In the Life of a Diabetic Cat

I don’t think I’ve blogged about this before. A couple of months ago, one of our beloved cats (ok, I love her – but everyone else, not so much) got really sick. In hindsight, there were signs that something was wrong, but nothing that seemed alarming at the time. Until the day when she finally “told” us that she needed to go to the vet. It was a rough morning, because although she is only 12, there was a chance I was going to have to make a difficult decision that day.

So, off to the vet we went – where we were given a diagnosis of feline diabetes. Really? I had no idea that cats could get diabetes. Unfortunately, Casper had been suffering for awhile and required a 4-day stay at the hospital and the insertion of a feeding tube. It was very sad.

Thankfully, once home for a couple of days, Casper started to bounce back, eat on her own, and generally just got back to business as if nothing ever happened. We didn’t even need the feeding tube and were able to have it taken out after a few days.

Now, what is interesting about feline diabetes is that we have to test Casper’s glucose levels at least twice a day, as well as give her insulin shots. Talk about an intimidating process. Of course, now it is old hat. And we even went through a period in April where she got to be insulin free. I started to wonder if she ever really had diabetes. But alas, a few weeks ago, the diabetes came back with a vengeance. And I’ve been struggling and stressing out trying to get it/her back under control - and let's jsut say that Casper is not helping.

On Saturday, I took a stab at making the Root Beer Cupcakes that I mentioned in THIS post.

Take a look at the cupcake on the right. Can you see it? That “texture” is a paw print. And she licked the top of the one on the left. Bad kitty! And if that wasn’t bad enough, she got into even more trouble yesterday while we were at school/work. She managed to open up one of those plastic clam shells you get in the bakery and ate Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies. I didn’t get a picture of it, but she made a huge mess on the dining table. Unbelievable – and so not surprising that her glucose level was well over 400 when I tested her.

Today is a better day. Her levels came back down this morning and seem to be holding relatively steady. Of course, I made sure that there were no sweets laying around for her to get into. And I suppose I should be happy that she is being her normal, crafty self. But I’m going to have to keep my eye on her. Just like a kid – I need to stay one step ahead of her.