Following up on yesterday's conversation - you can increase Reg's dose anytime now. More insulin will also reduce those high numbers.
As far as being there for the first dose of an increase, it's hard to tell at this point. Sometimes kitty will give you a preview of what a dose can do in the first cycle of a new dose, but not always. It also depends where he is in the bounce cycle. His latest pattern is a couple bounce cycles after seeing blues before returning to blues. But he'd have to return to blues this AM to continue that pattern and it's not looking that way so far. If you keep a cat at a dose that's not getting good numbers for too long, their body gets used to it (glucose toxicity) and you need to keep on those increases to break through.
Neko had almost 6 months after her first CHF episode, but she also had stage 3/4 CKD and small cell lymphoma. And she did have a second heart failure after we tried putting a very small back of fluids to her regime to help the kidneys. Stable CHF is good. So is RR of low 20's. Like me, you probably test regularly.
Does he like freeze dried meats like chicken? I found that crumbling freeze dried chicken into dust on top of the food helped the appetite. Duck liver also worked well.
Lovely picture of your crew in Berlin. That must have been quite the trip moving all those cats. Boars? probably more disruptive to the yard than bears here - as long as the fruit trees are picked.
Thanks, Wendy! That's good to know that we could increase his dose, but with his recent numbers still being high, would you recommend going up from 2.5 to 2.75 units? Sometimes he drops so much, and those nighttime drops really scare me. On the other hand, I don't want him to get stuck in these high numbers for whatever time we have left together.
I try to count his RR as often as I can. Unfortunately, it takes a while because as soon as Regs sees me, he starts purring. Before he moved into this room, I could easily count it using the camera, but now I usually end up sitting next to him until he falls asleep. Today his RR was between 15 and 24/min, so I think he's doing pretty well.
I was sad to read that Neko had only about six months after her first CHF episode. I was hoping I had misunderstood that in your signature. I know she was also dealing with kidney disease and lymphoma, which must have made managing everything so much more complicated. Especially since I've only recently learned how risky SQ fluids can be for cats with CHF, while Neko's kidney disease made them necessary. It must have been incredibly difficult trying to balance both conditions.
There was a time when Regs absolutely loved freeze-dried chicken breast crumbled over his food, but right now he's more interested in chicken hearts, which are much harder to crumble! I guess he gets bored pretty quickly. I should see if I can find some freeze-dried duck liver or chicken giblets. Although I'm starting to wonder if his recent picky eating is partly my own fault or if there's something else going on. He seems to have figured out that if he doesn't eat right away, something better might appear. He's also been getting some LC leftovers from the other cats. At least I hope that's all it is.
Moving with those five guys and a 100 lb German Shepherd was pretty intense! But we actually had a three-year stop in Dublin after Berlin, so we had a little test run with a shorter flight first. I hated that they all had to fly in cargo, though. Thankfully, all six were able to travel together.
