I’ve loved cats for as long as I can remember. Some people say I’m obsessed, and maybe I am. I mean, I did get a tattoo in 2023 in honor of my two Manx boys. Manx cats have a genetic mutation that results in short tails. Now part of my preference for cats is because of how chill they are compared to dogs. Also how much lower maintenance they generally are when it comes to when we want to travel. Unfortunately cat travel content isn’t in my future, since my boys just don’t like harnesses…or people really.
We adopted Nittaly and Bryce in 2013, not long after moving to Oklahoma City. They were born in a local shelter after an F5 tornado tore through the area just south of us. For the first 8 years of their lives, things were easy/normal. We managed multiple moves, weekend trips almost every other month, and lots of day trips. Like most cats, they were content to sleep the weekend away and gorge themselves on their gravity feeder. We’re also those crazy cat parents that set up cameras throughout our apartment (now house) to keep an eye on them while we travel. For anything longer than 2 nights, we always got someone to come check on them.
The Moment Everything Changed
Many people in our lives noticed a change in our lifestyle/travel over the last few years,
but didn’t know the whole story behind it.
Now it’s the Spring of 2022. We were finally at a point in our lives where we could start making some bigger trips. Because we were going to be gone for two weeks (the longest we’ve ever been away from them), we scheduled to have a local cat sitter come check on them every other day. A little past the halfway point of our trip is when things started going downhill. Bryce was drinking so much water that he was throwing it up and he kept going outside of his litter box, neither of which were normal for him. By the time we got home, we realized he had lost a couple pounds.
The trip to the vet in early May confirmed what our pet sitter had suspected: Bryce has diabetes. It took me a little while to get past the guilt, feeling like it was my fault he had gotten so stressed that it triggered/made the diabetes happen. I now know this isn’t the case, but anxiety brain doesn’t always care about facts. Learning to give insulin shots was nerve wracking, but eventually we got into a good routine. And if it was just the diabetes, I think it would be much easier to manage and I wouldn’t be writing this post. Unfortunately, the diabetes scare was just the start.
Fast forward a couple months to mid-July. All of a sudden, Bryce stops eating. Which if you know anything about diabetes and insulin shots, is very bad. After taking him back into the vet again, they recommended sending him to an emergency vet hospital nearby. There they discovered he had stopped eating because of an ulcer on the roof of his mouth. On top of that, his blood sugar dropped to a dangerous level which lead to diabetic ketoacidosis. 4 nights in the hospital and over $8k later, he was back home with a feeding tube in his neck. Not going to lie, I was freaked out and barely slept for the first few days worried he’d get it caught on something. Bryce went from a happy (albeit overweight) 14 lbs down to 8.5 lbs in the span of 2.5 months.
For the next few months, we worked on increasing his weight and figuring out his insulin dosage. For some reason the normal amount for cats, 1-3 units twice a day, just wasn’t working. His blood sugar was averaging in the low 600s, when they wanted him between 120-200. In early 2023 we finally discovered the culprit: acromegaly. Acromegaly is a somewhat rare pituitary gland tumor that causes a release of excess growth hormone (EGH). Fortunately it isn’t cancerous, but because of his age the surgery prognosis wasn’t good enough for us to risk it. You can read more about acromegaly here.
Eventually we’ll likely start noticing things like enlarged paws and facial features. Unfortunately, some of his current symptoms of the EGH are agitation (VERY vocal), neurological issues like paws shaking, and a ravenous hunger. So now we have to hide a lot of things because he tries to eat EVERYTHING, including toys, blankets, clothes, cardboard, etc. His specialist put him on an experimental hormonal treatment that thankfully seems to be helping with the insulin resistance. His insulin increases have finally started to slow, and he gets 8 units twice a day.
And Then There Were Two
Now some of you may have noticed I said “Cats’” and not “Cat’s” in the title. Unfortunately not a typo, as in 2023 Nittaly was diagnosed with a liver infection and early stage kidney disease. Thankfully the infection was a quick fix, and the kidney disease management is mainly focused on a diet change and exercise. But of course that means now they have to eat different kinds of food, spread out across multiple meals a day, and in different areas of the house so Bryce doesn’t eat both of their food.
I’m sure there are plenty of people that stopped reading a while ago, thinking I’m nuts for putting so much money and effort into my animals. The amount of judgement we get for it has honestly been shocking. “You should just put him down”. “Its selfish of you to prolong his suffering like that”. “I would never waste that much money on a PET”. It just makes me want to pull my hair out. My husband and I are fortunate to be in such a financially stable place. As someone who has decided not to have children, my pets are basically my kids (as controversial of a statement as that is to some), so why would I NOT do whatever I can for them?
Back To The Travel Part
“Allison, I though this was going to be about your cat AND travel? I just read 8 paragraphs about your cats”. What can I say? I’m a chronic over-sharer who thinks context is important, which makes it hard to edit myself. Thanks to the medicine and food schedule, it limits the amount we can realistically travel. This is in big part because I don’t really trust anyone but myself, my husband, or my mother to take care of them. Besides the discomfort, I also just don’t like to burden other people. Their routine is a lot, and I worry that it will overwhelm people. I’m hoping to work through my anxiety and bring in a specialized medical cat sitter for some weekend travel plans in the future.
So while I really want to visit places like Chicago, New Orleans, Denver, and Phoenix, its just not in the cards for us at the moment. Having a chronically ill cat and still being able to travel is possible, it just looks different. For now, our focus is to try out as many things as we can within an hour or so of home. I grew up a little over an hour outside of Philadelphia, but there are so many things in the PA/NJ/DE/MD area that I’ve never seen. So we feed the boys and give meds in the morning, spend the day exploring, and are back home in time for dinner and more meds. “Is it really traveling if you’re still in your own city?” Maybe not in the traditional sense/definition, but Philly is a big place and I like to explore.
I’m not going to lie, some days are tough and my patience doesn’t always go as far as I’d like. It can be lonely and isolating, and sometimes I miss the freedom we used to have. But I love these annoying little buggers, so I’ll keep doing what I have to do.
How do your pets affect the way you travel? Let me know in the comments!
Leave a Reply