Chimi's Witch
Member Since 2021
Hi, have really learned a lot from this community and am hoping I can get some input for caring for my 12 year old tux, Chimi, until we can contact our vet tomorrow. Saturday morning we woke up and he had vomited. He vomited twice more and the night prior had not finished his food at evening feeding (unusual behavior). He was extremely lethargic so we took him in to our vet. She is aware of everything aside from today's lethargy being pretty extreme and has been working with us to try to get his BG levels stabilized (we have been giving him 2 units Lantus twice a day and it isn't bringing him down into a healthy range, but if we give him more than that at once he becomes hypoglycemic). She took his vitals, which she said were good at the time. She/we suspect he has pancreatitis. She has ordered a SpecfPL and gave us Buprenex, which we have administered.
His BG is currently maxing out the Alphatrak reader. Around noon we gave him 2 units of insulin to see if we could bring his BG down. He perked up a tiny bit, walked around for a little bit but then went back to laying down and hasn't moved much if at all. He is taking water, but no food. We aren't going to give him more insulin since it did nothing for him earlier and he hasn't eaten since Friday evening.
Background: He was diagnosed with diabetes last October and initially responded very well to insulin (Lantus). Recently we have been having trouble getting his BG to stay within a healthy range. It is generally always too high (> 300). We had planned a fructosomine scan for him tomorrow, but we ended up taking him in for an emergency appt with our vet yesterday. He is a high aggression/high anxiety cat (typically we give him 5mg of fluoxetine, which helps a lot). We recently traveled for the first time and had boarded him at a veterinary hospital where they could provide adequate care for him. He had experienced a blood glucose level of 690 while he was in the hospital so they gave him an additional two units midday of insulin and he became hypoglycemic with a reading of 30. This sort of swing has happened twice at home for us, our vet is aware.
My question now is, is there anything that we can do for him if he is having a pancreatic flare aside from administer the pain medication and keep things calm around him? We are so torn up about this, he seems miserable and we're so worried that this may be the end for him. Thanks for any thoughts about anything that we can do and please let me know if I can provide more information. He is literally laying with his head on the edge of his water bowl and has hardly moved for three hours, yesterday he did the same for six hours or more.
His BG is currently maxing out the Alphatrak reader. Around noon we gave him 2 units of insulin to see if we could bring his BG down. He perked up a tiny bit, walked around for a little bit but then went back to laying down and hasn't moved much if at all. He is taking water, but no food. We aren't going to give him more insulin since it did nothing for him earlier and he hasn't eaten since Friday evening.
Background: He was diagnosed with diabetes last October and initially responded very well to insulin (Lantus). Recently we have been having trouble getting his BG to stay within a healthy range. It is generally always too high (> 300). We had planned a fructosomine scan for him tomorrow, but we ended up taking him in for an emergency appt with our vet yesterday. He is a high aggression/high anxiety cat (typically we give him 5mg of fluoxetine, which helps a lot). We recently traveled for the first time and had boarded him at a veterinary hospital where they could provide adequate care for him. He had experienced a blood glucose level of 690 while he was in the hospital so they gave him an additional two units midday of insulin and he became hypoglycemic with a reading of 30. This sort of swing has happened twice at home for us, our vet is aware.
My question now is, is there anything that we can do for him if he is having a pancreatic flare aside from administer the pain medication and keep things calm around him? We are so torn up about this, he seems miserable and we're so worried that this may be the end for him. Thanks for any thoughts about anything that we can do and please let me know if I can provide more information. He is literally laying with his head on the edge of his water bowl and has hardly moved for three hours, yesterday he did the same for six hours or more.
It works well for pain.