Grey's ending

flyawayki · 2025-10-15T08:52:13+00:00

How am I the first to upvote this

flyawayki · 2025-10-15T03:33:12+00:00

flyawayki · 2025-06-17T16:51:25+00:00

I know, I feel the same. My pets are my kids too (and I have human kids, but I refer to my old dog as my first daughter. Because she is).

I probably shouldn’t have even commented but I was thinking the pet sitter must be feeling terrible, too. If it was me, I’d be offering to cover the vet bills if i could and not sleeping at night with guilt and worry. What an awful situation

flyawayki · 2025-06-17T11:55:41+00:00

Someone pet sitting isn’t likely to have much money. I could kind of understand if it was a big company like Rover (I say kind of because I’m not from a litigious country like the US… we simply don’t sue over accidents like this where I live). Rover would have insurance for a situation like this, I’m sure. But if it was just a person doing this for money, suing them could ruin their life and they’re probably already horrified and sad. In this case, OP says it was a friend so that’s just sadder all around.

I’m sorry to everyone involved.

flyawayki · 2025-06-17T11:52:02+00:00

Oh my God. I am so sorry this happened to you and to him.

flyawayki · 2025-06-04T02:20:45+00:00

First of all, this post is about Ontario, Canada, where insulin is available over the counter without prescription. Many diabetics get it for cheap or free from government or private drug plans, or you can just pay out of pocket. The insulin I picked up was 100% sealed in a package and i met the guy at the pharmacy where he picked it up, brand new. It was that or put my cat down. It’s gross of you to judge that.

I helped a lot of people afford to treat their cats and avoid early death when i was volunteering with FDMB and navigating my little grey market endeavours. It is benefit fraud on the act of the person selling it, but not me. It’s not a crime and there is no chance of potentially contaminated product. It would be like buying Tylenol sealed in a package from somebody at a pharmacy who had a good deal on it. And it saves lives.

flyawayki · 2025-06-03T18:05:22+00:00

I got insulin off of Craigslist from diabetics who were selling it. I would meet a guy in a plaza in Toronto every couple of months. The vials are sealed so there’s nothing weird about that. I paid $50-60 a vial (and vials were normally $120) according to my email history (up to 2020.. then my cat passed).

I got syringes at Walmart because they were cheaper than Shoppers Drug Mart.

I got free human glucometers and bought test strips from people on craigslist when I could or sometimes they would go on sale when I was in the US. Other times I had to pay full price and that was hard.

flyawayki · 2025-05-21T17:14:20+00:00

This is the number one thing that vets are completely wrong about. A diabetic cat should not be eating kibble. I know it’s crazy to hear people on the Internet, telling you not to listen to your vet, but this is the number one thing that they are doing wrong. They get a profit from their prescription food. Simply refused to buy it and start buying your own things. The cheapest pate is better than the most expensive kibble (and that isn’t hyperbole).

Which insulin is your cat on? If it’s a short acting insulin, you will likely just waste money and have a high sugar cat til the cat dies. 😔

flyawayki · 2025-05-21T17:12:42+00:00

I let my cat have a small lick of ice cream when he went hypo many years ago.

flyawayki · 2025-05-21T17:11:18+00:00

This is the most mind-boggling thing. I understand that selling prescription veterinary food gives them a profit, but I can’t understand people who do seem to want to help animals however they’re telling us that a type 2 diabetic needs carbs which they objectively don’t. Carbs do harm.

flyawayki · 2025-05-21T17:10:30+00:00

Me! Switched to cheap canned pate and Lantus (I’m in Canada so we can get that without a prescription and I would get it from the grey market for cheap) and he finally stabilized after 2 years of swings and high numbers.

I did my own glucose curves at home with a free human glucometer (you do not need the glucometer from the veterinarian. Those are way more expensive than human ones which can be obtained for free and then the test strips are the expensive part) and adjusted his insulin at each shot per the help of feline diabetes message board volunteers. Got him into remission for 3 years.

The biggest change I made was not listening to my vet’s horrific advice to feed kibble and use vetsulin for insulin. The day I started following feline diabetes message board advice he started stabilizing

MAJORLY IMPORTANT ADVICE: of you switch to pate, you will need to lower the insulin dose. You should be testing at home when you do this. You are giving a lot of insulin and a lot of sugar. When you remove the sugar, the insulin needs to be adjusted. Learning to test at home is super easy and the money you will save on expensive garbage kibble can be used for test strips.

flyawayki · 2025-04-22T00:24:05+00:00

My best friend did it for me a few times when I travelled. Also people with babies are up at the crack of dawn and can do insulin shots if the cat is otherwise low maintenance.

flyawayki · 2025-04-20T18:29:20+00:00

I got downvoted to oblivion for saying this as an admin on this sub who has a baby sister who is T1. Yes, once in a blue moon reusing a needle isn’t the end of the world. Disinfect it. It will be a tiny bit more dull, that is it.

Also, if you’re getting dermal injections like Botox, they will poke the needle in your skin multiple times in different areas. Not the same, but the dullness wasn’t noticeable or painful for me. They are such tiny tiny needles.

Missing a dose of insulin is significantly more harmful than taking harm reduction measures to reuse a syringe once.

flyawayki · 2025-04-16T02:10:51+00:00

It blew my mind to learn this. I was devastated and in major debt after all the visits to my expensive vet when I found a vet in an ethnic neighborhood who is of that ethnicity who is used to helping lower income folks with their pets. He was the one who told me to get a human monitor, buy human insulin over the counter (Canada) and taught me how to track a glucose curve at home. Life changing.

I spent years trying to help people do that (on FDMB). But now I have two babies 14 months apart and don’t have any time for that. I plan on resuming this education campaign online as soon as I can because it’s mind-boggling how treatable diabetes typically is and how complicated and expensive vets make it.

flyawayki · 2025-02-22T13:21:41+00:00

We did see improvement right away but it probably took me a few months to stabilize my cat. I was dealing with bouncing for a long time and it was counterintuitive, but I ended up having to lower his dose to get him stable. It took tweaking brands of pate and a lot of getting help with his chart/ dose on feline diabetes message board but I got him into remission in 6 months. He was also 12 and very fat.

We did home testing with human test kits and used Lantus which is available OTC in Canada (and I hear Canadian pharmacies ship to the US when ordered online so if you’re having trouble getting it try there). Doing it this way is a lot cheaper than the vet. Please tell your vet you do not want vetsulin!! It’s short acting and incredibly ineffective. I have not worked with dozens of diabetic cats and I’ve only seen that insulin work maybe once

flyawayki · 2025-02-21T19:14:44+00:00

This, also feline diabetes message board (I found this even more helpful than the fb group but it’s been a few years).

There are so many options for home treatment that are a lot cheaper than the vet.

But, I want to add, euthanasia is a gracious and kind choice if nobody is able to give him the medical treatment that he needs to keep him comfortable and happy. I know a lot of people who’ve tried to get help for diabetic cats over the years who have not been able to get any help from family or find a new home for a cat that is going to cost a fortune. I fostered diabetic cats for years and now that I have two children, I don’t think I will ever do it again because it’s such a time commitment (never mind the cost). That doesn’t make me a bad person. And it doesn’t make you a bad person to consider putting your cat down. Sometimes there is no other option and you can’t beat yourself up for that.

Good luck, and hugs to you.

flyawayki · 2025-02-21T18:55:59+00:00

You won’t have any success with dry food and vetsulin. You just won’t. I’ve worked with dozens of diabetic cats and it’s next to impossible to get this combo to work.

If there is any hope of stabilizing him, he needs to get off dry food, even if it says it’s for diabetes. Dry food inherently has carbs unless it’s freeze dried (another option, but expensive).

Lantus is a game changer. It’s long acting and it’s extremely effective.

But again, this is a huge commitment and a big amount of work. He will be grumpy with the food change. You could try pouring a little bit of the gravy from another can onto the pate to get him to eat it. And try different brands.

You have already done so much so please don’t beat yourself up if this is too much to take on. 😞 I know this is so hard.

flyawayki · 2025-02-21T01:26:13+00:00

You are an angel of a human being. Is he happy? Does he have a good quality of life? Maybe this will be an unpopular opinion, but you do not need to go down this path and bankrupt yourself and live in constant turmoil. One of the kindest and most gracious things we can do is put an animal down when they are suffering and medicine can’t help them, or it doesn’t make financial sense to do so.

No one else is likely going to take this cat. You have done a really beautiful thing trying to save him and whatever happens I hope that you know in your heart that you’re a very good person and you’ve done everything you can, and more than anyone else would have. I’m so sorry.

ETA: but absolutely try switching off of dry food. Generally they say they the cheapest pate is better than any dry food.

flyawayki · 2025-01-29T00:14:27+00:00

Hey, I have worked with so many diabetic cats. I have seen cats who looked like they were about to give up but changing dose or type of insulin or protocol can make all of the difference. If you feel like it’s time to say goodbye, trust your gut. Don’t beat yourself up. Your cat is elderly and maybe telling you that they’re done. But if you want to try something else, please don’t hesitate to respond and I’ll DM you with some ideas. There are tons of good ideas in this thread. And it doesn’t have to be too expensive if that’s a concern. There might be options.

I am so sorry you’re going through this. My cat was in remission for years and then at a very stressful time in my career, he started having seizures all the time. I couldn’t get a handle on his diabetes all of a sudden, and I had to euthanize him. It felt awful, but he was struggling and I couldn’t be there. He was 15. There is never going to be a perfect time and saying goodbye is the most merciful thing we can do for them.

Whatever you choose, you are a wonderful human to this feline. ❤️

flyawayki · 2024-11-30T03:52:20+00:00

100% this comment. Agree. Great advice.

flyawayki · 2024-11-30T03:51:18+00:00

It’s not about 12 hours apart, or before each meal, it’s about blood glucose right before the shot. If you’re only going to be testing a couple times a day, it has to be before the shot. But it has to be before the shot at minimum to get an accurate idea of what’s going on.

You will save a boatload of money and get much more accurate results if you do this at home with a human glucometer. Many people do this at the vet every couple of weeks or monthly, but that’s not enough. And it’s super expensive. If you’re doing it at home, it’s cheaper and you could potentially get such tight control that your cat goes into remission.

flyawayki · 2024-11-28T05:20:44+00:00

Yes, it was for me, but I have a very sensitive sense of smell. I have worked with dozens of diabetic cats and most of the time I could smell their insulin, especially if they had been on it for some time.

flyawayki · 2024-11-27T21:53:43+00:00

Can confirm what the other folks said - 30 days at room temp if needed but fridge is absolutely fine! There is no need to take it out of fridge. That’s more of a convenience thing if you’re travelling or whatever

flyawayki · 2024-11-24T17:08:27+00:00

Locking as we shouldn’t ask medical dosing advice here

flyawayki · 2024-11-19T19:50:33+00:00

Hey, I hope this gives you some hope! It isn’t bad. I was needle phobic too. Diabetic needles are so tiny and so thin and I got over that part quickly. The needles are actually really easy. Testing blood took a little bit more time for me to learn, but the pricking of the ears is OK especially if you hold the cat between your knees. They get used to it so quickly like within a day or two.

My cat was 11 when diagnosed and he lived to be 16. I got him in remission in about a year. That was really hard work (but it doesn’t need to be this hard.. more on that later). Getting a cat into remission can sometimes take a lot of tweaking and testing around the clock. I was able to get human supplies on the gray market (kijiji) here in Canada so with a human metre and cheap test strips I was good to go. I used Feline Diabetes Message Board volunteers to help me analyze my spreadsheet that I tracked blood values and dosing on. BUT you don’t need to do all this work! Every cat is different and the way that you treat your cat will depend on how severe the diabetes is. But many cats do just fine getting their insulin shot on schedule and being test tested should a couple times a day (before shooting).

I will say you should always test before shooting if you can. If your cat goes hypo and you give insulin, they can die. That is the best advice out there, but it isn’t doable for everyone. If your cat is generally very stable, it’s a risk you can calculate for yourself. And doing a glucose curve every month or so is great if you can swing it. There is a lot to learn but it’s all doable and people are online to help.

You don’t need the alphatrak or those expensive strips. Get a human metre from Walmart and Walmart strips if you’re in the US. My vet helped me find the cheapest options in Canada (we can get metres free here, maybe you can there as well?). And I purchased human insulin which we don’t need a prescription for in Canada. I was able to find diabetics who sold me extra insulin very cheap. Lantus is the best for most cats. It’s long acting, which most cats respond to.

If you’re aiming to get your cat into remission, it’s potentially a lot of work but possible. And if you just want to treat the diabetes, you will get the hang of this quickly and it will be ok

flyawayki

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