Sick and not eating today, shoot tonight?

[billr]

Gizmo is sick today and hasn't been eating. (He was eating fine yesterday.) He had some diarrhea last night (not too unusual), but we also found vomit this morning. His AMPS was 354 so he got his typical 1.5U. Since then, though, he hasn't eaten and at +6 was down to 263. He does have a Vet appointment for tomorrow, but in the meantime, if he still hasn't eaten by tonight, should we still give insulin if he's not too low, or should we skip, or just give a low token dose? We don't want him to drop too low during the night, if he's not going to eat.

 

[billr]

To followup on my own post, he was 302 PMPS, but still not eating, so we decided to give him a half dose. We'll keep an eye on him tonight and see where he's at in the morning.

 

[Dyana]

I am sending healing vines and feel better vines to Gizmo.

I hope he is feeling better today, but I think I would still go to the vet appointment.
The first thing I would do, is check for ketones. Do you have urine test strips? If not, I would go buy some and do that.
I hope the vet visit goes well, and you get him some meds to help him to feel better.

I see in the remarks section of your spreadsheet that you are having trouble with the markings on the syringes being off. Those used to frustrate me so much. I finally took 3 syringes back to the pharmacy as an example. One had the first line right at the top, one about 1/4 unit down, and one about 1/2 unit down. That's a big difference. They sent the syringes and my complaint to the manufacturer and all they did was give me a free box ;() I started using calipers to measure the doses and that really helped a lot.

I wish you luck with Gizmo today. Eat boy!

 

[BJM]

When the glucose is high (ex. over 300 mg/dL on a human glucometer)
AND you know how much the regular dose takes him down
AND he isn't eating
Then, you may consider a cautious 1/2 dose.

Please - Discuss this with your vet.

This is essentialy what you have with a diabetic cat that is fasting before a dental or surgical procedure. In those situations, some vets have asked that the cat receive only half of the normal dose.

 

[billr]

Thanks for the kind words Dyana and the advice BJ. Unknowingly, we had followed your advice before it showed up. Good to know for the future, though, and for anyone else that might come across this thread.

We did keep the Vet appt this morning and she couldn't find anything wrong with him - i.e., couldn't feel any obstructions. He's eaten like a horse today - making up for not eating yesterday, I guess. He's peed, but not pooped today, so we'll still keep an eye on him. Vet drew blood for his 6 month checkup. We do have ketone test strips, as well as a Nova Maxx meter that measures blood ketone level. Didn't think to check that because his numbers were not real high.

BJ, I've read of other using calipers and had been thinking about trying that. I'd thought of sending the bad syringes back to the mfr, but I from your post, I can see it's not worth it. I'm sure they figure the .25 or .5U error doesn't make any difference to their typical human patient.

 

[billr]

Well, he pooped out a big ol' hairball and something else hard this morning, which was apparently the cause of his blockage and discomfort. Eating well today and throwing unexpectedly low numbers.

 

[Critter Mom]

Glad that Gizmo is eating again. Love his photo! cat_pet_icon