Bernie’s No Good, Very Bad Day
(05:57AM) AMPS: 163
Bernie is frisky as can be, loving the cooler weather. Test-shoot-feed. Bernie is a grazer. She sniffs her food, takes one lick, and walks off. This is nothing new. DH is getting ready for work, and Bernie (who is absolutely in love with him) is following him around, meowing, blocking doorways, trying to get him to stay. DH leaves, and Bernie is pouting at the front door.
When Bernie was on ProZinc, once she started seeing greens, she stopped being interested in food unless she was in the 70s-80s. I think to myself she’s probably not that hungry because she’s in the mid-blues, but she’ll surely get hungry in an hour or so. I didn’t pester her and checked her at +2.
+2 BG: 129
I began to worry that she was heading into an active cycle and still hadn’t eaten. I followed her around for 30 minutes and offered her her normal AM food combo in every location of the house. I remixed it, sprinkled FortiFlora on it, and held the bowl to her head, so she didn’t have to move from her lizard-watching perch on the cat tree, and finally got her to eat 0.7oz. She didn’t want any more, so I gave her a break.
+3.5 BG: 72
Uh oh. I think “well, at least she’ll be hungry now.” WRONG.
I tried to get her to eat more food - not interested. I offered her a different flavor of food, in a new bowl,
with MC, because she loves it and I wanted to blunt the drop - minimally interested. She picked at it, slowly, for 20 minutes.
Bernie’s grompiness rating: 3/10
+4 BG: 62
Bernie is done with me.
She wants nothing to do with any more of my nonsense BG checks. I can’t coax her over with forbidden goods, and she won’t come out from under the bed, not even for her very favorite brush, she is so upset.
I manage to reach her under the bed and pull my poor baby out. This did not help her grompiness. She is actively trying to run away, so I shut her in the bathroom with me. I try putting MC and HC wet next to her nose - not interested. I put a small glob of HC in her mouth - she spit it out. I’m pleading with her to eat, telling her I’m sorry she doesn’t feel good - she ain’t having’ it. She refused any more MC, HC wet, her old HC kibble, CatLax (it’s for hairballs, but it’s super high in sugar and she usually loves it), and karo voluntarily. At a loss for any other way to stop the drop, I decided to try rubbing a small amount karo on her gums and syringing some into her mouth. I know - she wasn’t under 50, but she was going down,
fast, and I was trying to stop her drop by any means possible at that point.
Bernie’s grompiness: 7/10
+4.25 BG: 55
On average, she’s been dropping 10 mg/dL every 15 minutes for the past 2.25 hours, despite food and karo. I’m home alone with her, her normal vet is 15 min away and is social distancing, so I cannot just jump out of my car and run into their office with her, I have to call and wait for them to come get her from my car, so I add another 10 minutes to my mental calculation. She’ll be in a carrier and I won’t be able to syringe karo to her during this time. This does not bode well for her BG, but it’s the only option left. I pick her up, put her in her carrier, and she BUSTS OUT. She bolts under the couch, but not the normal couch - no, no, this crafty lady bolts under the recliner couch and wraps herself around a beam so that I can’t pull her out and can’t tip the couch back, without risking hurting her. I lay on the floor, begging her to come out, and finally reach her and pull her out. By this time, I’m certain it’s time for another check and run back to the bathroom, Bernie tucked under my arm.
Bernie’s grompiness: 4,912/10
+4.33 BG: 64
Relieved, I check the time and realize it was not, in fact, time for another check, and had only been 5 minutes. Longest 5 minutes of my life
Still refusing to eat anything, I opt for more karo. At this point, karo is everywhere - all over her mouth, her whiskers, her neck, the floor, the glucometer, the couch, my clothes. Bernie is absolutely miserable, continuously growling at me and occasionally trying pulling away. So, there we sit, on the bathroom floor, both crying - Bernie covered in karo, me covered in my kids’ Halloween candy, staring at the clock.
Bernie’s grompiness: 9/10
+4.5 BG: 83
Hallelujah! She seems way less agitated and is starting to get hungry. She refused all the wet but ate HC kibble, and at that point, I couldn’t have cared less. I was just thankful she was eating anything at all. “You want kibble, B? Here you go, eat as much as you want!”
+5 BG: 105
She’s come up, and has eaten actual food. She’s purring and letting me snuggle her
Clearly, we’re out of the woods, right?
WRONG, AGAIN.
+6 BG: 67
No longer hungry. Back to being very agitated. Back to refusing all forms of food.
Karo-crying-Halloween candy, rinse-wash-repeat.
+6.25 BG: 65
+6.5 BG: 83
Less angry, and hungry again. This time, she snuffs the HC kibble, but willingly accepted Dr. Elsey’s kibble, and ate a good portion of it.
+7 BG: 130
Lots of napping, and even got some purrs. This has to be the end of the roller coaster, right?
+8 BG: 182
I think we’re finally in the clear.
That was exhausting. I’ve never been so scared in my life, and Bernie was miserable. I’m seriously considering taking a break from TR for a while and switching back to SLGS. All I can think is, what if I hadn’t been home? What if I
had been home, but was in the middle of a Zoom call and couldn’t check her in time? What if this had happened overnight and I slept through an alarm? I’m almost certain I’ve made up my mind. I’ll continue mulling it over tonight.
Hope everyone is having a good day, so far!
I was using it because she seemed to maybe indicate there could be a very small chance for remission. But that's the only reason I personally continued TR for as long as I did.
