LEG WEAKNESS

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Good Morning, Sumo has been exhibiting some back leg weakness for the past 3 days. It seems worse on the left. He does occasionally climb up a steep hillside in my backyard, so I am not sure if he "pulled something" or if this is related to his diabetes? I am thinking about taking him to the Vet tomorrow. I am changing vets, and this will be his first visit.
Thanks, Mary
 
Mary,

I asked Robin and Carl to look at your spreadsheet too. He is certainly a puzzle, He gives you yellows, but often as a pmps that is lower than the amps. He has never gotten down into blues and greens except for one shot here and there. It sometimes looks like an inverse curve but we have tried lower doses......

Just to make sure we had all the pertinent info. No infections, the ProZinc is only about a month old, he is eating wet lo carb?

Maybe if we put our heads together.....
 
Thanks Sue for checking in. Yes he is certainly hard to figure out! He is on all wet low carb diet. His Pro Zinc was opened on 9/16 and as far as I know he has no infections. I wil ask the vet to check his teeth tomorrow. Ketones also have been negative. He gets little exercise, which is something I need to work on.
Thanks, Mary
 
Hi Mary,

Your ss is kind of a puzzle, overall it looks like the doses are a bit too high.

I've put together a beginning sliding scale just for Sumo, it is a starting point and when we see how he responds to it we can adjust the scale to better fit his needs. I've reduced the doses to start.

Sumo's Sliding Scale
200 to 249 - .5u
250 to 299 - .6u
300 to 349 - .7u
350 to 400 - .8u

If the lower doses don't work we can always go up in dose. Lets see if this scale can get him on track.
 
Hi Robin and thank you for doing this! Of course tonights BG was 407 (Gee, what a surprise, ha) I kept him on his current dose of .7 and will start your sliding scale tomorrow. I am a little apprehensive about his vet appt tomorrow. This will be a new vet for Sumo and I am expecting her to say that his numbers are too high and recommend an increase in insulin. I am not sure what I should say except that the times we have increased I saw inverse curves and +6's at 500. Do I mention this board?? I know I am Sumo's mom and I have the final say if we follow her advice, but I am just trying to prepare. Thanks again for your labor intensive sliding scale Robin! That was nice!!!!
Mary and your #1 fan Sumo
 
Thank to Sue for asking me in on the discussion. And a million thanks to Robin for once again stepping up and creating a scale. My thoughts after looking at the SS were, okay, either it needs to go down a good bit, or up a good bit, because the current dose just doesn't seem to be working. The scale idea should help that, by making the dose fit the numbers each test.

Robin is also correct in that a reduction first is the best option. It's much easier to climb the dose ladder than it is to climb down it. Lower doses don't cause rebounds and bounces, which only complicate the picture. It should be evident after a few days of varying doses and numbers, whether it is working. If so, awesome! If not, then we can all look at raising in small steps to see if that would make sense.

I'm hoping this works.

Carl
 
Sometimes vets are very dismissive about the Internet. You can take your spreadsheet, explain you will be testing and feeding wet lo carb and tell him you have been doing research about FD and let him see you plan to have input on Sumo's treatment. (Dr. Peterson's website - www.catinfo.org - might be a good resource to mention) I hope he will be open.
 
Mary,
Can you print out your spreadsheet? That way, if a dose increase is suggested, you can show her in black, white, and a rainbow's worth of colors what has happened at higher doses. If she just randomly says "no, you need to raise it to 2 units", then just ask her to please explain the rational behind that. If she makes sense, then consider it, post it here and let us kick it around. If she doesn't, then do what we usually suggest.....just nod your head, say things like "yeah, okay, uh-uh, right", then smile, drive home, and do what you want to do anyway. You're in charge of Sumo, and you pay her salary. In this case, she is working for you.
Sure, you can mention this board. I did. I also brought Binky's canned food lists with me. As soon as I took them out, my vet said "Binky's list, right?" She'd already seen it. Now, why she still prescribed Hills M/D is beyond me, but she was familiar with the food charts. She knew low carb was a must for sugarcats. I guess she just believed that the Hill's stuff was low enough (the lowest Hill's she could prescribe), and she probably thought it had to have better ingredients. I don't think she really researched nutrition that much, and got sucked into the whole prescription food is good food vortex.
I was lucky, my vet had no problem with that (Binky's) , or with this board. She wasn't "on board" with us, but had no problem that I was. If your vet has never heard of FDMB, then maybe she'll at least take a peek? If she has heard of it, and doesn't like "us", then that'll tell you all you need to know, I think.

Carl
 
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