Whew!

Our 8 year old neutered male, Mortimer, was diagnosed diabetic September 27th. I had noticed he had lost a lot of weight (I was working out of state and away from home midweek) and asked Tom to take Mort to the vet. He was also drinking a lot of water and peeing a lot, but we had an exceptionally hot and dry summer so I didn't think much of it. (I had a cat get heatstroke a few years ago, and since then we've got water dishes available all over the place.)

Anyway, he was originally put on 3 units of insulin twice a day, each injection after his meal of 1/3 cup of Purina DM. The difficult part, of coarse, was the feeding choreography change. Since Mortimer's diet had to be controlled, not only could HE no longer graze on dry food, but neither could our other 3 cats. And he got no canned food at night, nor treats. We feed him in the bathroom away from the other cats, and they get fed at the same time in the kitchen. Sabine gets dry food in her dish on top of the washer when she comes in and screams at me.

Poor Mort. He had no problem with the insulin injections; doesn't even seem to feel them. But he really didn't understand why he couldn't have food on demand, canned food at night and no treats -- we must hate him.

Well, he's gained back his weight and he goes in every two weeks for the blood sugar curve. The vet put him up to 4 units twice a day and his blood sugar is down, but not all the way. The vet thinks it may be a stress reaction similar to "white coat hypertension" so is getting the test strips for us to do an ear prick blood test with.

He's still drinking a lot of water, but he's not peeing anywhere near as much.

Oh, and we found some acceptable treats (in moderation). The vet said treats that are 100% chicken or 100% shrimp or whatever would be okay. (Just one or two pieces after Mort's evening meal and injection.) He loves the freeze dried shrimp we got him and is reassured that we still love him. (That and the fact he gets A LOT of attention and affection and praise for eating all his food and being so good and all.)

I'm on a Diabetic Cat mailing list, but haven't posted. It seems like all the cats on the list are obese and Mortimer's original symptom was weight loss.

Mortimer had also been spending a lot of his time this summer sleeping on the bed rather than going outside. I put it down to the hot, hot summer. I didn't particularly want to move much, either. Since his diet change and getting on insulin, he seems to have a lot more energy. He goes outside for awhile just about every day (we live on 33 acres of trees) and even "kittens" -- instigates the "under the covers" game even if my toes did NOT move.

Hope we can get him off insulin eventually, but I'm sure it will mean he'll always have to eat a very high protein diet -- like kitten food.

PM me -- we can compare notes.

Linn