wolflady
01-08-2003, 07:23 PM
Hi everyone!! It's good to be back from the holidays. I missed PT and everyone here a lot! I even got so far behind in my Christmas card mailings that some of you will still be receiving them this month! :o
I have so much catch up reading to do here, so I'll probably be lurking for awhile, just in case any of you have missed me! LOL ;)
The holidays were a nice break from work, but pretty stressful as they usually seem to be. I went back to Indiana like always, but this year we had an extra stress point. Some of you may have read in the Cat Health about our old family cat Socks, who lives with my parents, was diagnosed with diabetes recently. Mom and I took that one hard, but were determined to go through with any treatment that he might need. The vet started us off with a special diabetic wet food to see if that could stabilize him, but unfortunately we had to start with the insulin shots a few weeks after trying the special food.
The day we flew home (and we always bring Socks home for the holidays), he got violently ill. He was fine for the first leg of our trip (San Jose to Denver), but on the second leg of our flight, I could smell that he had an accident. When we got to the Indianapolis airport, mom and I took him into the bathroom to see if we could clean everything up a bit. He had had diarrhea and vomited. He was such a mess!! Poor thing! When we finally got to my parent's house in Columbus, IN the first thing we did was give Socks a bath. What a great way to begin the holiday! It seemed to go down from there. Socks was not eating anything, and if he doesn't eat, he can't get his shots, and if he can't get his shots...he can't improve. We tried everything. The vet basically said at this point...getting him to eat anything would be good. We tried everything, wet food, dry food, people food...everything and he only seemed to drink up skim milk, so I thought maybe he would drink kitten formula because I figured that it would have nutrients in it. Of course, many cats are lactose intolerant, so that just made the diarrhea worse. There were a few days there that I thought for sure we'd have to take him in to be put down. I could hear my mom crying downstairs several mornings. We did keep trying, however. After that we tried human baby food. He seemed to lap that up ok, so he seemed to improve a little with some food at least. We took him to our vet there in Indiana a few times and he suggested a tooth cleaning. I thought it strange, given the condition he was in, but mom and dad ended up going for it when he started to look a little better. He came through just fine and he has even started eating canned wet kitten food, which is good. We need to get him off of the human baby food onto the animal food, so at least he is starting to eat it more. He is so emaciated, so he just needs to eat.
My dad and I came back to Cali and mom had to stay back a couple of weeks because we couldn't get Socks all the way through to San Jose on the day we had originally planned. So, I've been calling mom and keeping tabs on Socks' condition. She said that he has been nibbling on some of the Iams hard kibble along with the canned wet kitten food, so that is a big improvement. She said he was even moving around the different levels of the house, which is very good. He hardly moved at all while I was home. There were other factors added, but I won't bore you all with those here. Needless to say, it was a pretty hi-stress holiday for everyone. I hope Socks continues to improve and I'll keep anyone who is interested posted on his condition in the Cat Health section under Older Cats and Diabetes.
Thanks for reading! Sorry about my tardiness with the Christmas cards, but they are coming! I missed you all and I wish you all a very Happy New Year 2003!! I will be doing lots of catch-up reading, but hope to post a lot more soon!
Many **hugs** and much love to you and your fur-families! :D
Karen
I have so much catch up reading to do here, so I'll probably be lurking for awhile, just in case any of you have missed me! LOL ;)
The holidays were a nice break from work, but pretty stressful as they usually seem to be. I went back to Indiana like always, but this year we had an extra stress point. Some of you may have read in the Cat Health about our old family cat Socks, who lives with my parents, was diagnosed with diabetes recently. Mom and I took that one hard, but were determined to go through with any treatment that he might need. The vet started us off with a special diabetic wet food to see if that could stabilize him, but unfortunately we had to start with the insulin shots a few weeks after trying the special food.
The day we flew home (and we always bring Socks home for the holidays), he got violently ill. He was fine for the first leg of our trip (San Jose to Denver), but on the second leg of our flight, I could smell that he had an accident. When we got to the Indianapolis airport, mom and I took him into the bathroom to see if we could clean everything up a bit. He had had diarrhea and vomited. He was such a mess!! Poor thing! When we finally got to my parent's house in Columbus, IN the first thing we did was give Socks a bath. What a great way to begin the holiday! It seemed to go down from there. Socks was not eating anything, and if he doesn't eat, he can't get his shots, and if he can't get his shots...he can't improve. We tried everything. The vet basically said at this point...getting him to eat anything would be good. We tried everything, wet food, dry food, people food...everything and he only seemed to drink up skim milk, so I thought maybe he would drink kitten formula because I figured that it would have nutrients in it. Of course, many cats are lactose intolerant, so that just made the diarrhea worse. There were a few days there that I thought for sure we'd have to take him in to be put down. I could hear my mom crying downstairs several mornings. We did keep trying, however. After that we tried human baby food. He seemed to lap that up ok, so he seemed to improve a little with some food at least. We took him to our vet there in Indiana a few times and he suggested a tooth cleaning. I thought it strange, given the condition he was in, but mom and dad ended up going for it when he started to look a little better. He came through just fine and he has even started eating canned wet kitten food, which is good. We need to get him off of the human baby food onto the animal food, so at least he is starting to eat it more. He is so emaciated, so he just needs to eat.
My dad and I came back to Cali and mom had to stay back a couple of weeks because we couldn't get Socks all the way through to San Jose on the day we had originally planned. So, I've been calling mom and keeping tabs on Socks' condition. She said that he has been nibbling on some of the Iams hard kibble along with the canned wet kitten food, so that is a big improvement. She said he was even moving around the different levels of the house, which is very good. He hardly moved at all while I was home. There were other factors added, but I won't bore you all with those here. Needless to say, it was a pretty hi-stress holiday for everyone. I hope Socks continues to improve and I'll keep anyone who is interested posted on his condition in the Cat Health section under Older Cats and Diabetes.
Thanks for reading! Sorry about my tardiness with the Christmas cards, but they are coming! I missed you all and I wish you all a very Happy New Year 2003!! I will be doing lots of catch-up reading, but hope to post a lot more soon!
Many **hugs** and much love to you and your fur-families! :D
Karen