At a loss regarding dosing after recent illness

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Likameow

Likameow

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Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Ben had been doing well and I lurked around here without needing advice. About a month ago, I started having problems with several of my cats. Three out of the six cats starting having problems with reflux. I narrowed it down to the cats that predominately ate the Young again food. Ben ended up at the vet with coughing, lethargy and poor appetite. The vet was concerned that he might have aspirated during one of his coughing/reflux episodes. He spent a night at the vet getting fluids and antibiotics (which unfortunately was a covenia shot--they didn't ask me first). Around the same time I switched to Evo cat & kitten food.

Everyone stopped the refluxing and Ben loves the dry food. But he has never resumed his love of wet food. I'm lucky to get him to eat a quarter of a can. But he is gaining weight. The problem is that his sugars are now running the pinks and reds. I'm not sure what to do. Is his increased BG from the Evo or the covenia or maybe still the possible infection? Do I keep increasing his insulin dose? Take away the Evo? Give YA another try with a new bag? He needs some sort of dry food to snack on since I am sometimes gone for work for too many hours for him to only eat wet food. And I have six cats so a autofeeder with wet food isn't an option.

He did have labs done when he was at the vet. His BUN was slightly elevated (vet figured it was due to dehydration because his creatinine was normal) , his fPLI was elevated (which is normal for him) but his fructosamine was within normal levels for a diabetic cat.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm frustrated because he was doing so well less than a month ago.
 
I am sorry you and Ben are having a hard time. He definitely is all over the place. The dry food does bring up levels in some cats and yes, the infection/antibiotic can raise then too. You seem to b doing well adjusting the dose and getting a few yellows and blues in there. It does look like there could be some blues hiding midcycle. How about a curve this weekend?
 
I'll try to get one on Sunday. I'm on call for work but should be able to do it if I don't get called in. My foster cat goes to her first adoption event on Saturday.
I guess since he is eating the dry and gaining weight, I shouldn't be concerned that he only eats a little wet at shot time. The other cats are loving it because they get the left overs.
 
Just going with what he will eat right now, offering wet low carb and adjusting the dose as needed may get your through this transition with the infection and antibiotic. Once things are relatively normal again, you can push the wet harder? You don't want him to get picky about food with the infection.

Any data is good data. See what you can do this weekend; it doesn't have to all be on one day.
 
Got some good data today. I noticed that he snacks on the Evo throughout the day more than he ever did the young again. I wonder if that is what is making his numbers remain high and mostly steady without much drop. I took the dry food away 2 hours before his PMPS. I'm going to try another curve tomorrow (if I don't get called into work) and only leave a small amount of Evo out for snacking. Hopefully the civvies will leave it alone.
 
Had a chance to do a little experimenting today. Put up the bowl of Evo two hours before AMPS and didn't put it back down until AM+5. So his AMPS wasn't bad and he dropped nicely to the blues. Then I put a small amount of Evo out. Got called to work so I wasn't able to pick it up before his PMPS. And his evening number was 509 and he would only eat half a can of FF. Clearly he's carb sensitive enough that the 8% carbs in Evo is too much.

I guess I'm going to have to try YA again. Fingers crossed it was just a bad batch that made everybody sick last time. I don't know what else I could do because I need to leave some dry food out.
 
Evo raises Murphy's blood sugar quite dramatically - it is at least 12% carb. It's too bad about the Young Again. For several months, Murphy has been eating Wysong Epigen90 - it has 5.3% carbs - more than Young Again but less than Evo. I don't think that it should be the only food they eat long term - but it is worth trying. @Doodles & Karen has a list of carb content of dry food - the other option is Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken I think you can buy Epigen 90 at some boutique pet food stores - I usually order it on line
 
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There's another food I've given Murphy on occasion - he ate it after his dental and needed soft food
It's a starch free, semi moist food food that has <10% carbs called Waggers.
 
Carol & Murphy said:
Evo raises Murphy's blood sugar quite dramatically - it is at least 12% carb. It's too bad about the Young Again. For several months, Murphy has been eating Wysong Epigen90 - it has 5.3% carbs - more than Young Again but less than Evo. I don't think that it should be the only food they eat long term - but it is worth trying. @Doodles & Karen has a list of carb content of dry food - the other option is Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken I think you can buy Epigen 90 at some boutique pet food stores - I usually order it on line
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Maybe I'll try the Wysong. He would still eat mostly wet food. The dry is only as a snack when I'm late getting home from work. I sent an email to the Evo people asking what the carb amount was. They said 8% for the chicken and 12% for the fish. Either they were wrong or Ben is supersensitive to such things.
 
I think the Wysong would be fine for that purpose - you need to get the Epigen 90 - apparently there are several Epigen but it is the Epigen 90 you should get.
 
Ordered a bag of Wysong from Amazon. Should be here on the 27th . Hopefully this will take care of the problem. Until then, I'll pace the Evo. Silly cat, he knows I'm going on vacation in a couple weeks and wants to make it as stressful as possible.
 
Got the bag of Wysong this afternoon. Left a small amount out for the night while I'm at work. Paws and fingers crossed that it works so we won't have numbers in the 500's like we did this morning.
 
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