4/24 Sweet Pea AMPS 294 PMPS 347 Help, Please!

Mom2SweetPea

Mom2SweetPea

Member Since 2018
I posted the other day but got no responses. I really need some help! Clearly Sweet Pea is out of remission in a big way. It just happened so suddenly, and her numbers keep climbing and climbing and climbing up! What do I do? Feeling desperate and scared and out of control. She went to the vet just prior to the numbers starting to creep up. No signs of infection, nothing to indicate a relapse, though she does have some kidney issues and low potassium. I am terrified! Cannot believe this is happening. :(

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/4-18-sweet-pea-otj-ambg-134-need-advice.213405/
 
Hi there :) I can't really offer any advice, but just a reminder to put the question mark in your title (it does help draw eyes) and post on main health forum as well, in case you didn't this time. If you don't get a response, don't feel shy about bumping yourself with a comment...sometimes it's quite busy and a post gets overlooked. You've done a great job keeping up on testing Sweet Pea! It might help if you could also post your lab results (the Labs tab on your spreadsheet), including the date when bloodwork was last done, so the more experienced people could check and see if anything catches their attention. How is her attitude, appetite, etc? If anyone helped you a fair bit last time she was on the juice (so they might be familiar to you) you can tag them as well by typing @ and their name. I hope things improve soon,
With love, Nikki
 
Did you get rid of the suspect new bag of YA food? I can’t remember, does she eat wet food? Did the vet check her teeth? Bad teeth are often the cause of kitties falling out of remission. Might be worth a vet visit again to rule out anything else.
 
Hi Amy
I’m sorry this has happened. I know how frustrating and upsetting it is to lose remission.
I see you have restarted Lantus. Just wondering why you reduced the dose back to 0.25 from 0.5 units.
 
Thank you all for your replies! To answer a few questions-- Yes, I ditched the YA and went to Dr. Elsey's. I've tried every which way to get her to even taste wet food to no avail. :( She just had blood work done because we are watching her kidneys. Had them send me everything and wow, it was eye-opening! Trying to upload it to her spreadsheet. I reduced the dose from .25 back from .5 last night on the advice of someone from the Facebook feline diabetes page. But I put her back ago .5 because my gut tells me that's where she needs to be. I know things can change, but looking at her history I don't feel comfortable with that low of a dose. I want to be aggressive. Terrified of another DKA episode. Both my old vet and the new internist that we switched to after her DKA said her teeth looked ok with "scant dental tartar" noted. She is acting slightly more reserved, but is still social, walking fine and "talking" to me. She's not been sleeping with me, which I don't see as a good sign. Very hungry and thirsty. To be quite honest, I don't trust the vets very much. They seem to be going through the motions and not really listening. Half the notes in her files are wrong/inaccurate. Sigh. I just feel so sick to my stomach!
 
Amy if there is a history of DKA could you put that into the signature please? Are you testing for ketones? Because of the history of DKA I would test for ketones in the urine every day at the moment until you can get the numbers down a bit.
I would also increase the dose every 6 cycles if you are not getting a response to the insulin. Getting them back into remission the second time around can be harder but I have seen several kitties do it.
How long ago were her teeth checked? Could she have a UTI?
I can’t see where you are posting this thread as I am on my phone but I would post on the Lantus forum if you aren’t already.
Also you have both types of meters in your signature but I can’t see on the SS which one you are using now. Could you be more specific with that in the SS please. Thx
 
Well, no one actually said DKA, but I suspect it might have been in retrospect. It was a severely inflamed pancreatitis attack. I haven't been successful in testing for ketones yet. Will probably have to order the blood ketone tester. The spreadsheet is titled Relion, but I have added more labels to make it clearer. HTH. Her teeth were checked a few months ago, but she is a horrible patient, so I doubt they got the best exam. I am going to bring her in for a few more tests to see if there is any indication there might be infection somewhere.
 
Did the vet test for pancreatitis? If they didn't and you're going to get more labs run, they can do either a Snap (in office test that give a + or - result) or Spec (sample gets sent to IDEXX and you get a #) fPLI to test for pancreatitis. To be honest, Sweet Pea's SS looks like there's something medical going on vs the diabetes creeping back in.

Please do not follow dosing instructions from the FB group. They are not supposed to be providing dosing information there. It's also exceptionally difficult to provide information without looking at a spreadsheet.

The difficulty is that you really shouldn't be following TR if there is dry food in the mix. TR would involve increasing every 6 cycles.
 
The vet did not test for anything yet. We were just in last week for a kidney value check up. The wonky numbers showed up a couple days later. I can ask for a pancreatitis test. The FB group is similar to here with some very experienced members who have seen and done a lot for kitties. They do have access to the spreadsheet. I don't usually go with anyone's recommendations unless its goes with my own gut/intuition/knowledge. Unfortunately this one time I did. I know I'm not "supposed" to be following TR with dry food, but I am comfortable enough with how she reacts to her food after 9 months that I'm not feeling like I put her at risk. I do know my cat pretty well and feel I've done a good job gauging how to treat her. The only problems we've had were when I listened to someone else! Sometimes it's just nice to have input or insight that may not have occurred to me before. Thanks for the reply. :)
 
Thanks @Sienne and Gabby (GA) for picking up on the dry. I missed that.
Amy I would definitely listen to what Sienne says. She is very experienced. I was also concerned about taking dosing suggestions from the Facebook page but didn’t comment as I have never used it but I have heard others say the same thing.
 
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