This lovely old man is Monty! Monty is a 14 year old British Shorthair & he is just the sweetest boy.
Monty has been a patient of ours since 2013! In October of 2020, he came to visit the clinic because he was drinking a lot more water then usual. With our older cats, excessive drinking is a normal sypmtom most common for either Kidney issues or Diabetes.
During his consult bloods were run to check the function of his kidneys & pancreas to see if there were any changes. His Kidney’s were great, but his Glucose levels were 501!! The reference range (normal levels) for the blood machine used is 70-150. As we suspected, poor Monty was diagnosed with Diabetes.
Diabetes mellitus is a condition in which the body cannot properly produce or respond to the hormone insulin. This results in elevated levels of the sugar glucose in the blood, which is the main source of energy for the body. Cats with diabetes most commonly suffer from the Type II form of the disease. In Type II diabetes, glucose levels are high because cells in the body do not respond appropriately to insulin.
Since his diagnosis, Monty has had to be on twice daily injections of insulin, kept on the Royal Canin Diabetic diet & visits the clinic for regular blood glucose curves & spot checks to make sure his insulin doses are correct.
In March this year Monty had a collapsing episode & was brought in straight away, the first thing we did was check his levels & they were extremely low. So, he spent the day in hospital having honey rubbed into his gums every hour to bring his levels back up. He recovered very well & was scheduled in the next day for another glucose curve. This curve showed that the current dose he was on was no longer working for him & he needed to have his insulin decreased. Since then, he has had many spot checks & is doing very well. His owner has even managed to get some more weight off him which will help the treatment of his diabetes.
Monty is so lucky to have his mum, she takes the best care of him!! If you think your cat is drinking more than usual, please contact your vet to make an apt.