The Continuing Saga of Jabez, my boo

So, Jabez has stopped eating - again.  It's been almost two hours since I got up and all he has done is drink a bunch of water.  Instead of forcing two pills down his throat, I decided to crush them up, add a little water and fill a syringe with the mixture and squirt it in his mouth.  Well, he doesn't like that any better but at least I don't have to struggle to keep his mouth closed and at the same time stroke his throat to get him to swallow.  He's such a big cat and it's really difficult for me with my carpal tunnel syndrome and the pinched nerve problem I have with my neck.  I got the job done but he has absolutely no interest in food.  He has just been looking out the window and now that I'm on the computer he is laying about 2 feet away from where I sit.  

Yesterday, I broke down a couple of boxes that the food and the syringes came in, and put them down on the floor, because I know he likes to lay on cardboard and papers.  So, he is laying on top of those sleeping at the moment.  The vet wanted me to measure his respiration so, yesterday, it was 48 when he was awake and about 32 when he is sleeping, and that's pretty much what it is today.  Normal respiration for a cat is 24-40, so it's a little elevated when he's awake.  Forty-eight was what it was in the ER and that's why they want me to monitor it.

I tried calling a pet sitter to get the Christmas holiday set up so I could go spend some time with my daughter and her family.  One sitter was already booked and the other hasn't returned my call as yet.  It'll cost me a couple of hundred of dollars to pay the pet sitter and I wonder if he'll make it until then.  He probably will because I'm taking such good care of him.  I tested his blood sugar and it's 384, which is high, so at least he is not going into diabetic shock, which is what happens when your blood sugar is too low.  

There is a condition called "ketoacidosis" which is what happens when your blood sugar is too high.  This can also cause a diabetic coma but is usually referred to as a ketoacidosis coma.  Left untreated, ketoacidosis is fatal.  So, I'm back to questioning Jabez's quality of life.  If he won't eat and I can't give him his regular dose of insulin ketones may stay in his blood and cause ketoacidosis.  If I give him too much insulin, like giving him his regular dose of insulin, I could cause the same thing that happened back on 2007, which nearly killed him. 

He had been not eating, much like he is now, but I was continuing to give him his regular dose of insulin, and this went on for two or three days.  So, one day when I came home from work (yes, I actually had a job then), I found him basically comatose on my kitchen floor.  He was vocalizing, which sounded like screeching, when I pulled up in the driveway and I could hear it and wondered what the sound was.  So, I found him nearly dead on my kitchen floor and picked him up (he was very cold) and he seemed to rouse a little, and put him in his carrier and hustled him off the to ER.  They saved his life and I purchased the glucometer at that time.

So, having been through all that I am really careful not to overdose his insulin injections.  I don't check his blood sugar daily because I hate it as much as he does, except he is the one who is getting stuck with the lancet.  Plus, sometimes I am unsuccessful at getting enough of a blood droplet to form so I can test it.  This really pisses him off and if I try to poke him again he is SO done with me that he usually really fights me if I don't get it   the second time.  So, I never poke him more than twice, therefore, sometimes I am unable to test his sugar levels.  Today, however, I was successful and got the aforementioned reading of 384.

He is basically exhibiting all the signs and symptoms of ketoacidosis, drinking lots of water, urinating a lot, lethargic and I believe his stomach does hurt him based on the way he lays down.  So... I'm back to the question of euthanasia.

Please pray...