? 7/6: Sammy - AMPS 146; +3.5 60; +6 76; PMPS 114 - 3 below 50 Question

[Tina & Sammy]

Yesterday's Condo

I am not sure if it was bad insulin or if Sammy finally broke a bounce, but today his numbers are much better. We did start a new pen last night and at +2 it wasn't looking promising, but by +3.25 he had dropped almost 50 points from the +2 rise from PMPS. At + 5 he had another significant drop to 197. By +7 he seemed to be slowing down and was only at 190, and I expected him to level out and start climbing again, but at +10 he was down to 138.

I had to work today, but DH was home and I talked him in to testing Sammy during the day. His numbers came down nicely and he was eating pretty good today. DH didn't follow all the instructions that I had given him, but it was better than no monitoring at all. I will keep pretty good tabs on Sammy tonight and might even do a mini curve until I go to bed to see how he does. If this morning is any indication as to what he might do I am expecting a drop at least to the 50's tonight, but as we all know every cycle can be different.

I am still planning on taking Sammy in for a dental. Every time the vet has looked at his teeth she has said he has tarter, but she didn't see anything that could be an infection, but I know that if I keep waiting something might go wrong and then it might be worse than it is right now. So in the next couple of weeks, we are going to settle on a new vet and take all the necessary measures to get him in for a dental very soon. I know it will give me peace of mind and I don't have to keep wondering it it might be part of the problem.

My question of the evening is: Sammy has already gone under 50 twice on this dose, and if in fact the insulin had gone bad there is a possibility that he will go below 50 tonight as well. If that is the case does he still earn a reduction even though it has been several days since he had a below 50 number?

I am going to try to relax a bit tonight, yesterday's high numbers really stressed me out. I think there is another margarita in my future.

Have a great evening everyone.

The vet will want to have blood work within the last six months before doing any anesthesia, including a dental. They may look at the mouth, but so much can be hidden below the gum line that can only show up on a dental X-Ray. Make sure the dentist does that. On the New to the Group sticky is a link to a post on dental procedures.

Time to come down Sammy.

So the blood work that was completed on 5/22 should still be good? Do you think a new vet would except that blood work or would they want to run their own?

So should they do the dental X-ray before they do the dental or on the day of the dental????

I will check out the link to dental procedure. Thanks.

Tina, talk to your vet. Explain how Sammy's need for insulin appears to wax and wane from one day to the next. Ask him/her what they think. Ask about possible causes. Given the circumstances, see what tests the vet thinks would be appropriate at this time.

Has your vet ever mentioned wanting to do an ultrasound? Personally, I've always jumped at the chance to take a look to see if everything inside looks as it should with my kitties.

Elise brought up a needed dental. A simple case of gingivitis knocked Alex out of an almost 3 year remission. Having a dental done and aggressively dosing with insulin for only 8 weeks was all it took to get her OTJ again. It's possible having a dental done *may* be all it takes to send Sammy back to the Falls.

Information on Dental Procedures (Pictures included)

Based on this new information, new insulin, and today's number do you still think there might be an underlying problem??? As I already mentioned I am going to proceed to getting a dental done, but because we are switching vets I don't want to rush into it too quickly, I want to make sure I like the vet before subjecting Sammy to an evasive procedure like that.

Every time I talked to my old vet she was stumped about why Sammy would rise at regular intervals. Usually Sammy's numbers go up, I freak out and rush to the vet only to have his numbers come down the next day or very soon after going to the vet, with no added treatments or changes to what we were doing. it really is the weirdest thing. Sometimes I think Sammy is doing it on purpose to get attention. LOL!

I am still concerned that it might be an infection that for some reason isn't showing up on blood work. I am very tempted to ask the vet to prescribe an antibiotic to see if his numbers stay stable for a while. Do you have any thoughts on this?

 

[carfurby (GA)]

I would think the below 50 numbers can be counted because they are all in the past week and he is on the same dose.

 

[Marycatmom]

I can tell you exactly what is going on with Sammy. I caught Mikey on google hangouts with him the other night. Mikey was giving him lessons. I think it would be best if we banned both of them from the internet altogether.

On a serious note, when we had Mikey's dental done, the x-rays were taken while he was under anesthesia. Our vet only saw tartar on Mikey's teeth when he examined him, but the x-rays etc. showed a bad abscess. He had a total of three teeth removed.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

They can only do the x-rays under anesthesia, so when you schedule the dental, they'll do them that day.

What we did when we were looking for a vet to do China's was I called around and started asking questions. Most vets that are worth talking to will return phone calls when they have time (usually after the day's over) and answer any questions you have

 

[Wendy&Neko]

So the blood work that was completed on 5/22 should still be good? Do you think a new vet would except that blood work or would they want to run their own?

So should they do the dental X-ray before they do the dental or on the day of the dental????

Yes, the bloodwork done on 5/22 should still be good. I ask for copies of all the labs done to be emailed to me. After all, I paid for them. I like having a copy on hand to compare back. You are perfectly within reason to ask for it. I've even had vets send copies to other vets (Neko's acupuncture vetty wanted a copy of her file). I was not charged for it. As Chris said, they do X-rays the day of the dental. They will sedate first, do physical check, then anesthetize and do the X-rays then dental. For Neko's last dental, they called me after the X-rays and before the actual dental, so I knew what was about to happen.

And as Carla said, the 3 times under 50 should count for the reduction. Enjoy that margarita!

 

[Jill & Alex (GA)]

Based on this new information, new insulin, and today's number do you still think there might be an underlying problem??? As I already mentioned I am going to proceed to getting a dental done, but because we are switching vets I don't want to rush into it too quickly, I want to make sure I like the vet before subjecting Sammy to an evasive procedure like that.

Something is going on. If a dental is needed, the sooner it's done, the better.

Every time I talked to my old vet she was stumped about why Sammy would rise at regular intervals. Usually Sammy's numbers go up, I freak out and rush to the vet only to have his numbers come down the next day or very soon after going to the vet, with no added treatments or changes to what we were doing. it really is the weirdest thing. Sometimes I think Sammy is doing it on purpose to get attention. LOL!

Has the vet ever mentioned having an ultrasound done? In a case like this, I would think it would be a standard suggestion.

I am still concerned that it might be an infection that for some reason isn't showing up on blood work. I am very tempted to ask the vet to prescribe an antibiotic to see if his numbers stay stable for a while. Do you have any thoughts on this?

It's possible. However, before randomly throwing antibiotics I would want to exhaust my other options. If Sammy needs a dental, it's the first place I'd start and then go from there... looking into one thing at a time.

Just my thoughts...