1/12 Clare AMPS 131 PMPS 260 Catching Up

[Georgette and Clare]

Hello, Lantus Land Neighbors!

We're sending out lots of healing wishes and hugs to the kitties and beans who need them today.

Last Post - seems like a long time ago!

Today's News:

AMPS 131
+2 53
+2.5 31
+3.5 55 (at vet's on their animal glucometer)
+4.5 114
+5.5 116
+6.5 141
+7.5 200
+10 246

PMPS 260
+1 193
+1.5 198
+2 160
+3 127
+4 101
+5 104
+6 121

We've had a very adventurous period with Clare, and it's been pretty all-out for me so I haven't written for the last week.

We started on a course of liquid Clavamox (antibiotic or AB) before Christmas and it was terrible on her. She stopped eating and lost a lot of weight.

So a week ago we switched to Primor, a sulfa-type AB. We've also been giving her a phosphorous binder, aluminum hydroxide, along with supplements to help offset the effects of the AB (Fortiflora) and alum hyd (Miralax). Since she had become dehydrated we also started giving her daily fluids.

Today was a particularly strange day, since Clare had a low session last night and we thought she would bounce this AM. Instead, she stayed low and it was hard to bring her up, so we took her to the vet just to be safe. They gave her some karo syrup and we watched her closely for the rest of the day. DH didn't hear the vet say not to give the PM shot so he did, before I figured out what was happening! We've had another PJ party tonight but it's looking okay.

If you look at Clare's spreadsheet, you can see what might be showing a good change from all of this. Her BGs have started to come down more regularly and her bouncing has recently let up some. Could it be the result of the antibiotics? Although the infection that we're treating is still pretty much an iffy thing -- the vet thinks it's possibly a kidney infection -- it does seem like we're making some progress.

In the meantime, I have a lot of catching up to do on the Board and I hope to do that this week.

Have a good day, Everyone!

Georgette and Clare

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

hi georgette!

Clare's had quite a time the past little while. i hope she's on the mend now. I've seen other cats have a significant improvement in BGs after a round of antibiotics - Anna's Bailey is one that immediately comes to mind. Perhaps she's had some kind of infection and is on the mend now. I sure hope so.

 

[Georgette and Clare]

Hi Julie!
It's good to hear from you. Clare seems to be having another good day, in the yellows. I'll post later on. The plan is to give her another urinalysis next week, after 2 weeks of the ABs, and then decide how much longer we need to give them. After we finish up on the ABs we'll do another full panel.

Clare's tolerating this AB (Primor in pill form) well and everything seems to be going in the right direction so I hope the ABs are doing something! It took DH and I some time to get our pill-giving routine down and I think we've finally got it, so less stress on Clare and us, too! She's getting daily fluids (100 ccs) with injectable B12 once a week; Primor once a day along with Fortiflora to offset; aluminum hydroxide (sprinkled daily with the Fortiflora on her food) to lower her phosphorous along with Miralax (daily by syringe) to help with the constipating effect of that.

Her appetite has been good and after an initial round of constipation from the binder, her stool is loose but not too much so. She's gaining weight, about 4 oz per week. She seems a lot more comfortable and her BGs are in a lower range now, although still somewhat unpredictable.

The vet wanted us to skip an insulin this AM (actually last night, but we missed that) shot to protect Clare from heading down so low again, and I think also to see what happens to her BGs now without insulin. So we're kind of resetting as far as insulin goes. We'll start up again tonight with either a 0.1 or 0.25 dose. Do you have a recommendation?

I used to be aiming for remission with Clare but now, after so many months of harrowing dives and bounces, I'm going to be very happy with some kind of regular pattern, if that's what we're heading for.

Thanks for hanging in there with us!

Georgette and Clare

 

[Tricia Cinco(GA) & Harvey]

Hi Georgette.

Clare's taken you for quite a ride. I'm happy to see she's doing so much better. Looks like she still needs that insulin, but is angling for a lower dose - she earned one yesterday with that 30! Just so you know, I spoke to an endocrinologist last week who is an expert on diabetes in dogs and cats and he said the human meter and the vet meter are pretty much the same at low numbers - so that 55 on the vet's meter would have probably been within a point or two on your home meter. As the BGs rise, the accuracy fades until you get up in the 300s+ where the human meter is very inaccurate. Either way, Clare went low, but you got her up safely!

Sending you lots of healing vines for her continued recovery.

 

[carfurby (GA)]

It sounds like Clare is getting better. I'm glad she came back up safely after that 31, even if you did have to take her to the vet. I'd expect her numbers to come down some as the infection clears up. I hope you find a good dose for her as you get back on track.

 

[Marilyn and Sheldon]

Goodness, Georgette. What a ride. Hope she's on her way to finding a nice easy set of numbers and some predictability.

Marilyn and Polly

 

[julie & punkin (ga)]

I would go with 0.1u since she got into the 30's on the 0.25u. Just because she's bouncy doesn't mean she can't heal and work off of insulin. You never know if it's in the cards or not, but even for bouncy kitties it's possible. She's still considered newly diagnosed and is just at 7 months. No way to know, but all you can do is to follow her lead from the blood sugar tests you get.

Overall it sounds like she's doing pretty well! We love hearing of a good appy!

Wouldn't hang anywhere else!