Robbie 330 at PMPS +11.5

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RobbiesMom

RobbiesMom

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Trying to hold off the food but he's getting destructive (and I just replaced two lampshades that he'd torn by ripping at them when I wouldn't feed him) I gave him 4 pieces of the freeze dried chciken treats (can't remember what these things are called but they were suggested here as a treat). With a 330 and no heavy food effect in place I'm thinking 4.50 might get some interesting results - or not - which will say something. I'll be home most of the day so I can keep an eye on him, run a curve by testing ever 2 hours (that's enough right?). However I don't think I can hold off food for much longer so thinking I feed him in about 5 minutes and shoot the 4.5 as he's eating which will be 15 minutes early for his AMPS shot.
Anyone awake for comments on this plan I've hatched?
 
held off till almost 6:50 am EST to feed Robbie and shot 4.50 as he was eating at 6:55am (his AMPS would be 7am so...) Gonna try to catch a couple of zzzz's till I HAVE to be up at 8am - we'll see how today goes.
 
Nice preshot Ellen! Hope he has a good day... and isn't so destructive! Geez - in my house that would result in "jail time" (that's the crate WITHOUT a blankie!) :shock: A couple of my kids have quite a record! Jack, the dog, did "hard time" for a while...his record is the longest! :o He was naughty when he was younger - worst offense - taste-testing Grayson's mom Tedi - who has absolute disdain for Jack!
 
We had a crate for the dog for a while - Robbie used to get in it and fall asleep - drove the dog nuts so we got rid of it. He's pretty good if I catch him doing the lampshade bit a strong NO ROBBIE stops him but he tends to do it when I've dozed off on the sofa - and than I only wake up as the lamp is crashing down. This is a new bad habit that started about a year ago - not quite sure what it's about. He's a character.
OK doing a +2 myphone call to the vet was postponed till lunch time they had an emergency this am ...
 
AMPS +2 336 (breakfast of a full can of FF was at AMPS when he tested 330)
AMPS +4 298 (snack of PureBites - 4 pieces of the chicken)


Spoke to the vet - he strongly feels that Robbie is still not on a high enough dose - looking at the numbers and understanding why I didn't start at 4.00 as he suggested and appreciating all that I gain from this group he still wants to see me try 5.00 - he also mentioned after discussing how Robbie has reacted to the insulin 2 things - better diet timing (which I'm working on) and perhaps he's a cat that would be better of on Lantas (Lantus?) because the Prozinc doesn't seem to take him thru the full 12 hours. We also discussed possibly a 5/5.5 dosing plan but he didn't want to jump to anything yet - said to ease up to 5.00 and than give that a full week. He also offered to do these phone "visits" (which don't cost me anything) more frequently - which I was very appreciative of.

For those who had offered advice on other aspects of Robbies health here's where I got with the Vet:
As for the other things we discussed - While he didn't feel the Metimucil (the sugar free kind we're using) was a big issue he was supportive of us switching to Mirilax but wanted to look into what dosage to give him and is going to call me back at the end of the day.
Terbutaline syrup for his asthma- he'd rather see me continue with the Albuterol inhaler if Robbie will tolerate it since that doesn't effect his whole body as much as the Terbutaline would. Since we are OK on the Albuterol I'm going to stick with that. He is going to do some research on the benefits of Claratin vs. Accolate (which is more like Singulair) for allergies as we both agree that Robbie's asthma is highly effected by allergies - however he had pulled the 2 different x-rays we'd had done on Robbie's lungs and the test that was done (they squirt water down them and than get something tested - to be honest when he was reminding me what this test was the dog was barking and I missed some of it) for the asthma and re-confirmed for himself that Robbie indeed has asthma and even if it's allergy induced it's still asthma. He totally dismissed any idea that Robbie could have Toxoplasmosis - although he said if I wanted to pursue that as a possible issue we could he just didn't feel it was a pressing concern. We also discussed the fact that Robbie's issues with his hind quarters was quite possibly more a neuropathy situation than the arthritis getting that much worse (since I've seen an improvement since he's been on the insulin and his numbers are lower even though not low enough). So next visit we will discuss just where the arthritis is - he clearly has deposits and that chip in his hip bone which no doubt cause him pain and stiffness.
He also saw little reason to test for Acro/IAA at this point but again said he'd be fine with doing that to ease my mind if it was a real concern but suggested we wait to see if moving up to at least 5.00 didn't show us that this isn't a resistance issue. He is going to make sure his office is equipped to do the Acro test (knows exactly where to send the blood work etc.) since he admitted to never having done this since he started his own practice 7 years ago (he used to work under another local vet for several years).
All in all it was a good phone call - he feels I'm "testing too much" and stressing myself out and suggested I not go for getting so many "curves" and give myself and Robbie's ears a break. Although he totally supports testing before shooting, which he also admitted is new for him and he really only started advocating home testing after my experience with Robbie 2 years ago. "It was a real break thru for me how easily you took to the home testing" was his comment.
So I will head towards upping to 5.00 and see where that goes - thank you all for your continued support and input - I have so much to take in from just the short time we've been back here and everyone is so helpful and knowledgeable it's really a wonderful thing.
 
Sounds like a good phone visit.

I'm going to digress some and go back to the behavioral thing... When I first got kittens (2 of them, many many years ago), we trained them with a water bottle. Jump on the counter - squirt! Jump on the table - squirt! Misbehave (pop the dog, dig in a plant for a LB - squirt!

Now, when you have a houseful, some of the rules change, and I've become much more lax about discipline in many regards. But the destructive behavior would make me crazy. I like that you can put the little squirt bottle on "stream", and it will go 10' easily. So I can be sitting on the couch and someone can hop on the table 10 feet away and one little squirt and they're looking at me as if to say "what? where'd that come from?" and then stop the misbehavior. 15 minutes of "jail time" also helps. Not cruel - just behavior modification. You'd be amazed at how effective it can be...unless of course your cat LIKES water. The ones that drink from/play in the drippy faucet....not quite as effective! :lol:

If something as simple as a little squirt bottle from the dollar store can help maintain your sanity, it's well worth it! Good luck!
 
Lu thanks - EPID I guess too (Every Person is different) I go for the rewarding of good behavior training more than the punishment thing but I hear ya - what works works! You hit the nail right on the head - Robbie LOVES to play in water - sits on the side of the tub while I shower etc. I did try the spray bottle with Roxie when she was a kitten - only for scratching at the furniture which she loves to do - and it was hysterical she thought it was a game (she also loves water they are Maine Coons what can I say) - so I got the NO SCRATCH stuff and if I remember to keep spraying it on the sofa etc. it works - just having the bottle under the sink I find does very little.... He knows the word NO really well and he stops if we say it loud and stern. Actually I'm doing some behavior modifying but on myself - I'm not GIVING IN - if he scratches at the lamp shade I say NO and he stops, he does it again again I say NO - I continued today to do that and after about 6 times he walked away, curled up by his food bowl and looked at me as if to say "I can't believe you aren't going to feed me to get me to stop" AH HA!!! So if I change MY behavior maybe he will change his - once he sees it doesn't work...

Oh, BTW AMPS +5 223 - not bad but looking like 5.00 might just be where we are going to be needing to go... looking forward to +7 his typical NADIAR (sp?) to see how low he goes on the 4.5 although he did just get a 1/4 of a can FF - once his sister starts screaming for food too I figure there must be a legit reason to feed - she's not a food hoover at all - never been an oz. over weight, in perfect shape, almost 13 and looks 7 - except for a brief skin rash/compulsive licking thing when we got the dog she's been the most healthy, perfect cat I've ever owned or known. So if she's hungry... she gets a tad less food than Robbie as she's smaller but she's also MUCH more active (flies around the house, up the cat tree, on the bed, across the sofa) so not THAT much less and hers is full on gravey FF - the "good stuff". So they both just got a late lunch...
 
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