11/24 Radar - raised the dose again - feel like I'm fighting a losing battle with his numbers

Jan Radar (GA)

Jan Radar (GA)

Member Since 2015
my last post a couple of weeks ago

Radar has been a rather reluctant eater in the past couple of weeks so there's been a lot of syringe feeding at our house. His numbers have been high and in spite of the increases I just can't seem to get anything but pinks and yellows. The LB has pee boulders because of the high numbers. The LB is also rather messy because he tends to have frequent poops the consistency of soft serve and sometimes he misses the LB completely... :( He is still grooming himself and will lick his catnip mouse but he really isn't playing much. When he sits in our laps every day, he purrs so loudly you might mistake him for a helicopter that's ready to take off. We take each day as it comes and try the best we can to help the little guy feel better. Today he's not hiding under the bed so he must be feeling a little better.

I'm home for the next week for the Thanksgiving break and am hoping I can make some progress with getting his numbers to come down. I feel like I'm fighting a battle that I just can't seem to get ahead of... in the past when the dose was raised I always saw some progress but now raising the dose seems to make little difference in the numbers. My question today is: could I consider raising the dose by a whole unit? or is that too dangerous for him? of course I would only consider doing such a thing when I can be there to monitor constantly. I'm also wondering if I'd have more success if I went back to tight regulation so the dose could be adjusted every three days instead of 7? Do I need to consider switching to Levemir?? Is there something I need to ask the vet about before they close for the holiday? Any thoughts or experience you care to share will be valuable to me as I try to figure out the next steps. Thanks in advance.
 
I'm hoping @Wendy&Neko or @Sienne and Gabby (GA) will stop by to advise you on an increase like you're describing. I know that in some cases with high-dose kitties they do increase by whole units, but I'm not sure what that threshold is.

Would you want to switch to TR while you're off for the holidays? If so, you could increase by .25 every 3 days instead of the slower increases allowed on SLGS.

I don't think the action between Lantus vs Lev is going to make a difference...and switching insulin means dropping the dose by 70%.

Let's hope some of the experts with high-dosing will stop by to talk about that dose increase. It does sound like he's feeling better if he's not hiding. I do hope you can get to that magic number where he will start to respond to the insulin.
 
Sue and Luci said:
I'm hoping @Wendy&Neko or @Sienne and Gabby (GA) will stop by to advise you on an increase like you're describing. I know that in some cases with high-dose kitties they do increase by whole units, but I'm not sure what that threshold is.

Would you want to switch to TR while you're off for the holidays? If so, you could increase by .25 every 3 days instead of the slower increases allowed on SLGS.

I don't think the action between Lantus vs Lev is going to make a difference...and switching insulin means dropping the dose by 70%.

Let's hope some of the experts with high-dosing will stop by to talk about that dose increase. It does sound like he's feeling better if he's not hiding. I do hope you can get to that magic number where he will start to respond to the insulin.
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Thanks for the encouragement, Sue. :bighug: I'm trying to do all I can to help my sweet little guy and I just don't feel very patient today.
 
Whole unit changes don’t come until you hit 10 units dose. At this point, if you can monitor, I think you would be best to switch to TR and keep increasing by 0.5 units every six cycles until you see blue. Looks like he’s got something else going on that is causing resistance. Has he had bloodwork lately?
 
Judy and Freckles said:
Hi Jan. Just wondering if you are still feeding kibble as per your signature line?
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Yes, I am still leaving kibble out for him because he has such difficulty eating and sometimes the kibble is the only thing he'll touch. The amount he eats in a day is very small - maybe a tablespoon total. I suppose maybe it's more for my peace of mind that there is something available for him if he can't eat anything else... especially when I can't be home to coax him to eat.
 
Sorry, just read the profile. Bloodwork is fairly recent.

Have you tried going to low carb dry? Or freeze dried raw?
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Whole unit changes don’t come until you hit 10 units dose. At this point, if you can monitor, I think you would be best to switch to TR and keep increasing by 0.5 units every six cycles until you see blue. Looks like he’s got something else going on that is causing resistance. Has he had bloodwork lately?
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He had bloodwork done in September. I don't have a copy of it but can get it tomorrow. The vet said that "everything looked really good except the high sugar which we already know about" I will switch to TR and pick up the kibble. Thanks Wendy.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Sorry, just read the profile. Bloodwork is fairly recent.

Have you tried going to low carb dry? Or freeze dried raw?
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I have tried so many things ... :arghh: is there a particular low carb dry you're thinking of?? He's eating Orijen Cat and Kitten - about 2 Tablespoons a day. The freeeze dried raw is a great idea. I did try Ziwipeak chicken and he can't handle the green lipped muscle that's in it...
 
Chicken is also a common allergen. There are other freeze dried raw products with other proteins and no green lipped mussels. I just don’t like mixing raw and dry, they metabolize at different rates which makes it hard on the digestive system.
 
Jan Radar said:
I have tried so many things ... :arghh: is there a particular low carb dry you're thinking of?? He's eating Orijen Cat and Kitten - about 2 Tablespoons a day. The freeeze dried raw is a great idea. I did try Ziwipeak chicken and he can't handle the green lipped muscle that's in it...
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What about Dr Elsey's 4% carb dry food? Macka eats some every day (complement to the Fancy Feast paté) and it doesn't seem to affect his BG.
 
Or Young Again - dry - but sometimes it gives Luci stinky poos...some cats tolerate it very well...but it's advisable to start feeding it in very small quantities - but it's an alternative - it's dried meat - no carb - crunchy dry food kibble bits.
 
You might want to add a different probiotic for the loose poo. I've had a lot of success with S. boulardii. I use ReNew Life brand and get it from Amazon. (Start with 1/4 capsule and increase the amount to 1/3 then 1/2 capsule after 3 - 4 days if you're not seeing results.)

Are you sure that some of the IBD issue isn't a sensitivity to chicken? I had fed Gizmo an entirely poultry diet (chicken or turkey) and he developed IBD. I switched him to either lamb or pork and he's doing great.
 
Sienne and Gabby (GA) said:
You might want to add a different probiotic for the loose poo. I've had a lot of success with S. boulardii. I use ReNew Life brand and get it from Amazon. (Start with 1/4 capsule and increase the amount to 1/3 then 1/2 capsule after 3 - 4 days if you're not seeing results.)

Are you sure that some of the IBD issue isn't a sensitivity to chicken? I had fed Gizmo an entirely poultry diet (chicken or turkey) and he developed IBD. I switched him to either lamb or pork and he's doing great.
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Honestly, I'm not sure about anything. You've given me some good suggestions and things to think about. Thank you. I ordered the ReNew Life s. boulardi probiotic and am hopeful that it will help. I've introduced lamb to Radar and am hoping he'll eat it. He's never had pork but I don't want to do too much change at once because then I don't know what I've done that's helped or not or actually made things worse.
 
Jan -

Trying one thing at a time makes sense. With Gizmo, I belatedly found out that poultry is one of the big sources of food allergy/sensitivity. When I though I was doing a good thing by keeping both Gizmo and Gabby on a poultry diet, turned out that it wasn't such a good idea!

I have Gizmo on a predominantly raw diet and I buy ground lamb and pork at Whole Foods. I also use the FoodFurLife pre-mix. I haven't had a problem. (And, he clearly eats well!)
 
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