Hand-holding and experience telling please!

[wokeupwithasmile]

My 14-year-old overweight cat moved in with us 4 years ago. Since then, apart from once, she has never, ever had a drop of water from the water bowl. She is also an indoor cat, so no water from other sources. I fed her wet food, and was always mixing water with it, so that she would get water anyway, and she was happy with that. Because of the above, the water bowl was often empty or with old water in.
I left for three weeks, two of which she was cared for by my husband, and when I came back I had a feeling that she might want water so I filled the bowl. This was 4 days ago. Since then she has been drinking at least two times a day. Not massive amounts - most of it is on the floor around the bowl, but still more compared to the usual 0. I filled the bowl up today, it can contain 300 ml, so I suppose in a day she might actually drink 100ml.
The vet took a blood sample today and tomorrow I am going to bring the urine I collected, but I am really worried about this sudden change (and sick to my stomach thinking that she might have wanted water sooner and could not get it).
I know that thirst often mean diabetes, kidney failure, cancer. I do not think she has a urinary infection.
Is anyone here able to tell me that there might be other, less-tragic, reasons for her change in behaviour?

Thanks.

And I do not see any other sign of her being sick. She eats well and she seems her usual self.

If she's overweight, it could be diabetes? A friend of mine had a cat with diabetes, and he lived a normal life until old age got him. She had to give him insulin injections and be quite strict with his food intake.

Cancer very rarely presents as drinking too much.
In an overweight cat Diabetes would be my number one concern.
Hyperthyroidism and chronic renal failure are normally thin cats drinking a lot, though some cats don't read the books.
It is possible to control Diabetes very well in cats. In my clinic my clients use the Vetpen to inject their cats so no drawing up from vials you just dial up the dose pop in the needle and press the button. Needles are very small and cats rarely feel them.

Thank you both.
Unfortunately the diagnosis is diabetes. I need to bring her to the vet on Monday for more tests, and hopefully we will get started on the day with the insulin.

Lonecatwithkitten may I ask you two questions?
1- is she in pain now? She seems her usual self, but I do not think being ok necessarily means (in cats) that she is not in pain. I feel a bit powerless knowing that she is sick but being able to do nothing about that until Monday.
2- I left her four weeks ago and she seemed fine to me. However when I got back a week ago I had a feeling she wanted water, and she did. Does it mean that she might have been thirsty for three weeks and not able to drink because the only water was that my husband was putting in her wet food? I just can't get this out of my head.

Thank you for the Vetpen info. We will of course do everything we can for her, but I really am worried about the amount of stress this will cause her. She is a really shy and fearful cat.

Thanks again.

Unlikely to be in pain just feel a bit yuck. It is difficult to say whether she has been thirsty all that time.

Woke, as Lone says, impossible to know how she has been feeling. they drink out of the toilet However, I feel that you are beating yourself up about it. Clearly you have empathy towards your cat. We aren't mind-readers, and it's obvious that you are going to take good care of your cat.

Diabetes just means some changes re. care of your lovely cat, that's all.

Sorry to hear your cat has diabetes woke up, my girly was diagnosed about 3 years ago and is doing great. It took a little while to find the right dose of insulin for her, but once we sorted that it has all been plain sailing really. She doesn't mind her injections at all, in fact she comes to call for them so I think they must make her feel better. I use normal syringes and vials of insulin and don't find it tricky (just in case your practice don't do the pen thingy).

The only problem we have found (and this is just to think about for the future) is that her normal Cattery wouldnt take her anymore as I think you have to be qualified to take money to give injections, so we had to look around for a Cattery that could do them. Luckily for is a local vet runs a small rehoming centre and takes borders with medical issues to help fund it - but it's something worth looking around for if you use a Cattery for holidays etc.

Good luck with your cat, hope it all goes well

Dear All,

Thanks a lot. The more I think about it the more I feel positive that we will make it. She will have to endure stress and more frequent visits to the vet, and we will have to be more careful, but I am thinking that her previous owners would certainly not have noticed that (she was living outside all the time - that's why she moved in with us, she could not believe we were happy for her to sit on the couch and sleep all day if she wanted), perhaps even PTS her because of it, so she is still in a good place, even if with diabetes!
Thank you for the info about the cattery. We never attempted it, as she is too scared of strangers and I can't enjoy myself thinking that she is having a really crappy time. We are lucky that family and friends are willing to move into our place to care for her when we are away. YES, she is a spoiled cat.

Thanks again, hopefully all will be alright.

Hi all, I wonder whether there is anyone out there who can help me a bit tonight. I feel rather disheartened.
We started our cat on the insulin, but she has not been responding to it.
She is 8.3 kilos (lost 200 gr last time she was checked two weeks ago, so it might be a little lower than that now) and is now on 6units of caninsulin.
The first reading at the vet was 25, it went down to 19, but last one a couple of days ago, when they also did the curve was 23.

True, we started with the insulin only recently, so her body might need to adjust, she is older (14) so her body might take a bit longer to adjust, we started very low on 1-2 units, so it has not been very long since she had higher doses, but I do not see results and today she has been very 'owly'. Not clearly in pain, but withdrawn and quiet.

She also had a UTI last week that scared me big time. She was sitting down and blood was coming out of her mixed to urine without her straining, just sitting. She was given an antibiotic injection for that and has not had any such thing since then at all, but that might have weakened her a bit more.

I don't see this working. We just bought the home testing for glucose, hoping that she is so freaked out when she is taken 1) to the vet 2)by car that her glucose spikes. Hopefully at home, in her environment, she will be a bit more relaxed and we will see a little less glucose in her body.

Apart from any suggestion/idea/experience/hand-holding, I am also writing to ask when I should test her glucose at home. If we give her dinner at 6, as far as I understand the lowest glucose point should be around 10, so should I check it at around 9? 9.30? Before dinner?
(she is now on a Hill's diet with lots of snacks throughout the day. She is a constant feeder, so both I and she would find it really difficult to have only two large meals per day).

Thank you, and sorry for the random sentences, I am a bit down tonight.