5/13 Darcy AMPS 374, +3 178, +4 186, +5 207, +6 275 (more R), +8.25 166, +10 141

Suzanne & Darcy

Suzanne & Darcy

Member Since 2020
He ate a little overnight (emphasis on little). This morning he has been eating a little of the K/D Tuna/Vegetable Stew; I am happy to see him eating anything at all. That's a new renal food that I picked up at the vet yesterday. He was drinking a lot of water overnight, due to the high BG numbers. I did break some rules this morning with his dose and his R, but I am panicking and can't let him be above the kidney threshold if I can help it. Right now, I have him back down in the blues -- I hope he can stay there today for a while. He is acting a lot better in the blues -- just more bright and cheerful and up on the bed instead of under a chair. He wanted to lie down not too far from the water bowl last night, which is something he used to do a lot when he was in higher numbers. Anyway, I'll deal with the p.m. cycle later on. I also desperately need to go out to the grocery store today and to get my oil changed -- so I hope I can do that to at some point this afternoon after I see where he is going in the latter part of his cycle.

yesterday: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-bgs-gone-crazy-giving-r.247285/#post-2789392
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
He ate a little overnight (emphasis on little). This morning he has been eating a little of the K/D Tuna/Vegetable Stew; I am happy to see him eating anything at all. That's a new renal food that I picked up at the vet yesterday. He was drinking a lot of water overnight, due to the high BG numbers. I did break some rules this morning with his dose and his R, but I am panicking and can't let him be above the kidney threshold if I can help it. Right now, I have him back down in the blues -- I hope he can stay there today for a while. He is acting a lot better in the blues -- just more bright and cheerful and up on the bed instead of under a chair. He wanted to lie down not too far from the water bowl last night, which is something he used to do a lot when he was in higher numbers. Anyway, I'll deal with the p.m. cycle later on. I also desperately need to go out to the grocery store today and to get my oil changed -- so I hope I can do that to at some point this afternoon after I see where he is going in the latter part of his cycle.

yesterday: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...-bgs-gone-crazy-giving-r.247285/#post-2789392
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Hi Suzanne. Hope Darcy’s appetite picks up and he surfs safely, a blue day would be nice :cool: :bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
Liz & Minnie said:
:bighug::bighug::bighug: keep on troughing, Darcy, and sitting on the bed/Darcy dining table. No hiding under chairs!!

Suzanne, I had to laugh. I know you meant 2 errands - grocery store and oil change, but it sounded like you were going to the grocery store to get your oil changed :eek:
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Well.... you know grocery stores these days... they do a lot of different things. ;)We have a store around here the has a Zales Jewely Store inside of it. And they sell lots of clothes and other things ... so far not changing oil though! Although Wal-Mart has an auto service center in it and sells groceries (or do they just do tires at Wal-Mart?) Anyway, I don't get my auto service done there. That is funny though.
 
He tried to creep up on me, but I kept him down with a little R (less than this morning, but it seemed to work). He ate some more of the K/D tuna. He's happy and purring. I'm worried about his hematocrit though. It is down to 28% and when I look at my spreadsheet with the labs, it's been on a steady decline since 4/23 when he first went and we had the bad news.
 
Suzanne I am so happy to see him back in the blues. I haven't had a chance to look at the lab info you sent me but I don't see anything on my blood test explanation sheet regarding hematocrit. What is that? I just read that if the PCV (hematocrit) is below 25% your cat is probably anemic. You are not there yet. What do you need to do to keep Darcy from becoming anemic? Can you try and feed raw liver or more meat proteins? Or maybe even cooked liver. Something meaty should raise the protein level - shouldn't it?
 
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Suzanne, as hard as it is to see Darcy in these numbers, it's time to think about patience. :bighug: You increased his L by 0.5 this morning, and with mid blues I wouldn't have done more than a 0.25 unit increase. I am glad you lowered the R dose mid day, the one at AMPS was too much. As the L doses get lower, the R doses seem to get lower too. He dropped well a couple hundred points in 3 hours this AM, which is more than enough to set off another bounce. You don't want to get into the situation where you are using R to shoot down bounces, overshooting, and setting of yet another bounce.

Out of curiosity, have you done a ketones test lately? Is Darcy on any b vitamins with his lowering HCT?
 
Evening cycle not too bad so far. At PMPS he was at 185. I wanted to stop a rise but wanted to be very careful with R since he's already had two doses so far today... this was his third... I gave .25 units. When I got home from running errands (at +3) he was at 187. So he stayed quite flat. I'm pleased about that, but I will reevaluate whether or not to give more R for tonight at +6. I can wake up to test.

Right this minute he is licking his Yellow Catnip Banana. And I was so excited to see that, when I got home he had eaten everything out of his two dishes -- all of the K/D tuna stew and all of the Dr. Elsey's kibble that had been powdered with AlOH binder. Now I wish I had left him more to eat, but I'm happy he ate that. The portions were small. But this means that he ate a 3.5 oz can of food on his own today. They are 70 calories (so not enough). But we've syringe fed him 4 syringes today and will do two more (he won't like it) before bed.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Suzanne, as hard as it is to see Darcy in these numbers, it's time to think about patience. :bighug: You increased his L by 0.5 this morning, and with mid blues I wouldn't have done more than a 0.25 unit increase. I am glad you lowered the R dose mid day, the one at AMPS was too much. As the L doses get lower, the R doses seem to get lower too. He dropped well a couple hundred points in 3 hours this AM, which is more than enough to set off another bounce. You don't want to get into the situation where you are using R to shoot down bounces, overshooting, and setting of yet another bounce.

Out of curiosity, have you done a ketones test lately? Is Darcy on any b vitamins with his lowering HCT?
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Yes. For his HCT, he is getting daily B-Complex as well as the Methylcobalamin (Zobaline divided into fourths since it is a very high dose at 3 mg.) I have Darbepoetin here at home and can inject him with that, but I will only do that with vet approval. I did mention it to her (the vet) when we discussed the HCT. She recommended the B-Complex, which I was already using since I know all the stuff to throw at a CKD cat and have most of it "in stock" still here at home (which is why I still have the Darbo in my refrigerator -- it's so expensive, I didn't throw it out.)
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Suzanne, as hard as it is to see Darcy in these numbers, it's time to think about patience. :bighug: You increased his L by 0.5 this morning, and with mid blues I wouldn't have done more than a 0.25 unit increase. I am glad you lowered the R dose mid day, the one at AMPS was too much. As the L doses get lower, the R doses seem to get lower too. He dropped well a couple hundred points in 3 hours this AM, which is more than enough to set off another bounce. You don't want to get into the situation where you are using R to shoot down bounces, overshooting, and setting of yet another bounce.

Out of curiosity, have you done a ketones test lately? Is Darcy on any b vitamins with his lowering HCT?
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You are right about the huge drop this morning. I'm so afraid to have him over the kidney threshold. I can see how ugly the cycles could get if he bounces.

I tested ketones today and he was at 0.3 so that was a relief. I had become concerned that with lack of eating he would go higher -- but honestly I have been syringe feeding quite a bit.
 
Summer and Susie said:
Suzanne I am so happy to see him back in the blues. I haven't had a chance to look at the lab info you sent me but I don't see anything on my blood test explanation sheet regarding hematocrit. What is that? I just read that if the PCV (hematocrit) is below 25% your cat is probably anemic. You are not there yet. What do you need to do to keep Darcy from becoming anemic? Can you try and feed raw liver or more meat proteins? Or maybe even cooked liver. Something meaty should raise the protein level - shouldn't it?
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Right... you read this, right?:
Hematocrit (HCT) and Packed Cell Volume (PCV) both indicate what percentage of blood is comprised of red blood cells (as opposed to other types of blood cells, blood proteins, and water). A normal measurement in a dog is about 45%, while normal in a cat is around 35%. HCT is calculated by the laboratory machine that analyzes the test tubes containing a blood sample. Due to potential errors in the machine, HCT is not as accurate as PCV, which is measured visually by your vet or laboratory technician. PCV eliminates machine error. Just like a low RBC count, a low HCT or PCV also indicates anemia. A high HCT or PCV can indicate excitement (as previously explained) or dehydration. If your pet is dehydrated, the same volume of blood will have less water content, causing red blood cells to make up a higher proportion of that same blood volume, creating a higher HCT or PCV than if your pet was well hydrated.

So -- if your hematocrit (HCT) is low, then it indicates anemia. That and the PCV are very good indicators of anemia. There are a few things you can do to increase those values. First, B-Complex vitamins given daily as well as methylcobalamin (B-12 in the methyl form - it also comes in the form of cyanocobalamin, but the methyl is considered more beneficial for raising hematocrit.) If these don't raise it enough, you need to give an injectible drug that will cause more red blood cells to be produced in the bone marrow and released into the blood stream. The main ones are Epogen and Darbepoetin. You can do the injections at home. They are quite effective at raising the hematocrit. The injections are given every few weeks and you need to monitor to make sure that you don't raise HCT too much (outside of the normal range.)
 
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