Melanie and Smokey
Member Since 2010
Thanks for all the great advice/information in yesterday's condo everyone. I really do appreciate all input and it gives me a lot of things to look into.
As far as frequent feedings, right now we free feed so she does eat small meals frequently. We were just discussing how we could possibly isolate the older two to get them back on the timed feeders to see if a more scheduled food availability might help with regulation. The first time we had the 3 older cats and they all ate at reasonable paces so 2 timed feeders worked well. We now have 5 cats, the 2 older and 3 younger. She's gotten skinny enough we've hesitated to limit the food and timed feeders won't work this time around with this crew all together, Mittens would eat it all the minute they opened.
Ursodiol - thanks for that input Jill. I talked to our vet's partner, our's is out until tues. Didn't have much input, but we've started back on the Ursodiol for a bit to see how it goes. About 2 hrs after the dose she went out and ate the best she's eaten this week so maybe she'll feel a little better if we get back on it at least once a day or every other day. It does seem to make her want to vomit, she started licking her lips right after I gave it, but I gave her a couple of treats and she seemed to settle down.
Denamarin - the compounding pharmacy said they could compound it. I may call or e-mail the company today to see if it loses its effectiveness if it is compounded. Maybe if we just do a 2 week supply at a time.
Pill pockets - nope. She's tricky and can get every bit of the pocket sucked off and spit the pill in a corner somewhere. She's done with pills in this lifetime she says. We get everything compounded into a liquid that we can and I have talked to the pharmacist about her being diabetic and he checked the ingredients and said there was no sugars in any of her formulas. Pills are one of those things we've had to make a quality of life choice for her. Attempting to pill her is bad enough that we just don't anymore.
Dose increases: We are going slower/at a lower step up than protocol calls for. We make contact with the vet every thursday to talk about dose adjustments. Some of the slow changes have been for other reasons, like holding the 3U until the dental was done and those meds had cleared, holidays ,etc. . But we have 3 cats that are at the vet a significant amount of time so I don't go off too much on the dosing by myself because maintaining that relationship is very important. She is a good diabetic vet and she has learned and adapted with Smokey's care.
If the weekend back on ursodiol doesn't perk her back up, we will probably go in next week and check stuff out. She is just so tricky. Her blood work never really shows anything wrong other than the BG and that lypase. We may need to do some xrays and get the ultrasound to see if the thing in her pancreas grew or if her liver looks any better/worse. She just did so good while we were travelling, this sudden turn sucks. Maybe we need to move to the north house with her. Here's a pic of her lounging on the bed while we were there.
yesterday:http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=59666
As far as frequent feedings, right now we free feed so she does eat small meals frequently. We were just discussing how we could possibly isolate the older two to get them back on the timed feeders to see if a more scheduled food availability might help with regulation. The first time we had the 3 older cats and they all ate at reasonable paces so 2 timed feeders worked well. We now have 5 cats, the 2 older and 3 younger. She's gotten skinny enough we've hesitated to limit the food and timed feeders won't work this time around with this crew all together, Mittens would eat it all the minute they opened.
Ursodiol - thanks for that input Jill. I talked to our vet's partner, our's is out until tues. Didn't have much input, but we've started back on the Ursodiol for a bit to see how it goes. About 2 hrs after the dose she went out and ate the best she's eaten this week so maybe she'll feel a little better if we get back on it at least once a day or every other day. It does seem to make her want to vomit, she started licking her lips right after I gave it, but I gave her a couple of treats and she seemed to settle down.
Denamarin - the compounding pharmacy said they could compound it. I may call or e-mail the company today to see if it loses its effectiveness if it is compounded. Maybe if we just do a 2 week supply at a time.
Pill pockets - nope. She's tricky and can get every bit of the pocket sucked off and spit the pill in a corner somewhere. She's done with pills in this lifetime she says. We get everything compounded into a liquid that we can and I have talked to the pharmacist about her being diabetic and he checked the ingredients and said there was no sugars in any of her formulas. Pills are one of those things we've had to make a quality of life choice for her. Attempting to pill her is bad enough that we just don't anymore.
Dose increases: We are going slower/at a lower step up than protocol calls for. We make contact with the vet every thursday to talk about dose adjustments. Some of the slow changes have been for other reasons, like holding the 3U until the dental was done and those meds had cleared, holidays ,etc. . But we have 3 cats that are at the vet a significant amount of time so I don't go off too much on the dosing by myself because maintaining that relationship is very important. She is a good diabetic vet and she has learned and adapted with Smokey's care.
If the weekend back on ursodiol doesn't perk her back up, we will probably go in next week and check stuff out. She is just so tricky. Her blood work never really shows anything wrong other than the BG and that lypase. We may need to do some xrays and get the ultrasound to see if the thing in her pancreas grew or if her liver looks any better/worse. She just did so good while we were travelling, this sudden turn sucks. Maybe we need to move to the north house with her. Here's a pic of her lounging on the bed while we were there.
yesterday:http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=59666
Try her on 1 dose of the Ursodiol a day instead of 2 for the weekend I think.