5/11 Kasha AMPS 476 PMPS 557 - Dose advice?

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kryskat

kryskat

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Interested in food this morning, but didn't eat as much as I'd like. I'm pretty much giving up on trying to make her eat. I'm just going to plod along, do what I think I'm supposed to do and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't.


Yesterday
 
Re: 5/11 Kasha AMPS 476

Just want to offer my support you sound pretty down about Kasha this morning hope things improve soon for both of you :YMHUG: :YMHUG:
 
Re: 5/11 Kasha AMPS 476

It's hard having 3 sick cats. It's kind of a nightmare for me right now.

Kasha ate a little more before I left for work, so she probably had a decent breakfast, just divided in 2 parts. I left her some shredded chicken to snack on while I'm gone.
 
Is it too soon to ask for dose advice? She can't support these high numbers... I can see it in her eyes today. I can't take it either. Is it time for a dose increase or am I being impatient because I can practically see the damage being done to her kidneys?

Switched to new test strips. For some reason, this is the 2nd vial of One Touch Ultra test strips dated 6/11 that I've opened and they read higher than the ones I had dated 7/11. So, I'm sticking with the new, higher numbers, which makes me feel even worse.
 
Krys, I too am stopping in to give you some moral support. I'm sorry I can't give you any dosing advise, but I hope someone stops by soon to help you out.

You said you have three sick cats. Do you mind me asking what is wrong with your other two? I can only imagine how stressful this has to be on you.
 
Deb & Spot said:
You said you have three sick cats. Do you mind me asking what is wrong with your other two? I can only imagine how stressful this has to be on you.
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Blue (one of my civilians - almost 14 yrs old) just went to a specialist to see if he was a candidate for having his leg amputated. He has a tumor that is necrotic (rotting away) on the heel of his hind foot and it needs to be kept bandaged always or it oozes and bleeds. He started having issues bleeding and oozing the same day Kasha was diagnosed with a UTI and diabetes in March. Anyway - the specialist said he is a candidate for amputation and for $2600 dollars or so, we can proceed. I've spend most of my savings on the cats already this year. I'm not sure what we're going to do, but he has no other viable options.

Blue's brother, Big White Cat, began to fade away after Blue started requiring more vet visits, so I don't know if stress is related. He stopped eating and hid for 3 weeks until I blocked the tunnel under the bed. He's had all the more inexpensive tests and everything was ok - just the mildest signs of inflammation. Vet tried prednisolone shots and he seemed to bounce back a bit. Now he's on oral prednisolone twice a day or he won't eat. He's still skin and bones, but at least he eats now and looks more bright-eyed.

And Kasha, whose numbers were looking so great a few weeks ago, will just not smooth out now. Her numbers are worse now than when I started. But she occasionally dips low and then bounces back up high, and I don't know what to do to smooth things out.

I'm going to end up in a padded room.
 
Hello,

The high numbers are hard to take no doubt.... however, lantus is not based on pre-shots and from the green I see in your SS, I'm thinking that the dose might be right.... but I'm not certain.

I know that life happens and that we can't monitor about the clock, but it would have been helpful if you could have collected a few more spot checks after the 99 you got yesterday.

Hopefully someone else come to have a look at Kasha's SS.
I'm sorry things are stressful in your life right now.
 
I would increase by 0.25, to f0.75, if you can monitor. Today is a bounce from the green yesterday, but it was high green so IMHO you still have room to raise the dose.
 
If there was anyone I wish I could swoop in and help, it is you. Kasha is in a tough place because you saw blue and green three cycles ago.
Are you testing for ketones? When numbers are running this high you really need to test for ketones.
I wish we knew what dose DPS had going -- there may be zero correlation to that but I keep wondering if that dose was lower.
If only I knew the magic answer -- I know you are having a hard time -- darn it.
 
I already gave tonight's shot and can't monitor till tomorrow night, so I can up the dose than and monitor her current dose tonight.

I doubt she went below (or much below) that 99 yesterday - she usually hits her nadir between +4 and +5. She's pretty much always higher at +6 when I check. But that was a drop of around 325 points in 5 hours - I was thinking that's why the bounce.

If I see her head to the litter box, I'll check for ketones, but it doesn't do much good with 3 cats if I can't separate out who did what.
 
I was thinking more about lowering the dose to see if it would help.
How old is your insulin. How are Kasha's teeth? I'm sorry if I asked you this already.
 
D and Noisy said:
I wish we knew what dose DPS had going -- there may be zero correlation to that but I keep wondering if that dose was lower.
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Why do you think it might have been lower? I'm just asking because I've had that feeling that maybe I'd given a little too much and that was causing the bounce, but I'm being very careful with my measures... And I don't think the DPS were keeping to the schedule as well as I do. She also missed a few doses due to low preshot numbers when they were here.

I wish I could get more numbers mid-cycle - but even though my dad is around at some days to help out on my house, he can no longer get near Kasha to test her because she was so traumatized during the DPS days.

Kasha's teeth are not great, but not super bad either, according to the vet. Do you suspect an infection?

My insulin is less than a month old (in a vial). I got it the last time she got high numbers from her UTI - but those didn't seem to vary as much as these (at that time she didn't seem to react to the insulin at all until the infection cleared).
 
Now I don't know whether to raise or lower. I just raised a few days ago to a fat .5 because the .5 wasn't doing much.
 
I thought that because the numbers that precede it and follow it are worse. Of course, there are no spot checks so we don't even know if they were worse -- the PS were better.
I just don't know -- I see where trying 0.25u might bring her down to a more level ground. Alternatively, I can see 0.75u as an option, because even thought it has been some time ago, that she had that dose, it was a good run of numbers.
 
I have another question - if she tests positive for ketones - is that an emergency visit, or a schedule the next day visit? I know they are serious, but how serious?

Ok - she gave me a sample and negative for ketones at this point. My test stix aren't very old either, so hopefully that's accurate.
 
THis is if it were me -- if it was "trace" ketones, I would come to the board and ask for ketone help. If it were "positive" ketones I would go to the ER (i'd probably post here as I was packing up my cat.)

I ask about teeth because I have seen so many cats get dentals here and then they turn around and have perfect numbers. I've also seen Luck, who's vet said he didn't need a dental, get one and the go OTJ.

Unlike many other people here -- I don't have a lot of experience with outside medical issues. I know FD pretty well but I am limited in my knowledge of identifying, working with, other types of issues.
 
D and Noisy said:
Alternatively, I can see 0.75u as an option, because even thought it has been some time ago, that she had that dose, it was a good run of numbers.
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That .75 was probably more of a .6. Those were the days before I got 1/2 unit syringes and I think I estimated high.

Maybe I'll see if we can get a vet appointment for tomorrow. These costs are killing me. But Kasha first.
 
Ok - my vet is booked up tomorrow, but they will release emergency appointments with her in the morning if I call back, so I'm going to try to get Kasha in to make sure at least she doesn't have another UTI or dental infection.

Anyone know what normal places charge for dental work? I think this place quoted me around $600 and that seems so high since a couple years ago it was 1/2 that.
 
I think Settle Down's was $600. Hopefully some peeps who had them recently stop in.
Glad you are going in and I am so sorry about the stress and financial drain.
I sure hope things get better for you.
 
First, I hope you can sort out a payment type plan so that Blue can be tended; best of luck in that regard. I'll be thinking of Blue.

About the urine, I have 3 cats and after alot of following them when they went to the box, I learned who did what and where in the LB. Without fail, I know exactly what deposits are from my civvie, and by location, I can tell which was from the other two. I always use clumping litter as well so that I can track volumes.

It is so hard to see those high numbers; it really hurts to see them but let's hope that you start to see Kasha feeling a bit better and perk up some. The numbers will come down after you start to see those improvements.
Don't forget that the shed needs to top up when you give the increase, so it may take up to 6 shots before Kasha gets the benefits completely. Hopefully, you will see better numbers sooner than that, but hang in there, Kasha will come around.

For the dental, it all depends on what needs to be done. All vets are different, and if there are no extractions or other extras, then the amount could be lower. The dental can make a HUGE difference. After Shadoe had her dental and had just one bad molar pulled, she really started to improve. Ask if the teeth can be checked, cleaned and maybe Xray any that look bad. Then you can decide what additional can be done.
Shadoe's total was $629 with 1 extraction, 4 Xrays-before&after for the extracted one, and all the goodies like fluids and pain meds and stuff to take home like the A/B and pain gel that went with it. I can list all the items included like nerve block and transdermal gel if it will help you; just let me know. That's in Canada though.
Lots of pats and scratches for all 3 of your kitties
 
Gayle and Shadoe said:
About the urine, I have 3 cats and after alot of following them when they went to the box, I learned who did what and where in the LB. Without fail, I know exactly what deposits are from my civvie, and by location, I can tell which was from the other two. I always use clumping litter as well so that I can track volumes.
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Yeah, but my problem is that pretty much seasonally my cats "switch things up". For months Kasha had one litter box she preferred and she was the only one to use it - she'd use another if that one had been used more than once, but always preferred the little "corner" box that doesn't sit in a corner. I always knew. Then recently, she started to prefer another one and she hasn't settled in one spot in that one yet. Plus, my boys are wild cards, they will go wherever, whenever. No rhyme or reason to it.
 
Yup, I have two LB and the trick is to watch for when one of them heads to a box, then comes back in sight. I always scoot over to see if something was done.
They must seriously think I am nuts because I have run into the hall and found one just lying on the rug, look up at me like 'what do you want?'

I know they change things up, just to keep us guessing so you just have to keep an eye on Kasha and see when Kasha heads to one of the LB. You don't have to catch every time, and any of the times is better than none of the times.

Best of luck sneaking around!
 
I think if you stand back and look at Kasha's SS, whatever the dose that you were measuring was before you got the half-unit syringes, Kasha was seeing good numbers. When you dropped the dose to 0.25ish, is where numbers got wonky. Probably coupling that with the DPS folks not shooting as consistently as you and Kasha being stressed by them, she lost ground. I think Libby's suggestion of raising the dose makes sense.
 
what I see looking at Kasha's spreadsheet is that she lost momentum after the decrease to 0.25 on 4/18, and she just hasn't gotten the momentum back. That happens sometimes, Lucy did it a couple of times. The best way to overcome that is to go back up the dosing ladder until you get a new breakthrough. That's why I suggested a 0.25 increase, to f0.75.
 
Ok - I think I'm still going to try for a vet appt, then increase the dose with tomorrow's PM shot so I can monitor tomorrow evening.
 
Great, great, I kept thinking about you last night.
Libby's observation makes total sense. Paws crossed on the increase. The super paws crossed.
 
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