Retested numbers are closer to her normal

Wendy and Millie

Wendy and Millie

Member
Millie has been very sick for a couple of weeks with what we think is something neurological. She is under her vets care. She has refused all food today (after she ate small amounts at amps and now it is shot time. Her bg is 163 pmps and I’m not sure how to proceed.

I can’t remember how to get my spreadsheet to show up here…not even sure if I’m posting in the right place
 
Wendy and Millie said:
Millie has been very sick for a couple of weeks with what we think is something neurological. She is under her vets care. She has refused all food today (after she ate small amounts at amps and now it is shot time. Her bg is 163 pmps and I’m not sure how to proceed.

I can’t remember how to get my spreadsheet to show up here…not even sure if I’m posting in the right place
Click to expand...
Oh it came up!
Millie has been eating Fancy Feast pate since she got sick almost 2 weeks ago
 
There’s not a lot of data on her spreadsheet to make a decision with that low of a preshot number. On August 2 she had a blue preshot and you shot .5 units, but it wasn’t quite this low. In order to take care of Millie and give her the right amount of insulin, hopefully you will be able to start getting preshot tests and a few mid cycle tests. Will that be possible. I’m sorry she has been sick. What was the trouble? And she’s all better now and is eating a low carb wet diet?
 
No, she is not better now as far as neurological problems but she was eating most days. Today has been a bad day- lots of dizziness she doesn’t climb or jump since she got sick
 
Millie also has asthma and hypertension and chronic ear infections so we thought this might be vestibular disease or something neurological. She had some severe asthma attacks and Dr put her on Doxycycline and she started with feeling bad and dizzy etc. we stopped doxycycline but she hasn’t improved
 
Millie had all kinds of tests last week. Dr did everything except neurological testing and she said if she doesn’t improve it’s most likely neurological
 
Wendy and Millie said:
Millie also has asthma and hypertension and chronic ear infections so we thought this might be vestibular disease or something neurological. She had some severe asthma attacks and Dr put her on Doxycycline and she started with feeling bad and dizzy etc. we stopped doxycycline but she hasn’t improved
Click to expand...
Does she use an inhaler for her asthma? We have quite a few members here who use them to help manage their cat’s asthma. And her blood pressure is under control? Does she take amlodipine?
 
I’m so sorry that your sweet girl is going through all this. You have probably already tried a lot of things to get her to eat. Things to try are parmesan cheese sprinkles on top, Forti-Flora powder sprinkled on top, tuna juice (water from a can), using all meat baby food like Gerber or Beech Nut (just meat and broth or corn starch), sardines (I use boneless, skinless in water), Fancy Feast flavors are popular with many cats (the classic pates are low carb.). Savory Salmon Feast is one of the ones my cat Ginger will usually eat (and sadly she hasn’t been eating much lately either.). That’s all I can think of off the top of my head right now. Do you have any appetite stimulant like Mirtazapine?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Does she use an inhaler for her asthma? We have quite a few members here who use them to help manage their cat’s asthma. And her blood pressure is under control? Does she take amlodipine?
Click to expand...
She does use an inhaler (I have 2 asthma cats) and take amlo for her blood pressure. She also gets her ears treated once a month (on average) for inflammation
Thanks so much for helping
 
Wendy and Millie said:
Oh okay thanks
Click to expand...
I just want to make sure that she won’t drop too low without eating any food. By about +3 you should be able to tell if you need to intervene with higher carb food or, since she’s not eating possibly even karo. Or you could set an alarm to wake up and test her a little later in the cycle.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I’m so sorry that your sweet girl is going through all this. You have probably already tried a lot of things to get her to eat. Things to try are parmesan cheese sprinkles on top, Forti-Flora powder sprinkled on top, tuna juice (water from a can), using all meat baby food like Gerber or Beech Nut (just meat and broth or corn starch), sardines (I use boneless, skinless in water), Fancy Feast flavors are popular with many cats (the classic pates are low carb.). Savory Salmon Feast is one of the ones my cat Ginger will usually eat (and sadly she hasn’t been eating much lately either.). That’s all I can think of off the top of my head right now. Do you have any appetite stimulant like Mirtazapine?
Click to expand...
I did give her some tuna water and she took a few licks. I tried some of her favorite treats and even some high carb dry just to try to get her to eat but she only took the tuna water and not much of it. I don’t have the appetite stimulants on hand.
 
Wendy and Millie said:
She does use an inhaler (I have 2 asthma cats) and take amlo for her blood pressure. She also gets her ears treated once a month (on average) for inflammation
Thanks so much for helping
Click to expand...
You are obviously very experienced with asthma. I’m very glad. You certainly have your hands full. I feel so sorry for Millie. I hope this will resolve very soon.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I just want to make sure that she won’t drop too low without eating any food. By about +3 you should be able to tell if you need to intervene with higher carb food or, since she’s not eating possibly even karo. Or you could set an alarm to wake up and test her a little later in the cycle.
Click to expand...
Suzanne & Darcy said:
You are obviously very experienced with asthma. I’m very glad. You certainly have your hands full. I feel so sorry for Millie. I hope this will resolve very soon.
Click to expand...

I’m kinda running on adrenaline right now so I can test her later 4 sure!
Honestly,she’s not doing well and I’m afraid she’s not going to get past whatever this is
I hope your Ginger eats better soon.
 
When was Millie diagnosed as a diabetic? Can you add that to your signature? Also can you add any medication that she is taking? This helps people to not keep asking you the same questions over and over.
 
Wendy and Millie said:
I’m kinda running on adrenaline right now so I can test her later 4 sure!
Honestly,she’s not doing well and I’m afraid she’s not going to get past whatever this is
I hope your Ginger eats better soon.
Click to expand...
It is very scary, isn’t it? I totally understand - especially when you don’t really know what the cause of the problem is, and you don’t know if it’s treatable or have a plan to manage her condition. And then when they won’t eat, it’s very worrying.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
When was Millie diagnosed as a diabetic? Can you add that to your signature? Also can you add any medication that she is taking? This helps people to not keep asking you the same questions over and over.
Click to expand...
I had trouble getting it to take all of the info that I put into my signature. It kept telling me it was too long etc. I had to take a lot of info out. My spreadsheet link is longer than yours- maybe that is how you can get so much in yours.
 
Hi! I see she started to go up after +5. Normally, I would say not to feed after nadir in order to not shorten the duration of action of the insulin, but in Millie’s case she needs every single calorie she can get!
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
What kind of medication/treatment do you give her for her chronic ear inflammation and cysts?
Click to expand...
The vet chooses between several options. It is usually a leave in that I can’t remember the name of right now. She’s had literally everything they can give her and we even used a silver cream in hers ears one time for a couple of weeks- that was messy and she hated it but the leave in is the go-to.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Hi! I see she started to go up after +5. Normally, I would say not to feed after nadir in order to not shorten the duration of action of the insulin, but in Millie’s case she needs every single calorie she can get!
Click to expand...
Millie usually has her nadir at +4 so I see what you mean. But yes with what she has going on currently whenever she will eat is good. She is still the same with the confusion and dizziness. She’s now pooping in the middle of the floor so that is slightly amusing/concerning. My poor baby
 
Wendy and Millie said:
The vet chooses between several options. It is usually a leave in that I can’t remember the name of right now. She’s had literally everything they can give her and we even used a silver cream in hers ears one time for a couple of weeks- that was messy and she hated it but the leave in is the go-to.
Click to expand...
I would look into the possibility that these neurological symptoms are connected to the long-acting ear meds. Is she currently using one? Or what about flea medications containing flurolaner or sarolaner (like Revolution Plus, Bravecto, Nexguard, Credelio, Any other meds that could be implicated? Metronidazole? I’m sure it’s not connected to the Amlodipine. If her blood pressure is good then it is probably not seizure related. I do have a cat who had a Fibrocartilaginous Embolism (like a spinal stroke) we believe and wasn’t able to walk well for a few weeks. Treatment was steroids, although I am not sure that was necessary (the more I have read.)
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I would look into the possibility that these neurological symptoms are connected to the long-acting ear meds. Is she currently using one? Or what about flea medications containing flurolaner or sarolaner (like Revolution Plus, Bravecto, Nexguard, Credelio, Any other meds that could be implicated? Metronidazole? I’m sure it’s not connected to the Amlodipine. If her blood pressure is good then it is probably not seizure related. I do have a cat who had a Fibrocartilaginous Embolism (like a spinal stroke) we believe and wasn’t able to walk well for a few weeks. Treatment was steroids, although I am not sure that was necessary (the more I have read.)
Click to expand...
I can certainly look into that. Thanks! I don’t do flea medicine for her unless I see them fortunately she rarely get fleas. She recently took Doxycycline for asthma issue and all of this started after several days on doxycycline. I honestly thought it was the doxycycline that caused this at first but I haven’t found anything that speaks to that online.
Millie did have a seizure yesterday morning. It was frightening as they all are but she recovered well within 30 minutes to an hour.
 
No! This was the first seizure we’ve seen in her. I was half expecting it though because the way she moves her head/acts sometimes it looks suspiciously like malfunctioning neurological activity.
 
Hi, thanks for thinking of us. Millie saw her vet this morning and she’s confident that she has a tumor on the left side of her head/brain. We got her some pain meds today and I don’t believe that she will be with us much longer. She’s having more bad days than good. We are having a bit of a struggle being ready to let her go.
I hope that you and your fur babies are well.
 
Oh no! Wendy that is just horrible news. Your poor sweet and beautiful Millie. I am so so sorry to hear this. How did the vet diagnose that? Or is she just going by Millie’s symptoms? It is really really hard to let them go. My heart really goes out to you all. I completely know what it is like. Lots of love and hugs to you and to your girl.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Oh no! Wendy that is just horrible news. Your poor sweet and beautiful Millie. I am so so sorry to hear this. How did the vet diagnose that? Or is she just going by Millie’s symptoms? It is really really hard to let them go. My heart really goes out to you all. I completely know what it is like. Lots of love and hugs to you and to your girl.
Click to expand...
Yes, It’s basically based on symptoms, all the other tests have shown nothing. Thank you for the care and love. It means a lot to me.
 
I just looked at Darcy’s spreadsheet. I’m sorry I didn’t realize he had passed away. This is so stinking hard watching Millie’s mind deteriorate and her body be relatively healthy. (managed medically) I hate this!
 
Wendy and Millie said:
I just looked at Darcy’s spreadsheet. I’m sorry I didn’t realize he had passed away. This is so stinking hard watching Millie’s mind deteriorate and her body be relatively healthy. (managed medically) I hate this!
Click to expand...
Oh thank you. Yes I lost him a while ago. I still miss him a lot at times, even two years later. I had a dream about him last night, which is a rarity (I wish I could dream about him more often.). I have many cats, but my bond with my boy Darcy was very strong.

It must just be torment to see Millie struggling like this. Are you seeing cognitive changes then? I’m so sorry. Spend as much time as you can just holding her and talking to her, if she will let you. You need it and she needs it.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Oh thank you. Yes I lost him a while ago. I still miss him a lot at times, even two years later. I had a dream about him last night, which is a rarity (I wish I could dream about him more often.). I have many cats, but my bond with my boy Darcy was very strong.

It must just be torment to see Millie struggling like this. Are you seeing cognitive changes then? I’m so sorry. Spend as much time as you can just holding her and talking to her, if she will let you. You need it and she needs it.
Click to expand...
I understand what you say about that special bond that we can have with cats (and dogs too).
I have had that before with certain cats and one of my dogs -that she and I were particularly close. This is how I feel with Millie. I’m literally not leaving her alone except to sleep and if I have to leave the house and sometimes when I go to the bathroom I get another family member to watch her for me. She can’t climb so I have to bring her wet food and watch her eat (because we have a dog that will take her food). I often have to show her the food over and over because she eats like she didn’t already eat half of the bowl of food. She has used the floor in every room of the house randomly instead of her litter box but she will use the box sometimes especially if I take her to it and she has to go. She keeps approaching the other cats and the dog way too closely and making them uncomfortable in a bad way- where as she wouldn’t get near the other cats before because she didn’t like them near her. She just looks confused and walks around and around the furniture. Often she can’t be still and she falls a lot more than she was when she first started with the ataxia. Today she was having trouble eating her favorite freeze dried minnow treats. She kept dropping them and not able to pick them up again or she couldn’t see them I’m not sure which one. Vet noticed that she had no reflexes on the left side of her face and that seems to be the whole left side of her head. Vet said she may not see out of that eye. She lets us hold her like a baby now which she’s never tolerated before. She’s definitely a different kitty and it’s hard and sad.
on top of all of this my son (25) thinks she’s not that bad because she is still eating and when I point out the other things he says she’s not always like that. He is her secondary caretaker since he moved back home from college.
Thanks for listening, it means a whole lot to me.
 
It sounds like your son really cares for her as well. Those are some sad changes in her behavior. I’m so sorry about it all. It’s so hard to see our pets declining and not be able to do much to help them.
 
Yes, our animals mean the world to my son- I feel like I instilled a great love and respect for animals in my children from an early age. They have lost many of them over their lives and as we lost 3 cats last year to lung cancer (one of them a year younger than Millie -so that was a real shock) it has been an emotional time for us.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top