So after this last part of the saga in the life of Theo I thought I would keep everyone updated and maybe give reference to how we got here.....
About 13 or so years ago, I had another cat "Turk", who was named that by his previous owner because they were originally from Turkey (not Turk just his owner)... Turk was a lonely cat so I embarked on an adventure to find him a pal. A wonderful young woman, Christine Douglas, who worked for me at the time in Burlington, found me a litter of cats to choose from and this is truly where my life with Theo started. Theo was the runt of the litter and I instantly fell in love with him and so did Turk. They were the best of pals. We left Burlington and their adventures continued to Lindsay, ON, then to Omemee, Peterborough and then finally Kanata (Ottawa very west) where Turk developed a tumor in his mouth. Unfortunately I had to put Turk to sleep since his situation was beyond hope. And this is where the troubles with Theo began. I made the mistake of continuing to feed Theo as if I was feeding both Theo and Turk.... ooops - so Theo packed on the pounds and because it happened so slowly (as many things do), I didn't seem to notice...Shortly after this, I met Michael and then within a short time, I was spending so much time at Michael's apartment, I talked Michael into letting Theo move in with him so Theo wasn't alone and then I followed a while after that when we decided it was stupid to be paying for two places and hence our travelling began. Some time went by, we got Ashley as a new pal for Theo and then we discovered Theo's "problem". He was literally "filling" his litter box with urine and we had no idea why (plus he was drinking immense amounts of water). We took him to our new vet, The Aylmer Veterinarian Clinic, who are absolutely amazing by the way, and "Dr. Greg" diagnosed Theo with diabetes. The prescription was to give him a needle each day of insulin and after several months of adjusting levels, change to a special diet, etc, we got his blood sugar balanced out. So the years have gone by, with pampering, babysitters to cover our holidays and now that we bought a house, a yard for him to excercise in (under our supervision of course... he's not an outdoor kitty). Just before we moved into our new home, Misha joined us and then after we moved in followed Kodie (which was a dare that Michael didn't realize I would take him up on), which made us a happy family of 5 (plus a bunch of fish). So a few months ago, Theo developed an abcess in his mouth (it's funny, it in hindsight it seemed just like Turk's tumor). So a week went by and Theo would barely eat but he was active, so I thought he was just in a mood. During this time he lost 7 lbs (you have to remember he had ballooned to almost 25 lbs at this point). When we took him to see the vet all "Dr. Greg" did was drain it, and instantly we had our Theo back (supposedly these abcesses can be quite common in animals - but most who aren't diabetic just fight them off). Up until last week, we actually had thought he was a new "kitten" - he was playing with toys again, taunting the other 3 cats and so on.... woo hoo!And then this past Friday he stopped eating again... I couldn't find any "lumps" this time so I just thought it was a bug, by Monday monring he was "flat" as the vet had described it. So into "kity hospital" care he went with all his levels skyrocketing as each moment passed. On Monday he was put on a drip to ensure his fluids were maintained and to help flush out the toxins in his system. Tuesday morning, the vet was finally able to get a urine sample from him and he was diagnosed with a bladder infection - and this was what was causing all the problems as it was virtually stopping his insulin from working and so this is why his body was poisoning itself (his skin was actually yellow on Monday afternoon - jaundice symptoms because his kidneys weren't working properly because of "everything"). He was also given anti-biotics and Tuesday night he was better but still not eating on his own. Wednesday morning arrives, his levels are still high but much better, but still not eating on his own. We dropped by to "visit" Wednesday night as we had Tuesday night as well (it was like visiting someone at a hospital) and although he was head butting us (his own personal terms of affection) and purring up a storm... they said he still wasn't eating. I had an idea, went home and got him some of "his special food" nstead of making the vet open another bag and quickly came back..... and then the light came on and our Fat Cat started to fill his face and everyone was ecstatic (and this is when you know how much your Vet clinic's staff cares about the animals they have... because they were almost freaking out more than we were). So they felt it best that he went home with us where he would eat on his own and be surrounded by cuddling, etc. and just be monitored from home. The best part of all this is the fact that they trained me how to test his blood sugar level with my glucometer - it really is so easy... and now I'll know whenever I want, just how well I'm controlling his sugar (as well as my own).So the saga continues and the loving begins again (well it never really stopped... just morphed itself into another level of caring...)We're certainly not out of the woods yet... but definitely have found the bread crumbs to head in the right direction...Thanks to everyone for their thoughts, hopes and energy... it has been greatly appreciated...
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