12/19 Yum AMPS 543 +3 529 +5 431 +9 431

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MJW

MJW

Member Since 2017
I can't believe how much insulin Yum is needing---4.5 units for 1.5 days so far. A pink is a beautiful color these days. She was at .5 units in October, after a summer at 3 units.
She is drinking 11 ounces of water a day.

I opened a new vial of Lantus this morning, just to rule the old bottle out as the cause of the problem.

I guess I need to have her checked for infection again at the vet. Her urine culture from 12/7 was negative, but that was almost 2 weeks ago.

Any other ideas from anyone on what is going on? This is unfortunately normal?

I will board her for a week on Thursday morning. I will probably have them run a blood panel at that time. The vet has expressed anxiety about putting her on antibiotics again, given her diarrhea problem. Maybe it wouldn't have been this bad if I had immediately put her on S. boulardii and pumpkin at the same time as the antibiotic. I read the S.boulardii is not affected by antibiotics.

I think the clinic will dose her at 8:30 AM and 5:30 PM. Not great: 9 hours and 15 hours. Maybe I will offer more money if someone will try to do better than that. They open at 7:30 AM and close at 6 PM.
 
Hang in there. This dance can drive you crazy. They just need however much insulin they need.

When I started this dance, Osha went up to 4.25u to go down to .25u, only to go back up to 4.5u. Osha is now at 3.75u. We have been doing this dance for 1 year and 8 months. It isn't easy going up in dose, but the goal is the BG numbers, not the dose.

Yum, please work the juice and come on down!!!

:bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
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Osha said:
Hang in there. This dance can drive you crazy. They just need however much insulin they need.

When I started this dance, Osha went up to 4.25u to go down to .25u, only to go back up to 4.5u. Osha is now at 3.75u. We have been doing this dance for 1 year and 8 months. It isn't easy going up in dose, but the goal is the BG numbers, not the dose.

Yum, please work the juice and come on down!!!

:bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug:
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Thanks for your story.
 
While the drinking can definitely be from unregulated diabetes, my gut just tells me there is something else going on that is causing her to need this much insulin.

You are there with her and know her but I’ve seen cats come out of regulation. But this just looks more than that’s to me.

I know that doesn’t help you and I’m sorry. Osha’s situation was very different although Amanda is correct with what she says.

Sending vines and hope your vet can figure it out while she’s there. Have a good trip.
 
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Thank you Marje. It has seemed like something is very wrong. Today I am a bit more optimistic, since I got her under 300---with 5 units.
When she lost an initial food-based remission last February, she took a similar but milder wild ride. I had to increase her up to 4 to get consistent yellows and to 4.5 before she started coming down. Then, as now, her loss of remission seemed to be caused by an infection.
I am worried about her kidneys. The best explanation for the misfortune of the last few weeks is the length of time it took me to fix her severe antibiotic induced diarrhea.
That seems under control now, with the S. boulardii and pumpkin (both twice a day).
She stopped going transiently below 200 nine days ago, when I stopped the metronizadole after a 7 day course. I emailed the vet today to ask if Yum could still have a gut infection even though I have stopped the symptoms. I.e.: Was the metronizadole fighting an infection not addressed by S. boulardii and pumpkin? I didn't get a response.

The weather was warmer today and she is happy and active---not suspecting a thing about my trip yet. Poor thing.
 
Wendy and I have been talking and there are a lot of similarities between Yum’s SS and Doodles’ SS.

When you open his SS, click on the 2016 tab. You can see how quickly he changed just like Yum. As it turns out, he had developed IAA.

Although we don’t recommend testing for high dose conditions until kitty is over 6u, Yum is almost there and with her changing so very quickly, there’s probably not a real reason to wait.

We also would suggest if you test for IAA, you go ahead and also test for acromegaly. We are not saying she has acro; I would more suspect IAA but you might as well rule out any possible causes.

Let either Wendy or I know if you’d like to do this and we will provide you with the testing info.
 
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Well, I didn't read this until this afternoon. They did a full blood panel and urinalysis today during the boarding.
I guess we'll see what comes back from that and contemplate the IAA/Acro testing.
The vet said she had another sunny yellow nadir today. They are going to email me her numbers once a day.
Thank you so much for keeping an eye on her situation.
 
Yum was holding steady or improving at 5 units until this morning.
Now she has shot up again, just in time for the clinic closing for the long weekend.
As usual, great timing Yum.
I will advise the vet tech to increase her dose this evening or tomorrow morning. She is probably alone longer at night than during the day, hence the difficult choice.
I posted her labs from Thursday.
I think I need to do a GI panel as well as an IAA check: I thought if her diarrhea was gone her digestion was okay.
Her bowel movements are far apart but they have not described them to me clearly.
Her BUN remains wildly elevated. I don't think I can blame that entirely on her raw food. I have her on SEB, but maybe she has stomach bleeding.
Her eosinophils have risen. Her monocytes remain elevated.
Her urine has become more dilute but she is drinking about 2 cups of water a day, so no surprise.

There's not a lot I can do now until the vets return Tuesday. I can advise the vet tech on insulin doses.

Happy holidays!!!
 
MJW said:
Yum was holding steady or improving at 5 units until this morning.
Now she has shot up again, just in time for the clinic closing for the long weekend.
As usual, great timing Yum.
I will advise the vet tech to increase her dose this evening or tomorrow morning. She is probably alone longer at night than during the day, hence the difficult choice.
I posted her labs from Thursday.
I think I need to do a GI panel as well as an IAA check: I thought if her diarrhea was gone her digestion was okay.
Her bowel movements are far apart but they have not described them to me clearly.
Her BUN remains wildly elevated. I don't think I can blame that entirely on her raw food. I have her on SEB, but maybe she has stomach bleeding.
Her eosinophils have risen. Her monocytes remain elevated.
Her urine has become more dilute but she is drinking about 2 cups of water a day, so no surprise.

There's not a lot I can do now until the vets return Tuesday. I can advise the vet tech on insulin doses.

Happy holidays!!!
Click to expand...
I think her BUN is elevated and her USG is so low due to chronic kidney disease. She’s also at the point with her hematocrit that she is anemic and needs some B vitamins to help with that. When you get back, tag me and I’ll give you some information. I’m happy to see her Phosphorus way down!! YES!!!!

She definitely needs a dose increase (if you are comfortable with your vet/vet tech doing it, I’d suggest increasing to 5.5u bid). The GI Panel is a good idea as well with this prolonged diarrhea.

Try to have a Merry Christmas! I know you worry about her.
 
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Like Marje mentioned, If you get the IAA test, I would add the IGF-1(acro) test as well. The majority of the test cost is blood draw and shipping. Tests are run on Wednesdays only if I recall. It was about $130 for blood draw, shipping and both tests to give you some rough idea on cost. MSU has some info on their site about the tests and I think tubes and shipping as well. I printed it out and took them in with me when I had Jacks done.
 
Yum fell from 619 at AMPS+6 to 161 at PMPS (which is probably less than AMPS+12). Fortunately the tech phoned the senior vet who told her to skip. I will worry about her tonight. Not sure what to think. Worried. 161 is great unless she goes lower. She must have dropped 458 in maybe 5 hours. Maybe someone made a mistake.
The senior vet also gave more feedback on the labs. The urinalysis showed bacteria, rods---so she thinks Yum's high morning numbers were due to another UTI. (The urine was drawn on Thursday; the high numbers happened this morning.) They did not okay the urinalysis with me before performing it. I would have insisted on a culture being run on the sample---I have complained about this before. I need to have them put this requirement in her chart. Now they will have to wait until Tuesday to draw another sample for culture. Yum has problems with antibiotics.
 
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