11.10.13 Shadow AMPS~230 +3~210 +6~184 PMPS~295 +4~198

[Steven & Shadow]

I returned early this morning from a two day trip and tested Shadow. His BG was elevated at 230, presumably from eating Hills DM dry food from the auto feeder while I was gone. The cat sitter checked on him once a day and said he was fine and has been behaving normally. He has had trouble keeping YoungAgain Zero Carb dry food down so I decided to go back to Hills DM which he ate when I was out of town previously without incident. Shadow vomited the DM once in my absence this time. Given this and the elevated BG, the DM is in the trash bin. I decided to give him a conservative amount of insulin to lower his BG level and it appears to be working. YoungAgain Zero Carb dry food does not elevate his BG, but I will not feed him any dry food. I believe he eats any dry food too fast which induces vomiting sometimes. Shadow appears to be very food sensitive. Two weeks ago he broke into some relatively low carb dry treats and his BG elevated as well. The DM dry food is supposed to be low carb and it also elevated his BG. Shadow's BG level was previously showing a tendency to stay within 30 of 100, either way, when he eats only LC wet food. It appears we will have to start over with the insulin cycles and work our way back to that. His five P's are all good and a test for ketones was negative. Shadow seems unphased by it all and remains a happy cat. I am learning.

 

[bettyandhank]

Re: 11.10.13 Shadow PMPS 230 +3 210 +6 184

Oh Crap Steven-

I'm sorry. You have been doing so beautifully with him. I would say instead of the trash..you need to take the bag along with your SS chart and these numbers and show your vet. This is case in point why NOT to prescribe DM..or ANY dry for that matter. I'd also ask for a refund for what's left in the bag.

Unbelievable. Well s_ _t happens. As resilient as Shadow is I am sure he will be back on a roll on no time. It took him all of 5 minutes to get over a vat of syrup so I am sure he will bounce right back. He has been liking the greens way too much.

I sort of wondered if you had inadvertently begun your trial before you left. But looks like he isn't quite done with insulin just yet. I told you we went from .25, to .10, to a drop and then stayed there awhile before finally weening off.
All this time later I am still very careful keeping him only on lo-carb canned...once a diabetic always a diabetic. I consider the food is his treatment now. My civvie still eats some Evo- (separated in the garage) but I am afraid if Hank ever got even another bite it would ruin him and he'd want more. Don't want to jinx.

I wonder if it is that he ate too much of it or if after this time with canned only it just doesn't agree with him any more? be sure to mix a lot of water in his food so he can re-hydrate.
If you get a timed feeder and combine with catsicles..you could probably get away with once-a-day cat sitter even when you are away...though clearly twice is better if you can swing it.

Also, I wonder if any of the spike is attributable to the stress of you being away?
At any rate, you are home now and I bet he is so glad to have you back and will be :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: again in no time.

betty.

 

[Steven & Shadow]

Shadow is resilient and will bounce back from this misstep. Short trips and untimely meetings are a fact of my life at times so I will find a way get him fed small amounts of LC wet food three to five times times a day when I'm away, which is how I usually feed him when I'm around.

He was only fed 1/3 of a cup of Hills DM dry food twice a day at 12 hour intervals for two days. He appears to eat any dry food too fast now when he gets a chance to eat it and sometimes this causes him to vomit some of it. Whether it agrees with him now or not I don't know but it's a mute point. It's not on the menu anymore because it elevates his BG. Adios.

The YoungAgain Zero Carb dry food does not appear to elevate his BG but he has vomited that before too, again due to aggressive eating behavior so it is not a solution for short trips either. He just loves dry food but he loves the wet stuff too. He eats just about anything actually.

I'm not scheduled to be out of town for awhile now so hopefully we can eventually get him back to where he was without any issue. Shadow, for one, has not shown any problems since I've been home testing regardless of whether his BG levels have been high, low, or good; and regardless of what he eats.