Tiglet , The Tortie Treat

[ajce245]

Thank you to everyone that replied to Tiglet's photos/profile! Very nice of everyone to do so. Tiglet is definitely a brave little girl and hopefully she is able to combat both of these diseases. Actually, her diabetes is currently in remission and she has not received an insulin shot in over a month so that is some good news even though she is still labelled as a "diabetic". Thank you for everyone's prayers and thoughts. It is deeply appreciated and I thought Tiglet deserved some recognition for how tough she has been fighting and continues to do so.

Thank you

Here are some more photos that didn't make it!

[Barbiecat1]

You poor sweetheart, so sorry to hear of your illnesses; hope you are with your family for many years to come. You are such a pretty girl; Torties are so wonderful, not to mention flat out gorgeous! Happy COTD, you deserve it.

[catlover11]

I am so happy to meet you Tiglet - I am sure your fur parent's tribute will educate a lot of people about these diseases. Too often a vet will tell the person to let the cat go (euthanize) but it is often not necessary and it upsets me that the vets give up so easily and don't tell us our options. My Angel Beyli had kidney failure and after being diagnosed (late - seems the vets didn't know how to read the blood tests properly!) he was with me for 5 more years happily. What helped him and I to live with these disease was giving him good quality canned food (dry food makes dehydration worse, and clumping litter with sodium bentonite is VERY dangerous - turns to cement in the box and does the same in your cat); gave him SubQs every few days (he took them like a little trouper knowing I was helping him to feel better); medications were Fortekor (generic Benazepril) for blood pressure which tends to be a problem with CRF and Famotidine (ie. Pepcid) which helps the kidneys a great deal because it cuts down on the acid buildup which causes vomitting and therefore dehydration. None of this is very expensive to do (got most of it at Wal-Mart) and takes little time.

I hope you and Tiglet are together for a long time. She is definitely acting like a cat - usually people who say they are like a dog just don't understand cats. There is a misconception that cats do not interact with us, just lay around and this is so not true, as we all know.

[cool4catz2]

Here are some more photos that didn't make it!

Thanks for sharing more sweet Tiglet pictures! Hang tuff lil' lady!

[ajce245]

I actually wanted to say that Tiglet has been treated with one of the best and caring vets, Dr. Ellis. She has been wonderful and we are able to keep in touch with her 24/7 should we have any questions and concerns. We have been very lucky in that regard. Tiglet receives subq fluids 3 times a week and is on ranitidine as well. She is also on the special Hills k/d food but of course, very picky so we often have to give her other canned food which isn't as good for her but the important thing is that "she is eating" and she has to keep on eating or else her sugars go very low. We have noticed that if she regularly eats, it keeps her sugars in normal range, however, when she stops eating even for a few hours, it goes low. It's pretty hard to jungle both diabetes and kidney disease because each disease is opposite of one another. Luckly, it appears the diabetes is in remission for now. We used Lantus insulin for Tiglet and I must say that it did wonders for her. After doing tons of research on kidney failure, I realized that with treatment, we can try to stabilize and control her disease and while she has her good and bad days, this past week has been a blessing as she has had a very good week. We are pretty sure that the diabetes/kidney disease created one or the other, but the important thing is that it was caught. I really hope she is with us for years to come as well. The thing that is troubling is that she is still very young and it has been a very emotional time for us trying to deal with everything and the shock and knowing that any day, she could take a turn for the worse. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I am also sorry to hear about Beyli. It's a very terrible disease to watch your cat go through. Thank goodness there are medications that can help make them more comfortable, but it's a really horrible thing to go through.