Couple Questions- Testing and Opinion

[JenJee]

My first question is that Saul, per the vet's recommendation, has not started insulin yet. I will be testing him over the next two weeks and see if his levels continue to go down or not, in that case he'll be put on insulin.

Should I test at the same time each day to compare or at different times? I intend to do a curve in a couple weeks but in the meantime, should it be before or after he eats? I know it spikes after eating so maybe I should test them to see it at its highest?

My other question is that thus far we have not been able to let my SO's dog around Saul. He gets along wonderfully with my other cat who is 19 and moves very slow, but he's far too interested in Saul for comfort. I feel terrible that Saul is essentially stuck in my bedroom 22 hrs a day. He doesn't do well in a crate or outside by himself so a crate and rotate type thing won't work.

I have a few ideas in case they can never be together. Including getting a nice cat tree for my room, putting a cat door in the screen window and letting him have access to a kenneled portion of the backyard. Any suggestions of other ways to make the "cat room" more interesting, please let me know!

Do you think a cat can have a decent quality of life in such a circumstance? I will continue to work with the dog and Saul but there's a distinct possibility they will never be able to be around each other.

 

[hmjohnston]

That interest might just be because you are paying extra attention to Saul now- unless this is a NEW dog into the household and he might just be interested because it is new.

Test at all times- this gives you a good feeling of how he is doing, how long the initial food lasts and stuff. And, if you know when you will be giving a shot, do not feed for 2 hours before that time and then test before food. This will give you a fasting level that is uninfluenced by food.

During the day you can't really expect to do that if you free-fed so make sure you get it around the 'shot' time and don't worry about other times. This is normal for curves, they eat during the day so don't keep it from them.

If you can do a curve this weekend during a cycle that would be great so you know your starting point through the day. A curve later will tell you then but not how far he has come with the food change.

My sisters cat tolerated the two droolers that got brought in the last four years of her life- she taught those dogs to respect the cat. I think Saul will do that, but supervised visits would be a good thing- let them sniff each other under the door for a few days, be in the same room with Saul in a (really) high position. Eventually they should tolerate each other in the same room but probably will not become grooming buddies.

 

[JenJee]

Sounds good, I'll do a curve this weekend and test at various times throughout the days on other days and before food. I don't free feed so that'll make it a bit easier.

Bowser is a weimaraner mix and he has a very high prey drive. Somehow he and Ivan have become buddies but Ivan really doesn't move much and he's very used to dogs so he just holds still and lets them sniff him. Because of Ivan I was too optimistic about Saul. Bowser is used to being able to walk up to a cat, lick it and sniff and have the cat either rub against him or ignore him.

Saul hisses and swipes and then Bowser gets really stimulated and starts lunging and barking. He was on a leash when we did this introduction. We're still working on it and keeping Bowser on a leash and he does fine until they meet face to face then he gets overstimulated and I am afraid he will hurt Saul. I am thinking of buying a muzzle for Bowser for our training sessions with Saul just in case.

Saul is interesting because he's pretty fearless around dogs and he is great with my black lab so he'll walk right up to Bowser and they're fine until that hiss and swipe.