AM update 4-7 on foster Albert

[Heather & Seasaidh (GA)]

I didn't get much sleep last night because I wanted to check him every couple of hours to see how ProZinc works. His BG went down slowly as others had told me last night but then at 3am (+7) it went sharply up to 324 (from 164 at +6). He had gotten 2u of ProZinc and I thought maybe it might be rebound, or it could have been a fluke. I didn't retest since it wasn't insulin time and I went to bed. At one point in the night Albert wanted to get up on the bed so I put him up there, and placed his litterbox and food up there too.

8am this morning I got up to give Albert his morning dose. However, he had other plans and had decided to hide. I had checked on him at 5:30 am (when I give civvie Spirit his HCM meds) and Albert looked content on the bed. At 8 he was nowhere to be found. I noticed that he had peed in the litterbox that I put on the bed for him. I looked everywhere and presumed he was under the bed where I had some storage boxes. I brought civvie Bingley in who is 1 year old and he confirmed for me that Albert was there. Bingley went under the bed and a few moments later ran out as if he saw a strange scary cat. I booted Bingley back out of the room and proceeded to take the bed apart, moving the mattresses, and lo and behold, there was Albert way in the corner by the wall. He had managed to get down from the bed with his neuropathy and went and hid. Poor guy, I think he knew the routine and didn't want me poking him.

So, this was 9am EST now when I had Albert in my hands and one hour later than he normally gets his shot. I tested him and he was 194! I decided to wait and I'm going to test him in a few minutes to see where he's at. I'm thinking I should maybe start at 1u instead of giving him the 2u he's been on (for only one week; that's what he was started on).

Also, he is really picky about food. They had been giving him both wet and dry at the vet where he was being boarded after his owner brought him there to be PTS. I gave in last night and mixed a tiny bit of dry in with his wet food since he had had his shot. This morning I was resolute and gave him only low carb FF. He sniffed it but wouldn't eat it. I went through this with my first diabetic, Seasaidh, who was a dry food addict. I got him eating wet food by slowly transitioning him, mixing a little dry with wet. But with Albert I'd like to try to give him some FF with gravy; I want to avoid dry food as he's not supposed to have while in DCIN care. Any thoughts, and suggestions would be helpful. Even just some moral support.

edited to add: BG 196 an hour later, still basically the same. It doesn't look like he's eaten.

edited again: I got him to eat a little bit of boiled chicken but now he's hiding again.

I took this pic of Albert after I put the bed back together.

Heather & DCIN foster Albert dx 4/2? on ProZinc 2u has neuropathy

 

[LynnLee + Mousie]

awwwwww, poor guy is probably so sad that his owner dumped him and then all the changes and stuff.

i would think dcin would be ok with him having some dry if that keeps him eating and you can work on transitioning like you said. maybe contact Venita? if he's not eating much this morning yeah i'd probably go with the 1 unit (you probably already did?) because the 2 could be way too much on an empty stomach.

 

[Heather & Seasaidh (GA)]

I decided against giving him a shot this morning since he wasn't eating much and his numbers were slightly below 200.

This evening his BG was 231 and it looked like he hadn't touched his food all day (I had to take my mother shopping and couldn't watch him for the afternoon). He was hiding under the bed again when I came home. I bought him his own scratching post and some other odds and ends (like roast beef to try to get him to eat). Anyway, I gave him 1u and fed him some FF w/ gravy. He wouldn't touch it. I gave him some roast beef and he did have a little bit of that. I put a couple of dry kibbles on top of his wet food to encourage him to eat it.

I'm going to go spend some time with him now and relax and check his BG in two hours to see how he's doing. He's such a sweet boy.

 

[Carl & Polly & Bob (GA)]

I like the idea of going back and starting at 1.0. It could be too little, but if his "right dose" is between 1 and 2, you'd have already missed it. It is encouraging that he stayed in the high blues for a while, especially after you saw the higher number earlier in the cycle. Also, as you get him to eat the canned, being low on dose is better than being higher in case it drops his numbers quickly like it does for many kitties.

I know DCIN wants a "diabetic appropriate diet" but I don't think they expect it to happen overnight. Lots of people have difficulty with the transition, and bottom line is it's more important that he eat something than not at all. Mixing it like you did with Seasaidh is a good idea. You might try putting some tuna juice over the wet. When Bob didn't seem interested in a particular flavor, I crumbled some freeze dried shrimp treats on top, and he wolfed it down. I've seen some people say sprinkling parmasean cheese on top helps.

Carl

 

[Heather & Seasaidh (GA)]

Cindy, thanks for the advice. And Carl, thank you too for being there last night and this evening. I'm a little rusty with feline diabetes, but it's all coming back really quickly. I'm also getting much better at the ear poking too. And Carl, I was wondering about giving Albert cheese. Wasn't sure if that was ok or not. Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Carl & Polly & Bob (GA)]

Heather,
I never saw any negative effect from cheese with Bob. He'd eat a tiny bit of cheddar or sliced cheese and it didn't raise his BG. Some kitties don't tolerate dairy products, but I didn't give him a lot of it. I didn't try the parmasean myself, because it was pretty rare that Bob wouldn't eat. He's a little piggy. Before diabetes, all of our cats had always been dry food junkies, but that was mainly a "money" thing, and a convenience thing, and of course like most people we had no clue dry food was "bad" period. So canned food was always a treat for our cats. When we switched after the DX to all low-carb canned, Bob and Mullet thought they'd died and gone to heaven (or thought I must have gotten a big raise at work :lol: ), so the transition was really easy for us.

Carl