Rain - Hold Steady with Current Dose for Longer or Adjust?

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Wulfwin

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I increased Rain's dose to 0.6 unit on Monday night so she's now in her 4th cycle on the new dose. Her nadirs yesterday AM and today AM were in the blues, but her pre-shot numbers were up in the reds, and her PM cycles seem to bounce. Should I stick with the 0.6 unit for longer or adjust her dose? I work from home during the week, so I can usually monitor her pretty well. This weekend I'm going to have a problem because I'll have to take her with me to work at the shelter (no one home to check her BG) and that's going to cause stress hyperglycemia and not eating (that's what happened on 4/23 and 4/24).
 
Well, you could try a little less in the am and see if she flattens out while still staying in nice numbers. Or you could feed the drop and see if it flattens out - so give her a snack around +4 when she has the bigger drop. I don't think I would increase the dose yet - I am thinking it would just cause a bigger bounce. Unfortunately, cats bounce until they stop and every one has a different pattern of bouncing....
 
Unfortunately, Rain is still free fed dry kibble (I'll update my sig to reflect that) - I'm working on transitioning her to scheduled feedings, and eventually wet food (in the mean time I've ordered some Wysong Epigen Venison dry since it's significantly less percent calories from carbs than the hydrolyzed protein she's currently on, and will hopefully work with her food allergies), but right now I can't count on her eating when I want her to. Would you suggest dropping the AM dose to 0.5 unit? Or lower?
 
That explains a lot. I would wonder if she'd go off insulin if you could switch her to wet low carb. Have you seen this website by a vet - www.catinfo.org. She has lots of good ideas for transitioning cats from dry to wet. Also if you search for "switch to wet food" or "diet change" you will find lots of threads with good tips.
 
Yeah, I think remission is a definite possibility if I can get her switched. I have read Dr. Pierson's site. I'm working on it, it's just going to be a long transition process and I have to be careful with it. Rain's never voluntarily eaten wet food, and she's incredibly picky about what she'll actually eat (except for foreign bodies - she loves those!). She once went on a 3 day hunger strike because I put about 6 pieces of kibble of a different food into an entire bowl of her current food. That's why I'm thinking of trying the Wysong (assuming she'll eat it) to try to reduce her carbs in the short term while I work on the long term diet. I'm actually thinking about checking her for pancreatitis as she has had episodes of unexplained inappetence/weight loss, as well as occasional bouts of vomiting that responds to a cerenia shot.
 
Hi I'm just getting back from a trip and haven't had time to read through the whole thread. It sounds like Rain has some food allergies - is that well documented or could it be IBD? Murphy has never been able to tolerate wet food (made him vomit) since the diabetes diagnoses, I transitioned him successfully to Royal Canin venison canned (single protein) he did great for about 2 weeks, then had a horrid, terrifying bout of pancreatitis. He has since been dx with chronic pancreatitis and triaditis (IBD as well) I feed him about 50% dry and 50% wet - the dry food I use is Epigen 90 (it is apparently quite different from regular epigen and has no starches at all) - Evo, Young Again, and Waggers - a semi-moist starch free food
I avoid all wet food with carrageenan or the gum, and concentrate on the novel protein foods - the brands I use are Nature's Logic, Nature's variety, Ziwipeak and tikicat. I end up tossing about half the cans I open.
 
Hi Carol. Rain's had chronic vomiting most of the 7 and a half years I've had her. She would throw up partially digested food at least every other week, but typically more like weekly. About a year and a half ago my vet and I started to work her up for possible food allergies vs. intolerance with diet trials, switching her from the Wellness core she had been on, to science diet I/D, then to the current diet of Royal Canin Hydrolyzed Protein (we tried Z/D before that, but that's what led to the 3 day hunger strike). On the I/D she seemed to digest the food more before throwing it up, but the hydrolyzed protein seems to have resolved the vomiting related to her food. The response to the diet change along with concurrent scaly itchy ears (which are prone to ear infections) is what led to the diagnosis of a food allergy vs IBD or food intolerance. At this point, she does still have occasional vomiting, but it seems to be related to other causes (she's very prone to hairballs for instance; and she's a major foreign body eater, loves to chew on plastic). I do think the food allergy diagnosis is more likely than IBD given the skin issues she also has, but I guess that doesn't rule out IBD. I do wonder if she has some degree of pancreatitis though as well.

At this, point, I have yet to ever get Rain to eat wet food voluntarily (even when I met her as a severely ill 8 month old kitten, she wouldn't eat wet food), and she's very picky about trying new things (I once got about 30 different kinds of cat treats to try to find one that she would like to use when I was getting her used to her inhaler; she only ate 1 of the kinds, and even that she stopped eating after they changed the packaging and presumably the formulation). I'm hesitant to try any food that has chicken in it, as that was in every diet she's been on previously (turkey, pork, and some fish were as well), so I'm trying to limit my choices to novel protein or limited ingredient diets. Unfortunately Epigen 90, Evo, Waggers, and Young again all contain proteins that have been in foods that she's had problems with in the past, which is why I'm trying the Epigen Venison instead for a dry kibble. I've gotten some Nature's Variety, Ziwipeak, and Addiction canned food and have tried several of them - so far the only thing she's done has been trying to bury the dish. Right now, I think I have several options to try, I'm just still struggling with getting her to try them.

I'll add carrageenan and guar gum (I think that's the gum you're referring to) to my list of no nos!
 
Hi Sarah - sigh - I understand how frustrating it is - Murphy develops food aversions so easily
It definitely sounds like a food allergy but with the vomiting and frequent hairballs, could be something else as well - I have read that frequent hairballs is not the norm in healthy kitties - daily cerenia (4 mg) has worked wonders for Murphy - I think he has only vomited once in the past 4 months or so (it used to be several times a week) - check out www.ibdkitties.net - there is good info on IBD, pancreatitis, and food intolerances - might see something useful. Just curious if you have tried the ziwipeak air dried food - Murphy won't touch it but I wish he would I have the venison
 
Yeah, Rain is in the middle of a food issue right now - opened a new bag of her hydrolyzed protein late last night, and of course she won't eat it. She vomited bile already this morning, so I just gave her some Cerenia. We'll try some food again in about an hour, and it looks like today is going to be a closer monitoring day than usual.

It wouldn't surprise me if she does have another concurrent issue, whether IBD or pancreatitis. She's going with me to work this weekend, so I'm thinking I'll send off a Spec fPL test. I'm also thinking about pursuing an ultrasound as well as the daily Cerenia like Murphy - I do wonder if she has more nausea going on than I realize. Thanks for the link to the IBDkitties site - looks like I'll have lots of reading material there!

I haven't tried the air dried food yet - I wasn't entirely sure what that meant for the consistency of the food. I'll go back and take another look at it.
 
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