Dante 10/07

[Sheri & Spyder (GA)]

AMPS = 360
PMPS = 379

he has been getting 1.25u since his pmps last night

has a vettie bean appt tomorrow @4pm. figured I have his ears and teeth checked, and perhaps a urinalysis- especially since I cannot seem to catch him peeing at all.

any other suggestions? he did have a senior panel done b4 he came to me.

 

[Rachel & Gus]

Sheri,
Sadly Dante's numbers look almost identical to Gus's. I just started him on Levemir last Sunday. We had some great numbers and then bounced up in the 400s and today I gasped when his midpoint reading was in the 500s. Yesterday his midpoint reading was in the low 200s and I was so happy! I had such high hopes for Levemir and I'm still hopeful that you and I can get this to work for our cats.

In August Gus had his dental and they removed the last of his 6 teeth - which improved his health, but not his numbers as I had hoped. He too had a urinalysis and culture - it came back negative for everything. He had a cardio ultrasound this summer and we have had two full blood panels in the past 6 months.

I know you are searching for the answer to the high numbers as well. I don't know what else to tell you to look for because I have searched all over Gus's body and all his numbers are good. He has a slight rise in creatine levels because he is 14 y.o. and developing kidney disease like all cats eventually do. He was at 2.5 in August. Gus has pancreatitis and I don't know if that is reeking havoc on his numbers or not because he isn't showing any symptoms of it - which he usually does like hiding or not eating. He has actually been pretty playful and running through the house. I sometimes think he has a secrete stash of donuts I don't know about because I cannot explain his inconsistent numbers.

I wish I knew what else to tell you to look for and I wish that Dante and Gus would level out to some good numbers. Here's hoping we can figure out what's going on.

 

[Rachel & Gus]

I see now that I increased Gus's insulin when I probably shouldn't have. His numbers are coming down and I will go back to 1 unit and see what happens.

Again I wish I knew what to look for with Dante. I was reading about insulin resistance, but I don't know if he has that or not. I've learned that pain can cause higher numbers, but I didn't see anywhere that you suspect he is in pain.

Have you thought about getting a fructosamine test? Dr. Graves - who I've spoke with and has been discussed on this board - says that they are very important tests because it gives a global picture. He said that even with all the meter testing, it isn't as accurate as a fructosamine test. They cost around $40 where I go and I found it was worth it when Gus was on Lantus. It really gave me a bigger picture as to what was going on that I couldn't get from numerous meter tests.

Good luck to Dante with his appointment tomorrow! I hope you find some answers.

 

[Sheri & Spyder (GA)]

Hi Rachel. Thanx for all your well wishes. I may have made the same mistake, and raised him up when I shouldn't have. And since he's a rescue, nobody knows anything about the 1st ~6yrs of his life.....nothing. So, I honestly don't know him know him at all.
Kinda panicked, in a matter of speaking, and wanted to "force" his numbers down. Don't like him above that renal threshold. Never catch him peeing, so I don't even know if he's throwing any ketones at all. Don't know if a fructosamine would make any different in this stage of the dance.
I do know that his ears are "itchy" and he's not that happy with being confined- he wants some attention, but he and my civvie aren't exactly buddies (he's already gone after her)

Anyways, I'll get my vet to check him over (maybe something was missed before) Whatever is up, I hope we can fix it 'cause he's already worth his weight in gold, lol

 

[Rachel & Gus]

I'm glad you and Dante found each other as it sounds like a happy bond.
I hope you figure out what's going on. I too have the freak out when I see those really high numbers. I feel such mental anguish and want to reduce them right away.
Gus and his sister have very waxy ears and I have to clean them often - which they absolutely hate. They had yeast infections in their ears when I first got them and it required a couple rounds of treatment. I'm not sure if that is what's going on with Dante or not. The testing on their ears can also bother them and I find that's actually worse for Gus than the shot of insulin.
Keep us posted and best wishes with getting Dante on track.

 

[Sheri & Spyder (GA)]

The one thing that the people who found him told me, was that he didn't like his ears messed with. I am very thankful that he's as good as he is for testing. He was "supposedly" neg for ear mites. It seems to be the bottom part/ inside of his ears that bothers him.

I did try to clean the one ear some, but didn't seem to get a whole lot out.

 

[Rachel & Gus]

They can do a test for yeast infections. That's how I found out what was going on with Gus and Carma. I now use Epiotic and Cerumene (an ear wax softner). They absolutely hate the Cerumene because it is heavy and oily (just like the ones made for humans).
Food allergies are always possible, but as my vet said - hard to figure out especially in cats that are already on a very restricted diet.
Gus and Carma hate having their ears messed with and I cannot blame them because I feel the same way. Two suggestions my vets made for ear cleaning - warm the bottle of solution in a cup of warm water. Second, instead of pouring the solution in their ears, soak a cotton ball and squeeze it in so that it's not so shocking. These things have helped make it a little less traumatic.