Karl the barbarian

Hello Everyone!

I'm glad to have found this place. I have had my cat Karl for about 7 years. I found him outside of my old apartment complex as a kitten one rainy afternoon. He is very smart and funny, and a complete handful. He ate a button when he was younger, needing surgery to remove. He used to constantly have pooping issues, which a vet told me was because he had IBD (they "checked" when he had his surgery). He would go crazy, and try to lick his butt, and poop **everywhere**... while only struggling to get out drops at a time. I took him to the emergency vet several times because of this, but nobody ever told me anything helpful. The most common "cure" was prescription antibiotics... which never seemed to do anything.

I digress -

About a year and a half ago I noticed him being more lethargic and losing a little weight. he seemed OK but I began to worry and monitor him more closely. Then I had new carpets installed one day, and I knew that stressed him out. He refused to eat after that so I took him to the emergency vet when I found him almost unresponsive on the floor. He had dangerously high blood sugar (I think, it was very high or low... I was a wreck at the time and it's a bit blurry - the on call vet was a young guy who was pretty nasty to me because I didn't understand the technical jargon he was using and just wanted to knujfcow if my cat was dying first).

I eventually ended up moving Karl to a different emergency vet I had a little more confidence in. He was in the hospital over a week, and they weren't sure if he was going to make it... but he's a fighter and pulled through. It was heartbreaking seeing him there, skin and bones hooked up to an automatic insulin machine.

I was shocked that he seemed to develop diabetes in the span of a few days. I'm sure this probably wasn't the case... but he was healthy and at a normal weight before he developed symptoms. I didn't know healthy cats could just develop diabetes in that way.

Since his diagnosis I have been trying my best to manage his symptoms. Honestly I was less than happy with the expert advice I got from vets, even my normal vet. The advice was very limited, and they seemed to usually just suggest more curves... which stress him out greatly. I have become comfortable in the past few months with doing home tests - I test every morning and night when I feed him. I am going to also try my hand at a full day curve soon.

His levels are kind of all over the place. Sometimes they're around 90, sometimes they're above 400 (usually they're around 200-300). It doesn't seem to follow much rhyme or reason since he eats the same amount of food every day, with 1.5 units with each meal. He tends to run higher at dinner, lower in the morning. He is also always complaining for food, and will eat literally any food left out. His weight is pretty steady, but this concerns me too.

Also (back to my original grumbles about vets/care) I managed to "fix" his pooping issues just be adding more water to his wet food. The idea just occurred to me that maybe he was in distress because he was constipated from lack of water ... and he hasn't had a single "poop everywhere" incident since. I'm floored no vet ever suggested such a simple thing to try. My floors are carpets and sanity have all been greatly improved!

So I want to say thank you to everyone here. I have just started to dive into all of the great information. Karl and I appreciate all of the help we can get, I love him very much want to make his life as happy and healthy as possible.

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome to the forum. Kudos to you for the testing. Many members on the forum here, ultimately do all the diabetic care for their kittehs. So you are off to a great start - including 12 hour curves at home.

I feed our 3 cats Fancy Feast classics with water - more like cat stew than moist food. It works well for all of them.

That's a great picture of Karl the barbarian. Looks like a cat cuteh to me!

You may want to do followups in the Main Health subforum.

 

Welcome! Great that you are home testing. We have a great spreadsheet you can use and add to a signature like the ones you see below our posts.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/fdmb-spreadsheet-instructions.130337/

 

Welcome, you have come to a great place with lots of info, caring and experienced people. Karl is darling.