Sweet Kitty Boy & Co
Member Since 2020
I made a bit of a ramble with a bit of background in the About Me. Were I not dog tired at 3am, I'd be happy to do so again but as it is <looks for smelling salts> , I'm going to hope you refer there and add the bits I'll babble on here and be ever so grateful if you do <BCG>
I fell in love with a testing tutorial I saw earlier and made use of the force-feeding tips in another just tonight. The wit and care of the humes who stroll and patrol here astounded me. I hated the reason we were all thrown together, but loved the gathering of support and knowledge I was witnessing.
ONTO THE BUSINESS!
KB is 4-5 yo, neutered 2yrs. Met him at 25lb, tapered to a steady 18-20 until he began losing weight. 15lb a week or two ago but I should weigh him again. No other issues other than a wheeze(?) I met him with. This comes and goes, the vet has never responded to my mentioning it. Lungs and heart always get good reports. I intend and hope to remember to get ALL the info and in as much detail as possible when I speak with or see the vet again tomorrow.
The problem is, I don't know if or how worried I should be.
I stupidly don't have any numbers or info from his testing at time of DX. I'm embarrassed I walked out of there without such basic and obviously important details. This isn't the only disaster on my current horizon, but that's no excuse. I believe "off the charts" was used. My mother, who actually took the call confirming what was wrong with him, thinks the vet said a number in the 500s. We all knew it was scary bad but we can manage this, right? Sure!
3u novolin/12 hr, I'm told. Vet didn't want to do it citing I'd want to start my own routine with it and should wait. I'm not sure he had any on premises? I'm not sure what's reasonable. I accept this, though it's a long way to go 'til 10pm, I'm think. NOW I'm thinking *******should've dosed him and checked his level again? TOLD me to get a meter, start watching it like a hawk? I don't know. I feel inadequate and that hindsight, eh? She bites.
We get home. He's not thrilled. This is not unexpected. I coax some bites into him and leave him to mostly his own devices (sluggish, dazed seeming) until 10pm. I give him the dose, no jitters, no worry I've done it wrong; all seemed fine and for 20m it seemed like my cat was coming back to me. It was as if a cheesecloth had been removed from his head and he could hear and see again. He was back to not liking the tv and its sounds, something we worked through when he was more feral. I found this reasonable and still felt good about this new insulin game.
However. this morning I greeted a dopey, lethargic cat who i THOUGHT had eaten more of his food than had been. We have a semi-larcenous canine. After his 2nd shot, 10am, he barely moved. He's not the least bit interested in anything I offer. I waste time being scared and doing research on what to do, to buy, where to buy, the 100 etcs I know you know better than I.
Somewhere in there I do call the vet. He says skip tonight's dose IF I can't get him to eat, keep trying to get him to eat and if he seems totally out of it, to use sugar water. (I was chuffed to find the karo sold out when picking up the rx, not a tip the vet gave but something I read here ; )
He does not eat, I do not dose. Eventually I get him to lick some whip cream. I feel like I should probably be smacked, but I was so desperate for SOMEthing to appeal to him. He had but the tiniest of licks. A spoonful of milk was another thing he accepted. This was around 10/11pm, no way was I administering but desperately wishing I had that monitor under my belt already. I decide whatever his problem is or isn't, he DOES need food so I dothe force-feed with Frskies and a generous-enough syringe. He accepts this not happily but without too much fuss. I'm wondering if I should lower his dose, or if it NEEDS to be this high for some reason? I'm scared he's hypo, close, or ugh, I just don't KNOW anything. This could be normal "hey, I just started being treated and this is what it can look like" business but if there's something I could or should be doing, I'd like to.
My once 20/25lb cat has shrunk to a 15lb or so cat losing alarming amounts of hair and drinking/peeing entirely too much. It seems stupid now that it wasn't more obvious earlier on. Getting an appt took weeks. 3 of em. During which he lost more hair, he's the proud owner of a 2" wide racing stripe that starts behind his shoulders and goes a bit into his tail. There are other spots, too. No lesions, just healthy skin and patchy regrowth. He became less and less interested in eating. I switched his food, that didn't last long. I began adding wet, Friskies, that also didn't last long. And now this, my poor guy's an anorexic now?
I managed to get 2 and a half or so 10ml (I think?) syringes of liquefied catfood in him. He seems the tiniest bit perkier. I'm not sure he loves me as much after the second round of feeding, lol, but I know he'll forgive me. I saw him drink a bit. Last I saw, he was lounging near the water bowl. Pee last night was nearly half of what it had been. Today he only went once. No poop but I wouldn't really expected it. He made his last deposit en route to the vet, per his MO. Sadly, I held back food that night, after 1/2am, knowing I was going to that appt.
Come 10/11am I've got to decide if I go ahead with his dose, lower or keep at 3u. Is this something I can and should do, as long as I'm able to get the food into him? It's not necessarily likely that I can get a hold of the vet in time, though not impossible. Also, I'm hoping to solve the riddle of meters/strips etc tomorrow. Car health and store stocks willing <crossesfingers>
If you waded through all this, I applaud you! If you tried, I still applaud and appreciate you.
Any input would be gratefully received. MY Sweet Kitty Boy and I thank you all for just being here <3
I fell in love with a testing tutorial I saw earlier and made use of the force-feeding tips in another just tonight. The wit and care of the humes who stroll and patrol here astounded me. I hated the reason we were all thrown together, but loved the gathering of support and knowledge I was witnessing.
ONTO THE BUSINESS!
KB is 4-5 yo, neutered 2yrs. Met him at 25lb, tapered to a steady 18-20 until he began losing weight. 15lb a week or two ago but I should weigh him again. No other issues other than a wheeze(?) I met him with. This comes and goes, the vet has never responded to my mentioning it. Lungs and heart always get good reports. I intend and hope to remember to get ALL the info and in as much detail as possible when I speak with or see the vet again tomorrow.
The problem is, I don't know if or how worried I should be.
I stupidly don't have any numbers or info from his testing at time of DX. I'm embarrassed I walked out of there without such basic and obviously important details. This isn't the only disaster on my current horizon, but that's no excuse. I believe "off the charts" was used. My mother, who actually took the call confirming what was wrong with him, thinks the vet said a number in the 500s. We all knew it was scary bad but we can manage this, right? Sure!
3u novolin/12 hr, I'm told. Vet didn't want to do it citing I'd want to start my own routine with it and should wait. I'm not sure he had any on premises? I'm not sure what's reasonable. I accept this, though it's a long way to go 'til 10pm, I'm think. NOW I'm thinking *******should've dosed him and checked his level again? TOLD me to get a meter, start watching it like a hawk? I don't know. I feel inadequate and that hindsight, eh? She bites.
We get home. He's not thrilled. This is not unexpected. I coax some bites into him and leave him to mostly his own devices (sluggish, dazed seeming) until 10pm. I give him the dose, no jitters, no worry I've done it wrong; all seemed fine and for 20m it seemed like my cat was coming back to me. It was as if a cheesecloth had been removed from his head and he could hear and see again. He was back to not liking the tv and its sounds, something we worked through when he was more feral. I found this reasonable and still felt good about this new insulin game.
However. this morning I greeted a dopey, lethargic cat who i THOUGHT had eaten more of his food than had been. We have a semi-larcenous canine. After his 2nd shot, 10am, he barely moved. He's not the least bit interested in anything I offer. I waste time being scared and doing research on what to do, to buy, where to buy, the 100 etcs I know you know better than I.
Somewhere in there I do call the vet. He says skip tonight's dose IF I can't get him to eat, keep trying to get him to eat and if he seems totally out of it, to use sugar water. (I was chuffed to find the karo sold out when picking up the rx, not a tip the vet gave but something I read here ; )
He does not eat, I do not dose. Eventually I get him to lick some whip cream. I feel like I should probably be smacked, but I was so desperate for SOMEthing to appeal to him. He had but the tiniest of licks. A spoonful of milk was another thing he accepted. This was around 10/11pm, no way was I administering but desperately wishing I had that monitor under my belt already. I decide whatever his problem is or isn't, he DOES need food so I dothe force-feed with Frskies and a generous-enough syringe. He accepts this not happily but without too much fuss. I'm wondering if I should lower his dose, or if it NEEDS to be this high for some reason? I'm scared he's hypo, close, or ugh, I just don't KNOW anything. This could be normal "hey, I just started being treated and this is what it can look like" business but if there's something I could or should be doing, I'd like to.
My once 20/25lb cat has shrunk to a 15lb or so cat losing alarming amounts of hair and drinking/peeing entirely too much. It seems stupid now that it wasn't more obvious earlier on. Getting an appt took weeks. 3 of em. During which he lost more hair, he's the proud owner of a 2" wide racing stripe that starts behind his shoulders and goes a bit into his tail. There are other spots, too. No lesions, just healthy skin and patchy regrowth. He became less and less interested in eating. I switched his food, that didn't last long. I began adding wet, Friskies, that also didn't last long. And now this, my poor guy's an anorexic now?
I managed to get 2 and a half or so 10ml (I think?) syringes of liquefied catfood in him. He seems the tiniest bit perkier. I'm not sure he loves me as much after the second round of feeding, lol, but I know he'll forgive me. I saw him drink a bit. Last I saw, he was lounging near the water bowl. Pee last night was nearly half of what it had been. Today he only went once. No poop but I wouldn't really expected it. He made his last deposit en route to the vet, per his MO. Sadly, I held back food that night, after 1/2am, knowing I was going to that appt.
Come 10/11am I've got to decide if I go ahead with his dose, lower or keep at 3u. Is this something I can and should do, as long as I'm able to get the food into him? It's not necessarily likely that I can get a hold of the vet in time, though not impossible. Also, I'm hoping to solve the riddle of meters/strips etc tomorrow. Car health and store stocks willing <crossesfingers>
If you waded through all this, I applaud you! If you tried, I still applaud and appreciate you.
Any input would be gratefully received. MY Sweet Kitty Boy and I thank you all for just being here <3
but sounds like.. ay ay ay. I feel like I keep making the wrong decisions at his expense. I'll def be looking into this but this was a rough month already, I'm close to tapped out with emergency expenses... but this is an imp thing. Doubly so bc the poor guy can't TELL me what he's thinking/ feeling. 
). I'm thinking no dose this am as we're getting out of the window ...though, does that matter when he's been off the nov for a full 24h? His last dose was yesterday at 10:30am. 
But less work for them, right? I'm nowhere near out of the woods, barely know what woods I'm in but the gratitude I feel for this community is humbling. 
