Tuesday, September 23, 2008

My Sweet Geriatric Cat

Treble has been sick, or maybe just getting old. I took him to the vet because he did not eat 3 meals in one day, which is totally bizarre for him. His teeth, ears, eyes, temperature, and a palpation of his tummy were fine, but he had l;ost 3 pounds in the last year, which is huge when you only weight 12 pounds to begin with. His levels on everything were fine except his blood glucose was 300-something and normal for cats is 156. She said he was still in what they considered the pre-diabetic range and gave me special food for him and antibiotics in case he had an infection of some sort. Do you know that is the first time I have ever had to medicate him?

So he really did not like the new food. Just to get him to eat, I went out and bought a bunch of canned foods, and he DID like those! I discovered, much to my surprise, that Meow Mix actually has the best ingredient label. If it was trout and tuna, the first two ingredients on the list were trout and tuna, and they also included things like peas and carrots, added vitamins, and fewer of the chemical stuff. It is also one of the less expensive cat foods.

The vet said the canned foods actually have more protein in them than the dry, so that eased my mind a bit on the concern that I might be feeding him the wrong thing. I'm going to take him in this weekend for a second blood glucose test after an 8-hour fast. She said if the number is below 450 he can take oral medication but if it's over he will have to get insulin shots.

He still has his little bulging tummy, but you can see his hip bones now and he looks more like an older cat than he used to. He's still playful and affectionate, but not as good about keeping his paws cleaned, and he walks like he might be hurting in his back legs, so maybe arthritis? He's 15 years old and I've had him since he was about 6 weeks. My baby!

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