6/3 Ruby AMBG 92/+5 241/PMBG 152

Katherine&Ruby

Katherine&Ruby

Member Since 2020
Yesterday on Hello, Ruby! :cat:

Waited at the window for me to wake up while patrolling for birds. ✅
Cleaned her bowl of yummy turkey. ✅
A green start to the day with no insulin. :woot: ✅

Happy that Ruby has bounced back so quickly from her endoscopy yesterday. She showed absolutely no nausea or sedation when she got home. Really glad I did it. Thanks everyone again for sharing your knowledge and experiences, not to mention the gobs of positive vibes. :bighug:
 
Ruby started to look not so good mid-morning--meatloafing, squinting, head hanging. Perhaps the anesthesia has worn off. Gave her some Prilosec for acid tummy. Ate a full ounce of food afterwards. Popped an ondansetron in her a few moments ago for nausea. Reverting to beef in case the turkey or lamb are making her feel queasy.

The rollercoaster ride continues.
 
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I’m sorry to read this. Do you have any Bupe left? The squinting and meatloaf sound more like pain. The biopsy sites may be adding to the mix :(.

Limited time remaining on the rollercoaster.....hang in there and you & Ruby will get through this :bighug::bighug:!!
 
Tomlin said:
I’m sorry to read this. Do you have any Bupe left? The squinting and meatloaf sound more like pain. The biopsy sites may be adding to the mix :(.

Limited time remaining on the rollercoaster.....hang in there and you & Ruby will get through this :bighug::bighug:!!
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You have amazing timing, Amy. I just took the bupe out of the fridge (not sure if it's necessary to store it there? the vet gave it to me pre-syringed, worried about efficacy declining if not kept cold). Waiting for it to come to room temp before I give it to her.

She's not looking good at all. Crazy how quickly she declined from this morning when she was bright and purry.
 
In the past, when I was given it a few times
pre-syringed, I just kept it in a darker tall prescription bottle in a dark cabinet. No refrigeration.

I now get the 5 pack 1mL vials to keep on hand. Some vets/facilities are open to prescribing it that way, while others will only provide it poured into a dark container for buccal (between gum and cheek) administration or pre-filled syringes. Two reasons, 1) it actually has been shown to be more consistent vs Subq injection because the cats buccal area is highly vascular (unlike dogs) so it is absorbed well & 2) diversion tactic for people who may be trying to get the Bupe for themselves :(. My issue with the diversion is they just make it a lot easier for someone to abuse when they pour all the teeny tiny vials into one convenient container o_O. Just because you don’t hand someone syringes doesn’t mean they can’t abuse it. I’m not sure how certain facilities came up with that as the means of diversion, but that’s another subject entirely :banghead:.

They mask symptoms pretty well until they can’t and then it seems very sudden:(. They are so resilient & that instinct to hide any vulnerability is strong. Hopefully the Bupe will help her out!
 
She just ate a little beef from her bowl and crawled into my lap purring. Ruby prefers isolation when she's not well. The ondansetron helped. Holding off on the bupe for now.
 
Happy to hear she ate :bighug:. Hopefully, the ondansetron works well enough, but if not, at least you have the Bupe to give her.

My guess is they didn’t give you a stockpile of syringes so you should be fine. The storage becomes more of an issue when it’s diluted vs drawn straight from a vial & not diluted.
 
I need to keep her off insulin so I can have a better picture of how her symptoms might relate to her BG levels. The difficult part is when she starts climbing above renal threshold as that freaks me out and I'll want to give insulin but I want to see also if she will come down again on her own so as to not risk the possibility of a limey.

Tomlin said:
Happy to hear she ate :bighug:. Hopefully, the ondansetron works well enough, but if not, at least you have the Bupe to give her.

My guess is they didn’t give you a stockpile of syringes so you should be fine. The storage becomes more of an issue when it’s diluted vs drawn straight from a vial & not diluted.
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Interesting thing though is that she has been eating all day.

Good to know about the storage. The vets gave me 8 syringes without the needles, each filled to .25 mls (that's the dose they prescribed, I'm only giving her half). This should last me for a few weeks at least.
 
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PerfumedCatMom said:
Interesting thing though is that she has been eating all day.
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True, but keep in mind that even if there are no obvious symptoms such as Ruby not eating or crouching, there is still the untreated inflammation within her intestine. The inflammation can cause some insulin resistance. In Ruby’s case it seems to wax and wane & that would result in the glucose being good at some points and then not so much at other points :(.

Have you tried doing some consistent dosing of medication on a daily basis vs when there are more noticeable/observable symptoms to see if that helps at all with her underlying issues in order to keep the glucose more stable.....maybe even just for the next week while you wait for the endoscopy results? I’m thinking if you give her something with some time to work before she eats first thing in the morning and then 12 hours later? Again, this would be time limited so that you will know if the symptoms are more/proactively controlled, the BG stays controlled vs she becomes symptomatic and then there is the increase in BG. Just a thought and possibly a way to keep her comfortable & avoid the roller coaster ride during the day :bighug:....finger crossed!
 
Tomlin said:
True, but keep in mind that even if there are no obvious symptoms such as Ruby not eating or crouching, there is still the untreated inflammation within her intestine. The inflammation can cause some insulin resistance. In Ruby’s case it seems to wax and wane & that would result in the glucose being good at some points and then not so much at other points :(.

Have you tried doing some consistent dosing of medication on a daily basis vs when there are more noticeable/observable symptoms to see if that helps at all with her underlying issues in order to keep the glucose more stable.....maybe even just for the next week while you wait for the endoscopy results? I’m thinking if you give her something with some time to work before she eats first thing in the morning and then 12 hours later? Again, this would be time limited so that you will know if the symptoms are more/proactively controlled, the BG stays controlled vs she becomes symptomatic and then there is the increase in BG. Just a thought and possibly a way to keep her comfortable & avoid the roller coaster ride during the day :bighug:....finger crossed!
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All good ideas. I didn't give her any meds yesterday because I wanted her to come down from the surgery and get the anesthesia out of her system and she didn't show any symptoms until late this morning, so that's when I started reflexively medicating again. I will try to get us into a more regular schedule that makes sense from here on in.
 
I had to look up friable. It sounds like it could very well be due to IBD. If so figuring out the best diet might be all she needs. I’m hoping that’s the case and the biopsy is negative.
 
tiffmaxee said:
I had to look up friable. It sounds like it could very well be due to IBD. If so figuring out the best diet might be all she needs. I’m hoping that’s the case and the biopsy is negative.
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Thanks, Elise. I had really hoped it was IBD and that switching to raw would help manage the symptoms. Maybe it is helping and Ruby would be in a worse place without it, but these flares combined with the BG spikes are very worrisome. I’m also concerned that an upper GI endoscopy is only providing part of the picture. Since Ruby has not had chronic diarrhea, the vets did not recommend a colonoscopy. I guess once we have some diagnosis we will know how to proceed.
 
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