My cat has diabetes

Titan, our older cat, has diabetes. His blood glucose was more than four hundred when I had him in the clinic on Saturday. He's also lost his ability to stand up all the way. Instead of standing on his toes he sags down onto his hocks because of a neuropathy. He's lost muscle mass along his top line so he's all bone, then fat since he's pretty hefty. He's about thirteen years old. We're not sure exactly how old because he was abandoned when we got him, around Christmas 1999, but the vet clinic where he was dumped think he was four or so.

I dropped him at the clinic this morning so we could get a urine sample and picked up back up in the evening. Cam and I had a lesson in how to give him his shots and what to do in a diabetic emergency.

Tomorrow I call around to try and get the best price on his insulin and then we'll see how he does.

When we had him for his yearly checkup last year his blood was fine. I really should have started bringing him in every six months at his age, then we might have caught this sooner, although Dr. Gray said his hospital cat went from normal in January to 600 plus in February, so maybe not so much.

We're also going to put him on a diet, which may help kick start his insulin production back up. Cats are the only creatures that can and do start making insulin again after their pancreas gives up the ghost. This is nice but can be a danger since the cat will then end up with too much insulin. Sounds like we have a lot of fun ahead of us.