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- Mar 26, 2015
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My Jett (the same ol' troublemaker) continues to be the cat to keep us on our toes - now she's developed feline diabetes. She's only 3, and she's a healthy weight (9.5lbs) according to the vet. She was tested before she was fixed, at the beginning of March, and her levels were normal then, so this is a fairly recent development.
We took Jett in (more accurately, she decided she was going to live in our house and just waltzed in the door) on New Year's Day, during two weeks of below-zero temperatures. We have been feeding her the same diet as our other cats - wet food in the mornings and the evenings, dry food to nibble on free-range as needed (hubster is gone 10+ hours/day for work, I'm gone even longer). Did the dry food in her diet cause her to become diabetic since she'd previously had an "outdoor cat" diet? It's weird that she was doing just fine outside, but now that she's indoors, she's experiencing serious health issues. I feel terribly guilty that I could have done something to harm her when I only meant to help.
We've switched her away from dry food entirely at this point, and she has her first glucose curve at the vet tomorrow (they'd just sold their last two boxes of insulin that morning before I arrived). She seems to be drinking less already, but I know that's probably because of the increased liquid in the wet food. My hubster is going to do her shots (I'm a needle-phobe) going forward, is there anything else I should be doing/should know? When we travel - we have a wedding to attend in 2 weeks - do we need to board her somewhere to ensure she is eating properly and getting her insulin? Because she wasn't a pet for quite some time before she came to us, she's not super-into people she doesn't know well (the vet can attest to this - she wears a skull and crossbones collar for a reason), and can be bitey and claw-y - will people be willing to board her and do her shots, even if she's a jerkface to them? Are there better wet foods than others? Our vet told us to just give her whatever right now, and pretty much as much as she wants because she's not absorbing it well, but we could give her all the food in the world and she'd still be hungry. What's the normal amount of wet food a day a 10lb cat should be eating? I don't want her to wind up overweight and have troubles from that!
I don't know what I'm looking for here really, I'm just worried about my kitty, guilty that I may have done something to harm her, and don't really know what to do from here (beyond the obvious diet and insulin things).
We took Jett in (more accurately, she decided she was going to live in our house and just waltzed in the door) on New Year's Day, during two weeks of below-zero temperatures. We have been feeding her the same diet as our other cats - wet food in the mornings and the evenings, dry food to nibble on free-range as needed (hubster is gone 10+ hours/day for work, I'm gone even longer). Did the dry food in her diet cause her to become diabetic since she'd previously had an "outdoor cat" diet? It's weird that she was doing just fine outside, but now that she's indoors, she's experiencing serious health issues. I feel terribly guilty that I could have done something to harm her when I only meant to help.
We've switched her away from dry food entirely at this point, and she has her first glucose curve at the vet tomorrow (they'd just sold their last two boxes of insulin that morning before I arrived). She seems to be drinking less already, but I know that's probably because of the increased liquid in the wet food. My hubster is going to do her shots (I'm a needle-phobe) going forward, is there anything else I should be doing/should know? When we travel - we have a wedding to attend in 2 weeks - do we need to board her somewhere to ensure she is eating properly and getting her insulin? Because she wasn't a pet for quite some time before she came to us, she's not super-into people she doesn't know well (the vet can attest to this - she wears a skull and crossbones collar for a reason), and can be bitey and claw-y - will people be willing to board her and do her shots, even if she's a jerkface to them? Are there better wet foods than others? Our vet told us to just give her whatever right now, and pretty much as much as she wants because she's not absorbing it well, but we could give her all the food in the world and she'd still be hungry. What's the normal amount of wet food a day a 10lb cat should be eating? I don't want her to wind up overweight and have troubles from that!
I don't know what I'm looking for here really, I'm just worried about my kitty, guilty that I may have done something to harm her, and don't really know what to do from here (beyond the obvious diet and insulin things).