How We Came to Euthanize Our Diabetic Cat Pica

The cat we had to euthanize, Pica, was hyperglycemic.

The hardest decision any cat lover ever has to make is to euthanize a pet. It’s even harder when your cat is not showing obvious signs of stress and discomfort, it makes you feel like a murderer, even though the medical proof is right in front of your eyes. Our cat Pica was still purring for treats, begging for his brush and responding to our touch. I spent more time crying before taking him to the vet for euthanization than at the time he peacefully went to sleep.

Some days, just out of the blue, tears popped out of my eyes whenever I thought of Pica or talked about him. My eyes leaked late at night. He had begun to lose even more weight on wet cat food, so we switched his diet to Blue Buffalo. This is a high protein, low carb and grain-free premium dry cat food. His weight improved but his two other diseases related to diabetes mellitus worsened. Inflammatory bowel disease and pancreatitis. Three weeks ago, the latest diagnosis bordered on ketoacidosis. Life threatening.

Pain medication offered such enough relief to allow Pica to sleep.

The first sign he was heading into a tailspin was when he urinated on our rug. Increased his prozac; followed up with the pain reliever, buprenophine. Immediately we tapered prenisolone, which makes it extremely difficult to manage diabetes. Changed his medication to budesodine, compounded at the Parkside Pharmacy in Land Park over on Del Rio. Tried to sequester him in a 4 x 4 dog kennel in the evenings, but on his second night, Tessa, our female ocicat, showed him how to escape. Still a mystery. Cerenia was a god-send, too; offering inflammatory relief as well as vomit prevention.

Almost two years passed since the vet diagnosed Pica with feline diabetes. We’ve been vigilant with his diet and medications ever since, hoping to give Pica a long and happy life with twice-a-day insulin injections. Never thought I could do it, insert a needle into his skin, but it’s amazing what you can do for your cat. Love is a strong force. I have no doubt if my husband suddenly could not breathe, I could break a ballpoint pen with my bare hands and slam it into his throat.

I imagine he will carry a pencil in his shirt pocket now.

When I started putting together a medication list for our pet sitters, which included twice daily Sub Q injections, and directions on how to deal with constant diarrhea, it became obvious to me that Pica was not getting better. He was not improving and, in fact, was getting worse. The pain medication masked his discomfort. His blood glucose readings were 400 to 750, and that was on a good day, which meant he suffered from prolonged hyperglycemia. High dosages of PZI did not help. We ruled out insulin resistance, Symogyi.

I learned more about feline diabetes and the various related diseases that can accompany that infliction than any human being should ever have to know.

Jackson, Pica and Tessa, the 3 Weintraub household cats.

The most humane thing we could do for Pica was to euthanize him. All the modern medicine in the world and daily attentive care could not turnaround his health problems. His muscles were so weak he could not keep his balance. But still, I did not want to give up hope or quit loving him. And that was just selfish. To keep him barely alive so I would not have to live with the pain of separation was so much more incredibly painful than the pain of letting him go.

Thank goodness our body has a system already in place to help us deal with immensely intense heartache like this. We have tears. The decision to euthanize was the most loving thing we could do. There was no question in my mind when it was time to say goodbye to Brandon, our cat who lived to be almost 20, but there was plenty of emotional doubt with Pica, in case you’re wondering. My common sense ruled. He left us at 14 years.

No two circumstances of death are the same.