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The story of a diabetic, told by
Dirk
Jeep, who is actually named Gold'N
Brown (after that song of The Stranglers and because of his chocolate coat
and his golden eyes, but he graduated soon from GB to being called Jeep),
started to have some problems with his teeth early last year. Obviously
caused by tartar so he had to go to the vet.
During the dental care it became
clear that it was probably necessary to pull some molars because the roots
were exposed. But there was also a little tumour discovered underneath
his tongue.... The vet did not want to risk treating either problem so
we were referred to a specific surgeon. I wasn't too happy about that:
earlier that same surgeon had almost killed Jeep (Jeep was cryptorchid
- one of his testicles did not descend and was encapsulated in his groin)
and stitched him up so shockingly bad that an emergency repair by the local
vet of a wound of almost 6 inches (!!) was necessary. The poor cat was
so mistreated that he was incontinent for half a year and has not really
been house-trained ever since.
So I went to another vet who felt
confident enough to remove the tumour. However, she thought it would be
too much to pull the molars during the same surgery. Meanwhile I suspected
a sluggish thyroid (typical bald spots) and the lab results showed I was
right. The little tumour, although expected otherwise at first sight, turned
out to be non-malignant.
Then Jeep got ill again.
Because antibiotics apparently did
not work Jeep got Dexamethason. Jeep's condition deteriorated by the minute.
He refused to eat or drink although he did not give the impression that
he was giving up. I was already planning to have him put to sleep and arranging
an autopsy because FIP was mentioned, which I refused to believe and wanted
to see with my own eyes.
I then thought of something else:
I wanted to give Jeep a preposterous dose of Ketofen and quite a dose of
Baytril. The vet that was treating him had serious doubts about my approach
but advised to stop the dexa immediately. The local vet shook his head
but gave me what I asked for. Both told me I could kill Jeep that way....
Within a day Jeep started to eat
again.
When Jeep had recovered it was time
to have something done about those molars. Because I didn't trust his drinking
and peeing behaviour I asked for some lab tests first ("check his blood:
I think his kidneys are ruined or he's a diabetic"). The glucose count
turned out to be too high for the machine to measure.... Not a good
idea to do dental surgery. Since then Jeeps gets a high dose of insulin
injected twice a day.
Looking back it now seems that at
the time Jeep must have had a badly inflamed pancreas - which is now completely
destroyed - and that the medication I decided to give was not a bad choice.
Measuring his glucose is a disaster so I don't bother him too much with
that. Jeep's gums give no reason for dental surgery anymore so he still
has a full set of teeth.
He is doing fine with the insulin
although I'm aware that his life expectancy is limited.
Dirk |
