Brianna & Xander
Member Since 2024
Previous post: 2/2/25
Hey everybody...
So we've been having good days and bad days, as always. Yesterday was a very bad day. His numbers had been creeping up to the pinks (which does happen after a Libre change, but it seemed more like he needed an increase). I gave him a small increase, as is my sort of custom protocol now. 3 units to 3.125. The food he's eating is very LC and there aren't many options to help him out of a hypo with his novel protein. Also, he seems to just do better with small increments (less diving and then bouncing).
He was a bit lethargic in the morning, but that isn't unusual. I did get him to eat just before noon by adding some freeze-dried rabbit to his food.
But he didn't want his next meal 4½ hours later. I'm fact, he was actively averse to it. Not disinterest, but "get that away from me." At one point after reoffering him food, he got up and threw up. Or tried. He may have gotten up some droplets. The second time was just dry heaving. Then he pooped (formed but soft, incredibly stinky and a relatively large volume for him). He also had no interest in even his favorite treats.
Another thing that isn't that unusual for him is kind of flipping between seeming to feel awful and then totally normal throughout the day. But yesterday was worse. His usual "I don't feel well" posture was much more tense and curled into himself, and his face looked more like he was grimacing in pain than I've ever seen it, aside from post-dental. When he got this way, he also became unresponsive to touch or voice (just ignored us). Between those stretches he was even up and playing with a toy, as if everything were fine.
Despite the lack of appetite, I gave him his full dose, because he was skyrocketing and I was worried about DKA with the no food or water + no insulin. I didn't take into account the fact that the Budesonide does seem to raise his BG and since he didn't eat it, it wouldn't be there to bolster him.
Once we reached ~11 hours with no improvement in appetite or periodic pain, I started to get very worried. Again, when reoffering food (just by putting it in front of him to remind him it's there), he seemed even more averse, clearly nauseated. He licked his lips a bunch, then immediately got up, meowed in a distressed sounding way and threw up foam. The second one was dry heaving again. Then he pooped one more time.
At this point I decided that we needed the ER, because I hadn't seen him this bad or with this specific set of symptoms before.
This was a really hard decision to make because all I have is what I raised for his cardio workup. If I was wrong I would be wasting it and not able to do that anymore, but on the other hand, it seemed like he may not make it to the appointment we made for almost a month away. I also felt like, based on our last experience with an ER vet (not this one), who felt predatory and wanted ~$8k to run tests that didn't even seem necessary, that given the monetary situation I may be choosing whether or not to let him go tonight instead.
They did check him out and said that he definitely wasn't in heart failure, no fluid buildup anywhere. They think it's that his IBD is progressed/progressing. Since I can't give him meds without him eating, they gave him an injection of bupe for the pain and Cerenia for the vomiting. Also gave us some bupe to take home and will get a prescription to have on hand as needed.
This ER is the same hospital as the internal medicine specialist we've been seeing, so while we didn't see the specialist they at least know us. What the overnight vet recommended was to see how he does overnight and if his appetite wasn't improved by morning to come back in and get an ultrasound from the specialist. I asked if she thought it made more sense to do that or to save my limited funds for the cardio, and she said that she believed whatever was bothering him right now was not his heart but his GI and it was more urgent (which is the same conclusion we'd come to). I think they must have felt bad for us because I explained the funds situation (and when I came in had obviously been crying) and I realized when we left that they never charged us for an exam, only the meds.
I stayed up all night with him. When we got home around 1:30 he was green and I knew he would go lime because they always go together. Sure enough, he was lime for a long time. I didn't want to reintroduce any bad proteins or start the 13% rabbit I have and risk making him worse. They did give us some karo because I could see he was diving as we left, and I tried to sneak squirt a little into his mouth (oral meds are a huge no, so I did my best) but it didn't really stay in his mouth.
He was very aggressively affectionate and alert when we got home (send to be his typical reaction to bupe) and it definitely seemed to help the pain, but the Cerenia didn't seem to do anything to help his appetite. It took him the entire night to slowly eat the little bit of food I set out for him once we got home. At 4:30 I gave him his breakfast that I normally put his gaba in. He did eat it, but it took about 4 hours.
After some discussion we decided that we should bring him back in for the ultrasound because even if he was improved, it wasn't enough and if he felt that bad then it would probably just happen again.
So we're back here now, waiting to see when she can fit us in. I didn't give him insulin this morning because he was still at like 77 and I just couldn't handle it. Literally no sleep while I'm recovering from the flu on top of my "everyday" illnesses and the stress of his whole situation and not knowing if he'd eat, etc... I just couldn't.
I've been updating my personal spreadsheet and am going to try to get the public one updated too but I am sitting in the ER so we'll see how it goes. (If there are any formatting issues or weirdness with this post it's for the same reason).
I'll come back later with another update... Hopefully not a bad one.
Hey everybody...
So we've been having good days and bad days, as always. Yesterday was a very bad day. His numbers had been creeping up to the pinks (which does happen after a Libre change, but it seemed more like he needed an increase). I gave him a small increase, as is my sort of custom protocol now. 3 units to 3.125. The food he's eating is very LC and there aren't many options to help him out of a hypo with his novel protein. Also, he seems to just do better with small increments (less diving and then bouncing).
He was a bit lethargic in the morning, but that isn't unusual. I did get him to eat just before noon by adding some freeze-dried rabbit to his food.
But he didn't want his next meal 4½ hours later. I'm fact, he was actively averse to it. Not disinterest, but "get that away from me." At one point after reoffering him food, he got up and threw up. Or tried. He may have gotten up some droplets. The second time was just dry heaving. Then he pooped (formed but soft, incredibly stinky and a relatively large volume for him). He also had no interest in even his favorite treats.
Another thing that isn't that unusual for him is kind of flipping between seeming to feel awful and then totally normal throughout the day. But yesterday was worse. His usual "I don't feel well" posture was much more tense and curled into himself, and his face looked more like he was grimacing in pain than I've ever seen it, aside from post-dental. When he got this way, he also became unresponsive to touch or voice (just ignored us). Between those stretches he was even up and playing with a toy, as if everything were fine.
Despite the lack of appetite, I gave him his full dose, because he was skyrocketing and I was worried about DKA with the no food or water + no insulin. I didn't take into account the fact that the Budesonide does seem to raise his BG and since he didn't eat it, it wouldn't be there to bolster him.
Once we reached ~11 hours with no improvement in appetite or periodic pain, I started to get very worried. Again, when reoffering food (just by putting it in front of him to remind him it's there), he seemed even more averse, clearly nauseated. He licked his lips a bunch, then immediately got up, meowed in a distressed sounding way and threw up foam. The second one was dry heaving again. Then he pooped one more time.
At this point I decided that we needed the ER, because I hadn't seen him this bad or with this specific set of symptoms before.
This was a really hard decision to make because all I have is what I raised for his cardio workup. If I was wrong I would be wasting it and not able to do that anymore, but on the other hand, it seemed like he may not make it to the appointment we made for almost a month away. I also felt like, based on our last experience with an ER vet (not this one), who felt predatory and wanted ~$8k to run tests that didn't even seem necessary, that given the monetary situation I may be choosing whether or not to let him go tonight instead.
They did check him out and said that he definitely wasn't in heart failure, no fluid buildup anywhere. They think it's that his IBD is progressed/progressing. Since I can't give him meds without him eating, they gave him an injection of bupe for the pain and Cerenia for the vomiting. Also gave us some bupe to take home and will get a prescription to have on hand as needed.
This ER is the same hospital as the internal medicine specialist we've been seeing, so while we didn't see the specialist they at least know us. What the overnight vet recommended was to see how he does overnight and if his appetite wasn't improved by morning to come back in and get an ultrasound from the specialist. I asked if she thought it made more sense to do that or to save my limited funds for the cardio, and she said that she believed whatever was bothering him right now was not his heart but his GI and it was more urgent (which is the same conclusion we'd come to). I think they must have felt bad for us because I explained the funds situation (and when I came in had obviously been crying) and I realized when we left that they never charged us for an exam, only the meds.
I stayed up all night with him. When we got home around 1:30 he was green and I knew he would go lime because they always go together. Sure enough, he was lime for a long time. I didn't want to reintroduce any bad proteins or start the 13% rabbit I have and risk making him worse. They did give us some karo because I could see he was diving as we left, and I tried to sneak squirt a little into his mouth (oral meds are a huge no, so I did my best) but it didn't really stay in his mouth.
He was very aggressively affectionate and alert when we got home (send to be his typical reaction to bupe) and it definitely seemed to help the pain, but the Cerenia didn't seem to do anything to help his appetite. It took him the entire night to slowly eat the little bit of food I set out for him once we got home. At 4:30 I gave him his breakfast that I normally put his gaba in. He did eat it, but it took about 4 hours.
After some discussion we decided that we should bring him back in for the ultrasound because even if he was improved, it wasn't enough and if he felt that bad then it would probably just happen again.
So we're back here now, waiting to see when she can fit us in. I didn't give him insulin this morning because he was still at like 77 and I just couldn't handle it. Literally no sleep while I'm recovering from the flu on top of my "everyday" illnesses and the stress of his whole situation and not knowing if he'd eat, etc... I just couldn't.
I've been updating my personal spreadsheet and am going to try to get the public one updated too but I am sitting in the ER so we'll see how it goes. (If there are any formatting issues or weirdness with this post it's for the same reason).
I'll come back later with another update... Hopefully not a bad one.
, prayers 
My poor sweet guy.
Agree with everyone else, you’re doing the right thing! You know Xander best and you’ve been doing this dance of tests and symptoms, so you know what makes sense for you and Xander. Also, the goal is to get him to any possible heart tests in the future and that means treating and identifying what’s going on now. You’re the best advocate for your sweet boy!!!! Hope the loud dog goes away and no sedation is needed. Will keep checking in to see how you’re both doing