Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [100]
Golden Moments: A Second Kittenhood
When Jennifer Schilling’s baby brother was born, it was decided that Jennifer needed a baby, too, and a kitten was the answer. She was seven years old when she first met the hissing, scratching ball of calico fluff. “I just grabbed and I caught her,” says Jennifer. “I held on for dear life.”
Today, Jennifer works as a lab specialist at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, where she does cancer research. Momma Kitty, a mostly white cat, with a stylish checkerboard brown and black face, has been her constant companion for nearly two decades. The cat acquired her name as you’d imagine--“She started having kittens, and the name just stuck.” She was spayed many years ago, though. Last year, Momma Kitty celebrated her 18th birthday in August.
“My whole childhood was involved with Momma Kitty and dressing her this way and that,” says Jennifer. “If I was going to ballet class where I wore tights, she wore tights, too.” The pair grew up together, and when Jennifer had to live in the dormitory her freshman year in college, it nearly killed them both. “That’s the only time I’ve ever been apart from her,” says Jennifer. “I would go home on the weekends and she would eat. And she would not eat again until I came home the next weekend.” When school began for her sophomore year, Jennifer took Momma Kitty with her. “She’s been with me ever since.”
As she grew more mature, Momma Kitty gained more confidence, and expected visitors to the house to acknowledge and pet her. When Jennifer and Wes got married two years ago, Momma Kitty welcomed him to the family. A three-year-old orange cat came as part of the package, and the older cat took Fezzik in stride.
Lately, Wes and Jennifer noticed she’d slowed down, and seemed much more mellow than Fezzik. “We adjusted furniture so she never has to jump more than a foot and a half,” says Jennifer. “She can jump on the kitchen counters if she really wants to, but I don’t try to force that out of her.
Then her behavior completely changed. “It was like a switch went off,” says Jennifer. Momma Kitty began sleeping 20 to 22 hours a day, and developed a lot of hind leg weakness. She’d always had a weight problem, and Jennifer had been careful about feeding her a controlled amount twice a day. “She became ravenous, wanting to eat nonstop. If you sat down to eat, she’d get in your lap to try and eat from your plate,” says Jennifer. “She started losing weight dramatically and peeing nonstop. She’d go through a quart water bowl a day.”
Dr. Alonzo Jones at Blacksburg Animal Hospital confirmed his suspicions of the cat’s symptoms with a blood test. Momma Kitty was diabetic. “It really hit me hard because I just couldn’t imagine her not being perfect,” says Jennifer. “My husband and I treat our cats like children and members of our family. I thought it was a death sentence. I felt devastated.”
Dr. Jones reassured her that with insulin injections twice a day, diabetes could be managed, especially if Momma Kitty was otherwise healthy. Other tests showed the cat’s kidney function was 100 percent, liver function was 100 percent and she had no heart murmur. “I was very happy to hear that,” says Jennifer. “I never even thought about not treating her.”
One bottle of insulin, available from the pharmacist by prescription, lasts almost 60 days and costs about $22. “We use a needle a day, little tb syringes. Some people use a new needle every injection,” says Jennifer. She and Wes have worked out a system so they don’t overdose the cat accidentally. If the morning shot has been given, the syringe is with the insulin in the refrigerator, and if it hasn’t been given there’s no syringe there. “And in the evenings it’s vice versa,” says Jennifer.
In addition to twice-daily insulin injections, the cat’s eating habits and diet had to be adjusted. Food was made