Christina & Toofy
Member Since 2021
Last update (06/05) here. Low numbers today, but I'm not overly concerned. She's been normal low/little too low for a while now, so the immediate fear of those numbers has worn off at least, heh. I've been doing her reductions once every 24 hour cycle, but I'm considering reducing her evening amount tonight, rather than waiting until morning.
Her spreadsheet is a simple way to quickly see what the last year has been like. Had trouble staying low, then in the middle of November she stopped eating for two days, and was very lethargic. I thought that was probably the end of things, but she never stopped drinking water, she was being treated by our homeopath, which did perk her up a little, and then on the third day she slowly started eating again.
Since then, it's been no trouble at all to keep her numbers lower and lower and flatter and flatter. Very much like the switch turning on that I've seen people mention, along with the insulin doses reducing quickly once they started going down, which has been happening since the beginning of the year. The only food adjustment I made after her Nov. spell was the take out the whole mouse or chick she was getting once a day, and replaced those with extra chicken in the evening instead. Otherwise she eats raw only, freeze-dried meat for testing treats, and only gets carbs in crunchy cat treats or a little bread when she's really low.
I added in some B12 in Dec, as she was having more trouble keeping her back legs underneath her. She still walks a little stiffly, but doesn't fall down or wipe out from jumps as much now. However, she has developed a very round, firm belly. It sticks out when you look at her from above. Definitely came on slowly, but by the end of December I couldn't pretend I was imagining it. She doesn't show any discomfort when I massage it, and she's eating very well, but not as desperately as when this all first started. She seems to be in a good mood in general, rests more now where it's warm (very cold here in ND these days) and spends much less time in the kitchen begging for extra food. Pretty sure it's not related to the B12, because it had started slowly before that. I'm also not sure if her belly is making it harder to groom herself, or if it's something else that's making her coat a little oilier and ungroomed looking, especially on her back half, where I know it's harder for her to reach now.
Her belly doesn't feel like extra weight, but I realized I was feeding her the same larger amounts that I started with when her numbers were still pretty high. So I figured I should at least try to get her to an amount closer to what I would have fed her in the past, given her small size (she weighs too much right now with the big belly) and how she's not terribly active these days since she still risks losing her footing if she gets too rambunctious. Once I started reducing her meal amount, her insulin needs fell quickly, even after the amount of food stopped changing, but I'm not seeing a change in her belly yet.
So I have two questions. We've scheduled a vet appt for the 20th to have her belly looked at and some blood work done. One, does this overall picture she's presenting sound familiar to anyone? Doesn't sound like, from what I could find in the archives, that there's a common explanation for the potbellies I saw mentioned. I will say that as good as her numbers have been, she still drinks a lot, imo, and has pretty big pees, so I'm not sure how regulated I'd consider her symptoms. Her stools are larger in diameter these days than pre-DX, but she doesn't seem to work overly hard to pass them. Maybe a little harder than she used to. They've been like that for several months.
Second question, any thoughts on reducing her shot amounts every 12 hours, or should I wait 24? She keeps staying low, even though I'm dropping her dose .25u every 24hrs at this point.
Thanks for any insight anyone might have--I'm still so appreciative this forum exists.
Her spreadsheet is a simple way to quickly see what the last year has been like. Had trouble staying low, then in the middle of November she stopped eating for two days, and was very lethargic. I thought that was probably the end of things, but she never stopped drinking water, she was being treated by our homeopath, which did perk her up a little, and then on the third day she slowly started eating again.
Since then, it's been no trouble at all to keep her numbers lower and lower and flatter and flatter. Very much like the switch turning on that I've seen people mention, along with the insulin doses reducing quickly once they started going down, which has been happening since the beginning of the year. The only food adjustment I made after her Nov. spell was the take out the whole mouse or chick she was getting once a day, and replaced those with extra chicken in the evening instead. Otherwise she eats raw only, freeze-dried meat for testing treats, and only gets carbs in crunchy cat treats or a little bread when she's really low.
I added in some B12 in Dec, as she was having more trouble keeping her back legs underneath her. She still walks a little stiffly, but doesn't fall down or wipe out from jumps as much now. However, she has developed a very round, firm belly. It sticks out when you look at her from above. Definitely came on slowly, but by the end of December I couldn't pretend I was imagining it. She doesn't show any discomfort when I massage it, and she's eating very well, but not as desperately as when this all first started. She seems to be in a good mood in general, rests more now where it's warm (very cold here in ND these days) and spends much less time in the kitchen begging for extra food. Pretty sure it's not related to the B12, because it had started slowly before that. I'm also not sure if her belly is making it harder to groom herself, or if it's something else that's making her coat a little oilier and ungroomed looking, especially on her back half, where I know it's harder for her to reach now.
Her belly doesn't feel like extra weight, but I realized I was feeding her the same larger amounts that I started with when her numbers were still pretty high. So I figured I should at least try to get her to an amount closer to what I would have fed her in the past, given her small size (she weighs too much right now with the big belly) and how she's not terribly active these days since she still risks losing her footing if she gets too rambunctious. Once I started reducing her meal amount, her insulin needs fell quickly, even after the amount of food stopped changing, but I'm not seeing a change in her belly yet.
So I have two questions. We've scheduled a vet appt for the 20th to have her belly looked at and some blood work done. One, does this overall picture she's presenting sound familiar to anyone? Doesn't sound like, from what I could find in the archives, that there's a common explanation for the potbellies I saw mentioned. I will say that as good as her numbers have been, she still drinks a lot, imo, and has pretty big pees, so I'm not sure how regulated I'd consider her symptoms. Her stools are larger in diameter these days than pre-DX, but she doesn't seem to work overly hard to pass them. Maybe a little harder than she used to. They've been like that for several months.
Second question, any thoughts on reducing her shot amounts every 12 hours, or should I wait 24? She keeps staying low, even though I'm dropping her dose .25u every 24hrs at this point.
Thanks for any insight anyone might have--I'm still so appreciative this forum exists.
