Diagnosis Negative (but really Positive)

Over the last month or two I was noticing that I had to fill up our water fountain a lot more often. Almost every day when I woke up for got up in the morning the filter would be screaming because it was too low on water. I didn't think much of it except "man someone has been really thirsty."


But then I started noticing that I had to buy litter for the babies a lot more often and when I did my nightly cleaning of the litter boxes the bag was getting REALLY heavy from all the urine (TMI I know).

Something in my head told me that all of this was coming from Webber. You know when you get that gut feeling that something just isn't quite right? I immediately weighed him because he also felt a little lighter. Sure enough he had lost one pound according to our scales at home.

So, the next day I made an appointment with our regular vet to get blood drawn and get a urinalysis. Being in the medical field I was pretty sure that he might have diabetes. But I kept telling myself "Webber is only 4 years old!" How could this be?

Being my normal self, I did contemplate canceling the vet appt to hold off and see how things went.....but this time I talked myself out of it. And boy am I glad I did. Webber had lost one pound (but not that big of a deal-he has varied 1 to 1.5 pounds in the past). The clinic drew blood to run a chemistry panel, but it had to be sent out. They were not able to get any urine from him, so the vet wanted me to drop Webber off the next day so that they could collect a urine sample. I was ready to cry when I heard that! I hate leaving my babies anywhere. I went ahead and said that I would drop him off, but thinking in my mind that I wasn't sure I was up for that. Later that night I had a little talk with Webber. I told him that I was looking for a sign or a little miracle so that I could know what to do with him. Not even 30 minutes later, when I was getting ready for bed, Webber walks into the closet to go to his litter box. I knew what he was getting ready to do. There was a small plastic cup on m husband’s side of the bathroom counter. Just as Webber started to pee I lifted up his tail a little bit and placed the cup under him. I got a very good amount of urine in that cup!!! I don't know about you, but I am a firm believer in signs and I saw this as a fantastic sign.

Because I used to work in the lab at the hospital, I had sterile syringes here at home for these sorts of things. Of course the cup was not sterile but I could suck that urine up into a sterile syringe and refrigerate it over night to drop off at the vet the next day!!! My facebook friends seemed to think that this was quite a talent (not!).

The next day the vet called back and told me that his blood glucose was >350 and his urine glucose was >1000. She pretty much diagnosed him right then and there as a diabetic. I was in shock and not prepared for my baby to have this diagnosis at such an early age. He had already been through three surgeries in the last 2 years. We decided to first switch his diet to see if we could bring down his numbers without insulin.

I made an appointment for two weeks later. This appointment fell on the day before Xmas eve. I took him in for another blood draw and urine sample. The results came back practically the same and the vet decided that we needed to get him on insulin.

That is where Webber's journey began.......