Stacy & Asia
Member Since 2017
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...75-2-79-blood-in-urine-test-questions.196250/
Sorry I haven't been around, it's the busiest time of year in our house and way too much on the to do list!
Asia is doing okay, she's coming down in dose and letting me know that she needs less insulin. I hope it sticks for once that she needs less insulin and can keep in reasonable numbers. I gave her a one time kick in the pants dose this morning to see if it brings down the number to something reasonable by next shot. I tried to do that with R yesterday but it was an epic fail. I just want her on a more predictable path from today onwards since I won't be around too much this week and neither will my girls. There will likely be some skipped shots in our future this week which makes me feel really bad, but what can you do.
Blood in urine had been negative whenever I checked since the last time where it came up positive. ...until yesterday, that is. It came up small (+) for blood last night 30 minutes before my vet closed, so I dropped everything I was in the middle of and hopped in a cab to get it there in time. They can test in house and they tried but "couldn't interpret the results"
so they had to send it to a lab. It was sent to a lab and came back with the same result on my strip (0-2 RBC or 1+). So yay, my strips are accurate in that regard, but boo on the response from my vet:
"She had only 1+ blood which I would consider normal. I would not be further working up this scant amount of hematuria as it is not clinically significant."
Huh?
So it's normal to have a small amount of blood in your urine, not from a cysto needle poke, and while you're on antibiotics for a UTI? What was the point of having me bring in a sample then? Couldn't you have said before, it's no big deal unless it's over X amount so don't go out of your way to bring in a sample?!
I really get the feeling she is checked out as far as doing anything other than keeping Asia on pain meds until she kicks. Very frustrating, I don't want to go down a diagnostic rabbit hole either, but if this were normal, why didn't she just say so before? And if it's not normal, why is it no big deal and we can just ignore this? Sigh. I wish she would just refer me to an IM. It's not something I'm capable of pursuing much this week of all weeks, but after Sunday I will investigate that further, I might ask my old vet for a referral, he seemed open to doing that anyway.
Some good news, her pain level is back to what it was pre numbers going haywire/panc flare or whatever the heck that was. She is back to her regular .1mL BID bupe dose. That is a relief to know she's not in crazy pain other than her usual arthritis/old lady related pain. Interestingly enough, her insulin needs came down as her pain level decreased. Coincidence? I think not. She's still eating great and it doesn't seem like teeth are bothering her currently.
Toki update, of course at the most inconvenient time, Toki started having a weepy eye and keeping one eye mostly closed last night. Then it progressed to green goop discharge, so I think she has some type of eye infection from who knows what. I called my (old) vet to make an appointment (prices much more reasonable and they are great for easy things) and they are booked up this week but the doctor is going to call me back if he can squeeze us in soon. I didn't want to wait with her eye so I had some terramycin ointment that I gave her until she can be seen. I'm trying to keep her away from Asia so it doesn't spread to this poor old lady who has enough medical issues to contend with. I don't know how I'm going to rearrange my life to take her in this week, but I will figure something out. I hope they can see her today as I actually have pockets of time. Tomorrow-Sunday it will be near completely impossible.
Sorry I haven't been around, it's the busiest time of year in our house and way too much on the to do list!
Asia is doing okay, she's coming down in dose and letting me know that she needs less insulin. I hope it sticks for once that she needs less insulin and can keep in reasonable numbers. I gave her a one time kick in the pants dose this morning to see if it brings down the number to something reasonable by next shot. I tried to do that with R yesterday but it was an epic fail. I just want her on a more predictable path from today onwards since I won't be around too much this week and neither will my girls. There will likely be some skipped shots in our future this week which makes me feel really bad, but what can you do.
Blood in urine had been negative whenever I checked since the last time where it came up positive. ...until yesterday, that is. It came up small (+) for blood last night 30 minutes before my vet closed, so I dropped everything I was in the middle of and hopped in a cab to get it there in time. They can test in house and they tried but "couldn't interpret the results"
so they had to send it to a lab. It was sent to a lab and came back with the same result on my strip (0-2 RBC or 1+). So yay, my strips are accurate in that regard, but boo on the response from my vet:"She had only 1+ blood which I would consider normal. I would not be further working up this scant amount of hematuria as it is not clinically significant."
Huh?
So it's normal to have a small amount of blood in your urine, not from a cysto needle poke, and while you're on antibiotics for a UTI? What was the point of having me bring in a sample then? Couldn't you have said before, it's no big deal unless it's over X amount so don't go out of your way to bring in a sample?! I really get the feeling she is checked out as far as doing anything other than keeping Asia on pain meds until she kicks. Very frustrating, I don't want to go down a diagnostic rabbit hole either, but if this were normal, why didn't she just say so before? And if it's not normal, why is it no big deal and we can just ignore this? Sigh. I wish she would just refer me to an IM. It's not something I'm capable of pursuing much this week of all weeks, but after Sunday I will investigate that further, I might ask my old vet for a referral, he seemed open to doing that anyway.
Some good news, her pain level is back to what it was pre numbers going haywire/panc flare or whatever the heck that was. She is back to her regular .1mL BID bupe dose. That is a relief to know she's not in crazy pain other than her usual arthritis/old lady related pain. Interestingly enough, her insulin needs came down as her pain level decreased. Coincidence? I think not. She's still eating great and it doesn't seem like teeth are bothering her currently.
Toki update, of course at the most inconvenient time, Toki started having a weepy eye and keeping one eye mostly closed last night. Then it progressed to green goop discharge, so I think she has some type of eye infection from who knows what. I called my (old) vet to make an appointment (prices much more reasonable and they are great for easy things) and they are booked up this week but the doctor is going to call me back if he can squeeze us in soon. I didn't want to wait with her eye so I had some terramycin ointment that I gave her until she can be seen. I'm trying to keep her away from Asia so it doesn't spread to this poor old lady who has enough medical issues to contend with. I don't know how I'm going to rearrange my life to take her in this week, but I will figure something out. I hope they can see her today as I actually have pockets of time. Tomorrow-Sunday it will be near completely impossible.
. Hope Tiki's eye gets better and you can get her in before things get (more) crazy the rest of the week 
I'm sure the lap cat problems are arthritis related too. Asia can walk over legs and feet to get where she wants to go, but with arthritis, she avoids doing that, it's more effort and likely was painful. 
Rufus is lucky to have you and I'm sure he's way better off now than he would have been if he didn't have you to advocate for him and get him this far. 
" which is true, but...you know what I mean. We all just have to keep on keeping on