Blue Cat 4-19-10

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Steve and Blue

Steve and Blue

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Well, the Blue Cat had been doing very well as he was off the insulin for over 100 hours. Last night however, he climbed up to the high 140's. I was going to wait it out, but decided on giving him a thin .4U which held him to the low blues for the night.

The last few days he has been mostly riding the low blue range which did concerned me as I would obviously like to see green. That said, he has been acting great and it was nice to take a mini holiday from the injections.

Hopefully this is a minor bump in the road and he continues to do well. I had been considering dosing small amounts the past few days, but wanted to see if his panc would take over on it's own which it did to a certain extent. He did not stay in the green consistently which is what I was hoping for.

At this point I am considering the small doses of .4 to .1 to see if he can get to green and stay there - eventually on his own instead of letting him stay in the low blue range w/o insulin. Then again, he may have just spiked for some reason last night and his natural metabolism dictates that he is a 'high green/low blue' cat?

Just tested him at PMPS and he is at 91 at +12.
 
Re: Blue Cat 4-20-10

Steve, it sounds to me that Blue is doing amazing. IMHO, I think you are doing exactly the right thing. Find your no shoot number and bump him down when he goes over it. 100 hours is awesome!!! :RAHCAT As you are feeling more comfy with his numbers, you can adjust it down slowly, but it really does look like his body is starting to take care of things all by itself. If you're going to bump him, stick with the low doses. Sounds like he reacts well to them. Also, you might try the food trick when he starts going a bit higher. Offer a bit of food for a bit of a spike and see if that will trigger his body to respond bringing the #'s back down.

Still keeping an eye on you guys!! Great job!
 
Re: Blue Cat 4-20-10

Thanks H&A. I did try the feeding trick to see if he would bring the numbers back down, but he went from 141 to 148 in about 1.25 hours after eating - so it didn't look like he was going to do it by himself. I think my shoot threshold will be at 140 for the time being, but am considering lowering it to 120. It's a tough call for me right now as I'm unsure about letting Blue's pancreas get 'lazy'.

Keeping an eye on you and Aria, too. Hoping for all blues and green for you. :-D

Hope and Aria said:
Steve, it sounds to me that Blue is doing amazing. IMHO, I think you are doing exactly the right thing. Find your no shoot number and bump him down when he goes over it. 100 hours is awesome!!! :RAHCAT As you are feeling more comfy with his numbers, you can adjust it down slowly, but it really does look like his body is starting to take care of things all by itself. If you're going to bump him, stick with the low doses. Sounds like he reacts well to them. Also, you might try the food trick when he starts going a bit higher. Offer a bit of food for a bit of a spike and see if that will trigger his body to respond bringing the #'s back down.

Still keeping an eye on you guys!! Great job!
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Re: Blue Cat 4-20-10

Yay, 100 hours is awesome!!! It seems like a lot of times they just need a few extra bumps of insulin for a little while til their pancreas is fully healed. Looks like you have a good strategy worked out - maybe you will need to make it clear to him that while his NAME is Blue, we want more NUMBERS to be Green please kitty! :mrgreen:
 
Re: Blue Cat 4-20-10

I certainly hope that's the case Joanna. Amazing how a little change can stress me out like it did late last night. Darn cat! ;-) Today's 91 helped to chill me out... for now!

I never thought about the 'blue' thing. I guess what I'll have to is change his name or at least speak his name quietly so his pancreas can't hear the word 'blue' any longer? Maybe I'll call him by his full name for the time being - Blusethlerion. :lol:



Joanna & Bix said:
Yay, 100 hours is awesome!!! It seems like a lot of times they just need a few extra bumps of insulin for a little while til their pancreas is fully healed. Looks like you have a good strategy worked out - maybe you will need to make it clear to him that while his NAME is Blue, we want more NUMBERS to be Green please kitty! :mrgreen:
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Hope and Aria said:
Blue is gorgeous!!!
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Blue says thanks. He is a handsome kitty. Seems to be putting on a little extra weight though. Here's a less flattering pic while I mess with him. :razz:

I hope I'm not the reason his BGL is up!

He went up to the 140 mark again this afternoon. Sigh. Threw him another .4U :/
 

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AWESOME on the 100 hours!!! You're doing great Steve :thumbup IMHO, I'd keep with the small doses for awhile. (only b/c of what I went through w/Pru) When I had Pru riding in the blues she started to shy away from her food and next thing ya know... back on insulin. I am so hoping Blue will make it to the greens for ya! Sending you good vibes and hoping Blue's ear heals fast :smile:

Hugs cat_pet_icon
 
Why thanks you two. However, his 100+ hours seems like a distant memory right now. Blue has been off track the last day or two. I just took his BGL and it's as high as it has been for quite some time. I believe he has some infection or allergy that is driving up his BGL. 165 10 mins ago @ only +8. It's weird because when I prick his ear his blood seems very thin and bleeds more than usual. He also has pockets of bare fur on his legs/feet and isn't eating/playing well. :?

Thanks for those good vibes - need them right now! I will use them and send them right back! :-D

Thinking of shooting a .4 to .6 early - as in now (+8) Want to be careful of any overlap though. Can't wait for the vet visit tomorrow to hopefully find out (verify?) what the prob is. These ups and downs are going to drive me to Xanaxville! :smile:

Michelle & Prudence said:
AWESOME on the 100 hours!!! You're doing great Steve :thumbup IMHO, I'd keep with the small doses for awhile. (only b/c of what I went through w/Pru) When I had Pru riding in the blues she started to shy away from her food and next thing ya know... back on insulin. I am so hoping Blue will make it to the greens for ya! Sending you good vibes and hoping Blue's ear heals fast :smile:

Hugs cat_pet_icon
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Awww, hope he is back on track & feeling better soon! Some cats seem to come back down great from those low to mid blues when they get a little room to do it on their own, and others seem not to. I have seen some SSs where they'll spike up to 180 or something and then be back in DDs a few hours later. Looks like we have several in the other camp - drifting higher more or less unless they get another shot - for now.

With Bix, he has been diabetic for over a year and 1/2 now and since it was a major challenge to get him on canned food, he was unregulated for months. So I'm not sure he will ever go OTJ.

I'm starting to feel like judging things for him more by behavior than strictly by #s. When his back legs are weak it's clear something is wrong, even if the #s say it's only low-ish blues. Not sure if that is meter variation or what, but I think symptoms are the most important (even more so with a ketone prone kitty, since those can sneak up on you from insufficient insulin).

If Blue & Pru (hey, rhymers! :-D ) aren't acting right even when the #s are moderately decent then I'd say, along with Bix, they probably do need an insulin bump. Having tried the route with Bix of waiting for 150s to avoid lazy-pancreas-syndrome, it's crystal clear to me that for him, that approach is not the right one (though as far as I know he is the exception). Still not sure what no-shoot I like for him, the safety question is still a big one should he get a big drop from the insulin.

Well anyway, just musings, since it seems like some of the patterns are similar... hope the vet has some answers for you. If you end up shooting early just be sure it is a rising # & maybe shoot a little less than you would at a +12. Overlap can be shocking in my experience on the early shots - looks like nothing is happening at first, but it can be sort-of behind the scenes I guess.
 
Ahhh, J&B you always seem to post as I'm shooting. :smile: I gave the Blue Cat a thin .6 @ +9. I don't think he will drop low as the .4's did very little and he hasn't seen mid-green in a bit. He's also higher than he has been. The overlap is a question, but I'm fairly comfortable with it.

Blue has something going on that isn't directly insulin related - itchy inner ear(s), fur loss on legs/feet, not eating that much, etc... Like you said, hopefully tomorrow morning - check that, this morning - we find out what the deal is. My bet is fungal infection with possible allergy to ? Ear infections are fairly common in DM cats apparently.

I guess I'm lucky that Blue had absolutely no prob transitioning to the canned diet. I think that some of the FF seafood flavors like Salmon may have something in it that doesn't agree with him. He has thrown it up in the past - it's just a hunch tho.

BTW, I've learned a lot from your musings, so keep it up in the future. :smile:

'Nite All - been a long day - supposedly a holiday here in MA. Yeah right!
 
Just wanted to let you all know that Blue was diagnosed with a URI. Surprisingly he did not have any type of ear infection. His BGL is a bit high, but not so bad since he does have an infection. I think even non-diabetic cats can get his numbers with this type of problem? Also, he has some type of allergy (i'm guessing food) so they shot him up with Benadryl and put him on an oral antihistamine to see if that helps. He is itchy all over it seems.

So, I'm hopeful his higher than 'normal' BGL will come back down soon and we can resume his previous progress.
 
After Ari's medical issues (itchy ears and slight dehydration) were handled, her numbers improved dramatically and rapidly, so be on the look out. It's way cool, but sometimes caused me to be one shocked and confused bean. :o
 
That's good at least that the vet could ID the problem (though "itchy all over" sounds awful, poor guy!!!). Does he have spring allergies? You have probably changed foods recently to LC, right? Hopefully that's not it! They can be so sensitive to food stuff - Wellness is the only one I could get to work for Bix, all the other LCs led to barfing. Hope he is feeling better soon. :)
 
Thanks H&A and J&B. Blue is doing well. He is currently playing with some crickets I have for my Oscar fish's dinner. :smile: I did change the LC diet. I do believe it may be the fish flavors that have that pink tint to them. He had thrown them up here and there even before the DM stuff every happened. I'm sticking to Wellness and chicken/turkey offerings from FF.

Spring allergies? Yes, that is a possibility. The Benadryl seems to be working since I haven't seen him gnaw on his limbs in about an hour. He's acting quite well to the the truth. "Itchy all over" was probably overstating it, J&B. More like legs, foot, ear, stomach are his 'gnaw til the fur is gone' spots. :-|

I'll be on the lookout for any type of drop, or rise for that matter H&A. Like I said above, hopefully we can go back to the progress he was making soon. I'm keeping his doses fairly low in the meantime.

Good luck to you four. I'll be watching like a stalker. ;-)
 
For allergies (a common problem with asthma kitties) a lot of asthma forum members give their kitties a bit of OTC claritin this time of year. (make sure it doesn't have the decongestant in it. i.e. not Claritin D)
 
Steve and Blue said:
Just wanted to let you all know that Blue was diagnosed with a URI. Surprisingly he did not have any type of ear infection. His BGL is a bit high, but not so bad since he does have an infection. I think even non-diabetic cats can get his numbers with this type of problem? Also, he has some type of allergy (i'm guessing food) so they shot him up with Benadryl and put him on an oral antihistamine to see if that helps. He is itchy all over it seems.

So, I'm hopeful his higher than 'normal' BGL will come back down soon and we can resume his previous progress.
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Poor Blue... give him a scratch for me cat_pet_icon I hope he gets to feeling better soon and you can get back on track. It just stinks when you're kind of on a roll then you get thrown a curve ball. Hang in there! Blue will be back on track :YMHUG: Sorry, I can not offer any advice on allergies... I'm blessed with Pru that she hasn't had those issues. I can tell you that a three legged cat can run pretty darn fast!!! haha I think she runs faster now then when she had four :lol:

Just read Blue's SS - I'll be thinking of you at 3:30am cuz I'm in the same boat @-) Hope you're getting some rest ;-)
 
Fancy Feast chicken feast has fish as the 5th item in the ingredients. I've started feeding it more lately, used to go mostly with ff chopped grill.

The pollen is starting to let up here, and I can smell again. So I've noticed the fish smell when I open the chicken feast can.

Blue is so handsome!
 
K&O: Thanks for the tip. The doc said one of the other docs has great luck with chlorpheniramine OTC. If that doesn't work out i'll give the Claratin a shot. Though from the reports I got today the chlorph seems to be working.

M&P: Yeah those snooze and wake up glucose tests in the middle of the night are a PITA, but I'm pretty sure we can almost sleep walk through the test at this point - we've done them so much. Glad he didn't need a shot since that would mean I'd have to be fully awake to shoot him. :smile: He didn't need a dose til 6:30AM so maybe he is getting back on track... That's awesome that Pru still sprints around like she does. She must be feeling well no matter a yellow number here and there. Keep it up!

D&B: Blue loves the FF Chicken feast as well. I'm keeping him off the stuff with red dye just to make sure that isn't a factor with his allergy symptoms. Tree pollen is very high right now here. I don't have seasonal allergies myself, unless I go to Thoreau's Walden Pond swimming. Only that place gives me symptoms. :?: Yes, Blue would be quite a stud if he were an outdoor kitty. Surprised he doesn't have kitties outside waiting for him. Mitla Cat probably chases them away. :lol:
 
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