5/11 Introducing KK

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Libby and Lucy

Libby and Lucy

Member Since 2009
In my vet's words, "where on earth do you keep finding all these diabetic Siamese?!?"

Kris Kringle found his way into the Siamese Rescue program just before Christmas. He was picked up as a stray and was in a shelter in Baltimore. He won some hearts and was accepted into Siamese Rescue, where he has been with an awesome foster mom since Christmas. I had been watching him on the site, and finally decided I should ask about adopting him. Last weekend I met his foster mom in Virginia and brought him home!

KK aka Kris (I dropped the Kringle part) aka Stinky is about 15 and has to be the most laid back cat I have ever seen. Within an hour of arriving home after a LONG drive, he was cuddling and asking for belly rubs. We went to the vet yesterday, and he made the vet and two of the techs rub his belly. We were talking about an abdominal ultrasound to look for a cause of his vomiting and diarrhea, and the vet said "I'm not going to put anesthesia on this quote because I don't think we'll need it. I think he might even like it."

Sooooooo now I have a skinny 8 pound geezer meezer with gas, diarrhea, vomiting (that's a new thing), blind in one eye, and the BEST personality. He has been on PZI, but we started Levemir this morning.

Pictures are tough because he is never far enough away, but here is a picture of part of him. :lol:

 
What a very handsome, loving little man! Thank you so much for adopting him, Libby. He'll be a very loving, wonderful, caring home for the rest of his natural life. {{{{{{{{{{LIBBY}}}}}}}}}} Btw... Don't old men produce gas? :lol:
 
OH Libby!!!! He's so handsome!! It's easy to see that he loves you ...his face says "mom, you are my angel"
Welcome Kris!!!
Kris... YAHOO... come on dude... we's heading over to Rusty's to play...wanna come? - oliver

I'm sure you'll get all his little issues taken care of. Sending lots of happy tummy prayers and vines to Kris.
hugs and scritches to you!!!
mary and ollie
 
It's wonderful that Kris is settling in. How are your other kitties taking to the new guy?

I hope all of the lab work comes back looking good.
 
What a cute kitty. That's so wonderful you gave him a furever home. I hope you can find the cause of his vomiting and get him feeling better. He sounds like such a loving kitty.
 
THERE You are Kris aka KK!! Oh I'm SO happy you're now HOME in a wonderful loving atmosphere furever! THANK YOU LIBBY! He's such a beautiful boy.

BIG HUGS and BIG Yard Dance!!!!
 
Congrats Libby and Kris! :thumbup

And thanks for sharing the process with us.

I look forward to the spreadsheet/condos. Not that I anticipate having much to offer but I will be following with interest.

Hey Kris how about a bonafide Levemir OTJ? We don't see too many of those. Perhaps you can show us how it's done. :cool: :cool:
 
Hello Kris :-D What a cutie you are.
You have found a great mommybean for your furever home.
 
What a sweet looking guy, and blind in one eye to boot! Irresistable! Congratulations to you on the new arrival, and to KK for being the luckiest cat on the planet to have found a home with you!
 
Oh my goodness! How stinkin' cute!!! I love that he settled right in, wants belly rubs from you, the vet and everyone, and just wants to be near you! I love this so much. Congrats on the new addition to the family! Happy Caturday to you and the whole brood! :-D
 
so far, so good.

AMPS 297 (ick)
+6 ~ 120 (fed)
+7.5 ~ 127 (fed)
+9 ~ 152

My two boy kitties are doing ok with KK. They hiss a little, but overall don't seem to care whether he is here or not. Lucy is a lot less impressed and mostly stays upstairs when KK is free in the house. For that reason, I have not integrated him 100% yet. It has been less than a week, so I think we're on track.
 
That's quite a fast reaction to a single unit of Levemir? Guess that's why you start something like this at a time when you can monitor closely.

Kind of surprises me after the response Kris had to the relatively high doses of PZI with Epigen 60 dry food in the mix. I doubt that food (Wysong Epigen 60) is exceedingly high carb or highly glyciemic, but you never know.

What was the reasoning in choosing Levemir for Kris?
 
Welcome, KK, to Lantus Land! You are one lucky kitty to have Libby for your mamabean.

Libby, this is such great news. We wish you and Kris much happiness. He clearly adores you. And I'm sure that the other kitties in the household will accept him as a brother very soon.

Hugs to you and scritches to KK, Lucy, and the boys,

Ella & Rusty
 
Lucky KK has hit the jackpot! And so have you Libby, he sounds like an adorable cat. The older cat adoptions can be so satisfying for both. :-D
 
Good questions.

Dale 'n' Chip said:
That's quite a fast reaction to a single unit of Levemir? Guess that's why you start something like this at a time when you can monitor closely.
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Exactly, and I should have tested at +3 too. Pretty often we see cats that have a strong response to Lantus or Levemir in the first cycle. Sometimes they are able to maintain that response in future cycles on that dose, often they are not. Usually they do end up needing increases again to get back to blue, but not always. It happens often enough that we have taken notice. So this might be one of those nice first cycle responses, or he might have been over dose on PZI.

Kind of surprises me after the response Kris had to the relatively high doses of PZI with Epigen 60 dry food in the mix. I doubt that food (Wysong Epigen 60) is exceedingly high carb or highly glyciemic, but you never know.
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I don't think that food is terribly high carb either, but I don't know for sure. It's also important (and I haven't noted it anywhere, need to do that...) that his current wet food is higher carb. For the moment he is on M/D wet in hopes that the extra fiber will help his poo situation. It's not ideal, but I wanted to give it a try for a little while.

I have a couple of theories about his dosing, but they are just theories. One, his PZI was a compounded PZI. I do not know what compounding pharmacy it came from - there are several, and the bottle is not labeled. There are some who do not trust the consistency of some of the compounded PZIs. So the insulin may or may not have been as potent as it could be. Or, just take a look at his data (or lack thereof). Doses were being increased by whole units based on curves. It is very possible that he has been over dose for a while. Or not, who knows?

I was on the fence about a starting dose until last night. I want to be aggressive, but I don't want to be stupid. He seemed to be doing fairly well on 2-3u of PZI, so I was considering starting Lev at around 2u. Also, since he may not be feeling well and may have a UTI, I didn't want to reduce too much and risk ketones. On the other hand, most factors pointed to a lower starting dose: weight (only 8 pounds), lack of data on previous dose increases, the fact that I have no data at all on 1u of PZI, diet change, vomiting so unsure how much food he is actually digesting, and my inability to test around the clock. When I removed the dry last night and broke his dinner up into a few smaller meals (hoping the food would stay in the kitty instead of ending up on the floor), I went ahead and reduced the PZI dose. Last night looked good with 1u of PZI, plus we had a negative ketone test, so I went for the low Levemir dose. I also know how to use R if I have to, so if 1u proves to be too little he won't have to stay high for long.

What was the reasoning in choosing Levemir for Kris?
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Stab in the dark? :lol: I was debating between Lantus and Levemir. I thought Jazzy was so easy to regulate on Lev, and I don't really know if it was just because Jazzy would have been easy no matter what, or if it was something about the insulin. I wanted to try again. I did debate quite a bit, though. I have often thought that if Lucy went back on insulin, I would be afraid to try Levemir. She was such a diver that I really relied on her +3's to tell me whether I could go to bed or not. With an onset of +4 or later with Lev, and late nadirs, I never would have gotten any sleep at all. So I chose Lev hoping Kris will not be a diver.
 
Looks like you picked the correct dose so far. If the depot comes in strong, you can surely be ready for it?

Seems like he might be on course to show us a Levemir OTJ! :thumbup
 
Libby and Lucy said:
...Pretty often we see cats that have a strong response to Lantus or Levemir in the first cycle. Sometimes they are able to maintain that response in future cycles on that dose, often they are not. Usually they do end up needing increases again to get back to blue, but not always. It happens often enough that we have taken notice. So this might be one of those nice first cycle responses...
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I guess the next few cycles will tell.

But surely nice to see some movement already in cycles 1 and 2.
 
One, his PZI was a compounded PZI. I do not know what compounding pharmacy it came from - there are several, and the bottle is not labeled. There are some who do not trust the consistency of some of the compounded PZIs. So the insulin may or may not have been as potent as it could be. Or, just take a look at his data (or lack thereof). Doses were being increased by whole units based on curves. It is very possible that he has been over dose for a while. Or not, who knows?
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From what I've read, it could well be that the C-PZI's potency was "suspect". Dr. Peterson had a great post about compounding reliability on his blog. Bob was on VPA PZI, and it worked great for him, but I only used up one vial by the time he went off the juice, so batch consistency was never an issue. The pzi dose adjustments in whole units might have muddied the picture but I had to smile when I read that... I adjusted by whole units at times on a cycle by cycle basis based merely on preshots with no mid-cycle tests nailbite_smile (don't try this at home, kids). :lol:

KK is a very handsome and lucky meezer to have found you, Libby:-) And it looks like he's loving the Lev!
 
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