WCF and Meowzi
Member Since 2009
Previous thread: 8/15: Meowzi's sugardance: 4 years and counting 
Meowzi turned seventeen two weeks ago
It was also the ninth annifursary of the day she adopted us, and picked her furever home. (We still think we are the luckiest beans in the world!)
She had an acupuncture treatment session on her birthday, and Dr Susan said she looked really good for a 17-y-o, and that if she hadn't known, she would have thought that Meowzi was only 13 or 14. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
FD-wise, we've lost BG regulation, and she may be above her renal threshold close to half the time now I think. We've raised her Lev dose a couple of times in the last two weeks, and waiting to see if they help. I'm in denial, but she may need a dental cleaning. Neither her primary vet nor her back-up vet are keen to put her under for it; they're both of the thought that we shouldn't rock the boat now that we seem to finally have her stable. Although her BGs are far from stable now :roll: We do have an option with a specialist; I had talked to Cali's board-certified dentist in late summer, and he is agreeable to a consult to evaluate her dental health. His approach - overnight admission, IV fluids before, during and post-dental, and appropriate anesthesia - are all very sound, but we're still on the fence about it. I think we'll try to rule out other possible causes else first.
Aside from BG's, everything seems well. Her weight is maintaining (breakfast and dinner are syringe-fed, but she still eats lunch all by herself), she always has room for treats, she's interested in her surroundings and looking out the window (climbed on the kitty tower a few times this week!) and her tail even seems a little higher these days. Still purry. One of the highlights of her day (and ours) is her little excursions into the kitchen whenever we're in there - she trots in and sits expectantly in front of the fridge hoping for a morsel or two of freeze dried salmon morsels. And she repeats it every so often - it's like she hopes there was a timer reset and we'd forget we'd given it, and she would get more (and she usually does!)
Her renal values seem stable; it feels like she's 3 paws into stage 4 CKD and hanging on for dear life to stage 3 with one paw. We've been cautiously optimistic there; we don't know if the labs are reflecting true values. If Azodyl works as we think it should, her labs may be overstating her true renal function. Aside from doubling her Renal Essentials dose and adding methyl-B12 again for any neuropathy (we're not sure) (eta: oh, and adding a third Azodyl capsule at her evening snack, almost forgot that one), we're not doing anything differently. We've been struggling a little with her calcitriol dosing - 0.17 ml was not enough and her renal secondary hyperparathyroidism (rHPTH) resurfaced. 0.19 ml is too much and pushes her into hypercalcemia, although not by a great deal. 0.18 ml may still be too much, but that's what we're trying for now. Dr S will write us a rx for a lower concentration of calcitriol for the next refill and see if that helps. For now, though, we're relieved that her rHPTH is being kept at bay, and hope that this will slow the progression of her CKD.
In other news, the mommybean finally got her act together and started gathering records to submit for their vet bills for the last three years ohmygod_smile. Some of you may Cali's cardiac workup claim that was denied (Meowzi had peed on the explanation of benefits that VPI sent, to show her displeasure over their decision :lol: ). Anyway, I submitted more paperwork, and they eventually approved and sent a partial reimbursement for that claim. Putting the paperwork together for that review got me motivated to start working on our other (old) claims, and I've sent in three batches of claims so far. I'm happy to say we're almost caught up now, with only this year's claims left. We have received/are receiving back a little over $2,000, so mommybean can finally get her new glasses and be able to read syringe markings, yay! Just this week I learned that her rx meds may be partially covered too, so I'm hunting up old receipts this weekend. Figures, that I can find her insulin receipts dating back to 2006, but not the most recent one from 7/2010 for the five cartridges that we picked up ohmygod_smile Maybe once we get that done, and the few thousand other chores around the apt, we can lurk here again.
Oh, and we've happily switched to Winnie's old OTU glucometer that Cheryl was so kind to send to us. It's so nice not to read an upside down meter and have a mini heart attack anymore :dizcat I'll end with a word of caution to newbies: glucometers were not made to be nuked :mrgreen:
Meowzi turned seventeen two weeks ago
It was also the ninth annifursary of the day she adopted us, and picked her furever home. (We still think we are the luckiest beans in the world!) She had an acupuncture treatment session on her birthday, and Dr Susan said she looked really good for a 17-y-o, and that if she hadn't known, she would have thought that Meowzi was only 13 or 14. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
FD-wise, we've lost BG regulation, and she may be above her renal threshold close to half the time now I think. We've raised her Lev dose a couple of times in the last two weeks, and waiting to see if they help. I'm in denial, but she may need a dental cleaning. Neither her primary vet nor her back-up vet are keen to put her under for it; they're both of the thought that we shouldn't rock the boat now that we seem to finally have her stable. Although her BGs are far from stable now :roll: We do have an option with a specialist; I had talked to Cali's board-certified dentist in late summer, and he is agreeable to a consult to evaluate her dental health. His approach - overnight admission, IV fluids before, during and post-dental, and appropriate anesthesia - are all very sound, but we're still on the fence about it. I think we'll try to rule out other possible causes else first.
Aside from BG's, everything seems well. Her weight is maintaining (breakfast and dinner are syringe-fed, but she still eats lunch all by herself), she always has room for treats, she's interested in her surroundings and looking out the window (climbed on the kitty tower a few times this week!) and her tail even seems a little higher these days. Still purry. One of the highlights of her day (and ours) is her little excursions into the kitchen whenever we're in there - she trots in and sits expectantly in front of the fridge hoping for a morsel or two of freeze dried salmon morsels. And she repeats it every so often - it's like she hopes there was a timer reset and we'd forget we'd given it, and she would get more (and she usually does!)
Her renal values seem stable; it feels like she's 3 paws into stage 4 CKD and hanging on for dear life to stage 3 with one paw. We've been cautiously optimistic there; we don't know if the labs are reflecting true values. If Azodyl works as we think it should, her labs may be overstating her true renal function. Aside from doubling her Renal Essentials dose and adding methyl-B12 again for any neuropathy (we're not sure) (eta: oh, and adding a third Azodyl capsule at her evening snack, almost forgot that one), we're not doing anything differently. We've been struggling a little with her calcitriol dosing - 0.17 ml was not enough and her renal secondary hyperparathyroidism (rHPTH) resurfaced. 0.19 ml is too much and pushes her into hypercalcemia, although not by a great deal. 0.18 ml may still be too much, but that's what we're trying for now. Dr S will write us a rx for a lower concentration of calcitriol for the next refill and see if that helps. For now, though, we're relieved that her rHPTH is being kept at bay, and hope that this will slow the progression of her CKD.
In other news, the mommybean finally got her act together and started gathering records to submit for their vet bills for the last three years ohmygod_smile. Some of you may Cali's cardiac workup claim that was denied (Meowzi had peed on the explanation of benefits that VPI sent, to show her displeasure over their decision :lol: ). Anyway, I submitted more paperwork, and they eventually approved and sent a partial reimbursement for that claim. Putting the paperwork together for that review got me motivated to start working on our other (old) claims, and I've sent in three batches of claims so far. I'm happy to say we're almost caught up now, with only this year's claims left. We have received/are receiving back a little over $2,000, so mommybean can finally get her new glasses and be able to read syringe markings, yay! Just this week I learned that her rx meds may be partially covered too, so I'm hunting up old receipts this weekend. Figures, that I can find her insulin receipts dating back to 2006, but not the most recent one from 7/2010 for the five cartridges that we picked up ohmygod_smile Maybe once we get that done, and the few thousand other chores around the apt, we can lurk here again.
Oh, and we've happily switched to Winnie's old OTU glucometer that Cheryl was so kind to send to us. It's so nice not to read an upside down meter and have a mini heart attack anymore :dizcat I'll end with a word of caution to newbies: glucometers were not made to be nuked :mrgreen:
