Hello from Harley and I!

Hello!

My name is Robin. I am a student in my senior year graduating with my Social Work degree!

I have my kitties and my doggo. This is a bit about us and our journey of being diagnosed.

We recently moved after 20 years to a rural town in Idaho. When we moved it wasn't long after my bed started being peed on. I thought it was my old lady cat, Baby. But I never actually caught her in the act so I wasn't 100% sure. Took her in and we found grave kidney results. Treated with antibiotics and nothing changed so we put her on a k/d diet and added omega-3. Though... the peeing never stopped. Blocked my room off for cat access and got some peace of mind for awhile.

Now... the entire time this is going on Harley is beyond changing, but it ways that never stuck out to me as an ailment. The one I really noticed was he could not get enough food. I free fed, he ate all day long and if you went into the kitchen he was on your heels in the fridge, climbing shelves in the pantry, ripping packages apart, eating any and all human food he could. Eating food out of pots on the stove still cooking even! It was other family members who started noticing his weight loss... so I weighed him (I keep active weights on all the animals)... sure enough in 2 months he had lost 4lbs but was heating like a pig. Then it was a couple weeks later my mom (who has been type 1 since 2 years old) mentioned him drinking excessively and mentioned diabetes. That same evening I caught him peeing on my bed... all in all it was never Baby, though I am lucky I took her in and started treatment for her kidney failure.

Scheduled a vet appointment that next morning, took him in, they all assured me he was far too young and I would be okay and out of there in no time.

Harley is my bottle baby. A litter of kittens were found in our backyard dumped, as day old new borns. Two were passed away, two were alive. I bottle fed and raised them, and Harley stayed with us. He is 3 and a half years old.

Back to the appointment... The vet did a look over and said he seemed very healthy and really wouldn't be doing any tests except if I would like to do a urine test to check for anything causing him to pee on my bed. He did say he would be willing to do urine and blood too if I really felt like all these changes had gone on and if my weighing him was accurate and I really felt like he had lost that much weight, because he said that was a lot to lose in 2 short months. I said, yes, I do believe everything I told you is true. So he went and ran all the tests came in and said... "Robin, I apologize to you now. I take my words back. This is the youngest cat in the history of this clinic that we are diagnosing with diabetes. His levels are 591 both in urine and blood." Harley also has a nasty bladder infection.

That began our journey! I hope to get to know this community well, I love researching all the time and love communities of people who love animals as much as I do.

 

Hi and Welcome to FDMB. What a handsome fella!

So sorry you find yourself here but glad you found us. My girl was diagnosed at the tender age of 4 so I understand how upsetting and unexpected this has all been for you. In some ways, your story mimics mine in that I thought the incredible puddles in the litter box were from my old furry kid. I also thought the weight loss I was seeing was actually success on my part as I had been trying to get my girl to lose a pound or two. It was when I picked up one of my other kitties and her in succession that I suddenly realized, she had lost a lot more than I had intended.

I see you've already posted on Health so you are well on your way to settling in with your new found family here at FDMB. Keep the questions coming and we will do all we can to assist and support you on this journey.

 

Kia Ora from New Zealand and welcome to the FDMB family.

As you have already found your way to the Health area I shall not suggest this.

Over there if you could just write what his diet is, what insulin etc , that would be helpful.

 

Nice to meet you MrWorfMen'sMom and PussCatPrince - GA!

There has been great information already found on here and I cannot wait to continue reading and learning. It was quit scary but I think we will be okay. I am pretty nervous about the vet not having me test at home yet. I don't know if I can actually wait a week to inform him of that... but standing up for what I want is also new to me... so if I go in and he tells me no need to test like his vet tech did, then it will be a new experience for me, standing my ground! But I'll do it for my babe, haha.

Also I hope I have added the correct information in my signature, anything else that will be helpful?

 

Signature looks fine. You can add any other health issues if there are any and your general location if you want. We have a wonderful spreadsheet on which you can track those home readings. It lives on Google docs and anyone with the link can see it at any time so if you need assistance it is always available to the members here. Once that is done, the link to it can be added to your signature.

The instructions for the spreadsheet are HERE and THIS document explains how to use it. If you need any assistance, just holler.

My remedy for any vet or vet tech who told me not to test would be to ask them if they would give insulin to a baby without first checking to see if it was safe to do so. If that doesn't stop them in their tracks, and make them reconsider, I'd find another vet! No vet can regulate a diabetic cat by way of weekly/monthly visits to the office anymore than a human doctor can regulate a human diabetic based on office visits alone. It really blows my mind! In fairness I think some of them do it for fear their clients will not want to treat the cat however in other cases, I think it's just a money grab and a very scary unprofessional practice.

 

Man that really sucks to have two major cat issues going on. How stressful. I've been there and had a ckd cat and my diabetic.

There is a wonderful ckd cat group on Facebook called Cats with Chronic Renal Failure who can help you with that. Unless that cat is stage 4 kidney failure the renal diet isn't a good idea. A low carb low phosphorus food is what you want, and depending on the numbers, sub q fluids and a phosphorous binder.

But onto Harley. That is REALLY young, poor thing. But the good news is cats, unlike people CAN go into remission, it's not a death sentence and is very treatable. Step one is get him off that kibble. It's about 14% carb even though it's marketed as being for diabetics. What you want is a wet food under 10 percent carb (under 7 is even better). Most of us feed fancy feast classic or Friskies pate foods, but you may want to look for one that is also under 250 phosphorus so that BOTH your cats can eat the same thing. Look in the food chart in my signature.

 

@RobinHarley it seems to be a common thing for cats to pee on their people with utis or other distress.

My old girl Luna (rip) had a uti once, masked by being in heat. I found out rather rudely at 1am one night when she peed on my head!

 

Oh jeez! I had the same experience, I woke up one morning to feel my lower leg and foot was soaked and the distinct smell of cat pee.