to Whitehorse for a couple of days I've trained our friend Justine to do the test and the shot. She's running the Humane Society these days and so obviously has a love for animals and our learning experience can be hers too.
Moral of the story: don't overfeed your cat. Fat=Health problems. Low carb diets are best for cats, too. They're carnivores after all.
Anyways, this has kept us hopping this Christmas season. Please think positive thoughts for Max while he's in this hard time. We leave this afternoon and will return on Saturday. Talk to you all soon.
It's been a bit of a crazy holiday for us. For those of you that don't know: when we returned from picking Moe up two days before Christmas Max (one of our beloved cats) could hardly walk. He's been sick for awhile: peeing everywhere in big floods, living in the bathroom-we honestly thought he was rebelling against the new kitty litter but he was bad off that day we returned so we rushed him off to our vet. Turns out Max is diabetic. A result of a life lived overweight. I guess most owners put their cats down when they find this out as it is a rather expensive and time consuming proposition to get your cats blood glucose regulated. But we love Max and so out came the Visa card. We've learned how to hometest and give insulin shots, we record everything, and are messing with his food trying to get him well again. He is so grateful it makes me cry. When you get everything together to test and give him the shot he gets excited. He lets you rub his ears (to warm them so you can prick them to test his blood) and then comes into your lap and waits patiently while you do the test and give the shot....all because he knows he's gonna get his Fancy Feast when you're done. And since we always have to do this at the same times am and pm he starts asking for it about an hour before. He seeks you out and meows and meows. It's pretty cute. The sad part is, like so many undiagnosed diabetic cats (he's likely been somewhat diabetic for years), he's developed neuropathy which affects his hind legs (and perhaps his tail, too). He walks on his hocks now. Sad. But we're going to try to get a supplement we heard about in Whitehorse called Methyl-B12 which may help his legs. Since we have to go to Whitehorse for a couple of days I've trained our friend Justine to do the test and the shot. She's running the Humane Society these days and so obviously has a love for animals and our learning experience can be hers too.
Moral of the story: don't overfeed your cat. Fat=Health problems. Low carb diets are best for cats, too. They're carnivores after all.
Anyways, this has kept us hopping this Christmas season. Please think positive thoughts for Max while he's in this hard time. We leave this afternoon and will return on Saturday. Talk to you all soon.
posted by Scott at 9:42 AM
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