Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Some Sad News...

by Holly

Our kitty Trigger, who is more accurately referred to as My Baby, has been diagnosed with feline diabetes. He is seven and has been overweight most of his life, but I had no idea that we were contributing to such serious problems. I should say 'I' here instead of 'we', since Justin was not the one giving into Trigger's meowing/begging for more food. I don't like to hear him cry.

Well, cats' blood sugar is supposed to be similar to humans, less than 120. Trigger's maxed out the glucometer so we're not sure what it is, but its greater than 450. Not good. The vet basically told me my only option is to give him insulin injections once or twice a day, based on the results of a fructosamine challenge. What's that? I don't know because I didn't ask. I didn't ask because we are not going to give our cat insulin injections once or twice a day. I came home about $200 less wealthy than when I went and started doing some online research. I stumbled upon a website for PetRemedy, a supplement for cats that is touted to fix the problem rather than treat the symptoms. Hmmm..... that sounds too good to be true. It comes in capsule form which you break open and mix in with canned meat-based catfood and Voila! your kitty is good as new.

What could be the problem? Trigger does not eat canned food, or tuna or any treats or people food. He wants his dry carb-based food, and nothing else. So, we're currently on Purina Diabetic dry catfood, but it still is not the best choice, according to this website. I've ordered the supplement which is supposed to be accompanied by dietary recommendations, so we'll see what their suggestions are for abnormal kitties who don't like the good stuff.

Poor baby. We can tell he doesn't feel good and we feel incredibly guilty that he is sick. So, that's our drama for the time being. There may be another chapter when we do get the supplement. Stay tuned...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, poor kitty. I do hope he learns to like canned food. Can you mix the stuff in with his drink?

aimee

Viki said...

Poor Trigger - I've worried about that kind of thing with our boys, just because they're so big already. They get Iams Weight Control + Hairball care, and right now we're not really regulating how much they eat. So far they're Ok...

H Noble said...

We fed Iams Weight Control with no results. Even when we fed like is stated on the package. From our reading, it says that most any dry food is carb full and hence not healthy. That was an eye opener for us. Well keep you posted on what we learn along the way.

J

Viki said...

Wow - good to know. Yes, do keep us posted.

H Noble said...

Okay, we got the supplements but right now we're having to wean him off of the dry food. So we can't start the supplement until he will eat canned food, or anything not dry.
Viki- we've learned that all dry food is bad stuff for kitties. Trigger was on Iams Weight Control for 4 years and its one of the worst. Look for animal products in the first 5 ingredients in their food- you'll only find this in canned food.
I hope you don't have to go through what we are!
Holly

TreyJ said...

Hey guys...I'm sorry to hear about your kitty troubles. I worry about our boys a lot.

That's really interesting what you mention about dry food being bad. All of the vets we've visited (in the states and Europe) have been very supportive of the food we give our guys. We might need to ask our current vet when we go next week about that.

Toby E. said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
mrscoutmaster said...

Dani said you better take care of her Grandcat!