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| Diary Like Info On Winter's Battle With Diabetes. | ||
In September of 2000 Winter was diagnosed as having diabetes. This page tells about her treatment and ongoing battle with the disease and her untimely death on March 20, 2001.
UPDATED March 20, 2001
Today's update at the end of this page will be the last.
September 6, 2000 October 5, 2000 October 7, 2000 October 15, 2000 November 6, 2000 December 23, 2000 February 18, 2001 February 21, 2001 February 27, 2001 March 1, 2001 I took today off from work and took Winter to the vet for a 2nd ultrasound. They wanted to do her stomach area this time since they didn't find anything when they did her chest area on Tuesday. The ultrasound did show that her heart is OK. I waited with her today and the doctor doing the ultrasound let me come back and hold her back feet so I could see what he was doing and tell me what he was seeing. He took a few snapshots for further study while doing the ultrasound. The good news is
that he didn't see any masses. It doesn't rule out cancer entirely but there are no cancerous masses growing. They didn't take any samples for biopsy since they didn't find a mass and because her blood platelets are low and they didn't want to cause any bleeding. Her clotting is so low that almost anywhere they touch her causes a bruise.
After the ultrasound I had the vet look her over. He said the guy that did the ultrasound was a radiologist from Cornell and really knew his stuff. He said Winter couldn't have gotten anyone better. He weighed Winter and she has lost another pound and is down to 13.5 pounds. He said most of that was the fluid loss from the Furosemide (Lasix). I thought maybe she wasn't eating because of a bad tooth so he checked her teeth carefully and said they were OK. I noticed a scaly red spot on her neck and showed it to him. He started to tug at the hair around it and her hair started to just pull away in clumps. Not a good sign. He said we couldn't rule out cancer because some forms float throughout the body in the lymphatic system and are hard to detect. Since she is also FIV positive with a very weak immune system he said it could also be an infection of some sort. She also has the sniffles right now too. He decided to change her antibiotic from Baytril to Tetracycline (sp?) because he said it would help her sniffles and was better at fighting some other types of infection than the Baytril. He said he'd call my regular vet (she practices from the same office as him but today she was at the other place she also works at) and let her know the results of today's tests to see what she wants to do next. Today's visit was $131 which pushes the vet bills to close to $1,000 for the past month. I really hope she starts getting better. It's hard to see her slowly wasting away and getting slightly worse. She's such a good kitty. When they had to lay her on her back (which her and most cats hate) today for the ultrasound, she just laid there and didn't struggle or holler.
March 16, 2001 March 20, 2001 Winter was always a very mild mannered, easy going cat who never bothered anyone. All she wanted was some food and petting and she was happy. She would start purring if you just looked at her. Not once in her life did she ever get angry enough to try and bite anyone. If she really got annoyed she would snap her head like she was going to bite and then would lick you. She was a real daddy's girl and would only sit next to me or on my lap. Her cute little face, good nature and little habits will be sorely missed for a long time. Normally my days seem to fly by so fast I wonder where the time went. After putting Winter to sleep today the rest of the day seemed to go by in slow motion. I wonder what effect this will have on TC & Whitey. She used to spend a lot of time sleeping places away from them so I don't think they realize she's gone yet. Her and TC were raised together from 8 week's old. He's always been very protective of her. When Frisky died 2 years ago his personality changed and he didn't even like her much. After he realized she was gone he became more affectionate and turned into a real lap hound. Whatever effect this has on them, I hope it's positive.
Good-bye my sweet little girl. I'll meet you on the other side of the rainbow bidge.
Winter made a trip to the vet this past Saturday, Sept. 2nd. Winter's news wasn't too good. We took her in for blood work and urine tests 2 weeks ago. Her appetite had gotten even more ravenous than normal. Her blood sugar level was at 504 and the vet suspected Diabetes. The blood work also showed she picked up Whitey's FIV and is now FIV positive too. The most likely cause was that she got into a bad habit of licking Whitey's bowl clean after he had been eating and probably got it via his saliva. The vet had me stop her Prednisone and checked her again this past Saturday. She has gone from 17.5 pounds in April to 16 pounds now but had only lost .2 pounds these past two weeks. Taking her off the Prednisone helped some. Her ravenous appetite backed down to her normal eating and her blood sugar level dropped from 504 to 279. Still too high since normal is 80-120. The vet has put her on Glypizide twice a day and wants to see her again in two weeks for another urine test and blood sample. I'm hoping the pills work because I'm not crazy about having to give the poor thing Insulin shots. I'll update her condition again in two weeks and when I get time may even start her Diabetes treatments as a separate page here on the site.
We are still trying to get Winter's diabetes under control. We gave her 2.5 Mg of Glipizide twice a day for two weeks. Her blood glucose level was at 279 when checked. So we tried another two weeks at 5 Mg twice a day. When rechecked she was still at 278. So last Saturday, Sept. 30th, we started her on insulin shots of 1 unit twice a day. She was rechecked at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 4th, and was at 375. The vet had me increase the dose to 2 units twice a day and Winter will be rechecked on Saturday, Oct. 7th, at noon. I give her the shots at 6 AM and 6 PM which is why they want to check her at noon. I hope this does it. I hate giving her shots but so far she doesn't seem to mind. Wish us luck.
After having her insulin dosage increased to two units twice a day Winter's latest blood glucose level was at 251. The vet said to increse the dosage to three units twice a day and bring her in at noon again Saturday, Oct. 14th for a recheck.
Yesterday Winter went to the vet for a blood glucose recheck after being on three units of insulin twice a day for a week. She's getting used to the ride to the vet and just settles down and rubs against my fingers which I put through the bars of the cage. When she was checked at noon today (she had her shot at 6 AM), her blood glucose level was still at 281. The last two increases in dosage don't seem to have much effect so far. The vet says she may be peaking sometime other than the mid point between shots. She had me up the dosage now to four units of insulin twice a day. She also wants me to drop Winter off first thing in the morning on Wednesday, Oct. 25th, and leave her all day so they can run a blood glucose curve. I hate leaving her there all day. I don't think she likes having them draw a little blood for the tests. Yesterday she hissed at the vet when she took the blood. Hissing is very unusual for Winter. She's a very shy and easy going cat who almost never hisses. In fact in the 13 years she's been with me I've heard her hiss less than a half dozen times.
Wednesday, Oct. 25th, Winter spent all day at the vet so they could run a blood glucose curve. It showed that the shot brings her number down well within normal range and stays normal for about 4 hours before climbing. The vet did some research and consulted another vet because she was thinking of switching to a different brand of Insulin that was slower and longer acting. However they felt that the switch might not produce any better results plus we'd be starting again at square one. Since Winter is acting normal and doesn't show excessive thirst or urination they decided to leave her on her present Insulin and dosage of 4 units twice a day. Unless there are any changes the vet won't see her again until next month (December).
Wednesday, Dec. 20th, Winter went to the vet with Whitey for a follow up visit. She's been getting 4 units of insulin twice a day now for awhile. Winter seems to be doing well and doesn't seem to mind the shots. I think it bothers me more to have to give them to her than it does her getting them. She just lies still and purrs at me. At the vet her blood glucose level was at 289 but that was 10 hours after her last shot so wasn't too bad. The good news was that she didn't gain any more weight back and was still at 16.5 pounds. I wish I could get her to lose more weight but the vet says she should have some hard food out during the day for snacks between shots.
Well yesterday turned out to be a bad and expensive day. Winter (the fat cat with diabetes) hasn't been looking well for a week or so. She seemed to be going slowly downhill and was even less active than normal. She also had a decrease in appetite. Friday night she did some projectile vomiting. So I decided to be safe than sorry and took her to the vet
yesterday. Turns out it was a good thing I brought her in. The vet also said she didn't look well. She took some blood and weighed her. She lost 2 pounds since she was there in December. Went from 16.5 pounds to 14.4. Not a good sign. They checked her blood sugar level and it was down to 28. So they hurriedly pumped some sugar into her to raise her blood sugar level. Hard telling how low it had gotten when she had her insulin shot 5 hours earlier. They also took two sets of x-rays and that's when I got the really bad news. The vet said some of her organs were slightly enlarged but what concerned her was that she was seeing some fluid in the chest. Once Winter's blood sugar level rose to normal levels, she decided to put a needle in Winter's chest to draw out some of the fluid. She had a hard time listening to Winter's heart because she wouldn't
stop purring the whole time all this was going on (she's such a good kitty). Anyway, the Dr. finally got a decent listen later on. She said that based on the fluid and x-rays she was afraid Winter might have some form of heart disease or some kind of cancer in her chest that was causing the fluid. She sent out the blood and fluid for testing and we should get the results on Monday some time. She also wants Winter to have an ultrasound to pin down more precisely what the problem is. They have to schedule a doctor to come in for that. So depending on the test results Winter will probably get an ultrasound on Tuesday, February 20th. All together I ended up at the vets for almost 3 hours and the bill came to $377. I sure wasn't expecting anything like that. The ultrasound will cost about another $250. I sure hope these tests show something treatable. I'd hate to lose my little girl. She's the easiest going cat I've ever known. Never bothers you, always purring. Just wants food and a little petting once in awhile. She's real easy to give pills and shots to, never struggles. Anyway, let's hope for the best. She seems more like her old self so far today so maybe the medicine and reducing the insulin to less than half what she was getting has helped.
I took Winter back to the vet today for a blood sugar recheck. It was in the 400's so the vet wants me to put her back on a very low dosage of insulin. The blood tests from Saturday show her white cell count is nearly nonexistent and her platlet count is very low. She also has low figures for potasium. Her kidney functions were fine though. The test on the fluid they drew on Saturday came back today. Unfortunately the tests were inconclusive as to what the problem is. It could still be heart disease or cancer. We are scheduling an ultrasound for this coming Tuesday, Feb. 27th to pin down what the problem is and decide on a course of action from there. I have had Winter since she was a kitten and she's now 13.5 years old. She's always been an extremely gentle cat that would purr if you just looked at her. It seems the deck is currently stacked against her and I'm afraid of losing her. She has diabetes, is FIV positive and now appears to have heart disease. I will do whatever needs to be done to keep her going as long as she is pain free and still can enjoy a quality of life. I'll be hoping the ultrasound shows something treatable. In the meantime she will be getting her insulin, diurectic pill, baytril and starting tomorrow some potassium pills.
Winter went to the vet today for her ultrasound. They also did a blood sugar check and it was at 110 which is in the normal range. The good news was that the Furosemide (diuretic) she has been taking must have worked because they saw no more fluid in her chest. She was getting 6 mg a day but the vet said she is slightly dehydrated so he gave me the liquid form and is cutting it back to 3 cc per day. The results of the ultrasound won't be in for awhile but he said they saw no visable signs of cancer. She may still have heart disease. They were sending the ultrasound and x-rays out to a radiologist for reading. Hopefully the results will be back in a few days. So for now she'll be on the lower dose of Furosemide, a low dose of insulin, her potassium pills twice a day and Baytril. Except for the fact that she's not eating well, she seems to be pretty much her old self. She used to be a real glutton that we sometimes had to take food away from. Now I wish she'd eat like that again.
Yesterday while grocery shopping I bought some baby food (meat flavors: chicken, turkey & beef) in the hopes Winter would eat it. She seems like she wants to eat but doesn't eat much. I guess the baby food helped because she ate two jars last night and one more this morning.
Winter is still sick and from what I'm hearing from the vet may never get better. Last Thursday, March 8th, she had a seizure brought on by insulin shock. It scared the crap out of me but I realized quickly what it was and quickly gave her some Karo syrup to raise her blood sugar. Luckily that brought her out of it pretty fast. When I got in touch with the vet she said to stop the insulin until further notice since the dosage was already low (1 unit twice a day). We did another blood test this past Tuesday night, March 13th. Her white cell count was up a little but still well below normal. Her red cell and platelet count was even worse than before. The vet fears it's a problem with her bone marrow. Either cancer or some infection brought on by the FIV. The bone marrow is what produces the red cells and platelets. The only way to tell for sure is to put needle into the bone to extract some marrow and send it out for testing. She said she's never done that and would check with the other vet she works with to see if he's done it. Her fear is that the needle will cause bleeding that they won't be able to stop because with low red cells and platelets her blood does almost no clotting. I asked her how long Winter can keep going if she doesn't improve and she couldn't predict. She said her best guess was maybe several months but could be shorter or longer. Right now Winter appears to be alert and not suffering but we have to keep a close eye on her. I told the vet I don't want to let her go until I know her quality of life isn't good and won't improve. I don't want her to suffer. We've stopped the insulin injections. Her diabetes isn't too bad now that she's lost almost 4 pounds since December. Her blood sugar count after a week of no insulin was only slightly higher than normal. We also stopped the antibiotics for now in the hope it'll help her appetite. All she gets now is a potassium pill twice a day and a small dosage of Lasix to keep fluid from building up in her again. The vet wants to try giving her some Interferon like we gave to Whitey to help build up her blood cells. I have to go pick it up tomorrow. It was hell going through cancer with Whitey but at least we were able to treat it and make him pretty healthy again. Unfortunately if Winter has cancer in her bones it isn't treatable by chemotherapy like Whitey's cancer was. So I take it day by day and try to spend good time with her each day. She's such a little sweetie.
Winter's last really good day was this past Saturday. She ate really well and seemed pretty alert and happy. She was having a little difficulty walking around but not any worse than lately. Her health started going downhill on Sunday. She ate in the morning but in the afternoon she had another bloody nose. This one was worse than the last one. Her breathing was hard because of the blood in her nose and she wouldn't eat much the rest of the day. In the evening her nose had stopped bleeding and cleared up enough to where she seemed to be breathing OK. Monday morning she ate a little and seemed to be having more difficulty walking. When I came home from work at 4 PM she didn't greet me and I carried her up the stairs to her bowl where she ate very little and then slowly walked into the living room and laid down. As Monday night wore on she started going downhill fast. She ate a little baby food but threw it up a little while later. Her breathing was noticeably more ragged and strained. She couldn't walk at all. We called the vets we knew but they were closed for the night or out. She kept getting worse and threw up again. She also crawled off the blanket she was on and couldn't hold her bowels or urine anymore and went all over the floor. After cleaning her up we decided to take her to the emergency clinic. We knew her time was short and she might not make it through the night. I really didn't want to put her to sleep in the middle of the night at a cold clinic with strangers. We took her to the Emergency Animal Clinic and were there to about 1 AM. They X-rayed her and took a blood
sample. She was so weak she couldn't walk and was having trouble breathing. The x-rays showed fluid in and around her lungs and her heartbeat was erratic. They suggested keeping her but I didn't want to leave her in the middle of the night with strangers in a cage. I really knew she would not be getting better this time. They gave her some antibiotic shots that helped her breathing and allowed her to rest. When we got home we put some blankets on the floor for her so she would be upstairs here where it was warm and wouldn't have to try to move around. When I got up this morning she was very quiet and wouldn't eat anything. I knew she was suffering now and didn't want to prolong her suffering since I knew she would never get better. We made a 10:15 appointment with our vet and brought the x-rays from the emergency clinic and the clinic doctor had faxed them her notes. The doctor looked her over and looked at the x-rays and said she was now suffering and there was nothing to do but let her go. We stayed with her while they gave her the injection and she quietly went to sleep. She was always such a pleasant, good natured cat. Not quite 14 years old but all her problems were shutting her body down. She had lost almost another pound since last week. So as of 10:30 AM this morning my poor little girl is suffering no more. We miss her already and have been crying off and on since. We are having her individually cremated so we can put her next to Frisky who died 2 years ago.
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