Oops, We Almost Killed the Cat!

Since Michael has been sick this week all pet care has been my responsibility. Normally he does Zach's insulin but this week it has been my job.

For those of you who don't know our cat Zach was diagnosed with diabetes about 18 months ago. That means he gets insulin injections twice a day.

Well last night Zach came in the kitchen around 8 pm and I thought while he was there I'd give him his medicine so I wouldn't have to remember to do it later. Then Mom and I went to Target to buy a birthday present for Charlie's second birthday party. When we got home about an hour later my dad told me that Michael has already given the cat his insulin and taken the dog's medicine upstairs (yes the dog gets medication too, for arthritis - gloucosamine and fish oil).

Yes I know at this point several of you are thinking we are completely crazy to be spending this much time, money and effort on our pets. But for us they are part of the family and how do you not treat them when their health problems are treated. Now I do have to say I wasn't sure how to fill out the forms at the vets where we had to choose if we wanted CPR preformed if the cat went into cardiac arrest. But that is probably a story for another day. OK back to the point.

I panicked. I explained to Dad and then Michael that I had already given the cat his shot. So after talking to Michael, I called the emergency vet to find out what we needed to do. Zach needed to eat immediately and then we could either wake up every 2 hours for the night to check on him or take him to the vet for them to monitor him.

I opened a can of cat food. Zach wouldn't touch it. Mom and Dad were nice enough to go buy the silly cat some tuna, which he ate but not as much as the vet told me he should. So we decided to be safe instead of sorry and took him to the vet for monitoring.

Luckily he is completely fine and home this morning. His levels never even got low enough for the vet to need to do any intervention.

We learned two really important lessons for having a diabetic cat. We need to have a chart that we mark off when he is given medicine so he doesn't get double dosed and we need to have tuna on hand for when he needs to eat immediately - we already have karo syrup in case he goes into insulin shock.

Lesson learned, luckily with no real harm done - just an extra bill this month.

Jenn