Spotted Cat Designs

Today is the 9th anniversary of the day Panther came to live with us (nine is a special number for cats, the way ten is special for humans). Since he is First Cat, this is also the anniversary of the beginning of cats being part of our family. Dates before this are considered B.C. (Before Cats) and after this C.E. (Cat Era).

Panther is still sleek, beautiful, black, and very special, as befits a cat who was able to call out to me telepathically as I walked through the county shelter, probably just days before they would have taken him out of this world. That’s pretty special indeed, because as cat listeners go, I’m pretty much deaf.

Panther is by far our oldest cat but still manages to get a twinkle in his eye and chase Jennifur around the living room every two or three weeks

When we are paying almost $30.00 for insulin hypodermics and about $90.00 for a bottle of Lantus/Glargine insulin for Panther, I thought it best to comparison shop. So after searching for over an hour I realized that no on-line places sold Lantus, but lots of places sold the syringe sets. Strangely enough, our local Safeway pharmacy had the best prices! And no shipping fees!

While wading through the possible places to buy from I found VetAmerica
We bought a few none prescription items. Found some things I did not know existed for cats. Accurate descriptions, great service and reasonable prices. Check it out!

At about 5 A.M. Panther started softly crooning. It was pre-dawn, and the moon had set. Panther, like some of our other cats sings in the morning, and all of them are indoors only — unless we take them out on harness and leash. (see walking your cat) This particular time, I heard him sing about some of his favorite outdoor activities.

After the Moon
The sky slowly darkens
Grass smells fresh

Good to Roll in
Pleasant to eat
Fresh grass and warm soil
Glorious!

Last year our beloved first cat, Panther developed diabetes. So we learned about injecting insulin and glucose curves. Last fall, he vomited violently 3 times, and we rushed him to the pet emergency clinic on a Saturday night. We learned about pancreatitus (again) and giving subcutaneous fluids.

Panther has had several more episodes of pancreatitus. So we keep an I/V unit with a pouch of Ringers Lactate ready in the closet. We already had one cat chew through the tubing, so the closed closet is safest. When his fur looks bad and I tent his scruff which doesn’t go down quickly — with Steven’s help I give him subQ fluids from 50 to 150ccs at a time. Sometimes once a week, sometimes twice a day.

When Panther meows and makes me follow him, then jumps on the “insulin perch” I know to give him his 1/4 unit of Lantus/Glargine. But only after he eats!

We learned that Panther has a “sensitive” pancreas. That’s the organ that produces insulin and various digestive enzymes. So he eats prescription Hills Science Diet I/D and canned Purina Proplan salmon/fish or turkey and giblets. The canned food is amongst those recommended for diabetic cats.

During this time Panther has willfully downgraded himself socially from top male cat to the bottom of the social scale. So no more energy expended in boxing matches with Charger.

Panther is wise enough to direct us in what he needs and when. And we have become wise enough to listen. That is why he is still alive and experiencing a decent quality of life.

Tonight I was lying in bed on my side, which I often do to prevent Jennifur walking on my balls in the middle of the night, which she often does otherwise.

At some point I thought I felt Nightstar moving around on the bed. She stepped up and sat down on my hip in Sphinx pose. I was amazed because she never does that; she usually lies down right next to my pillow, under the covers with me, or at the other end of the bed entirely. I actually raised my head for a quick peek to make sure it was her, because Jennifur sometimes sleeps on top of me, but always on my stomach…but she was surely too dark to be Jennifur.

Well, we stayed like that for awhile. Every five minutes or so, I felt the urge to shift around a little, but resisted because I was sure she’d get off if I did…she seemed a bit precarious up there. Finally I couldn’t help myself and rearranged a bit. Amazingly, she stayed on, even rearranging herself a bit. I eventually started falling asleep and that’s when the fun really began.

Suddenly my head began filling with thoughts. I actually saw a page begin to fill up with writing about cats — a whole collection of things I had been planning to write for ages. Cat love; cat promises; cat prayers! And, if you’ve been following this blog for more than 30 seconds or so, you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t been able to write anything for months. Well, here I am at 5:30 in the morning writing now, and I’m seeing words fill up on the page just like it did a little while ago in bed. But wait, there’s more.

I had shifted a few more times and Nightstar stayed right where she was. Suddenly I had a flash…this didn’t really seem like the Nightstar I knew. I remembered Yang was in the room and I know he can sleep through any amount of movement. Steathily I found the tail and raised it up and looked. Even in almost pitch dark, I could see it was definitely a black tail and not a white one!

And yet the fur didn’t feel like Nightstar somehow. So I started counting off cats in my head. Not Yang, not Jennifur. We just weighed Nightstar at 14 pounds and this cat seems awfully light…so it can’t be Agile either. The door was closed, and the only other cat in the room was Panther…but he hasn’t even slept on our bed since 2001, and never on either of us.

Just about then, she (or whoever) jumped off. I couldn’t stand the suspense, so I sat up, put on my glasses, and found my flashlight. I looked on the bed and there was Agile where I had seen him last…with Nightstar sleeping right beside him. Jenni was on her shelf, and since Yang was nowhere on the bed, that meant he was in a box in the closet.

Which left Panther, who was eating from a bowl on the floor after jumping off the bed.

No pun intended (this time, anyway), but this floored me. Clearly Panther — who I’ve never been able to “hear” in all the time he’s lived with us — had sent me all this information for a reason, even sitting on me to make sure I got the message. So 5:30 in the morning or not (and I’m definitely not a morning person), I figured if it was this important to Panther, it was important enough for me to get up and get back to writing.

So here I am again, folks. And all hail Panther.

You may remember that Panther was diagnosed with diabetes last month. He just came back from his monthly glucose curve checkup. His numbers were so good we can halve his Lantus insulin doses! And he has gained about 8 ounces back since his last visit. I also learned that I must only give insulin if I have seen him eat, otherwise his blood sugar level can plummet into hypoglycemia.

The only minuscule downside: I have to draw out 1/2 to 3/4 of one Unit of insulin for each dosage. Which is about 1/16th of an inch. No worries!!

Panther, who is about 10 years old, and has been with us for 6 of those years, was diagnosed with diabetes this past month. He is on 1.5 Units of Lantus twice a day. Lantus is the generic of Glargine, an rDNA (recombinant DNA origin) insulin which is supposed to be gentler on cats than some other insulins.

Our veterinarian provided us with some informative handouts, empathy, and watched me repeatedly practice drawing (measuring and getting out the tiny air bubbles from the syringe) and giving the insulin. Of course I used saline, not insulin in my practice attempts. I learned that each type of insulin must be used with the specified syringe, in Panther’s case U-100 type syringes which have ultrafine short needles.

In my usual style of wanting to know more, as quickly as possible, I spent my day off from work on the Internet.

The first thing I learned is that we are not alone. Many others have feline and canine friends with diabetes and they have shared what they know freely.

Here are some of the places I visited:

Feline Diabetes is the best, most up to date by far of all the sites I visited. Their tagline is “Since 1996, The Original Internet Guide to Feline Diabetes“. A lot of really helpful and supportive information. They also have many useful links.

Recordkeeping is really important, so the family knows that the injections were given and at what time, as well as recording how your pet is doing — activity level, eating, urinating, drinking, etc. For a variety of pre-made charts you can download (free) go to this page on Pets with Diabetes (see link below), and insulin logs on the Feline Diabetes web site.

One of the many factors our vet explained was the importance of reducing the amount of carbohydrates in Panther’s diet. So we switched to Purina DM which has about 7% carbohydrates, and found lists (see below) of canned cat foods and their nutritional analysis. By the way, carbohydrate content is NOT listed on any cans of cat food we looked at. Basically you have to switch to feeding only wet foods, as all dry food has high carbohydrate content. This makes dental care even more important in diabetic pets.

Other useful sites and pages:

Pets With Diabetes
like Feline Diabetes, but broader in scope as canine and guinea pig diabetes issues are addressed as well. A fantastic site for educating yourself about caring for a diabetic pet.

Tips for giving insulin injections

Cat Health FAQ with articles and useful tools

Tables of nutritional information including carbohydrates, in wet and dry foods and non-U.S. food charts Keep in mind that with the Menu Foods Recalls, some formulations may change once the products are remade and reintroduced.

BD Diabetes.com this company manufactures syringes of all types. They have some veterinary articles about diabetes in pets.

Frugal Feline Diabetes Please note some of the links are broken. They advocate doing the glucose curve yourself, but after talking to some vet techs we decided it was too risky and time consuming to do ourselves.

On another note, the initial financial cost of diagnosing and the glucose curve testing can add up. Fortunately, we do not need their help, but for others IMOM (In Memory of Magic) can help with the financial aspects of caring for a sick pet. Their mission statement: ““Helping people help pets”. To better the lives of sick, injured and abused companion animals. We are dedicated to insure that no companion animal has to be euthanized simply because their caretaker is financially challenged. To educate on the importance of spay and neuter in relation the proven health risks for animals who have not been spayed or neutered.”

Cat Insults

Some of the things our cats say to each other are rather nasty. No wonder cats are renowned for getting into fights!

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It doesn’t take much for a cat (or dog) to slip out of an open door, window, or fence.

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How Jennifur Came To Live With Us

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