emilyofwaco
Member Since 2010
BeeGee is a 17 yr old DSH I adopted from our shelter 2 years ago. I'm
Not sure how long she has been diabetic, much longer than I have had her. Her vet went through a lot with her and her owner before the owner passed away, then Beej went missing for a year, then was dumped at the shelter. Previous caretakers had randomly stopped her insulin several times before, but she is super kitty! At one point she lived at the vet's office for 6+ weeks to get her re-regulated (her first owner was dying and thought it wouldn't be fair for Beej to have to find a new home, so she thought it would be better to stop the insulin and let BeeGee die first). She is missing an eye, from URI picked up at the shelter, but otherwise not bad. Her probably the best in town for diabetics, but he warned me that home testing might not be possible with her because she can get very touchy - they even had problems testing her.
Beej has been on 3 units of PZI BID since I have had her. I tried to test her a couple of times, but could never actually get blood. Well, my AC went out a couple of weeks ago, which did two things. It's thrown her off her food, but also increased her blood flow, so I can test now if I can get her to hold still - very hard to tell where to prick her ears because they are dark brown. We had a weird hypo episode a few days ago which precipitated the testing. My dogs started barking and woke me up - I looked at Beej and she was not sleeping but nearly unconscious and would barely rouse. I HAD to test to see if she was low or high, the reading was 25. I quickly gave her a dose of Karo and some pedialyte, she perked up right away and I gave her some dry Whiskas, which I knew she would scarf. We got back to 98, then I had to go chase the dogs down the street - I'd had to put them in the yard while I was working on Beej, and one of them can get out of anything.
So I've been testing in the morning, when she eats dry food - right now anything I can get her to eat. I got 112 Thursday, 195 on Friday, 225 Saturday and 205 Sunday. The vet said no insulin at 195, at 225 I gave her 1 unit, I held off today and she's been perky for her. I just started a second job, so I'm not home long enough to run a curve, but she seems to be ok as long as she is eating. I know my mom has been on a sliding scale for insulin, but I have no instructions on how to do that for Beej. The 1 unit seemed to be appropriate - didn't want to go higher since I couldn't be at home to monitor her. I'm also having challenges getting her to eat enough, she eats very slowly and I have to put the dogs outside to keep them away from her food, which often results in chasing the dogs down the street. (I have foster cats in all the rooms that close, and my dogs can open crates.
One other interesting thing - Beej will often come up and "demand" her insulin, but lately she'd been running away from
It. Obviously that should have been a clue!
So am I on the right track? If I can't run a curve, is there any way to tell?
Not sure how long she has been diabetic, much longer than I have had her. Her vet went through a lot with her and her owner before the owner passed away, then Beej went missing for a year, then was dumped at the shelter. Previous caretakers had randomly stopped her insulin several times before, but she is super kitty! At one point she lived at the vet's office for 6+ weeks to get her re-regulated (her first owner was dying and thought it wouldn't be fair for Beej to have to find a new home, so she thought it would be better to stop the insulin and let BeeGee die first). She is missing an eye, from URI picked up at the shelter, but otherwise not bad. Her probably the best in town for diabetics, but he warned me that home testing might not be possible with her because she can get very touchy - they even had problems testing her.
Beej has been on 3 units of PZI BID since I have had her. I tried to test her a couple of times, but could never actually get blood. Well, my AC went out a couple of weeks ago, which did two things. It's thrown her off her food, but also increased her blood flow, so I can test now if I can get her to hold still - very hard to tell where to prick her ears because they are dark brown. We had a weird hypo episode a few days ago which precipitated the testing. My dogs started barking and woke me up - I looked at Beej and she was not sleeping but nearly unconscious and would barely rouse. I HAD to test to see if she was low or high, the reading was 25. I quickly gave her a dose of Karo and some pedialyte, she perked up right away and I gave her some dry Whiskas, which I knew she would scarf. We got back to 98, then I had to go chase the dogs down the street - I'd had to put them in the yard while I was working on Beej, and one of them can get out of anything.
So I've been testing in the morning, when she eats dry food - right now anything I can get her to eat. I got 112 Thursday, 195 on Friday, 225 Saturday and 205 Sunday. The vet said no insulin at 195, at 225 I gave her 1 unit, I held off today and she's been perky for her. I just started a second job, so I'm not home long enough to run a curve, but she seems to be ok as long as she is eating. I know my mom has been on a sliding scale for insulin, but I have no instructions on how to do that for Beej. The 1 unit seemed to be appropriate - didn't want to go higher since I couldn't be at home to monitor her. I'm also having challenges getting her to eat enough, she eats very slowly and I have to put the dogs outside to keep them away from her food, which often results in chasing the dogs down the street. (I have foster cats in all the rooms that close, and my dogs can open crates.
One other interesting thing - Beej will often come up and "demand" her insulin, but lately she'd been running away from
It. Obviously that should have been a clue!
So am I on the right track? If I can't run a curve, is there any way to tell?
