2/25 Benny AMPS 113, +1 106, +3 86, +5 130

[Erin & Scott]

Previous

Steady as she goes. Benny didn't eat his snack last night, not sure how much of an impact that had. These guys are getting so picky, it's always a crap shoot as to what they will & won't eat. I left out a small chunk of frozen liver along with the chunk of frozen LC; both were untouched when Scott got up, but then Shaddie was working on the liver when I got up and had it cleaned up by the time I got my coffee made.

I'm tempted to move toward a raw food diet, though I'm afraid the novelty would wear off once we'd invested the time and expense. The food they loved yesterday is yucky today . . . so frustrating!

 

[Amanda and a Loudogg]

Oh great, now I have an ear worm. Have you heard that song? I think it's fantastic and whenever I hear it I have it stuck in my head for days. I absolutely love cats, but the finicky pickiness can get old, fast. If my civvie gets picky (rare, but it does happen), I just tell her to eat or starve. If Lou does it, I eventually have to cave and it drives me bonkers! Benny's looking good today. I hope he finds his way back to the lagoon for you!

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[Erin & Scott]

LOL - no, I hadn't heard that song before, but it's stuck now!

It's tempting to think that we had fewer food issues when we were just feeding them crap kibble with a little bit of crap wet food once a day, but I know I'd be kidding myself. On the plus side, since we've switched to mostly wet (civvie still eats YA kibble), there has been a lot less puking. In fact, I don't remember the last time we had to clean up a puke mess. Just the occasional hairball now, because both are DLHs and Benny just loves to groom.

So we muddle through and make idle threats to our fur kids about what we'll do if they don't eat, and we continue to love them anyway.

 

[Erin & Scott]

+5 130

Benny's numbers have been creeping up over the last couple of days, which is not what we want to see. He still has underlying dental issues - I've been in correspondence with his vet, now that he's in much better condition, I want to see if we can't get the bad tooth extracted and hopefully get him on the road to remission.

 

[Gill & George]

George isn't picky.
But the Civies are, the way that I manage it with them is that I have 8 flavours that they like and are their regular meal and I rotate them, I also have some other more 'fancy' food that I mix into the rotation occaisionally for a bit of variety if they look like they are getting bored. That seems to work for all of them most of the time, although felix has worked out that I will sprinkle some freeze dried treats as a topper on his food if he dawdles

Bennys numbers do look like they are creeping up, keep you're eye on that you may need to take him up a touch. The bad tooth is probably not helping. My vet didn't want to do a dental on George, because he's overweight, 19yrs old and diabetic in the end we ended up with a very critical situation, I ended up having to find another vet that was willing and confident to do the procedure, we almost lost him because of the delay in treating the teeth. If you current vet isn't willing I wouldn't wait too long to look into an alternative.

 

[Erin & Scott]

We'll probably do a "fat" 0.25u this evening. Vet is willing - she's been out of the office for several days, but she emailed me to follow up and encourage us to get Benny (and his brother) in for dental work. Which we definitely will be doing, we were just waiting for Benny to be in better condition before having anesthesia. I'm waiting to hear back, and at this point it's just a matter of scheduling.

Civvie bro Shaddie's mouth is a mess, we took him in last week because he wasn't acting normal. They detected a heart murmur so he's got bloodwork out for testing to (hopefully) rule out hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. So he's on antibiotics right now and we'll decide what to do with the teeth once we know whether or not his heart can take it. He appears to be part Maine Coon or Norwegian Forest Cat, both of which have genetic tendencies toward HCM, so we're sitting on our hands waiting to hear good news.

As far as food, I've been going to the locally-owned pet food warehouse store and getting a variety, so there's usually something that Benny will eat, but Scott made the mistake of ordering a few kinds by the case, which is a guarantee that they'll stop liking it. Shaddie has never been quite as gung-ho about the wet food, but he's become picky since that's now his main source of calories. We do what we can, and try to keep it interesting. Eventually I hope to find something that is healthy and that they both will eat!

 

[Gill & George]

Eventually I hope to find something that is healthy and that they both will eat!

If you figure that out let me know, whatever I serve there's always one of the civies that turns their nose up at it

Civvie bro Shaddie's mouth is a mess, we took him in last week because he wasn't acting normal. They detected a heart murmur so he's got bloodwork out for testing to (hopefully) rule out hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. So he's on antibiotics right now and we'll decide what to do with the teeth once we know whether or not his heart can take it.

how worrying for you , sending vines for a good report.

Vet is willing - she's been out of the office for several days, but she emailed me to follow up and encourage us to get Benny (and his brother) in for dental work. Which we definitely will be doing, we were just waiting for Benny to be in better condition before having anesthesia. I'm waiting to hear back, and at this point it's just a matter of scheduling.

I'm glad you have a confident vet and I hope that you are comfortable with Benny's condition, I was a nervous wreck when George went in, he had all but his canine teeth removed, I sat at a coffee shop waiting to hear that they were finished, I was pretty wired by the time I went to get him.

 

[Erin & Scott]

And a 140 @ +9 . . . I wonder what set this off.

Both boys now have dental appointments - Benny will be going in next week Tuesday, and Shaddie the following Thursday. Thank goodness, his tests came back normal, so no heart stuff to worry about.

Funny, though - I sent Benny's spreadsheet to the vet and she thinks he's doing so great we should try skipping a shot. I'm thinking we need to bump him up just a squidge. I would like to see him in normal kitty numbers before I even think about stopping the insulin, so we'll keep him on it for a while yet. Once he gets rid of the bad tooth, we'll see what happens.

 

[Gill & George]

Skipping just for the dental or just to try remission?

I don't think Benny is quite ready to come off insulin altogether, especially with those 120s and 140s creeping in.
The vet will be used to seeing pet meter specific numbers which would tend to read a little higher, my vet always thinks the same when he sees George's numbers, until I remind him we use a human meter, fortunately my vet has done comparisons with his in house equipment, pet meters and human meters, so so he's familiar with the discrepancy.

With a human meter you want to see numbers mostly in the normal range, 50-80range for one week and even then there's one more reduction to 0.1u if he can sustain another week in normal numbers at that dose then he would be ready for an otj trial.

Experience tells us that continuing insulin support, allows the beta cells to heal properly and get stronger, continuing with these micro doses until they earn their reductions lead to strong and long lasting remission.
One other thing, it wouldn't be that unusual that you might see his numbers go up a bit in the immediate aftermath of the dental, sometimes they have inflammation following the procedure that can push them up a bit, numbers coming back down once they heal

I'm so happy that you got good news for Shaddie. That must be a relief for you all.

 

[Erin & Scott]

She suggested skipping a dose to see what happens - separate from skipping the dose the morning of the dental work. But she also asked if we'd be able to do less than 0.25 u. The convo was via email, where it's hard to have a good back-and-forth discussion. I had mentioned to her that we use a human meter, and from previous discussions, I think we're on the same page there.

But what you say above is exactly what we are thinking - I want to see most of his numbers in that 50-80 range, and virtually no blues, before we reduce. So I don't anticipate making any changes for at least the next week. Once he has his tooth taken care of, we'll go from there.

Thanks for your all of your advice and guidance; even though I'm fairly confident in what I'm doing, it's always good to have that confirmed by someone more experienced and knowledgeable!

 

[Gill & George]

But what you say above is exactly what we are thinking - I want to see most of his numbers in that 50-80 range, and virtually no blues, before we reduce. So I don't anticipate making any changes for at least the next week. Once he has his tooth taken care of, we'll go from there.

That seems sensible to me.
I didn't think you sounded like you were about to take him off his insulin, but I wasn't sure how your vet was approaching it, it seems that you have a good working relationship and can discuss Benny's care, which is great, sounds much like my experience with my vet, he's willing to listen and take what I say on board and discuss options.
Unfortunately not always the case, and I've seen a number of times where they've insisted on kitty coming off insulin all of a sudden, CG has understandably taken vet at face value, and remission hasn't held and unfortunately that can really set you back.
It's usually harder to get kitty into remission a second time round, so ideally you want to do everything possible to make it stick.
Benny is doing very well, so I hope that the dental is the final little push he needs to kick the juice.

 

[Gill & George]

Thanks for your all of your advice and guidance;

You're welcome, you're doing a great job.