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Babe (see avatar) had to go to the vet this morning for a glucose curve and her cage (26" L x 18" W x 16" H) is really awkward to carry and take on the bus. So instead, I bought this folding garden wagon:

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/sein ... p.html#srp

and carted her there. It worked great. The wagons are also available at Home Depot but cost about a third more. I know that post is not Linux related, but there are a lot of cat 'staff' here.

Now that is a smart solution, and less heavy on the arms too!

How did the curve go?

My Jonny would like that. He is a bit too fat and too comfortable. But if he saw something interesting, he would jump out of the car. Did you tie Babe up? I hope Babe is all right again.

gosia wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2019 11:57 am My Jonny would like that. He is a bit too fat and too comfortable. But if he saw something interesting, he would jump out of the car. Did you tie Babe up? I hope Babe is all right again.

No, I put Babe in the cage and then put the cage in the wagon.

Eadwine Rose wrote: Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:56 am Now that is a smart solution, and less heavy on the arms too!

How did the curve go?

The curve is an all day thing and I pick her up tonight at 7:00pm. If it goes well it means that she is off the twice daily insulin injections. The vet will call me with the results tomorrow and I'll report back.

Fingers crossed!!

Brilliant! Thanks for the tip

My cat is ~6kg so I always strain my arms carrying her cage to the vets, I think I will try this next time...

I hope your cat's results are OK.

We live on a very steep hill in the Catskill Mountains and the vet is down in town about two miles away. That would wear me out pulling the wagon! My wife asks me to haul the carrier into her car for her. But I lived in the city I would use the wagon for sure. Good idea. Did you fold up the wagon before getting on the bus?

seaken64 wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 12:03 am We live on a very steep hill in the Catskill Mountains and the vet is down in town about two miles away. That would wear me out pulling the wagon! My wife asks me to haul the carrier into her car for her. But I lived in the city I would use the wagon for sure. Good idea. Did you fold up the wagon before getting on the bus?

No. The vet is about a mile and a half away and I walked, pulling the wagon, both ways. There are a couple of hills on the route but nothing really daunting.

The vet called and Babe did really well on the test, however she (the vet) wants feels it's time to be cautious. She told me to reduce the insulin dosage down from 2.5 units twice a day to 1 unit twice a day and continue that for two weeks. At that point, Babe will get another glucose cure done and if she produces the same numbers (about 6 MOL) I will be able to stop the insulin injections permanently.

OK.. well that is progress at least.


You don't do measurements yourself? You know.. with those measuring instruments. I had a kitty with diabetes a looonnngg time ago (about 9 years ago now), and had to check his levels prior to injecting. He was on lantus though, human insulin.



Each time he had his blood tested the thing would beep.

He got a candy.



My mate was visiting (also diabetic), measured his own... BEEP.


MEW!!!!

Eadwine Rose wrote:

You don't do measurements yourself? You know.. with those measuring instruments. I had a kitty with diabetes a looonnngg time ago (about 9 years ago now), and had to check his levels prior to injecting. He was on lantus though, human insulin.

No I don't home test -- as soon as Babe sees the measuring device, she's gone. On those times when I was able to grab her before she split, doing the test just freaked her out and it increasingly became far more aggravation than it was worth. Babe is on Lantus as well and the reason vets prefer it is that cats that get Lantus can go into remission whereas cats that get Lente or Caninsulin cannot.

Yeah.. indeed. Agreed.

And Lantus is far better.


My cat had a "sugardaddy". My mate who used lantus gladly donated vials back when he was still alive to people with lantus cats. Whether he took two or ten vials didn't make a difference after all, he still got charged the full charge. So.. he made good use of it and helped many cats :)

Caninsulin is what we started on.. yeah.. eh.. ah well..

Yeah when testing causes that much stress.. nope. Not worth it. At least lantus is a lot kinder with the sudden drop in blood values than caninsulin is.


My cat didn't mind the measuring thingie, but I used the needle from my hand, not using the shooting thing. Poked a hole straight through his poor ear with that.. n'awww! I then just nicked that vein on the outside and that was enough. Beep MEW!!! Candy! Did he love his candy

Turned out later he had a tumor which was causing the diabetes.. lots of internal parts were grossly messed up in that cat by then, and he was ooooold.. my mate and I let him go as soon as we heard. At least I know: he was happy when we got him, and he was happy when I let him go. Sweetest red I ever had.

Lantus insulin costs between $75 - $80 ($Can) per vial and it only lasts about 28 days before you should replace it. However, I belatedly found out a way that I could have saved a lot of money had the options been explained to me from the get go. Here's how it works:

the unit cost of a insulin needle is $0.55, so a 28 day supply of needles is $30.5. add cost of the insulin, $78, and the total current cost / mo. is $108.5. However there is another way to purchase and administer the insulin which FOR CATS is way cheaper. You can get an insulin pen which takes cartridges of insulin. A box of five cartridges is $125.00 and the pen is included free. For a human, each of those cartridges contains enough insulin for 5 - 7 days, but for a cat that's a month's supply. Had our old vet or pharmacist explained that to me, my cost for Babe's medication would have been about $25.00 / mo.

Dang.... that would have been so nice to know.... :/

Fat Russian Blue Female/-> Slave property here.

Thanks for the tip. I have the big metal folding garden wagon that can already do this.
Fun part is when I strap down the pet carrier on the Harley Davidson and drive 75 miles one way down I20 E to get her gnarly fur removed at the closest pet center.

Babe had a glucose curve done today and she is officially in remission!!! No more insulin shots and the only thing on her horizon is a rabies vaccination around the middle of August.

WOOHOOOOO!!! *dances with joy*

Thanks. However she doesn't yet understand that this also means that I get to sleep in a bit in the morning and that breakfast time is now 9:00 am (instead of 7 am).

Great news j2mcgreg, very happy to hear that

rokytnji.1 wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 3:59 pm Fun part is when I strap down the pet carrier on the Harley Davidson and drive 75 miles one way down I20 E to get her gnarly fur removed at the closest pet center.

Was the cat OK with that?

I transported my cat on my motorbike once but she was still groggy from anesthetic so she didn't know what was going on.

I have to take her to the vet on Friday but I don't think she would tolerate a motorbike ride when sober, she gets stressed enough on the bus...

Cat OK with that makes me grin. Not my problem with what Miso is OK with. She has a memory retention span of just a few minutes. Food usually is a good delete button.

I have not taken her yet. Money is tight till sept.

rokytnji.1 wrote: Thu Jul 11, 2019 10:29 am Not my problem with what Miso is OK with.

Well it kinda is otherwise why would you bother getting her fur untangled? But anyway you're probably right, I'm being too soft. Where's my bungees...

Well it kinda is otherwise why would you bother getting her fur untangled?

Grinning here. I'd post a pic of the fur covered lightbulb out of my 3 way lamp. But you will just have to take my word for it.

Life circumstances has hobbled me with a cast on left leg. So Miso hair cut still on hold.
Going stir crazy while on recovery.

12 more days till cast comes off and I ride to Carlsbad NM . Looks like Miso getting her balled up fur removed will wait till sept.

See. HAPPY CAMPER.



PS. Learned today. She is a 25 lb rag doll cat.

Beautiful kitty :)

I expect you lot already know about them, but I have just come across those back pack kitty carriers, what a great idea - those metal baskets/cages are extremely difficult to carry if you haven't got your own transport. :)

mxer wrote: Wed Jul 17, 2019 1:47 pm I expect you lot already know about them, but I have just come across those back pack kitty carriers, what a great idea - those metal baskets/cages are extremely difficult to carry if you haven't got your own transport. :)

Thanks. Ebay Link

Knew about em but totally slipped my mind till you posted about it.