Moses, and his Diabetes

Hi Rach. Your target heart rate should be 50-85% of a basic formula - 220 beats per minute minus your age (that's the 100%). You're 23, so that would be 197 bpm as your HIGHEST that your heart should be working. I would say, because you are fit, you would fall closer to the 85% range, so that would be 146 - 166 bpm.

If your heart is working too hard, you will not benefit from the workout as much and you could go into cardiac arrest. Please see a doctor about that heart rate, if your heart is working too hard. It could be because of your allergy problem, your lungs are working harder, and your heart because your autoimmune system is working against the environment. Are you on any allergy medications? I've been taking generic Zyrtec from Walgreens, and I have not felt this good in a long time!

So Moses has Diabetes. We found out because he was pulling out his fur for the last couple of weeks. He would bite the fir on his legs, and pull it out in a big mess. I never saw that before, so we looked it up on the internet. It could be fleas, mites, mange, etc. So we gave him a couple of flea baths - with no results. (another reason I was not posting recently. Kinda hard when I had to wash him at night and make sure he dried before I went to bed)

So Raffy took Mr. Moses to the vet last Thursday. The vet gave him a blood test to check for Mange, but it came back negative. However, his blood sugars were way off, and they wanted us to bring him back for Diabetes screening with a fasting test. The vet said the fur pulling was behavioral, and we were concerned because Feline Diabetes sounds so complicated.

He was constantly begging for food and treats, waking us up at night to be fed, and dissatisfied with everything we gave him not being enough food. Plus the fur pulling made me think that he could be diabetic.

Yesterday Raffy brought him back to the doctor, and Moses was starving because we fed him up to 8:00 the night before. Raffy said a big dog came out of the back and attacked his crate. Moses was very agitated from that encounter, and when they went to get his urine to test, they had to extract it with a needle because he was in such a bad mood he wouldn't let the vet near him.

They called us immediately and we began the testing. They shaved his little paw, and hooked him up to a catheter and an I.V. to measure his blood sugar curve. This gave them the information to find his insulin dosage to give him, and when Raffy picked him up yesterday, they gave Raffy a crash course in giving Moses his insulin shots.

So we have new medicated food for Moses, and the shots were not that expensive. The initial testing, hospitalization, and food and supply costs came to $250.00, but on a monthly basis, we're looking closer to $35 to $40 per month for his insulin.

The good news is that he may be just fine with the new food and may not require insulin. The vet said he was more hypoglycemic than diabetic at this point. Moses is in heaven, because we can no longer portion his food. It's a kitty free for all over here, and because his sugar levels are regulated, he will not eat too much anymore, or just out of boredom.

I leave you with a picture of the Kitty. He was kinda grumpy. I'm going to go brush him now!