2/26 - Gen, AMPS 223, +4.25 LO, +5 78, +5.25 LO, +7 90

[Allie & Gen]

Last post - 2/20

Whoops, hey folks, didn't mean to be away quite so long. I had a really rough few days with mental health over the weekend, and we had a giant blizzard, and everything's been a little all over the place.

Because of the blizzard, my vet's office is behind with everything, so I haven't heard back from her about my questions re: Gen's ultrasound results. In the meantime, he's continued to see fairly good numbers (comparatively) apart from a brief bounce Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. My biggest concern at the moment is that I'm out of ondansetron, because another consequence of the blizzard meant that my pharmacy was out of stock when I tried to refill on Sunday and still hadn't gotten their shipment yesterday. They say it should arrive today, and I very much hope so, because Gen's appetite has been noticeably a bit off. (Also he seems to have decided he doesn't like the seafood pates anymore? Sigh.)

I'm back in the office for the first time since Friday and rather antsy. I have so much that needs to get done. I really hope he can hang out in the higher greens/lower blues today; it's so hard to focus when he starts dipping into the mid/lower 50s and sometimes 40s, and I have to.

I hope everyone's been doing well (and staying cozy if you were also in the path of the storm)! Safe surfs to all the kitties today!

 

[Allie & Gen]

I did manage to get a bunch of art done this weekend - at one point, Gen found it necessary to enforce a break.

 

[Staci & Ivy]

Last post - 2/20

Whoops, hey folks, didn't mean to be away quite so long. I had a really rough few days with mental health over the weekend, and we had a giant blizzard, and everything's been a little all over the place.

Because of the blizzard, my vet's office is behind with everything, so I haven't heard back from her about my questions re: Gen's ultrasound results. In the meantime, he's continued to see fairly good numbers (comparatively) apart from a brief bounce Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. My biggest concern at the moment is that I'm out of ondansetron, because another consequence of the blizzard meant that my pharmacy was out of stock when I tried to refill on Sunday and still hadn't gotten their shipment yesterday. They say it should arrive today, and I very much hope so, because Gen's appetite has been noticeably a bit off. (Also he seems to have decided he doesn't like the seafood pates anymore? Sigh.)

I'm back in the office for the first time since Friday and rather antsy. I have so much that needs to get done. I really hope he can hang out in the higher greens/lower blues today; it's so hard to focus when he starts dipping into the mid/lower 50s and sometimes 40s, and I have to.

I hope everyone's been doing well (and staying cozy if you were also in the path of the storm)! Safe surfs to all the kitties today!

Hi Allie, you and Gen have been missed! Hope you are surviving another blizzard this winter. I am so done with this weather.
Gen looks pretty happy with you giving him lots of hugs and kisses above!

I hope you can get the ondansetron easily so he doesn't have any issues. Good job trying to get that taken care of quickly!
Sending you both lots of good wishes and safe surfing vines

 

[Allie & Gen]

Sigh, so much for my hopes; he had another lime today. (A pair of them, actually, an hour apart.) Thankfully my roommate who is often away overseas is actually home right now, and was able to give him a little MC for me. He still hasn't eaten all his LC, as I can see from the camera view ... c'mon, buddy, help me out here. I can't expect roomie to stay around all afternoon, she usually likes to stretch her legs, and I know she has at least one video meeting.

 

[Allie & Gen]

Heard back from my vet. I'm going to get a referral to a local animal hospital for a biopsy to determine whether Gen has IBD or SCL.

If it comes back IBD, vet has approved me (possibly with some frustration) to switch Gen to Rayne's rabbit pate. It's higher carb than I want, but much lower than the Hill's and Royal Canin options she was giving me, so I'll take it for now. I know we may lose some BG progress, but if I can get his GI stuff under control that may also help - and if it gets him to a point where we can finally do the dental surgery, that very likely will as well.

Here's what she had to say about that study regarding cross-contamination (which I can't fault her for not providing the actual link to--she's having to relay her replies to my emails to a tech to type up with all the surgeries she's got scheduled--but I would like to find it):

Most pet food companies contract out to manufacturing plants so there is little to no guarantee how well the machines are cleaned between each run of food. With prescription diets the manufacturing is very tightly controlled (for example Science Diet has ONE plant, and they always run their most hypofoods first, in addition to rigorous cleaning/disinfecting processes, to insure no cross-contamination)

They pulled over the counter limited ingredient diets and tested for proteins not on the label - eg a "rabbit" diet that should not have had chicken/beef/lab/pork/etc. Majority (if not all) had trace, sometimes high, levels of proteins that were not on the label, so these were not true elimination diets since the proteins we wanted to eliminate were there.

Rayne is our compromise because it's "prescription."

In addition to the hospital referral, we're making an appointment for a fructosamine (she wants to confirm the data I'm getting from the Libre, at a broader scale than I'm going to manage with occasional pokes).

Also today I have to get myself to a pharmacy at rush hour to pick up ondansetron, and then go home and wait for a friend with a car to come pick me up and drive me to the vet's office to pick up gabapentin, because apparently I can't get it in tablet format anywhere else right now. So it's going to be a long evening.

Especially with Gen having limes and me having an important meeting at work tomorrow that I'm struggling to be fully prepped for and will not be able to skip out on.

Sorry, just venting at this point. It's all so much, and I know it could be (and might yet be) even worse. I'll feel better when it's the weekend and I can be home with him as needed.