(Note: The "glazed tuna treats" in the title is a joke. No such treats ever existed.)
Well. It's been a hell of a week here. The big news this week should have been going on the "Muir Woods by Moonlight" hike (which was fantastic - I need to process some photos) but unfortunately that has been trumped by the fact that Heisenberg has diabetes.
I should hasten to say that … well I can't say it's not a big deal because it is a big deal. But it's a manageable, chronic condition and one that won't really affect his quality of life. Actually to a degree he may come out ahead since he gets to switch to wet food instead of dry and he gets fed more often. But the main point is knowing about it means we can manage it.
It was still a hell of a shock though and lead to quite a bit of running about, multiple trips to the vet, new food, new pills, and so forth. We're not injecting him with insulin yet, we may have to in the future. Right now we're starting by giving him glipizide which stimulates insulin production. That's just a pill so it's a bit easier to administer and since it doesn't produce insulin directly it's not quite as risky to his blood chemistry. If he doesn't respond (or respond enough) to the glipizide then we'll have to start in with insulin.
And we do need to get a glucometer to measure his blood sugar, although we don't have to do that for a couple of weeks. If he stays on the glipizide then we'd only have to check his sugars occasionally. If he goes to insulin then we'd need to do daily monitoring. According to the internet both the insulin poking and the glucometer sample poking are things the cat doesn't even notice really - we'll see about that I suppose.
This also goes a long way to explain why he's been peeing EVERYWHERE and also why the pee is sometimes sticky - he's dumping glucose out that way so he drinks a ton. Hopefully getting the sugar levels under control will mean he stops drinking so damn much and maybe even he'll start peeing in a tray again. (sigh)
All in all, not good news, but at least in some ways the other shoe has dropped and we know why he's been acting weird. And in terms of bad health news this isn't too bad. It's a hassle but it's not a threat. Especially since I work at home I can do things like feed him four times a day.
Well. It's been a hell of a week here. The big news this week should have been going on the "Muir Woods by Moonlight" hike (which was fantastic - I need to process some photos) but unfortunately that has been trumped by the fact that Heisenberg has diabetes.
I should hasten to say that … well I can't say it's not a big deal because it is a big deal. But it's a manageable, chronic condition and one that won't really affect his quality of life. Actually to a degree he may come out ahead since he gets to switch to wet food instead of dry and he gets fed more often. But the main point is knowing about it means we can manage it.
It was still a hell of a shock though and lead to quite a bit of running about, multiple trips to the vet, new food, new pills, and so forth. We're not injecting him with insulin yet, we may have to in the future. Right now we're starting by giving him glipizide which stimulates insulin production. That's just a pill so it's a bit easier to administer and since it doesn't produce insulin directly it's not quite as risky to his blood chemistry. If he doesn't respond (or respond enough) to the glipizide then we'll have to start in with insulin.
And we do need to get a glucometer to measure his blood sugar, although we don't have to do that for a couple of weeks. If he stays on the glipizide then we'd only have to check his sugars occasionally. If he goes to insulin then we'd need to do daily monitoring. According to the internet both the insulin poking and the glucometer sample poking are things the cat doesn't even notice really - we'll see about that I suppose.
This also goes a long way to explain why he's been peeing EVERYWHERE and also why the pee is sometimes sticky - he's dumping glucose out that way so he drinks a ton. Hopefully getting the sugar levels under control will mean he stops drinking so damn much and maybe even he'll start peeing in a tray again. (sigh)
All in all, not good news, but at least in some ways the other shoe has dropped and we know why he's been acting weird. And in terms of bad health news this isn't too bad. It's a hassle but it's not a threat. Especially since I work at home I can do things like feed him four times a day.