Leo's Diabetes

 

Back in 2019, I was feeding our cat Leo in the catio when I noticed that he had suddenly gotten weak and slowly fell to the floor. At first, I thought that perhaps he had jumped down from the tall cat condo and landed the wrong way - possibly injuring his leg. I tried to help him up and he still appeared too weak to stand. This concerned me greatly and so we took him to our vet for an examination in order to help us figure out what was going on with him. He exhibited what I could only describe as some type of "seizure". The blood tests originally showed him with a very high glucose level and therefore he was diagnosed with diabetes. Our vet, Dr. Mike, immediately called in a prescription for him for insulin, syringes, and lancets at our local pharmacy. He had been on a strict diet and we had to keep running him to the vet during the week to get his blood sugar checked. After a week, the vet told us that his blood sugar was back to normal and to stop the insulin injections for the time being. We were to keep the insulin in the refrigerator for six months in the event that Leo should ever need it again, but Dr. Mike said that Leo seemed to have gone into remission and was currently no longer considered "diabetic" at that point.  

That was the good news. However, we were still not sure exactly what had been causing his "seizures", but we had been keeping an eye on him and for the past couple of days afterward. he had not appeared to have had the episodes that we had witnessed. We were instructed to continue his prescription diet for the rest of his life, but that is not a problem at all as he seemed to be eating fairly well. And, per our vet's instructions, we also bought an Alpha Trak for cats and dogs so that we could check Leo's blood sugar at home from then on. The problem with that; however, was that my husband and I struggled horribly with the lancets. Yes, the vet technician gave us a quick "How To" on where and how to prick Leo for a blood sample and use the Alpha Trak, BUT it was an absolute nightmare as far as we were concerned! First of all I hate, allow me to repeat, HATE needles and I was so scared of hurting Leo. Then, one night after I had gotten home from work, my husband said to me, "You are going to have to try getting Leo's blood because I tried and accidently poked the syringe completely through his ear and he cried!" 

Now, we were told by the vet to use the small vein around the outside of Leo's ear to get the blood sample hence you had better get it spot on! This experience was so awful that we both refuse to ever do it again, Thankfully, Leo was also placed on a special CD diet food for weight control as well as his Urinary Care food and he had begun to gradually lose weight. Knock on wood, he has not had anymore glucose issues for about a year now.