Yesterday Nekko had her first follow-up visit with the vet since she was diagnosed with diabetes. The past four weeks have seen her return to her normal self, but I have not been successful in administering her insulin every twelve hours as prescribed. Nekko is not a cuddly cat, and getting near her at times is difficult. Rather than chase her I’ve opted, thus far, to sit in her favorite overstuffed chair and wait for her to jump up on the back, before injecting her.
The doctor was fairly adamant that she start getting two shots per day regularly. Because she hasn’t so far he felt there was no reason to run an expensive blood test during the visit yesterday. The problem isn’t just the twelve hour period, although that is a challenge. The problem is getting access to her with out keeping her locked in a small room all the time.
Her hiding place of choice is under my bed. It’s a king-sized bed so there is a lot of room under there - she can easily be out of reach. Inspiration struck on my way back to work: I have an inflatable mattress, why not slide it under the bed and inflate it thus blocking half of the space. With the mattress in place I am able to reach Nekko and inject her while she is under the bed. Her PM shot yesterday, and AM shot today, were both given while she was safely hidden away under the bed.
Henceforth I’ll be able to give her a shot when I get up, around 5:30 or 6:00 AM, and then another in the evening. The doctor allowed that I can overlap the shots by as much as three hours without endangering Nekko. So if an evening shot doesn’t occur until 9:00 PM the morning shot could be administered at 6:00 AM. I may not get all fourteen shots a week in, but I think I can dramatically increase from the five or six shots a week I’ve been averaging.