So two days ago I made a vet appointment for Joe. He has been pooping and peeing outside the litter box again. Plus his urine has been really strong. So I figured something was up. I didn't think it was a UTI since he gets pretty nasty with those.. but I did think maybe kidney failure or a glucose thing due to his diabetes.
So Matt took him in at 8:30 and didn't get home until 11. They immediately attached on to UTI. They got back a test that was negative. It drives me crazy when doctors assume it's a certain diagnosis and doesn't look past what they think it could be. Anyway, Matt recommended them doing EVERYTHING they can do for him so they have all the information they need since taking him in is horrible (he's a horror while there and then reintroducing him to Ruthie is also horrible). So after running some more tests they were going to head out the door when Matt asked if they ran the urine strip test that they were recommending we do at home. No, they haven't. Uhhh..why?
Anyway, they did and when they came back the doctor was bringing food and a spoon! Joe was dangerously low. They were surprised he wasn't passed out due to his glucose level. So anyway, they kept him overnight to get him stabilized. We had been giving him TOO MUCH insulin. He's had too much insulin for WEEKS! He never showed any of the normal overdose signs that we know to look for and the doctors even said that he definitely wasn't acting overdosed. We haven't been doing any glucose testing on him since he hates it and we are actually pretty bad at it so it's been kind of stabbing in the dark. Also, they can't do it at the vet because his stress level is so high it affects his blood level and they would never get a true reading.
Of course, now I feel bad. My poor kitty cat has been on the verge of very bad things for weeks now and we never knew it. So we're going to try even harder now to make sure we keep him level--including the testing at home(which isn't all that expensive compared to the vet bill we'll have when this is said and done.) Oh my Gosh, it's going to be expensive. But, I am the kind of person that if I committed myself to doing to the insulin thing to begin with I want to do it right. So we're going to try again.
I will say though, if we can't get him stabilized, we cannot continue to keep taking him to the vet. We cannot afford these visits much longer. Matt needs new tires for his car very soon, not to mention the other necessities. We simply can't afford to keep running to the vet. So I hope that with home testing we can get him back to baseline and continue on with insulin (at a different level of course) the way we have been. Since, really, the insulin itself isn't that much of a pain in the butt. Plus, we have a brand new bottle we just spent the money on so I don't really not want to use it!
Oh, and they want us to test the urine with urine strips in the litter box. Two issues with that. It's a shared litter box. And second, I can't touch it being pregnant, so Matt would have to do it during the few hours he's home in the morning and before bed at night.
Ahhh.. the things you do for your pet.
One cute thing though--everyone does love his name, Bazooka Joe.