Finally have answers... Long story about a stray

It really is a long story, but I'll try my hardest to shorten it. We took in a stray cat in December. A girl I know found her in the garage, and the cat was not chipped. The cat had hung around for a couple of days, and the girl could not take care of her due to allergies and her family, yadda yadda. I volunteered to take the cat in and give her a place to stay. Oh, she mentioned the cat was pregnant.
2 months later, I'm expecting this pregnant cat to give birth at any time. So about a week ago, I noticed her squatting, straining, abdomen twitching and I thought she must be going into labor. Then she started "leaking" fluid all around and I thought for sure her water had broken. After a day of this, I told my husband something wasn't right and she needed a vet.

Lo and behold, veterinary X-Rays shows that there was no pregnancy! Just a fat cat, tiny tiny stones in the bladder, and ear mites to boot. We took antibiotics for the bladder as my vet suspected an underlying infection. We took pain medications to make her feel better, and she was administered mite treatment at the office. They were also able to grab a urine sample that they sent off to the lab. Also, we picked up some urinary food that was "prescribed" by the vet. On a gut feeling, i picked up urinary tract wet food from PetSmart a little bit later, and I'm very glad I did because...

Today, we heard back from the vet and- her sugar is sky high. (I didn't get an exact number because this was relayed down to me from my MIL. I'm waiting for the doctor to call me back so I can get the specifics). The doctor said something to the effect that her high sugar probably aggravated her urinary tract and that we could switch out the urinary cat food for diabetic cat food.

And I am SO glad I found the catinfo.org site in my Googling. I was very intimidated at first- all of the costs associated with a diabetic cat. Then I read that there are some cases where insulin can be cut down if the cat is given the proper amounts of wet foods as long as its low carb, high protein.

So this is where I am now. I am currently waiting to hear back from the vet to see if we should continue her on the urinary tract food so that the crystals can dissolve and flush from the bladder, or what o do about that. And to get a better picture of where her blood sugar was.

So I am very glad that I found this forum and I will be doing a LOT of reading into everyone's own posts and experiences.

 

Welcome. Let us know if you have any specific questions.

And big kudos to you for taking this on. This Stray cat is one lucky kitty.

 

Welcome Tricia. I'm so glad you found FDMB and can learn how to help your kitty get to better health. Please check out the FAQs forum for information as you start out on this new experience: FAQs
Costs can be managed and you will find many tips on this subject as you become more educated and ask questions in the Main Health forum. I remember well the "sticker shock" at the vet on Idjit's diagnosis and I sure wish I knew then, what I know now after reading the information here on FDMB, as well as invaluable advice and support from the community here.
You've made a good beginning, let us help you take the next steps. Best wishes going forward

 

Welcome. So glad you figured out what was going on. I'm glad she's got some pain medicine. Which one is it? Bupe?

You don't need any perscription food. Most of us use fancy feast classic or Friskies pate foods. Add lots of extra water to it to keep her hydrated and flush the stones.

What insulin is she going to be on?