Hello from Alaska

Doing a test post as directed due to the spam filter.

 

Hi Heather and welcome to FDMB! You made it through the dreaded spam filter. Tell us about you and your kitty please.

 

Awesome it worked!

Hey everyone. I would like to introduce myself. I have a 12 year old cat named Sera. Whom is my pride and joy. She has been with me since she was 2 weeks old. Hand reared and all. Up until recently is a happy healthy old lady. Let me give you all a brief run down of our last 6 months.
So my baby Sera was diagnosed with seasonal asthma back in June. Since then she has had 3 steroid shots. She was then diagnosed with severe asthma in September. We are currently in the process of waiting for her medicated inhalers from a pharmacy in Canada as they are signifcantly more affordable then here in the US. As long term use of the shots is not reccommended and well isn't as affective as the inhalers.
So here is the run down . We noticed Sera was more lethargic than normal. And very distressed in her breathing. She went to the vet last Weds and and he ran some tests and did some blood work. Welp on top of her severe asthma she is also fighting a infection in her lungs. AND to top it all off she has Diabetes. Her numbers were in the high 500s. Of course naturally this was all overwhelming news to hear.
Our vet sent us home with a insulin perscription 3ticks twice a day. A antibiotic liquid twice a day and a rescue inhaler as needed. We currently have her eating 3 times a day wet food. First day went well. No issues she was eating with no complaints. Not as much as usual but still eating.
Morning of day 2. She stopped eating all together. So i immediately called my vet. He said to monitor her and cut her insulin dose to half. Well late that night Sera was given her antibiotic after her feeding and insulin and I somehow triggered her gag reflex. Poor thing vommited and asperated. Thankfully she is ok. But then she refused to eat after this. I called a emergency vet to ask what i should watch for throughout the evening.
Day 3 my vet is now aware of the vomit session and lack of eating since now she skipped 1 meal. He said cut her insulin in half a dose and try force feeding if she doesn't eat. If it continues to call him the next morning. Of course she refuses and we had to stressfully force feed. Which has to be done so slowly to prevent stressed induced asthma attacks.
So on (Friday) she was dropped off and she spent the whole day with him. She was given IV fluids and a appitite stimulant. She was also tested for pancreatitis of which she thankfully does not have. Good news she was tested and her numbers read 296. So after a few days time she is dropping. My vet sent us home with a oral steroid to help with the inflamation in her lungs until her inhalers come in. We do have a resuce inhaler for periodic attacks. She is also still on the antibiotic and insulin. We are also giving her a medicated wet food that isnt ideal for diabetes but he feels she should be ok for the mean time and getting nutrients in is a must right now. We also have the appitite stimulant.
Friday night she has nibbled a little bit and seems perkier but still not herself. Still lathargic which is a given from her asthma wearing her down. Sadly she had to be force fed the last half of her meal. But that is still a improvement.
Come Saturday she crashed HARD. Had zero energy. Wouldnt hold her head up. Wouldnt fight syringe feedings. Breathing was rough. But we tested her glucose and she was 266. She also had a athma attack around 2am that night that caused her to pee herself.
Sunday rolls around. She appears much more perkier. She has to be syringe fed her morning meal. But around lunch when given her appitite stimulant she ate like a hog. Evening rolls around refuses to eat again.
So this morning I updated my vet clinic of the weekend he agrees we should put in the feeding tube tomorrow morning (Tuesday) to help eliminate stress on her lungs. We also got her started on flovant paired with the oral steroid (tappered steroid).
this afternoon she ate like a hog again. But she still has yet to poop since thursday and pee since saturday (that i have seen) I plan on bringing this up to the vet as this is a concern.
Overall her personality is back but she has limited energy before she becomes lethargic and has to take a breathing break.
My question for you all is are there any other Asthmatic Diabetic kitties on this forum. I feel we are in such a unique situation and it has been a bit of a emotional roller coaster. I look forward to chatting with you all.
SORRY for the wall of text but it says it spam if I break up the paragraphs >_<

 

Heather, my oh my, poor little Sera! And how nerve wracking for you. Ok, first thing I am going to do is ask you to create a signature. This will display with each of your posts and give as much pertinent info as possible. Here's a link on how to do that:
SIGNATURE
I am reading that you are home testing, and that's a very good thing, You just don't mention how often you are testing. We use a spreadsheet here to track the insulin doses/times, the pre-shot values, plus all the other tests you may get in. This is a link to the SPREADSHEET. It would be a good idea to track sweet Sera's numbers. With everything else going on, having that data is important. I don't know if your vet advised you about hypoglycemia, but if Sera isn't eating and is still getting insulin, that might not be great. Just FYI, please read this info: HYPOS HYPO TOOLBOX Sera and you have quite enough to deal with.
I see you have posted on the Main (Health) Forum, and that's the next thing I was going to suggest. This Intro forum is mainly to let us know you are here and we try not to advise here. So, you are doing well.
I sincerely wish you and Sera the best and hopefully you will find help here that will assist in her treatment and going forward to better health.

 

Yes we are testing. Since diagnosis she was high 500s Tuesday. Thursday 297. And Saturday 266. Before he instructed syringe feeding of which we started Friday evening he had us lower her insulin to be safe. Now that she is getting the recommended feeding 3xs a day via syringe she is back to her normal insulin dosage.

I have religiously researched all that could go wrong when her numbers and insulin isn't right. Thankfully she has exhibited these symptoms. So far it seems her biggest struggle is the infection and severe asthma. She has a uphill battle but it is reassuring seeing her personality shining again