benandotis20
New Member
Hi everyone! My name is Frankie, and my wonderful boys are Ben and Otis. They are 14 year old brothers, so they are getting on a bit, but since around March this year Ben has been exhibiting diabetes-like symptoms.
I say diabetes-like because we never officially got him diagnosed. I am 20 and living with my parents for university, and they adopted the cats when I was 5. I am still learning to drive and all my part time job money goes towards driving lessons and university. I'm literally pulling out of my savings sometimes even for those things.
Now, my mum is the only one who drives and is both reluctant to take the cats to the vet and has no money for cat emergencies. She literally has a small pool which is reserved for if the car has a fatal issue, because all three of us rely on it. Originally she said no to blood tests, but I managed to get them to agree to this and my dad was phoned with the results saying that Ben has elevated glucose. We are taking that to mean diabetes because my parents say they're not taking him back, and they're definitely not paying for insulin.
Obviously it's distressing! I feel like there's absolutely no way I can get him treatment with the situation we are all in. I don't blame them for the finances because we can afford 'normal' cat expenses just fine, and flea/worm treatment. We buy Ben the diabetes management food, wet and dry, and he gets a pouch of wet in the morning and we supplement through the day with dry if he's hungry.
Honestly his health doesn't seem the worst, although he is pretty thirsty when he's in and he gets plain chicken breast a couple times a week due to very successful begging. The current issue is he's decided he absolutely hates being inside, which is not like him at all. They have had access to the outside since we got them in 2011, and it's no use telling them otherwise at this point, but as a cat who used to be in 23 hours a day, he can barely stand to spend 15 minutes in before letting out some truly awful wails at the door.
He was a very lazy cuddle bug before so I hate to think of him preferring to be out in the elements, especially in the wind and rain. But I don't want to distress him further by forcing him to be in, especially if he needs to be out to have frequent access to the loo or something.
We have been considering getting something like feliway as a one-off to try and mitigate this seemingly reasonless panic that he gets when he's either been in for too long or if we try to get him to sit on the sofa, his favourite place. I just don't know how well it will work. Chances are this aversion isn't even related to diabetes and his mind is just going a bit.
I would just love to hear any advice that you guys have about managing diabetes without insulin access, or if anyone has had similar experiences with personality changes. If possible please try to avoid telling me to pay for it behind my parents' backs - I don't have money, and I don't have a car, and I can't get to my vet elseways.
I say diabetes-like because we never officially got him diagnosed. I am 20 and living with my parents for university, and they adopted the cats when I was 5. I am still learning to drive and all my part time job money goes towards driving lessons and university. I'm literally pulling out of my savings sometimes even for those things.
Now, my mum is the only one who drives and is both reluctant to take the cats to the vet and has no money for cat emergencies. She literally has a small pool which is reserved for if the car has a fatal issue, because all three of us rely on it. Originally she said no to blood tests, but I managed to get them to agree to this and my dad was phoned with the results saying that Ben has elevated glucose. We are taking that to mean diabetes because my parents say they're not taking him back, and they're definitely not paying for insulin.
Obviously it's distressing! I feel like there's absolutely no way I can get him treatment with the situation we are all in. I don't blame them for the finances because we can afford 'normal' cat expenses just fine, and flea/worm treatment. We buy Ben the diabetes management food, wet and dry, and he gets a pouch of wet in the morning and we supplement through the day with dry if he's hungry.
Honestly his health doesn't seem the worst, although he is pretty thirsty when he's in and he gets plain chicken breast a couple times a week due to very successful begging. The current issue is he's decided he absolutely hates being inside, which is not like him at all. They have had access to the outside since we got them in 2011, and it's no use telling them otherwise at this point, but as a cat who used to be in 23 hours a day, he can barely stand to spend 15 minutes in before letting out some truly awful wails at the door.
He was a very lazy cuddle bug before so I hate to think of him preferring to be out in the elements, especially in the wind and rain. But I don't want to distress him further by forcing him to be in, especially if he needs to be out to have frequent access to the loo or something.
We have been considering getting something like feliway as a one-off to try and mitigate this seemingly reasonless panic that he gets when he's either been in for too long or if we try to get him to sit on the sofa, his favourite place. I just don't know how well it will work. Chances are this aversion isn't even related to diabetes and his mind is just going a bit.
I would just love to hear any advice that you guys have about managing diabetes without insulin access, or if anyone has had similar experiences with personality changes. If possible please try to avoid telling me to pay for it behind my parents' backs - I don't have money, and I don't have a car, and I can't get to my vet elseways.
