Friday Cat Blogging: Sugar Sugar

We got some encouraging news since I posted about 'Poor Nosey', lamenting the possibility that Nosey had cancer.  We had an appointment to bring him in to see Dr. Straus on Monday, 11/6, but he had a cancellation this past Tuesday.  Kevin was home sick, which was good, in a way, bc I had to work that day.  Right now at work, we've got a bare bones staff, so it would have caused coverage problems if I couldn't come in when I was supposed to.  So Kevin dragged his sick self and Nosey's sick self to the doctor.

They did bloodwork and urinalysis.  Dr. Straus did a tactile exam; Nosey felt okay.  They did an x-ray.  Nosey's GI tract looked okay, although there is a spot on his lung that was not there when Nosey was x-rayed there in June.  They did an ultrasound; his GI tract looked okay there.  He was sent home with instructions not to eat after 10 pm, JIC they wanted him to come back the next day for endoscopy.  We were to call the next morning for lab test results.

I spoke w/Dr. Straus the next day.  Nosey is diabetic and hyperthyroid.  Normal blood glucose numbers are ~170 (each lab is a little different wrt what they consider the normal range).  Nosey's BG was 103 in June.  Now it's 422!  Normal thyroid numbers are 0.8 - 4.  Nosey's was 2.7 in June.  Now it's 5.  Not extremely hyperthyroid, but it's still up almost 100%.  Dr. Straus was emphatic that Nosey had to get on insulin right away.  If Dr. Slade could fit us in and get us started by the next day, great.  If not, we were to come back to his place and they'd get us started.  He's also supposed to eat a Rx food for diabetic cats.  Fortunately, it's something all the adult cats can eat.

Dr. Slade did come yesterday.  She'd called in the Rx for the insulin and syringes at the drug store and the Rx for the food at the vet (she's a housecall vet, so she doesn't carry that stuff).  I picked up the meds and Kevin picked up the food.  I stayed home from class yesterday (yes, that's right, I had no class yesterday) and Kevin came home early from work.  And we got a mini-seminar on diabetic cats; giving insulin; food concerns; what to do in an emergency; how to test his urine for sugar; setting up a log book to record a gazillion different things; the order of food, insulin, meds.  It was a bit overwhelming, but we'll get into a routine with it.

We'll start they thyroid meds in a couple of weeks when Dr. Slade comes back to check on him.  We'll start him on the insulin, then add the thyroid stuff later.  His thyroid number is not terribly high.  If a cat appeared healthy otherwise, it might not even get meds for a 5; just continued observation and occasional testing.

So he got his first dose of insulin last night.  Kevin and I practiced by giving him little doses of vitamin B shots (he gets vitamin B already).  Then I gave him the real thing.  He gets one tiny little unit.  She shaved him at the injection site, just for now, while we get used to tenting up his skin properly.

Let me tell ya, what a difference a little insulin makes!  He perked up already last night!  It was soooo good to see him acting even just a bit more like his usual self.  I slept through it, but he ran around like a nut at around 5 a.m.  He hasn't done that in a long time.  A daily mad dash or two around the house is normal for him.  His eating is picking up.  His interest in eating is picking up.

Now, we're not out of the woods yet.  There is that new thing that's appeared on his lung x-rays in the last few months.  His diabetes, hyperthyroidism and weight need to be addressed and stabilized before we can do anything about the spot.  Our choices included watching it for a few months to see if it gets bigger; taking it out to see what it is; and there may have been more options that I forgot.  We'll at least be watching it for a  month.  I'll guess it'll take at least a month to get him stable and get his weight back up.  I hope the spot is harmless.  If it's cancer, I believe that lung cancer is usually metastasized (sp?) from the primary cancer elsewhere in the body, but it can be the primary cancer.  He doesn't appear to have cancer elsewhere, based on exams, x-rays, ultrasounds, lab tests, etc.

Even though we need to do something about that spot, Nosey's health picture has brightened a bit.  I won't totally relax until we deal with that spot, but I think things look better now.  I don't think anyone expected him to be diabetic and hyperthyroid. I think we all expected that he'd return for another endoscopy and that we'd find cancerous cells.  Cancer could still happen, of course, but it seems less certain now.

Comments

[Russ]

I've got a diabetic cat (she started out on insulin but now it's under control with prescription food) who's recently been diagnosed with cancer - a tumor on her tail. She'll have to lose the tail, sadly. We still haven't had all the exams that will determine if it's metastatized. I worry.

Best wishes to you and Nosey. It's all so.. what's the word... hard? Draining? Worrisome?

Maybe all of the above - but if we didn't love them, we wouldn't care, would we?

[Annie]

Thanks for your words of encouragement, Russ. It is very draining. I can handle diabetes and hyperthyroidism. Cancer's a different story. I hate feeling helpless.

I just read about Mycah. Best wishes for Mycah's surgery and recovery.