“Reda” was a tiny black kitten who was picked up on the street by a City Public Works Employee named Sharon. Sharon was stopped at the signal light when she saw this kitten moving towards traffic. She put her emergency blinkers on and ran over and scooped her up. Knowing Sharon, she just simply stopped traffic to rescue this kitten! Sharon had saved many a stray cat in her rounds. She loved cats and had several of her own. Most of them had come from the parks and open space areas which she helped to maintain.
Sharon brought Reda into our office to see if anyone would be interested in adopting her. She was at her limit at home. I was at my limit too, because the year before, Jezibel had come to live with us and had blessed us with 3 kittens.
Reda was adopted by a friend of mine who worked in my department. We were all happy to see that the kitten would have a home.
I volunteered my services to “babysit” while my friend went away on vacation, etc. Reda was a pretty good kitten. She was pretty small, independent, but not really that demanding. Her eyes were emerald green, close together, and she was solid black.
Over the years I asked how Reda was doing and the answer was “fine”. Reda’s owner and I really didn’t stay in touch much. We both had left that job so we didn’t see each other every day. We remained friends though and I managed to see Reda several times over the years when I kept her.
Then last year, in August, I was asked if I could keep Reda for a couple of weeks. I was told that Miss Reda had been diagnosed with diabetes. We had had a cat, Rowdy, who had diabetes. I expected that Reda would be on pills or insulin, like Rowdy. But, her diabetes was being kept under control with her diet.
My friend brought Reda over. She had nicknamed her “Stormy” or “Storm Cat” because of the way she behaved when she went to the vet.
Reda was a hefty 10 pounds or so and was eating three cans daily of Fancy Feast. Of course, there were certain flavors she could eat which would help her diabetic diet.
She heartily ate a can in the morning, one at lunch time and another at dinner. I thought, ‘if only our Rowdy, who had had diabetes, could have been on a diet like this! He would have been so happy.......’
Rowdy was losing weight when we took him to the vet for tests. He was diagnosed with diabetes, but, like Reda, the doctor wanted to try to control it with diet. With Rowdy, our vet put him on a prescription food, which he did not care for, although he ate. But, he started losing weight, although he ate and/or wanted to eat constantly. He was on a pill, Glipizide. It helped to control his glucose level for awhile, but then he had to go on insulin injections.
It was hard to regulate how much insulin he needed. He had to go to the vet every two weeks, get a blood glucose test and a urine test to test his fructosamine levels. It was hard on us, but even harder on him. But, he did okay and we managed to stabilize his diabetes pretty well, giving him injections of insulin twice a day.
We moved in August 2002 and he made the trip across country pretty well. Of course, we had to get a new doctor who really didn’t know his history and we had to start his insulin treatments all over again. We were using the same amount, but with the trip, new doctor, stress, etc., Rowdy’s blood glucose was out of whack. So, the insulin doses changed constantly. Even though we maintained Rowdy’s visits regularly to the vet, we saw a different vet each time, and they really were not specialists on diabetes in cats. We watched as Rowdy’s health declined. Of course, hind sight is 20/20 and if we had it to do over again, knowing what we now know, we would have taken him to a specialist right away.
Rowdy sometimes did not eat well and it was hard to tell how much insulin he should have. I can’t remember if I gave the insulin before or after eating. I think it’s normally before eating though, although there are times that it should be after.
A diabetic usually injects insulin prior to a meal because the substance takes between 10 and 45 minutes to start working. Injecting it after a meal means blood sugar spikes before the insulin has time to counteract it. However, there are some circumstances in which it makes sense to inject insulin after a meal.
Finally on December 31, 2002, after he ate his dinner that night, Rowdy went into a semi-comatose state. We still don’t know if his injection was too much or just why he had that reaction. We rushed him to emergency. They took him in and kept him for the night. I really thought I would see him again.
The next morning about 10:00, the vet called and said that there was nothing they could do for Rowdy. They could send him home, but he was not stable. Charlie went in and said good-bye for both of us. I could not go. Rowdy was my “boy, boy”, my “baby boy”. I loved him like nothing else. He was the first cat that Charlie and I had had together. What a loss for us. Our first.
The other day I talked to my friend. She was taking a trip out of the country and asked if Reda could come and stay with us. She brought her over on Wednesday. Reda was supposed to be with us for two weeks.
When we got her, she had not been eating. My friend gave me her daughter’s phone number (in Ohio) and said to contact her if Reda was really sick and had to go to the vet. She would have the authority to make any decisions we needed to make.
Reda did not eat at all that first day. I decided to take her to her vet the next day since that would be where her records were. The vet did a glucose test. It was 374. The normal is 120. He said “she needs to be on insulin”. I said, “Her owner does not want to put her on insulin”. He hydrated her and I brought her home. She still did not eat that afternoon.
We called our vet and asked her what we should do. She said it may be something unrelated to diabetes. She could do a blood panel and urine test, etc. We said we’d bring Reda in the next morning and they could examine her and run the tests. We were hoping maybe it was a bladder infection or something that we could treat and get her eating again.
The vet examined her and found that her breath smelled like acetone. She said Reda was in Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) crisis.
Definition: Diabetic ketoacidosis, aka DKA, is a serious complication of diabetes, which occurs when a very high blood sugar level (above 300 mg/dL) is coupled with a severe shortage of insulin in the body. This is more common in Type I diabetes because the body produces very little or no insulin on it's own. The body starts to break down fat for energy and ketones (toxic acids) develop. People with DKA usually complain of nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, rapid breathing, and sometimes a fruity odor on their breath. This can lead to coma or death and should be treated by medical personnel immediately.
There was no need for blood tests at this point. The vet said that Reda was a very sick cat. She recommended euthanasia because of Reda’s grave condition.
We got in touch with my friend’s daughter. She said she would call the vet to authorize euthanasia. We called the vet to say that we wanted to be there with Reda when she was euthanized and please call us before doing it so we could come over.
The vet’s office called later and said that they had euthanized Reda right after they received the call from my friend’s daughter, who authorized them. They did not get the message that we wanted to be there.
Charlie went over to get Reda’s carrier. Her toys were still inside. One toy, a little Uncle Sam doll, has been with her for as long as I’ve been babysitting her. The other toy, a little cat angel with wings, is a toy that I gave her for Christmas a few years ago.
Yesterday morning I woke up at 5:30 and listened to the heavy rain on the roof. I thought of Reda. Apparently the “Storm Cat” was not over the bridge yet! Like I said, she was true to her ‘stormy’ personality.
Reda would have been 10 years old this year. She was a good little cat and independent right to the end. When she came to stay with us in better, healthier times, it took a couple of days for her to settle down and not hiss, growl and try to bite a hand that was trying to pet her. When she started craving attention, she would allow the petting and even a little brushing. But, this time, even as sick as she felt, she would allow me to pet her, but then she’d have enough of it and she would growl and “nibble” my hand. Just like old times.
My friend is due to come home on February 28. I'm so sorry that she will be coming home and Reda died while she was gone. I know I would feel terrible if I were gone when one of mine died.
I’m sure she will have talked to her daughter before then and will learn about Reda and she will call me after she gets home. We did what we could for Reda and I don't feel like we could have done more.
But, I want her to know about Reda before she goes to her mail box and finds a condolence card from the vet.
More later.............
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