02/24 Ivana AMPS=304, +2=310, +5=268, +9=265, PMPS=248, +2=256, +4=283 (late dinner spike)

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Tara & Ivana (GA)

Tara & Ivana (GA)

Member Since 2015
Yesterday's post

Ivana is in good spirits today. She didn't eat her midnight snack last night though, even with the SEB. I think it was because I didn't hand-feed her, as this morning's breakfast could not possibly be eaten out of her bowl, mummy needed to hold it in her hand or it doesn't taste as good :confused: My idea of making a paste out of the SEB and smearing it on her lip did not work, as the powder kind of rolls up and stick to itself and would not stick to her mouth. Oh well, back to syringing.

The first dose of new juice almost got her down to a blue overnight, so it's proof that the old stuff really was past it's prime. My question now is, how many cycles do I wait before increasing? I've no idea how full her depot is, as I don't know how much kick the old stuff actually had. To be honest I think I'm going to have to wait at least a couple of cycles to convince hubby that the new stuff just on it's own at this same dose is not bringing her down enough.

I also got some Diastix today so I can see if she's under or over her renal threshold. Will report back once I done the deed. While I was at the chemist buying the Diastix, I saw this. I asked the Pharmacist, and she said these strips test for proteins in the urine. 3 tests strips for $14.95. Would this work on a cat? Worth doing, do you think?
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There are strips that test for 10 parameters:

  • Tests for specific gravity, blood and pH
  • Tests for glucose, bilirubin and ketones
  • Tests for protein and urobilinogen
  • Urine test strips
This is an example of what they are...I have no idea if this website is good for ordering I just used it for the picture,

http://www.lifesupply.ca/multistix-10-sg-reagent-strips-box-of-100/

I had asked at a supplier here and they told me they could bring them in for me for $70 Cdn for a box of 100
 
carfurby said:
I think you just need to follow the protocol and start the cycle count with the first dose of new insulin.
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Thanks Carla, darn it another 6 cycles - I sure hope the new stuff brings her down even just a little bit, I'm getting twitchy just looking at all those yellows and pinks on her spreadsheet.
 
@Tuxedo Mom are the protein strips helpful, do you know? I'm happy to get them for Ivana if it will give me useful information that will help show a snapshot of her kidneys, I'm just uncertain if the human version will still be fine or not. Or if the information will be useful or not.
 
Tara & Ivana said:
@Tuxedo Mom are the protein strips helpful, do you know? I'm happy to get them for Ivana if it will give me useful information that will help show a snapshot of her kidneys, I'm just uncertain if the human version will still be fine or not. Or if the information will be useful or not.
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I know the vets can use the 10 readings strips when they do a quick urinalysis. Just like the ketodiastix we use are for humans they still give us an indication of glucose and ketone readings with our kitties. You could ask your vet if the 10 reading strips would compare to the lab machine urinalysis.
 
Tara & Ivana said:
I think it was because I didn't hand-feed her, as this morning's breakfast could not possibly be eaten out of her bowl, mummy needed to hold it in her hand or it doesn't taste as good :confused:
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AH, welcome to my world! This is how I get Trix to eat the bulk of her fuds....and she likes to eat every couple hours, too! We've been at it for almost 2 years now, but what can ya do?

Good luck with the pee tests...gotta admit, I have no knowledge there, but I'm curious to see how this plays out!
 
I would wait before increasing too. If the old insulin was off, the new insulin might be showing a bit of NDW.

I would ask the vet about using the kidney or protein test strips. I read somewhere on here about human test strips not being as accurate for a cat but not sure where I saw it.

Have you ever used a raised bowl for Ivana? Just wondering if she likes the higher bowl when you are holding things.
 
Tara, I bought the test strips that Mary Ann mentioned from O/S. Much cheaper than getting them here.
There are 100 strips in the bottle and you can test for much more than just protein.
$14.95 is a rip off for three strips.
Sheba had protein in her urine and was put on Vetace. I just check periodically to check she is not showing any. Also good for checking if any infections...UTI. These are the ones the vets use....they are for humans but our vet uses them for cats.

I can't remember exactly where I bought mine but I think it was from this ebay page and I think it was from the UK. I paid about $45 I think and that was including postage
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/urine-test-strips

ETA the specific gravity is not as accurate as using a refractometer which the vet uses and the leukocytes measurement is not accurate but my vet said the others are good.

My strips are called DUS 10 (100 strips)
 
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Wendy&Neko said:
Have you ever used a raised bowl for Ivana? Just wondering if she likes the higher bowl when you are holding things.
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That's a good idea, I will try that when I set up her new area shortly.

Bron and Sheba said:
$14.95 is a rip off for three strips.
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That's what I thought too! I actually just checked Ivana's labs from last month and her protein was negative, so that's a good start. How often do you check Sheba for protein?
 
Tara & Ivana said:
That's a good idea, I will try that when I set up her new area shortly.


That's what I thought too! I actually just checked Ivana's labs from last month and her protein was negative, so that's a good start. How often do you check Sheba for protein?
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When I think of it. Not all that often.
It also checks other things as well so it is a good overall checker upper! BUT it does not take the place of lab tests. It is really to see if there is a problem which may need more investigation. For example Sheba had a strip test done at the vet about 15 months ago and it showed protein in the urine on one of those test strips. Then the vet did a more detailed lab test to see what was going on.
 
Amy&TrixieCat said:
AH, welcome to my world! This is how I get Trix to eat the bulk of her fuds....and she likes to eat every couple hours, too! We've been at it for almost 2 years now, but what can ya do?
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I don't mind the hand-feeding, it's actually quite nice to spend extra time with her. But I worry about her not eating when no-one is home so I don't want her to get used to it. Hopefully the raised bowl thing will help.
 
Fingers crossed the new insulin helps. I'm not sure that I would wait 6 cycles on the new vial - as long as you don't see it causing a plummet, so maybe 2-3 cycles, I'd go ahead with an increase. She's had plenty of cycles on this dose overall and to my eye, I'm not seeing any difference in numbers overall from the last several days on this same 0.5u.

Just my opinion.
 
I had to hold the plate for Minka in her last few months, but raising the dish did encourage her to eat on her own, so I think it's worth the try.

Paws crossed you see some improvement on this dose and don't need to increase.
 
I also use the 10 parameter strips, and same as Sheba's vet, ours also uses them, and told me that the leucocycte and SG wasn't accurate.
Glad Ivana is eating, hope the raised plate helps.
 
julie & punkin (ga) said:
Fingers crossed the new insulin helps. I'm not sure that I would wait 6 cycles on the new vial - as long as you don't see it causing a plummet, so maybe 2-3 cycles, I'd go ahead with an increase. She's had plenty of cycles on this dose overall and to my eye, I'm not seeing any difference in numbers overall from the last several days on this same 0.5u.

Just my opinion.
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Thanks Julie. She's just started her third cycle with the new insulin. It hasn't caused a plummet yet thank goodness, but how do I know how much the depot has to fill as I don't know what the efficacy of the old insulin was, and therefore how close to an actual 0.5u dose she was getting? Hope that makes sense. Mind you, I'm desperate to increase, it's killing me seeing her in these numbers. Even hubby admitted this evening that we should increase, which is a big deal for him to say (see the last few day's posts for background on that). However, I can't monitor her much at all in Friday's AM cycle (we're now in Wednesday's PM cycle), so that is weighing on my thoughts too.
 
Update on the eating thing: Today I moved Ivana's feeding area to the opposite side of the kitchen. It's further away from the back door, away from those pesky ducks and chickens that eat all Ivana's leftovers (when I take it out to them, they don't actually come in and eat it). I also raised her bowl and water dish. She gave her new set-up a big fat thumbs down. I'd raised the bowl too high and she couldn't get over the rim (it's the auto-feeder so it's not flat), and even when we lowered it so it was just raised a little bit she still didn't want anything to do with it. Refused to eat her meat for dinner, refused to eat some Wellness Core. This all happened while I was at work, so when I got home hubby was in a state upset that she's lost all interest in food lately, which is very unlike Ivana for her whole life up until recently, and that she just doesn't seem herself these days. He has a very good point, and I used that moment to remind him that she's been in high numbers for quite a while and that's probably why she feels crappy, and that as we lower her down I reckon she'll perk up. He then suggested to increase her dose, so it seems he's more scared of her losing her will to live than of dealing with another low, which is a good sign! I also managed to get her to eat 3/4 of a tin of Weruva fish, out of my hand of course. It's more than her usual serving size, but seeing she hasn't eaten much recently I let her go til she was done. She was quite enthusiastic about it too, which is great. Obviously we're just not choosing the right flavour to give her as fish seems to be the thing of the moment, so I will be going out tomorrow to get more of that particular flavour (at which time she'll probably stop liking it haha). Oh and even though it's fish it's still the low phosphorous one, so no worries there.

I also did a urine glucose test not long ago to see if she's over her renal threshold, and surprise surprise she is. Her reading was in-between ++ and +++. Not actually sure what values these are, as going by the mmol/L that we use here, she was between 28 and 55! (or 500-1000 for the mg/dL). Sounds way high to me, doesn't match her blood readings. Anyway, the upshot of that is that hubby has agreed she needs to come down to be below her renal threshold, so that's really good ammunition for me to use in the future if I need it.

Sorry for the longish post, 10 points if you made it this far :-)
 
Tara & Ivana said:
although I don't even know what SG is yet!
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I abbreviated Specific Gravity, not sure what it means in terms of health though??:)lol I am going to take a look at some info marje gave me about Urinalysis last week, think it was important for something, but it's just gone out of my head, or it's filed in there under miscellaneous and I just can't mind it at the moment.:confused:
 
I think specific gravity is something to do with the urine concentration, and therefore reflects how well (or how not well) the kidneys are doing their job. Or something like that. Vet did explain it when Ivana had it done, but that was during the week from hell so I don't remember much from then!
 
http://www.healthline.com/health/urine-specific-gravity#Results4

I had imagined it in the other thread, seems like in humans at any rate it can also indicate a UTI and dehydration as well as kidney issues, the post above explains it.
Sorry you are still having trouble with Ivana eating, I hope as you get her into better numbers that improves. At least you and DH are on the same page now, getting a 37 was shocking enough for me, if I ever got a LO I'd be having kittens!:eek: so I understand where he is coming from, guess with a little water under the bridge he's feeling better about it now.
:bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
We've had three LOs now, and many many more that were under 40. I think that because I've seen so many now, it doesn't have the same effect on me and while of course I do all the right things to rectify it, I no longer panic. Which is bad o_O Complacency can be deadly, and I need to make sure I still stay on my toes. Good to see that George still has you on yours :cat:

I really do think that Ivana's eating troubles are linked with her being in high numbers for longer than usual (ie longer than just a bounce), which in turn is affecting her kidneys. I mean, before diagnosis she was high all the time and was still eating, but she didn't have the kidney issues then. Can't wait to get her back down!
 
Tara & Ivana said:
Obviously we're just not choosing the right flavour to give her as fish seems to be the thing of the moment, so I will be going out tomorrow to get more of that particular flavour (at which time she'll probably stop liking it haha).
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I think it's Murphy's Law - once you stock up on something they like at the moment they'll go straight off it! :)
 
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