4/18/12 Pumbaa AMPS/392 +3/332 +7/263 PMPS/246 +5/140

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Pumbaa

Pumbaa

Member Since 2012
Hoping for some blue numbers today!

I know the little guy is feeling better because he's getting impatient with me testing him, and keeps moving around the table while he's eating, making it difficult for me to inject him. *LOL* It's okay...I'd rather have him back to being Mr. Wiggle Butt and feeling better than have this easier on me.
 
Re: 4/18/12 PUmbaa AMPS/392

Yep you usually see them start feeling better before it is reflexed in their numbers. First they start acting better, then they stop eating and peeing like a horse, then finally it starts showing up in their numbers..You will be amazed at all the things that you took for granted about their personalities until they start getting them back.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Re: 4/18/12 PUmbaa AMPS/392

Great to hear that he's going back to being his old self! So nice when that happens..... :)
 
Re: 4/18/12 Pumbaa AMPS/392 +3/332 +7/263 PMPS/246

I'm really liking that his PMPS was 246, too! Maybe 1.25 units will be the magic number for him!

In the last two weeks, Pumbaa hasn't been coming in my office as much and bugging me for attention while I work. But he did today, and that was so nice! On the other hand, Larry (civilian) has been spending more and more time in my office wanting attention. He's even been sleeping on my desk in Pumbaa's wicker basket, and he's never done that before.

The two boys are now turning up their noses at the EVO turkey and chicken formula. I'm sure they're sick of it. So I did pick up some FF Classics tonight...they really loved the Tender Beef. After what I have read here and elsewhere, I am trying to wean them off of too much fish, but they've always loved fish. (I will go to Walmart and stock up on FF Classics once Deanie's coupons arrive.)

And, tonight when I was at my mom's doing chores and taking care of her cats, Beck (the Border Collie) got into the litter box and had quite the feast herself. *ICK!!!!* My fault for not having latched the privacy lid so that I could get after Pumbaa with a spoon easier to catch his urine.

On another note, we took one of my mom's cats to the vet on Monday. He's gone from 24 lbs. to 17 lbs. in the last year. And he throws up a lot. They did blood testing last year but nothing out of the ordinary showed up. Mom didn't check her phone messages in time today to call the vet back, but they left a message that they want to discuss the test results with her. I am praying with all my might that Theo doesn't also have diabetes as my Mom would not be able to deal with the testing and injections. She only lives 3 miles away, but I already go there once a day to take care of things for her, and that really cuts into my work day. Oh well, we'll just deal with it when we find out what is wrong. :)
 
Re: 4/18/12 Pumbaa AMPS/392 +3/332 +7/263 PMPS/246

looking good on his Pmps :-D Fingers crossed that he will settle into this dose nicely. Well if Theo is a diabetic and it didn't show up on his bloodwork last year this is a good chance you caught it early enough that possibly a diet change will be all he needs to get him back down to normal numbers. (we can always hope) if not she has an experienced caregiver to give her a hand :)

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Re: 4/18/12 Pumbaa AMPS/392 +3/332 +7/263 PMPS/246

Mel, I've been telling my Mom all that I have learned about feline nutrition in the last 2 weeks, and have been trying to convince to get her cats off of the dry food and feed them exclusively low-carb, high-protein canned food. I think she's finally paying attention. :)

From your mouth to God's ear about catching Theo early enough for a diet change only, if this is diabetes. I can't fathom having to deal with two diabetic cats in different houses, and I know that Theo would not take kindly to being moved here. We call him "Sir Crapsalot" since he tends to spontaneously have diarrhea when he's upset. Imagine driving him 15 miles to a vet appointment (specialist feline eye doctor), in the middle of summer in Arizona, when it's 110F outside, and having him do his thing in his carrier 5 minutes into the trip. :roll: It's really hard to drive when you are gagging and suffering from heat exhaustion because you have to have the windows open to air out the stink! *LMAO*

But, whatever showed up in Theo's blood test, I will just deal with it, somehow.
 
Re: 4/18/12 Pumbaa AMPS/392 +3/332 +7/263 PMPS/246

Regardless of what shows up in Theo's bloodwork I'm willing to bet you will find someone here that knows all about it and how best to handle it...Heck these folks even got my 97lb drooler through a 4th of July when my neighborhood sounded like a war zone by telling me what I could get over the counter at 11pm at night to calm him down. Before that he was pressed against my legs under my desk shaking like a leaf. These people are simply AMAZING!

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Re: 4/18/12 Pumbaa AMPS/392 +3/332 +7/263 PMPS/246

Mel, you are so right! No matter what Theo's problem turns out to be, I adore that cat experts here as they are dealing with this stuff in the trenches, and want to help out anyone else who is going what they have gone through! One day, I will be in a position again, financially, to donate to these boards, and help Rebecca out and help the other cat owners out, since the initial diagnosis and expenses are so high.

You, and the other people on these boards, are just simply amazing. (((HUGS)))
 
Pumbaa went blue tonight!!!! Yeeehaw!!!!!

I'm ready for bounce readings tomorrow, but he went blue tonight!!!!!!! That is almost better than an orgasm! *LOL*
 
Woohoo way to go Pumbaa!!! Isn't it amazing how those little things make us so happy? First time we get blood, the first time we see their numbers coming down, then that first blue number....and if you thing that was orgasmic...wait for that first green one...lol

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Mel, I feel safe in the blues. The greens scare me a bit just because of the chance of going hypoglycemic. For now, I'll be happy with a steady stream of blues. (Once the bounce has cleared, that is.)
 
Great news...my mom's cat does NOT have diabetes. His blood work all came back normal. They still don't know why he barfs all the time and why he lost so much weight in the last year...but we can deal with that.

Still trying to convince my mom to take away their dry food and just feed them high-protein, low-carbs canned food, though.
 
It could be a food allergy...my civie Onyx use to barf all the time and then he started to rip his face apart, so the vet put him on prednisone which terrified me. But it kept him from tearing his face to pieces...when we switched everyone over to canned food..presto no more barfing and no more tearing his face apart. Weaned him of the pred and no signs of the allergies again until he disappeared for 10 months when he finally was returned to us his face was a mess again...yep you guessed it, he was being fed dry food again.

Maybe you could get her to do a food trial with him just to see if it is the dry food. It didn't take more than 2 weeks to see the difference in Onyx

Mel,Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Mel, I've been trying to convince my mom to take them off the dry, but she is so resistant to change! Even this morning, when she said the vet recommended feeding smaller meals more frequently, and mom stated how Theo snarfs down his food then barfs, I tried explaining that a higher-protein diet might help this. I now see dry food for cats as being akin to us eating potato chips most of the day...just empty calories if the cats can't process the carbs.
 
Oh! He is a scarf and barf....well okay so the dry food still isn't great but if she insists....tell her to try this, get a big dish like a dog food bowl, invert a smalled bowl in the center of that larger dish then put his food around the smaller bowl so that he has to work to eat it all. If that works then she can look into investing in a bowl that looks sort of like a bundt cake pan.

Just the constant barfing could be the reason for the weight loss, food has to stay in the stomach to feed the cat.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
I'm never there to see him barf...I'm just there to clean up the carpets after the fact. But Theo barfs in cycles. Maybe he'll barf three days in a row, then go 4-5 days without barfing. The vet told my mom that some cats are just very sensitive to any little amount of fur in their stomachs, so we do need to get him to eat furball medicine or Vaseline regularly and see if that helps.

Scarf and barf...I love it. *LOL* When my boys were getting dry food, Larry would pretend like he was in ancient Rome, binge on the dry food then use the cat feeding table like a vomitorium, purge, and eat some more. *LOL* But now that he, too, is on low-carb canned cat food and no dry, Larry doesn't snarf his food down anymore, he looks better and his coat looks better, too!
 
I wish I could get my camera to take a decent picture of my two tuxedo twins that will turn 2 on Friday. They have never had so much as a mouthful of dry food and they absolutely glow they are so shiny and oh so soft. My vet calls them the seal twins...lol because they are so sleek and shiny they look almost wet. I also have a siamese mix boy here that was always just kind of course and rough coated until we out everyone on canned food. At first he shedded like crazy to the point I thought he was going bald, but the coat that replaced that course hair is so silky that it feel more like rabbit fur than cat hair. I still feel so bad that I didn't know how bad dry food was for them or there would have never been a bag of it in my house. Oh well live and learn.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette and the Fur Gang
 
Mel, I know what you mean about the dry food. My family has had (between all of us) 16 cats over the years, all were fed a combination of wet and dry, and Pumbaa is the first one to develop diabetes. So convincing the rest of the family that dry food isn't good for their cats is very difficult.

Your cats could be the poster kitties for what a good wet diet will do for them! They sound gorgeous!
 
Have you ever seen pictures of my Fur Gang? Let me see if I can find you pictures of everyone! I think I have the Christmas card I posted awhile back around here somewhere.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Yep here it is, now granted it is only head shots but it will give you an idea of who is who....lol

FurGangXmas.jpg


There is the whole furry family. You can kind of see the shine on Myrrdin in his picture

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Mel, What a great Christmas card! They are all beautiful!

How do you ever keep track of and feed 13 cats and one drooler, much less deal with two sugar kitties? How does King get along with the 13 cats? He must have the patience of a saint! Do you ever sleep? *LOL*
 
Had to post this photo of my "kids". This is with a friend of mine, visiting from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Brent adores my animals. He is holding Pumbaa, Beck is the drooler, and Larry is on the ottoman.

101808_1074_captions.jpg
 
LOL King thinks he is a cat! Unless of course someone messes with one of his kitties or the house then he is all guard dog. King is German Shepherd, Chow, and Lab. About a year ago he took a bullet trying to protect our neighbor's car from some thieves and while he was recovering the cats would take turns lying with him. It was actually kind of cute to watch...one would be lying with him, another one would come up, touch noses with that one and the one that was laying down would get up and wander off and the new one would lay down.

I guess I keep up with them all like any mother of a large family, we just have our routine down. I roll out of bed at 6:30 in the morning, test Musette, head to the kitchen get her insulin ready, fix 9 bowls of food (Maxwell, Musette & Lady Jane all eat in the bedroom as they eat slower than the rest, and Duvessa eats on the kitchen table she is a timid shy little thing) Feed Duvessa, feed most of the other cats, head back to the bedroom feed Max and Jane, feed Musette in the bathroom so Maxwell doesn't hog it all..lol Give insulin. Go start the hubby's breakfast while it cooks go feed the dog. All of which takes me about 30 minutes. Then as soon as DH is out the door for work, it is clean 16 litter boxes, do dishes and start the day.

Repeat the feed except husband and dog at 1pm, then at 7pm start dinner, test feed and shoot, feed dog and by 8pm I'm done except for feeding the kitties their before bed snack at 11pm and then off to bed. And do it all over the next day..lol. It isn't normally a question of when to I sleep but where..hehe...two humans and 13 cats pretty much takes up our king size bed. :lol:

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
OMG! King was shot protecting your neighbor's car??? I hope your neighbor was very thankful! The kitties nursing him back to health is a wonderful story! That is so sweet!

Yikes...you clean 16 litter boxes a day???? Your routine makes mine look simple...I only have 3 litter boxes to deal with every day.

But let's talk about trimming claws. I trim the claws on 4 cats and one dog. How many days (and pints of blood) does it take you to trim all of the paws in your house? My Larry alone takes me days, as he does not like having his claws trimmed. I still have to catch him when his belly is full and he's sleepy and get his back claws today.
 
Lol it takes me about 45 minutes to trim all the paws in the house and zero pints of blood, except the drooler, who I don't trim...he goes to the groomer to have that and baths done. As I only out-weigh him by 18lbs...and he is much much stronger than I am. in fact he is so strong that we can't use a regular dog harness on him, we have to take a horse halter and turn it upside down to make his harness. Because if the rings are forged as a solid piece he snaps them, same goes for his tie out chain it can't have any welded links so the only thing we have found that will hold him is the twisted links like they use for swings on a swingset. At first we had him on one of those tie out stakes that you screw into the ground...well he straightened that like it was butter. So we moved him to the clothes like post that was set in cement...he pulled that down..yep cement and all. So know he is on a countersunk iron stake set in cement at least until we can get the backyard fenced this summer. And about once a month we have to go out and pound that stake back into the ground. He also absolutely hates water, loves snow but hates water, and will shake and whine and fight if you try to give him a bath in the bath tub..so I figure it is $25 well spent to let the groomers handle that...lol

The ironic part of him protecting the neighbor's car is that these are the same neighbor's that allow their children to throw rocks at him. Their idea of being grateful for what he did was to give him 3lbs of bacon (he loves bacon) and giving me $20 towards his $500 vet bill.

Not only do we have all the critters my DH is also a bass guitar player for a local rock band and I do the booking for them, as well as all the ordering and graphic designing of their merchandise, I am working on coding their website and do all the sewing of their onstage clothes. And I went back to school last year to become a vet tech so I'm a full time college student and work part time as kennel help for my vet. I'm the one that runs all the in office curves for the diabetic patiences and about once a month Maxwell and I go to the children's diabetic support group to talk to the kids about shots and blood testing. We have a little program that is kind of see if this kitty isn't scared of having his blood tested and getting his shots then you shouldn't be either. Maxwell loves the little ones and is usually an instant hit with them...I just started taking Musette with me a couple months ago so she still isn't so sure about those short people but they really do love her, since she is a little marshmallow kitty...lol

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
Mel, okay, 14 pets, DH, full time school, part time job...that's it...I am going to start referring to you are MTWW, as in "Mel the Wonder Woman"!

Nice neighbors. Next time, I hope King lets someone steal their car! :(

That is cool that DH plays bass in a rock band! And that you do the booking/costuming/website/etc. I do web design for a living so let me know if you ever have a question or get stumped on something.

And that is wonderful that you are back in school to become a vet tech! What a great vocation for you! And what a wonderful thing to do at a children's diabetic support group!

You are amazing!
 
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