The story of Fletcher...

The life in pictures of my boy....

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• cat
• acromegaly
• diabetes

[fletchersmom1]

Thank you so much. He was such an amazing kitty. Unfortunately, he left for the Rainbow Bridge on August 8, 2010 after going into acute kidney failure. He was such a fighter.. and an inspiration. Because of him I took in a 20+ deaf, CKD kitty with grand mal seizures, a kitty with diabetes insipidus, two additional diabetics, and another diabetic who is recovering from near fatal diabetic ketoacidosis.

Fletcher lived 3.5 years post acromegaly diagnosis... and he was the joy of our lives each day.

[Anderaddy]

I am so sorry to hear about you little kitty, i dont know how i would handle my kitty tiger lilly dying. Once again i am sorry.

[fletchersmom1]

This is fletchersmom1's daughter, Meg. Fletcher, the kitty featured in this video, is still with us today; he has acromegaly, which is a brain tumor that causes diabetes; we will lose him from either heart or kidney failure. We WILL lose him within the next year or so, though; he's had acromegaly for two years now, and the average lifespan for an acro-kitty is about 8 months or so after the diagnosis. He's been using insulin lately, which is leading us to think that his time is coming soon. :(

[holliejoe05]

And of course, good luck to you and Fletcher. He reminds me so much of our hospital cat Sammy.

[holliejoe05]

Fletcher is a very handsome cat. I work as a receptionist at a vet clinic & we adopted a cat from one of our clients who couldn't keep him anymore. The cat, who's name is Sammy was diagnosed with diabetes last year. We kept testing his blood sugar & couldn't get his diabetes under control. We found out 2 weeks ago that he has acromegaly. Tomorrow he goes to UC DAVIS for radiation in hopes that this will make him NO LONGER insulin dependent. Currently he's on 12 units of Prozinc. Wish him luck.

[77Monaro]

Hi Meg, I think the 8 month average is because historically vets have only been able to diagnose acromegaly at a late stage. Diabetes is usually the first sign, and even then it can take a long time before the vet knows it is acro. If Fletcher's only started using insulin recently, he may have quite some time left. His vet should be able to assess his heart and kidney function and say where they are at. Good luck.

[mrslisafryer]

im so sorry to hear this. as a human acro patient i feel for the poor kitty. i have given you a video response to the awareness of acromegaly it may help ppl to understand what it is as it is so rare for humans and also cats, obviously the same applies to cats. its such a shame. such a lovely video.

[hipofizis]

Nice cat, nice video. :)