All about Wilbur

Hi everyone!

Wilbur was diagnosed with steroid induced diabetes just under 3 weeks ago and I have been lurking here until today.

We adopted Wilbur when he was about a year old (he had been in foster care until then) and he has lived on the west coast and the midwest. He has 3 adopted siblings (Clark, Turkey, and Caesar): Wilbur is the orange/white shorthair in the picture. His sister (Clark) is in the foreground with long dark orange fur. She has multiple allergies and a history of autoimmune pancreatitis/IBD , so all the cats have been on a limited ingredient diet. Caesar is the tuxedo cat and Turkey is the large orange cat in the back.

Wilbur has idiopathic hypercalcemia, post ablative hypothyroidism, and ocular herpes which flares with stress. He has been on prednisolone and alendronate to manage his hypercalcemia since spring 2018. We noticed he was walking strange about a month ago. Our local vet checked his labs and his glucose was over 500. He lost weight but never lost his appetite and never had DKA. It turns out the walking issue is diabetic neuropathy. We have just now come off the prednisolone. He is clearly feeling better on insulin and tolerates the shots fairly well. He is not a fan of having his glucose checked.

 

They are very pretty and cute and so lucky to get such a great person to take care of them as you.

Welcome onboard all of you.