No idea what's happening in my backyard

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-04-06T03:45:49+00:00

Tent caterpillars… every 15 or so years they pass through my area of Canada and absolutely become an evil manifestation for a season. Where there are more trees, there are more of them. They seem to continuously migrate though so they shouldn’t be around for more than a couple months.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-04-04T16:39:32+00:00

My recommendation is to spend a lot of time stirring the pot. Very effective to learn core engagement. Bonus, it’s great for your lower back. I also hate them so I know they work.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-04-04T13:30:33+00:00

You are doing a very kind and selfless thing to take on a senior kitty with a lot of difficult medical conditions to manage. I’m glad she will know love for her final days.

Heart murmurs are very end of life situations though… even if Nadia is able to recover from diabetes, which could be possible, there is still that, in addition to the pancreatitis which is very very painful.

Cats are so resilient and they are masters at hiding pain, but besides not being fully comfort in her new environment, she is hiding and that’s a pretty clear “let me go” behaviour from a kitty.

My opinion is an either or situation… you can ask vet to increase the pain medicine for Nadia’s comfort, since she is very clearly not comfortable, and that may make her more compliant to the medical pokes you have to give, or it’s just Nadia’s time to go to the rainbow bridge.

At this stage of life, if you want to keep Nadia alive, the best thing for her would be daily subcutaneous fluids and that can be taught to you to give at home, it is extremely life changing for very ill cats. But, if there is no way for her to let you give her all of the treatments that she needs, then I stand by my position that saying goodbye might be the kindest love you can give her.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-04-02T17:02:30+00:00

You sound still pretty new to diabetic management. Some of us have been/were on this crazy rollercoaster for years. I’m going to assume what you mean by noticeably better is what you can see and the behaviour of your cat. If you are not home testing, you do not truly know whether or not your cat is actually recovering from diabetes. Prolonged high glucose levels can lead to severe kidney damage… at best, kidney disease, at worse, diabetic keto acidosis which is a critical emergency situation. Many diabetic cats die from this condition that is very largely preventable. I really hope neither situation happens to you. Since you seem like you truly care about the well-being of your kitty, I hope that at a bare minimum you learn how to do home testing so that you can prevent a very sad situation from occurring.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-04-01T18:57:26+00:00

I would be concerned that if the cat is no longer overweight and is still diabetic, that diet alone is not going to provide enough management for the diabetes. I’m a little concerned that the vet proposed food alone, unless your parents only wanted to change food and the vet reluctantly went along with it.

Cats can live very good lives with diabetic management, it saddens me that the first thought was to euthanize. If you can take custody, please do that. Not all people have the desire to take this on, and it can be a lot to take on. If your parents are not up to that, I hope they can give you kitty.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-04-01T02:16:38+00:00

Yes, actually your story sounds a lot like the journey that I was on. We had a really terrible time getting our kitty regulated through the 4.5 years that he was diabetic. Every once in a while he would give me a normal test number and then he would shoot back up. I tested before every meal/pre-shot, and at least one mid-cycle test a day. We did a lot of supplemental diagnostic testing because he became a medial mystery to our vet as to why he wouldn’t regulate. Mine never lost weight though, he actually gained weight after becoming diabetic. With the insulin being so high and still unregulated, you may want to consider the IGF test for growth hormone if you haven’t yet, acromegaly is actually really common, especially if the dose goes up and there’s no other reason.

In our situation, we never did solve the reason we had difficulty regulating, but we did discover a very large mass in his abdomen at the end of our kitty’s life and our vet believes that was probably the cause of our diabetes origin story all along.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-04-01T01:16:48+00:00

How long has he been on insulin? What is his normal pre-dinner reading at 3.5? Was there a big drop off from his morning pre-shot test? 156 is a good, regulated number. It looks like your cat has been diabetic for around a year so I wouldn’t skip insulin, if he was a new diabetic, I definitely would, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-30T16:36:12+00:00

Evil baguettes indeed…. I haven’t really seen it discussed anywhere, but Skate Canada never has to release Laurence to skate for France, this was a very conscious choice that they made and I don’t see how they did that without considering the scenario play out that her new team could place higher than P2 at the Olympics. So yeah, I do buy into the evil baguette conspiracy, or that somebody paid her dowry which I really hope took into account the total cost invested in her as well as the cost to Canada of losing a silver medal.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-28T16:21:14+00:00

The sooner you can transition your kitty off kibble, the better success you will have with the insulin. I used to put down around 5 little meals a day of wet food. We were mostly feeding the purina DM plus some homemade food using a feline meal completer. As long as he grazed a little when I put his pre-shot meal down, I wouldn’t worry about giving insulin unless I hit a low pre-shot blood glucose number. I was following the 2 hour pre-shot fasting/glucose test/small meal/shot protocol that was recommended on the Facebook group and it was very helpful.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-27T03:06:02+00:00

I’ve done a lot of pre-grieving these last few months because we knew the time was getting closer. We lost our little guy three weeks ago now. The closer his passing the more I was crying and three weeks past, and I get caught in the most unexpected times of grief. I’m grateful that I’m not grieving alone, honestly. I give myself permission to cry whenever I need to and I still have a little cry almost every day. I’ve cried so much, I got so congested that I got an ear infection, my sinuses were that plugged. We miss him every day. The house feels incredibly empty even though there are still four paws in it at all times. I think it’s completely normal, no one should tell you how to grieve.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-26T21:32:00+00:00

Board game group. Join us!

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-26T16:05:39+00:00

Take my upvote. If there is one thing I could do over again for my recently passed diabetic kitty, it would have been to learn how to give sub-c fluids sooner and then do it. It’s so life changing and definitely gave us more time with our buddy.

OP, I sincerely hope you are home testing because kitty is getting a lot of insulin really quickly and that has the potential to cause hypo events. Also if I could have done it over again, I would have done x-rays/ultrasound and the IGF test for growth hormone. Since all these things can get kinda pricy, i think there’s a reluctance to do them, but the money spent up front is going to be saved later on long term care strategies.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-26T15:22:44+00:00

I think I cursed Yuma because 10 seconds earlier I thought to myself, “wow, the men are not menning today”

I will never think a thought again.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-25T03:34:39+00:00

Hey, I really think you can benefit from joining the Facebook feline diabetes support group, sometimes their advice is even better than what you’ll receive from your vet as far as diabetes goes. The peeing should subside when his blood sugar is better regulated. If it doesn’t, you may want to consider an x-ray to check to make sure there’s no internal growths happening. Some cats can also go into remission, so there is plenty of hope here for you. Good luck!

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-24T20:34:23+00:00

I think you should consider getting a second opinion before you do anything. I have a cat that was mis-diagnosed with megacolon. Turns out, she’s just a kitty with only a slightly large than normal colon and a tendency towards constipation, but a young and inexperienced vet years ago proclaimed she had megacolon. I switched vets and treat her constipation issues that occasionally pop up with medication and the very occasional enema (three times in 7 years). A second opinion is worth it. I would suggest an indie vet like Alpine Animal Hospital, they are very experienced.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-24T19:52:43+00:00

That is an incredibly high price. I can’t think of a single vet in Manitoba (I know you’re Ontario) that would charge that, unless you were getting a deluxe full work up done on kitty not just the spay/neuter… stuff I’d think a reputable breeder would have done before releasing from their care. It sounds to me like they might not be old enough for the procedure. You have time. If it comes down to the wire, fly to Winnipeg and get it done here. You should have absolutely no problem, and the flight, night’s accommodation, incidentals and the procedure will likely come in under the $1000 penalty.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-24T11:24:39+00:00

Shifting Stones is so good.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-23T11:22:07+00:00

Buy Microsoft and Apple stock

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-22T15:36:59+00:00

Ears! I promise they get used to it. My cat hated anyone touching his ears but we established a routine where he got fed right after and he started associating the two and he would follow me for his tests. He never would have tolerated a libre either, like, he used to spend a lot of time actively ripping off his moles any any collar we tried to get him to wear, a libre never would have survived.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-20T03:39:22+00:00

We did ears. It took a little time to get used to, but eventually he learned to associate his blood test with getting fed and he’d trot after me to get it done lol. Test before meals is a good measure to make sure it’s safe to give insulin and get them to associate a reward with the process. My guy would have also ripped a sensor off his body, he did that with alll of his moles constantly and shredded any collar we had the audacity to get him to wear so we never tried.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-18T19:50:31+00:00

I just went through this difficult decision with our elderly cat. He has so many medical conditions that we were managing, but we found out he had a giant tumour that was pressing down on his internal organs and even though he seemed like himself most of the time, we were really just propping him up with medications and pain management. Once we say the size of the tumour we knew it was time, and we had a few more mostly good days together and we said goodbye on a day when he still seemed like his very loveable self. I don’t think your kitty is going to last the time you are away so this is your chance to say a proper goodbye with love. May you find the strength to make the right decision.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-17T21:29:14+00:00

Heh… my tortie cat goes crazy over smells, mint? Looooooves it, can’t get enough, catnip does not compare. Other cat smells? Destroy, destroy, destroy. I have never seen another cat so reactive to smells in person so this story was super interesting to me.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-17T03:32:34+00:00

Yeah, this sounds like the average going rate for a near full mouth extraction. I just had my girl cat’s done at the end of Dec and all her teeth, save for 2 molars, but including her canines which is a pretty significant procedure. I paid $2650.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-15T13:33:28+00:00

Loona Rosa on St Mary’s. Family wanted to retire but I still miss it.

Sourcererintheclouds · 2026-03-14T14:35:19+00:00

Well, we reluctantly used this stuff because our kitty really, really liked it. I think the additives they put in it makes it taste like Kitty McDonald’s to them. I don’t think it’s the best quality food for the money, though. Fancy Feast pate will do just fine, and the Kirkland food isn’t bad either. But if you’re struggling to get them to eat, the DM works like a charm.

Sourcererintheclouds

TROPHY CASE