In Memory of Hunter | Oct. 8, 2020

 I haven't even had a chance to write up a post on Regionals, because the day I got home from the show I walked in the door and found Hunter - my sweet, toothless, diabetic, tripod cat - very very sick.

Waiting in the car at the vet.

He was catatonic, dry heaving when I tried to wake him and severely dehydrated.

I had a cat sitter for when I was gone, and that is a long story.

Basically I will never know what exactly happened. 

Thankfully, my ER nurse friend gave me a bag of fluids that I started to run sq immediately. And I called the vet. Oddly, his blood sugar was normal. His temp was normal.

Giving fluids

Once we run a bunch of tests at the vet, we found his potassium was extremely low - which could be the reason behind his lethargy. So he spent the night in the hospital on a slow drip and more fluids. I was really hoping he would perk back up in the morning.

Well, he didn't. More tests. thyroid normal, urine culture fine. Blood sugar still was not soaring even though at this point it should have been since I stopped giving him insulin (he had ZERO interest in food) After his potassium drip, we did get those numbers back up to normal but then his phosphorus plummeted. At this point the vet started calling specialists because she had never encountered this. 

On his sun window. lol

Tuesday night, there was still no change in Hunter's condition. We discussed a few things, including a possible tumor on his kidneys. There is a test for this, but you have to send the blood to the University of michigan and they only run this test once a week. OR he was more likely a very very sick DKA cat (Diabetic Ketoacidosis). We did find ketones in his urine, but his low glucose numbers were throwing us off. (A typical DKA cat will have blood glucose often so high it's off the meter). One of the specialists did say that can happen, but only in the sickest cats.

There was a chance we could pull him through. But it would require at least a couple weeks in intensive ICU on multiple drips and $5K + in bills. And still no guarantee. 

I brought up euthanasia and the vet very kindly agreed with me. We decided to give him one more night on fluids, just to see if any improvement.

By Wednesday, he remained the same. And his potassium had dropped back down.

So I went in about 3 pm and held him and pet him. I knew it was the right thing, his eyes were vacant. He did try weakly to roll over for a belly rub, and put his head on my hand. He knew I was there, but he was just too sick to pull through.

He died so peacefully in my lap.

I am trying very hard to not feel enormous guilt over this. What if I had not left town? What if it was someone else watching him? did I miss early DKA signs myself and he crashed? Did I not manage his diabetes well enough? 

It just sucks. I have no idea what happened and was not remotely prepared to lose an animal. It was so sudden.

Buckley seems to be ok, he was a little extra vocal for a couple of days and a little extra clingy. Also pissed because he isn't getting unlimited canned food anymore. Poor starved animal.

Do any of my blogger friends have diabetic animals? I have some supplies and insulin I'm willing to donate. If not, I can take to the shelter.

He would sleep with his paw in my hand almost every day lol