Might be hard decision time

[Reluctantadult]

I think i might have to decide to have my cat put to sleep. He will be 16 this year. He's diabetic. We had it under control for more than a year, then he had a few uti's and we've just lost it with the diabetes. His blood sugars are either off the chart too high, which leads to organ failure, or dropping like a stone to below 4, which risks going into a coma. I'm up with him now having had an alert from the sensor he's got on. Had to give him honey to eat and ring the emergency vet. The trouble is he seems fine in himself?! He's eating, drinking, up and about, purring, comes for cuddles every day. If he seemed more ill it would be an easier decision.

How often does his sensor set off an alert ?
He' sounds like he's walking a bit of a tightrope with his blood controls .
Has he gone into diabetic coma at all ?
Sadly with organ failure by the time you notice the signs the damage is done .

What does your Vet recommend ?

(I know its not the same bit our old cat had very high thyroid at 17yo , the Vet said she was at risk of heart attack . What I didn't want was her poootling off somewhere to die under a shrub . This was over 15 years ago and was a tough decision to make )

It's such a hard decision, but one you need to make sooner rather than later.

Cats mask pain extremely well. Purring may just be self-soothing, or desperately looking to you to make him feel better.

I know you'd not want to keep him alive for your benefit. It's hard, but all you can do is what you think is best for him.

Thanks for the middle of the night messages! I'll be back in a bit.

Thanks @70isaLimitNotaTarget , it's all gotten a bit complicated. He has almost become hyper sensitive to the insulin, and now swings wildly between 27 off the top of what the sensor can measure, and below 4, emergency sugar required. The vet suggested trying a different type of insulin, which we started Sat morning. If anything it seems worse! He hasn't gone into a coma. He's had about 5 hypoglycemic emergencies now where I've had to take measures. My fear is we can't manage things unless we always keep a sensor on him, which we are not keen to do due to cost and frequency of trips to the vet, and also it relies very much on us being in, not out at work, not away for any reason.

Thanks @FlowerArranger , it's really hard when you're looking for more of a sign from them so you know it's the right decision.

I've just got in from a dog walk, cats on 4 again and still going down, so I'll have to spend the next hour keeping an eye, see if I need to give him some honey.

I am so sorry,@Reluctantadult .

I'm not a vet but very experienced with cats. It seems to me that his quality of life is deteriorating fast.

Cats do not have perception of tomorrow, or a bucket list of things they want to do before they go..

It may be time... 💐

This new type of insulin definitely feels like the last thing we could try. The out of hours vet was talking about referring him to a specialist but I'm not sure what they could do really. At 16 I don't think it would be right to put him through much in the way of tests.