Kitteh update: Crabby Clover and the Diabetes Adventure (interesting outcome!)

[MorningGlow]

Hola Loungers--a few days ago I started a thread about feline diabetes, because our pisspot, Clover, had been living up to her nickname and started peeing gallons. Okay, not gallons, but more than usual for a 5 lb. runt.

We went to the vet today, which shaved about a year off the neurotic kitteh's life. (If there's such a thing as an agoraphobic cat, she is one.) She peed in the carrier, quite possibly before we left the driveway. Then she wailed all the way, and startled the receptionist with more wailing when we got there.

The lovely techs took her, crate and all, in the back, where they siphoned off the pee for testing, cleaned the carrier, and dried her off. She proceeded to huddle in a tiny ball and shiver on the exam table, mostly because what sounded like a very large goggie in the next room was quite upset about being there, too, and his woofs and yips freaked her out.

After waiting quite a long time because of an emergency that took precedence over Peeing Cat, the vet tested her urine. Everything was normal (no elevated levels of anything that would indicate diabetes, and her urine wasn't concentrated). Then the lovely techs took her away again to draw blood and clean her damp-with-pee paws, and I took her home.

The vet called a few minutes ago (what service!) with the blood test results. She does not have diabetes, nor does she have hyperthyroidism. She has some signs of kidney disease, which is to be expected in a 15-year-old feline.

Now get this--the vet recommended a medication that apparently slows down the process and lets pets live longer, and more comfortably, in their senior years. She said it's made up by a compounding pharmacy--making up the correct dose for the weight of the pet, and they even add their favorite flavor. Half a cc once a day. They send it by mail. The vet kept referring to the product by name (and oops I just forgot what it was--starts with a C) so while she was talking I did a little googling. This wonder drug--? Ya ready? Wait for it...

Vitamin D.

Is there ANYTHING this vitamin can't do? I'm on high doses for a severe deficiency, as is my mother and my son (absorption problems--runs in the family--no amount of dairy or sunlight will help--trust me on this one). Now it can help alleviate kidney disease? In cats?

I am astounded. And I am grateful that this is all Clover needs. I realize that she's getting up there in years and she will have more health problems as she gets even older, but if this is all she needs right now, I'll take it.

Anyway, thanks everyone for your support! Clover, of course, says "humph". :hi: