KaldannanAug 18, 2024

First off, I want to thank everyone whose incredible kindness helped me pay for both Toby's and Immi's vet bills. Toby's came out to $254 and change (forgot to take a picture of that), Immi's came out to $434.39.

Based on what I told the vet, she speculated Immi might be diabetic, which I hadn't considered, and the bloodwork results confirmed it.

#cats #CatsOfMastodon #diabetes #FelineDiabetes

Show threadKaldannanAug 18, 2024
Thankfully, we seem to have caught it relatively early enough that there's no damage to the rest of her organs — her thyroid values are also normal, thank fuck — though the vet guesstimated she's been diabetic for at least six months now. It is treatable with insulin, which means an insulin shot once every 12 hours for the rest of her life, and which means I need to have a staredown with my own health issues to be 100% certain I can commit to this.
Show threadKaldannanAug 18, 2024

The insulin and needles won't be the expensive part, as one vial will last two months on average. The bulk of the cost will come from repeated bloodwork panels to see whether the dose she's on is working for her, and this is what that'll look like at first.

#cats #CatsOfMastodon #diabetes #FelineDiabetes

Show threadHasALizard
@Kaldannan We test our cat ourselves multiple times a day. Took a while to get the hang of it, but it's easy now unless he's In A Mood. We use a human meter (OneTouch Verio Flex, but if I was starting over I'd probably pick something with cheaper test strips). There are also some good support groups out there who can give good advice (without crossing over into vet territory). The forum at felinediabetes.com probably saved my cat's life early on.
Aug 18, 2024 at 6:37pmWeb
Show threadKaldannanAug 18, 2024
@LisaHazard I'll look into those. Thank you!