Princess Lieza

Hello!

I will start from the beginning, we adopted Lieza when she was five weeks old from our local pound about 7 years ago, she was the one sitting in the back of the cage calm as can be as her brothers and sisters were trying to get all of our attention. She had the most beautiful big eyes and I had to have her. The first four weeks we had her, she was having all kinds of issues with bowel movements (unable to keep them in). We had her on 3 different medicines and nothing worked until we changed her food. She has been a happy 10lb cat ever since.

Lieza is not a very social cat. She has been shy and timid ever since we have had her. For years the only time I would see her is feeding time and if I was going to bed. She did not seem as timid if I was laying down as if she was more confident because she was at my level. Just recently we noticed she was losing weight on a Friday and didn't think anything of it. By Sunday she had seemed to dive off the cliff. Her back legs were wobbly, not getting up for food, drinking tons of water, and looked like she had lost 1-2 lbs in 2 days. Monday morning, I took her straight to the vet. They diagnosed her with diabetes and she had ketones in her urine sample. We decided to hospitalized her. On Wednesday she got to come home and was doing much better. We are slowing figuring this all out and this site has helped me tremendously!

Now, we are trying our best to get the hang of home testing, and dieting for our little baby. She is finally getting her energy back. Today was the first day, she actually ran around the house away from me when I grabbed the glucose meter. Hah.

 

Hi and welcome Madison and Lieza. I'm so glad you found FDMB and can benefit from the information and support you will find here. It was certainly a sanity saver for me and a life saver for Idjit!

What a charming pic of Lieza, she's adorable!

Testing is a process of practice and patience, not many of us were instantly successful and our kitties were "what do you think you are doing??!" But, with perseverance and treats it does get easier.

Thank you so much for getting the signature done and the spreadsheet set up. That's very helpful. Could you please flesh out the signature a little more though?
This is information we like to see and review in the signature:
kitty's name/age/date of diabetes diagnosis/insulin you're using and dosage amount /glucose meter you're using/what (s)he eats/any other meds or health issues (s)he has. You can add your name, and a geographic location (sometimes the country/time zone matters) Be sure to SAVE when you are finished.

I suggest that since Miss Lieza had ketones in her urine at diagnosis, it would prudent to check her urine daily with Ketostix just to be sure they are not recurring. The Ketostix are widely available at just about any pharmacy and are not expensive.

Going forward please post in the Main Health forum HERE. We can give you tips to help the testing process go more smoothly, advise on how to get the urine ketone test accomplished, make suggestions for a good low carb diet (if needed), and much more as issues, concerns and questions arise.

You can read more about the Vetsulin insulin HERE so you know more about what you are working with.

Learning the 'sugar dance' is a bit difficult at first, but that's where we all started and we will help you every step of the way.

 

Welcome! What a cute photo.

 

Welcome to you both. I'm sure you will find this community a valuable place to be. Ask as many questions as you like, it's how we all learn, and remember there are no dumb questions. Lieza is gorgeous.

 

Thank you so much for all the information. I changed my signature with all the updated information. I have also already bought the Ketostix's from Walmart just need to figure out how to use them properly. That is next on my list as I am slowing getting used to our new routine.

 

It'll all come in time, don't worry. She's a pretty girl and she's lucky to have you taking care of her! Welcome