4 Nov | Girlie | AMPS 535; +6=200

[Girlie's mom]

Condo: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/3-nov-girlie-amps-155-4-77-6-90-7-97-pmps-286.186246/

Bounce to high numbers, maybe after the run of greens or the blood draw at the vets earlier, even though she was fine afterwards? I wonder if she did a dive after her PM+6; she had gone up, though, so I took the chance to grab a few hours' sleep.

Her right foreleg's elbow was very sore yesterday after the vets, and she was uncomfortable laying down on it. The vet tech wasn't what I'd call a gentle sort, so I wonder if he caught her leg when he was putting her back into the carrier. Grrr if he did...

No word on the blood tests yet. We should have the full results on Monday and know whether a kidney and/or pancreas U/S is in order. She doesn't seem as nauseated, though, and she's back to eating more normally, thank goodness.

 

[Tricia Cinco(GA) & Harvey]

Wow, that's a late nadir, if she is through dropping!

I'm glad she's eating normally.

The girl knows how to bounce for sure!

 

[LizzieInTexas]

Ya know, it could have been a "bad" can of food that triggered her non-eating/nausea. Just a thought. Really glad she is eating (YAY). Do you have any pain meds? If her leg is still bothering her you may give her a bit. I do Gizmo after a vet visit. He is a terror at the vet and they have no choice but to "man" handle him. He requires a muzzle and cat bag for the blood draw and urinalysis but surprisingly his BG #'s don't go up - cats!

The girl knows how to bounce for sure!

This made me laugh this morning. Sorry, Darrah, I know it isn't funny to you.

 

[Girlie's mom]

Hi Darrah

I hope you are feeling much better. I’m glad to hear that Girlie is eating better again. I hope you can get the ondansetron. FWIW, Gracie was on it a very long time and never had any constipation but then she wasn’t prone to it either. I think it might be worth a try but that’s up to you. I really found it addressed nausea the best but, as I indicated before, I gave them both for a nice “cocktail” since they do have different properties that address nausea.

It looks to me like she ran out of duration yesterday and last night. There was no reason for her to bounce up to black and to go from 191 to 567 in five hours definitely indicates the duration went out the window and she added a little bounce in for good measure.

I also see that you fed a lower carb food (6%) this morning (because she wouldn’t eat anything else) and she dropped; going from black to blue in 7 hours is a little drastic but she's definitely taken bigger hourly drops than she did today. I was really hoping the 1u dose would keep her out of the blacks. Will she eat any higher carb gravy on the LC food since she doesn’t like the other food and she doesn’t like honey?

The goal needs to continue to be to flatten her out and even if she goes up a bit out of blues and greens, it would allow us to get a bit more insulin in her. I know it’s hard to think about yellow when you have blue and green but flat yellow is better than black to blue in several hours. It’s also difficult to get her there if she won’t eat foods with a little more carbs.

@Marje and Gracie I thought I'd better post your reply here so the days didn't get too confusing. I had started to write the post above, forgot to save it, then just saw your reply on yesterday's post. Thank you! We now have both Cerenia and Ondanestron up our sleeves for future reference.

Yes, she'll eat the higher carb gravy on the LC food - she really likes the Cats in the Kitchen gravy from the pouches. I could try to syringe honey into her, perhaps? She won't like it, but she's used to liquid meds.

I'm still trying to figure out which food to frontload her with at which hours; the MC 13% held her high for a long time, and still she dove. These past few days have been tricky because she was nauseated and didn't want to eat much and turned away from MC food that she'd usually gobble down. She's not that keen on the LC9 and the LC8 now that she used to like. She'll eat in the AM once the Mirtazapine kicks in, but she's not interested in food at night. This is making things really tricky.

I have to admit: I feel pretty lost here. I'm trying to be proactive rather than reactive, but it's tough to do if she isn't keen on eating until she's already started diving... 4 Nov PM is a perfect example: I tried to tempt her at +1, +2 and +3: not interested. Then at +3:30 she went looking for food; I tested her, and she'd already dropped 81 points, so I gave her 9% (too tired to think) and then thought - silly! - I should give her higher, so I gave her 13% 1 tsp. At some point, I'm going to have to try to get some sleep myself, although I feel bad even saying that, as I so want to get this right for her. But it's becoming a little tricky for me to think well at the moment, to be honest.

I think if I gave her LC 4% or less when she starts out at a blue number, that she'd probably drop and earn a reduction; just a feeling. It's as if she's trying to go down: I'm not trying to keep her in blues or greens! I'd be happy if she levelled out in yellows, but she doesn't seem to want to do that. Do you think there's any way the dose is too high?

I feel like I'm starting to ramble here, so I think I'll leave some 9% out and try to get a little sleep. She wants to cuddle, so I'm going to oblige.. Fingers crossed for the morning...

 

[Chubba (GA)]

Girlie is definitely a difficult case with her extreme dives and bounces. Hope you get some sleep.

 

[Girlie's mom]

Wow, that's a late nadir, if she is through dropping!

I'm glad she's eating normally.

The girl knows how to bounce for sure!

Absolutely NO clue what she's doing! She's on her own private roller coaster ride, and I'm just trying to keep up...

Honestly: she seems determined to dive no matter what and only gets really keen to eat when she's diving. So much for me being proactive rather than reactive, eh?

She's still not 100% on her food. The Mirtazapine certainly doesn't last until the evening. Girlie - give your mom a break here!

 

[Alicia & Maggie (GA)]

I hope you get some good sleep. And I hope you catch that roller coaster and bring it to a stop!

 

[Girlie's mom]

Ya know, it could have been a "bad" can of food that triggered her non-eating/nausea. Just a thought. Really glad she is eating (YAY). Do you have any pain meds? If her leg is still bothering her you may give her a bit. I do Gizmo after a vet visit. He is a terror at the vet and they have no choice but to "man" handle him. He requires a muzzle and cat bag for the blood draw and urinalysis but surprisingly his BG #'s don't go up - cats!

This made me laugh this morning. Sorry, Darrah, I know it isn't funny to you.

I'm laughing at myself: I have so many cans of food open at this point it's not even funny. I have no clue what I'm doing! It's as if I'm on some really bad automatic pilot. I hate to whinge, but I am sooo tired... (there, I just whinged; felt good).

I gave her some Meloxicam for the leg/arthritis. We're not going anywhere near Zydax again for the arthritis, and the vet doesn't seem keen to try Cartrophen (Pentosan but different company), so the acupuncture vet said to give the occasional Meloxicam if her arthritis is acting up. It's made specifically for cats here in Oz; I think it's different somehow than the US one, but not sure; Bron and Sheba mentioned something about that at some point.

I wondered about the bad food thing. On 31 Oct I opened a tin of Wellness Salmon and Trout (8%) at AM+2, and I thought it smelled off, but I haven't got the best nose...she ate it, so I thought it must have been okay. But after that, she did go off her food and started doing the lip licking thing. I've got about 32 more cans of this; do I just do the smell test to see if it was one bad can or see whether the batch numbers are the same and the whole batch is off?

Okay: She was staring at me; then pawing at my leg; and she's now draped over my arm as I type. She reckons is time for bed, and so do I...

I hope all of you have a wonderful day. Don't show your kitties Girlie's SS! She's a bit of a nutter right now...

What's up with Gizmo? Poor thing to have such dramas with tests. Still, weird that Gizmo's BG levels don't go up afterwards. You said it: cats!

 

[Marje and Gracie]

I'm laughing at myself: I have so many cans of food open at this point it's not even funny. I have no clue what I'm doing! It's as if I'm on some really bad automatic pilot. I hate to whinge, but I am sooo tired... (there, I just whinged; felt good).

I gave her some Meloxicam for the leg/arthritis. We're not going anywhere near Zydax again for the arthritis, and the vet doesn't seem keen to try Cartrophen (Pentosan but different company), so the acupuncture vet said to give the occasional Meloxicam if her arthritis is acting up. It's made specifically for cats here in Oz; I think it's different somehow than the US one, but not sure; Bron and Sheba mentioned something about that at some point.

I wondered about the bad food thing. On 31 Oct I opened a tin of Wellness Salmon and Trout (8%) at AM+2, and I thought it smelled off, but I haven't got the best nose...she ate it, so I thought it must have been okay. But after that, she did go off her food and started doing the lip licking thing. I've got about 32 more cans of this; do I just do the smell test to see if it was one bad can or see whether the batch numbers are the same and the whole batch is off?

Okay: She was staring at me; then pawing at my leg; and she's now draped over my arm as I type. She reckons is time for bed, and so do I...

I hope all of you have a wonderful day. Don't show your kitties Girlie's SS! She's a bit of a nutter right now...

What's up with Gizmo? Poor thing to have such dramas with tests. Still, weird that Gizmo's BG levels don't go up afterwards. You said it: cats!

You aren’t whining at all. It’s tough with FD even when the kitty has read the manual. For those like Gracie and Girlie who refuse to read it....or read it but want to do it their own way, it can make things exhausting on us....and especially when you haven’t been feeling well.

Have you tried the ondansetron yet? Just curious.

You can open another can and see if it smells bad. It’s possible one can could have gotten a tiny hole in it that you couldn’t see. If you open another and it looks or smells odd, I’d return it all.

Since you have gone to bed, I’m going to do a few things around here and respond later as I’m behind in my chores. I do not think the dose is too much. She’s just going to require that I put on my thinking cap again. I thought she was settling down a bit, but no...she loves those black numbers.

Have a restful night and I’ll post again later.