A note from me...... [Archive]

scout1idf

07-23-2010, 05:35 AM

Saturday (July/24/10) will mark the 1st anniversary (http://srythforum.com/showthread.php?t=231) of the loss of my boy Ripley. While my wife and I are still dealing with him being gone, we are now suffering through his brother Boomerang's health issues.

Boomerang started developing a lump on his back just after Christmas 2009 and we neglected to have him checked out because of the fear that he would have to be put to sleep like his brother.

A couple weeks ago, the lump started to seep a little bit. A week ago he lost a patch of fur and it started to seep more. Monday we called the Vet and got him in Wednesday.

The Vet checked him out and told us that surgery wouldn't be a problem because it seemed to be attached to the skin and not the muscle. An X-Ray confirmed this but he wanted to do blood tests because of his age. (16 in August)

The blood test came back clean except for high sugar which the Vet thought could have been caused by stress (Boomer is an indoor only cat that is afraid of most people). Thursday he double checked his sugar and told us that Boomer is diabetic and he couldn't do surgery till we got his sugar under control.

Monday the 26th (I hope), my wife and I will be learning how to give our boy insulin shots (one a day). Neither one of us are fond of needles so this won't be easy but we love our boy.

The reason I post this is to explain my thoughts of why I though I might drop off the CHR record run. (If he had died, I probably wouldn't have played for a while, I barely managed after Ripley and haven't returned fully to the game yet).

And mostly, if you love your pet (s), don't be stupid because of the fear of loss. Get them taken care of to prevent what's happening to us. Having them checked out may just save them from future pain and even save their life. Catching something that's wrong with them early is a lot easier to fix.

texlaw1992

07-23-2010, 07:26 AM

As a diabetic and cat-lover, I say get well soon.

Doolipalally

07-23-2010, 09:44 AM

Sympathies, Scout. I hope all goes well.

thingirl

07-23-2010, 02:48 PM

I hate needles too. And the thought of sticking one on my Bella... No. Just, no.

Anyway, hope he gets better soon.

scout1idf

07-23-2010, 04:06 PM

Thanks everybody.

spencer

07-23-2010, 06:08 PM

Sympathies from me as well. Not to steal your thread, just to let you know that I feel your pain...we just recently had to put one of our dogs to sleep because of dementia. She was attacking the smaller dogs for no reason and injured one somewhat seriously. It was a very tough day for all of us and we lied to our little daughter and told her the dog was going away to a farm...just couldn't tell her the bad news. Now, our cat is also very sick. Her kidneys are failing and we have to give her solution via IV every other day. It could prolong her life up to 2 years. Anyway, again, I hope your cat does well and you all can enjoy him for as long as possible.

Draxas

07-23-2010, 06:52 PM

Sorry to hear about your cat Scout.
It is always a tramatic time when you lose a loved pet, I hope Boomerang comes thru, I will bring Boomerang up in church this weekend, we will pray.

redneck6175

07-23-2010, 09:10 PM

My wife and I can't have children, but we did have 2 dogs and 2 cats, that we consider our children. In early November, our one dog died from a ruptured internal hernia that we were unable to detect. It was sudden and traumatic. My wife was at work at the time and I was playing Sryth when he started getting sick. I quit playing and contacted my wife to come home immediately so we could get him to the vet. Just as she came in the door, he passed away in my arms. He had died within 1 hour of getting sick. The vet told us that internal hernias are impossible to detect, considering we had just had him into the vets about a month before for his yearly check-up. The slightest jarring could have ruptured it. He asked if we allowed him on the furniture. I told him that we allow all our pets on the furniture. He said that just by him jumping on and off the sofa could have caused it to rupture. Least to say, I stopped playing Sryth until recently (May) getting back into it. My wife also sends her deepest sympathies.

scout1idf

07-24-2010, 05:30 AM

That's what I like most about this forum.

Everyone is so friendly and caring towards everyone else, especially in times of sorrow and/or personal crisis.

We are scheduled to go Monday and learn how to give Boomer his shots. I really hope that they help him get his diabetes under control so he can have his surgery soon.

He's being a little stubborn with his healthy food at the moment, just like we would be if someone took the "good stuff" away from us. (I think he gets that from my wife ;)) I keep reminding her that the vet said we could start slow and ween him off the regular food. She (and I guess me too) wanted to jump in 110% and take it away from him.

Boomerang has other ideas. I guess at his age (around 80 in people years) he thinks he's old enough to think he's in charge.

Again, thank you all for your kind word and for being so supportive...

Young Ned

07-24-2010, 06:11 AM

My deepest sympathies, Scout. The good news is that cats don't always stay diabetic for the rest of their lives. Our cat Pixel was diabetic for a while, too, and we were giving him the daily insulin shots. Then one day he had a seizure about an hour after the insulin shot, and we rushed him to the vet to find out that his blood sugar was now too low instead of too high -- he'd gone into insulin shock, apparently because his blood sugar was already normal when we gave him the insulin, so the insulin drove it too low. The vet told us that cats can go into remission from diabetes, and apparently that's what had happened to Pixel. We checked his blood sugar a few times after that, and it was always normal so we never had to give him insulin again.

(He died two or three years later -- at the age of 19 -- from kidney disease, and we suspect that the diabetes might have been responsible for that, if the prolonged period of high sugar before we found out he was diabetic caused some kidney damage. But kidney disease is pretty common for old cats, anyway, so who knows.)

I guess the moral of that story is to check your cat's blood sugar (you can use the same kind of glucometer that humans use*) before giving him insulin, so he doesn't go into insulin shock if the sugar's already normal. We usually did, but apparently we missed it that day.

I hope Boomer's blood sugar gets under control fast so he can get that lump removed. Best wishes to you and your family.

__________
* Although getting a drop of blood from a cat so you can use the glucometer is not fun for either the cat or the human...

scout1idf

07-24-2010, 06:30 AM

Thanks Ned.

I'll defiantly say something to the Vet Monday. I was kinda wondering about testing since we'll be giving him the shots. I have a diabetic friend at work and know she tests often.

Also, we were wondering if his sugar being so high could be the result of to many treats. Thinking he was near the end, we kinda went over board spoiling him with them. I'm going to ask about that as well.

He hasn't had a treat since Thursday morning so my guess is if they had anything to do with it being high, they should be out of his system by Monday. I know that I'm probably grasping at straws here, but you never know.

(by high, I mean the tester he used only goes to 500 and Boomer's sugar was so high it didn't register)

Young Ned

07-24-2010, 07:14 AM

Yikes -- that's pretty high, all right!

The treats may have contributed to it, but I doubt they were the sole cause. But I'll hope for the best!

solitu

07-25-2010, 03:38 AM

Wish you and Boomerang all the best...

scout1idf

07-26-2010, 05:04 AM

Monday the 26th (I hope), my wife and I will be learning how to give our boy insulin shots (one a day). Neither one of us are fond of needles so this won't be easy but we love our boy.

A pretty large problem came up today (Sunday the 25th) when I went to pick up the insulin.

The Vet said that a year's supply would be about $100.00.

Ok that's a big chunk of money that I would be paying for, for a long time (credit card), but I thought I waste more money than that (even though I don't have it) through out the year.

So anyhow, I go to the Pharmacy and ask for the prescription and she tells me that it's not ready because they wanted to inform me of some details.

The vial, which is a years worth for a cat, is only good for 28 days after it's opened. Not to mention that it's $120.00.

She said that there are some "over the counter" options that cost $30.00 to $40.00 with the same 28 day open life.

Tomorrow's appointment at the Vet is going to be a question and answer session instead of a training session. He did say that the special food would work too, it would just take longer.

That's where another problem crops up, A VERY PICKY EATER!! We have had to resort to option #2 with the food already, Kitten food. The Vet said that it is next on the list after the diabetic food. But that will probably take even longer for his sugar levels to drop.

How do these kids learn to be so picky? Ok I was a very picky eater, but I've mostly grown out of it by age 42, He's almost 80 (in people years).
---Just a little humor to off set what I'm feeling---

Sometimes, life really sucks!!

scout1idf

07-28-2010, 04:00 AM

UPDATE:

My boy got his first shot of insulin Tuesday morning at the Vet and I just gave him his second tonight.

God I was scared!!

I gave him a shot of saline for practice at the Vet, but there I was under their watchful eyes. Here at home, it was just him, my wife (holding him) and my shaky hands (and they were shaking).

He never felt a thing!

My wife said she couldn't see any change in his eyes at all when I stuck the needle in.

Still don't make me feel any more confident, but I have to be for him!
She's going to wait a while before she tries. She's more scared than I am...

NOTE:

The Vet talked to the pharmacy about the 28 day open life. It seems that they left out some details. If the bottle is handled incorrectly, 28 days is the expected life.

Well, we got a lesson in how to handle it and even though we opted for a lower cost insulin (results in 2 shots a day instead of 1) it's still expensive (for us). This bottle is going to be handled better than Royalty!!

Young Ned

07-31-2010, 08:13 PM

scout1idf

07-31-2010, 11:29 PM

Conga-rats on giving your first shot successfully! How's it going now? Has your wife done it yet?

Glad to hear they cleared up the confusion about the shelf life. It didn't make sense that they would give you a year's supply with only a 28-day shelf life.

Thanks Ned.

So far so good. The shots are (sorta) getting easier for me.

As for my wife, she wants to wait for a while. We have an appointment to have Boomer's sugar tested on the 9th so that will be her day to learn from the Vet.

I'm pretty sure that the shots are helping. He acts a lot more like his old self again.

STUBBORN!!!!

But we love him.

psychoadept

08-02-2010, 09:17 PM

I lived with a diabetic cat and helped give her shots for while. She didn't like them (actually, she'd leave claw marks in you if you did it wrong, but that was more a function of her personality...), but she really understood that without her shots she would be sick.

She inspired me to get over my fear of needles. I figured if a cat could handle getting shots twice a day, I could handle it once a week.

She also had the expensive special food. I feel for you.

scout1idf

08-18-2010, 05:49 PM

I just thought I would give you an update:

After 3 weeks of shots, there has been very little improvement in Boomers sugar.

I don't understand what's going on with him because he is acting kinda like he did many years ago, playful and somewhat energetic and extremely stubborn .

He got tested this morning and my Wife is taking him back tonight for another check and some different tests.

Hopefully, the results will be encouraging. I just wish that I didn't have to go to work so I could be there for both of them.

scout1idf

08-19-2010, 06:03 AM

Well, I decided to go to work late so we could take him to the Vet.

The afternoon blood test showed a big drop in his sugar. It was still high at 280 but that sure beats the 500-700 that it was earlier.

The test resulted in a change in his dose so now he'll get 3 units of insulin a day instead of 2. (2 morning 1 at night)

I just hope he will stabilize soon. The cancerous lump on his back is eating a big hole in him. My wife almost passed out the other day when we put on his fresh bandages. He had cleaned it while the wraps were off and it was pretty nasty.

texlaw1992

08-19-2010, 08:37 AM

Being a type 2 diabetic myself, what's the normal blood sugar range for a cat? Same as a human (80-120)?

Young Ned

08-19-2010, 10:38 AM

Being a type 2 diabetic myself, what's the normal blood sugar range for a cat? Same as a human (80-120)?

I believe so; I seem to recall that's what they told us when our cat had it. My wife's asleep right now, or I'd ask her just to be sure.

scout1idf

08-19-2010, 03:32 PM

I'm pretty sure it's the same as humans.

When we get to 180 (I think) he'll consider doing the surgery. Right now, he doesn't think that Boomer would survive with his sugar so high.

scout1idf

09-07-2010, 05:55 PM

A week ago, Boomers latest blood test had his sugar down to 380.

With the last test, he got his insulin upped to 4 units a day.

Next week 9/15/2010, he's having another test and the Vet is confident we will be scheduling his surgery. I hope that is true. The open tumor on his back is getting nasty to clean when we change his bandage every night.

I just want my boy to be healthy and happy again.

I know that the shots will probably continue for the rest of his life, but not worrying about his cancer will be a very big load off our minds.

Young Ned

09-12-2010, 11:39 AM

A week ago, Boomers latest blood test had his sugar down to 380.

Conga-rats, Boomer! :D

I know that the shots will probably continue for the rest of his life, but not worrying about his cancer will be a very big load off our minds.

OH yeah. :cool:

scout1idf

09-15-2010, 03:21 PM

We just got back from the Vet.

Boomers sugar is down to 250 (from 380 2 wks. ago) and his weight is up a little. The Vet wants 2 more weeks before scheduling surgery though.

We hate the wait but it's in Boomers best interest. We're just happy that he's getting better.

He's starting to act like his old self again (even prestroke) including fighting me at shot time (medicine has always been a problem with him), waking my wife up in the middle of the night, jumping up on furniture without help, etc....

The picture is Boomerang 2 years ago....

Scarbrow

09-15-2010, 06:31 PM

Congrats on Boomers health improvement, Scout. Hope it all ends well.

thingirl

09-15-2010, 06:36 PM

Yay! Glad to hear he's doing so well! And he's a cutie, too. All black except for a small patch of white on his chest. Adorable!

Dariel

09-15-2010, 06:58 PM

Glad to hear he's doing better! He sure looks like an awesome cat :P

spencer

09-16-2010, 02:26 AM

That is great news, Scout! I sincerely hope that he continues to improve.

scout1idf

09-16-2010, 05:14 AM

Thanks all.

Yay! Glad to hear he's doing so well! And he's a cutie, too. All black except for a small patch of white on his chest. Adorable!
He's got a patch of white on his belly and a couple of his toes as well.

When he was younger, the patch on his chest looked like a pyramid and he always sat like the Spinx so we said he was Tuting. (King Tut)

Young Ned

09-16-2010, 10:49 AM

Glad he's getting better.

He's got a patch of white on his belly and a couple of his toes as well.

When he was younger, the patch on his chest looked like a pyramid and he always sat like the Spinx so we said he was Tuting. (King Tut)

As my wife likes to say, cats were worshiped as gods in Ancient Egypt, and they have never forgotten this. :cool:

thingirl

09-17-2010, 03:21 PM

He's got a patch of white on his belly and a couple of his toes as well.

When he was younger, the patch on his chest looked like a pyramid and he always sat like the Spinx so we said he was Tuting. (King Tut)

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know many cats who sit like that, mine included.

As my wife likes to say, cats were worshiped as gods in Ancient Egypt, and they have never forgotten this. :cool:

This is true. Bella is.... I think she thinks she's Bast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastet).

scout1idf

09-30-2010, 06:07 AM

We suffered a major set back Wednesday.

Boomers sugar went back up to 450 (from 250 2 weeks ago). He also lost a little weight.

The Vet changed his insulin with hopes that it will make a difference. (from $60.00 a bottle to $125.00 a bottle)

After getting him home, we let him eat then gave him his shot. About 3 minutes later he started having a seizure. I picked him back up he went limp in my arms. My wife called the vet and told us to bring him back.

By the time I got my shoes back on he was up and wanting to eat. I've never been so scared in my life. When he went limp I thought he died in my arms.

After calling the Vet back, he figured that Boomer hadn't eaten enough and that was the cause. (he had to fast for his blood test and the shot was to quick after just eating for the first time in about 10 hours)

So far he's doing all right. He slept a lot after today's ordeal.

The hard thing for me is, if he doesn't seem to improve in 2 weeks, we're going to decide if we can continue or not. If he's suffering, it's not fair to him, no matter how much it hurts us to let him go.

texlaw1992

09-30-2010, 11:24 PM

I had a mother - son pair of cats many years ago. Both got sick. A week after mom died, the son literally died in my arms. It was tragic.

Best wishes to your little guy to get well soon.

Young Ned

10-01-2010, 01:47 AM

Aw, man. I hope Boomer gets better with the new insulin. Is the doctor having you test Boomer's blood sugar before giving him the insulin? I believe that's what they do with humans, so you can adjust the insulin dose depending on how high or low the blood sugar is. If not, you might want to ask the doctor about that.

The testing is pretty simple -- we did it on our cat Pixel for a while. Getting the cat to sit still long enough to let you prick his paw or ear and get a drop of blood can be tricky, though... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/Old_Ned/icon_cool.gif

scout1idf

10-01-2010, 05:03 AM

I had a mother - son pair of cats many years ago. Both got sick. A week after mom died, the son literally died in my arms. It was tragic.

Best wishes to your little guy to get well soon.
I know that had to be hard.

It scared me so bad when he went limp like that. I'm just glad he came around as quick as he did.

Aw, man. I hope Boomer gets better with the new insulin. Is the doctor having you test Boomer's blood sugar before giving him the insulin? I believe that's what they do with humans, so you can adjust the insulin dose depending on how high or low the blood sugar is. If not, you might want to ask the doctor about that.

The testing is pretty simple -- we did it on our cat Pixel for a while. Getting the cat to sit still long enough to let you prick his paw or ear and get a drop of blood can be tricky, though... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/Old_Ned/icon_cool.gif

The Vet tests his blood every 2 weeks. It seems like a long time in between, but the dose is low enough that it's safe. (4 units a day with the old and now 2 units a day with the new)

It took a couple months to drop from 700+ down to his lowest 250. He said dropping a cats sugar to quickly will kill them. This set back was heart breaking after all the work we've been doing. Boomers not a patient boy and he's been very patient for this.

spencer

10-01-2010, 04:22 PM

Positive thoughts your way, Scout. I know how hard it must be. I will continue to hope and pray for the best.

scout1idf

10-06-2010, 05:13 PM

At 10:00 this morning (October 6, 2010), my boy Boomerang lost his battle with cancer and diabetes.

His sugar jumped back up over 700 and he lost another pound since last week. The Vet told us we had 2 options. Hospitalization or discontinue treatment.

We just couldn't put him through anymore.

It was so hard to say the words, but we had no choice.

The last few months have been so hard on us, but to step back and look, it had to be total hell on him.

He has been and always will be loved by my wife and I, but now he is with his brother.