Osiris was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and diabetes

Earlier this year Osiris was first diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. While his medication dose was tested, he also started showing symptoms of diabetes. Unfortunately getting both of these at the same time did cause him to lose quite a bit of muscle. But now we seem to have found the correct dosages and he has started to climb up the climbing wall again.

Symptoms

There weren't really that many symptoms for hyperthyroidism because it was caught quite early. We have yearly health checks for the cats so that any changes can be caught before they become an issue.

The clearest diabetes symptoms for Osiris were the increase in water drinking. For our previous cat, Vilma, the biggest symptom was an increase in urine infections. It did take us a while to register this change in behaviour and since he was on a new medication, it wasn't immediately clear why he started drinking more.

Treatment options for hyperthyroidism

In addition to medication, radiation treatment is an option. Surgery is also an option if the growth can be felt by hand. Because our apartment is not very large, it would be really hard to isolate Osiris for the radiation treatment. So we decided to test medication first to see if it helps.

At the moment the correct dose is the one we tested first, which is a relatively small dose. The medication is given every 12 hours. Since this isn't going away, the condition will need to be followed by the vet.

Treatment for diabetes

For diabetes the treatment is insulin. We do have some experience in treating diabetes. Vilma, who I mentioned earlier, also had diabetes in later life. We were glad to see that things have improved in the previous ten years.

For Vilma, we had to give the insulin with syringes. Now we have an insulin pen. The pen makes it a lot easier. Also, insulin is given every 12 hours. Osiris is mostly ok with this, though staying still for over 10 seconds is sometimes really hard for him. But usually, it is enough that I pet him while he gets the medication. There are also some ways to distract him, such as food or treats, if it becomes too difficult otherwise.

Monitoring

One less pleasant thing now is that we have to monitor his blood sugar. We do now have a meter for it. We tried to get measurements from his ears but he does not like it at all. Probably because he isn't used to ear handling. We either couldn't really get blood out or then way too much of it. But now we take the measurements from his metacarpal pad. While the jelly beans (the pads at the bottom of their paws) are sensitive for cats, Osiris tolerates that much better. The biggest issue for him is staying still.

We also need to have checkups at the vet from time to time. Between the checkups, we need to collect 12-hour graphs to get a better big picture of how the blood sugar behaves. For the graph, we need to take measurements every two hours. These days aren't the greatest, but luckily Osiris does allow us to take the measurements. And he does get treats as rewards every time.

The future

We are quite lucky that Osiris allows us to handle him so well. Medications aren't that bad. If the patient would be Lumia, things might be very different.

We shall see how much the dosages will need to be tweaked but for now things seem better. Apparently insulin needs might change for the better - some cats don't need to have insulin for the rest of their lives. But we shall see what happens with Osiris.