So overwhelmed juggling sugardance issues

Status
Not open for further replies.
stacia

stacia

Member Since 2014
Yesterday, I was painting baseboards (after removing all the carpet upstairs because Tasha destroyed it by peeing everywhere no matter what we did) and I broke down sobbing.

- We can't book our trip home in two weeks for my dad's 60th birthday because Tasha won't let the sitter inject her. We can't board her because she becomes devil cat and becomes super stressed, won't eat, etc. Flying is our only option. At this point I may have to go by myself. You all gave me great suggestions for familiarizing her with the sitter but then the sitter broke her leg and hasn't been able to come over.
- Even if we could leave her, she's had THREE mornings this week that her AMPS was too low to shoot. So if the sitter HAD injected, one was low enough to 100% be a hypo situation, the other two probably borderline and noone here to monitor her.
- What is with the low AMPS? We just had to increase her dose (ProZinc) from .75u to 1u because her numbers were still too high and she had glucose in her urine.

The inability to travel is causing a lot of friction with my husband. Replacing carpets wasn't in the plans right now (though we can manage - it's more about the time/effort/disruption than the expense). I adore my furball and I'll do whatever I need to do for her but I feel like I don't have a handle on things at all.
 
We call it a dance, but it'd be nice if someone would write out all the steps!
{{hugs}}

Note: if you are using a U-40 insulin like ProZinc, by using a conversion chart you can use the U-100 insulin syringes which lets you dose in 0.2 unit amounts. Basically, each half unit tick mark on a U-100 equals 0.2 units of a U-40 insulin.
40% of the U-100 mark = U-100 dose:
0.4 * 0.5 = 0.2
0.4 * 1.0 = 0.4
0.4 * 1.5 = 0.6
0.4 * 2.0 = 0.8
0.4 * 2.5 = 1.0
 
I'm sorry you are having such a difficult time. The good news is that she is reacting very well to the insulin.

If she were mine, I'd see if I could change things during that pm cycle. One idea would be to lower the dose on the yellow pre shots - so give .5 for numbers like the 273 at pmps.

My thinking is that she may drop low at night and that is why she has an unshootable amps. This might also be due to less activity at night, or because she eats more during the day and thus her numbers stay up a little higher. So you could try leaving out some food at night- maybe picking it up when you get up at night (Assuming you do. I sure do. :mrgreen: ) so she doesn't eat in that 2 hour time frame before the am test. If you can get two shootable pre shots (even if you are shooting less insulin) she may stay in better ranges.

I still like the one unit for the 350+ numbers especially for the daytime.

Have you considered a vet tech for the time you will be gone? Sometimes they are happy to pick up some extra work. And they might be able to test and shoot.
 
Hi Stacia,

I don't have much to offer in the advice department, but I can send you this:

:YMHUG:

I feel for you.
 
Thanks for the support, everyone.

Last night, since we were going out and we had skipped the AM shot, we shot an hour early. I gave a slightly smaller injection, hoping we could inject this morning at our regular time. Oh, could we! 385. More than the last two mornings combined. It IS possible she ate her overnight snack later than usual - I meant to come down and pick it up but I wasn't feeling well and forgot.

We had picked up some U-100 syringes early on. The vet gave us serious hell for them (I know, I know, it's MY cat, not hers) and my husband wasn't comfortable with the shorter syringe. I think I'm going to get some more though for PM injections because I want them done accurately if we lower it and usually he does AM duty, I do PM duty anyways.

I'm going to look for a vet tech for traveling. Maybe someone who really means business, as opposed to a gentle (fabulous) cat sitter, will be more confident and get the job done.

Thanks again. I love my beautiful girl and my heart just breaks when I feel like I can't figure out what she's telling me.
 
Is it possible to take Tasha with you so you can see your dad? There are several people on this list that travel with their pets. Maybe they can offer some suggestions. If you can take her with you, you can ask your vet for something that will help keep her calm during the trip.
 
I don't know if I could realistically travel with her for this trip. If we were driving, I'd do it, but we have to fly because we only go for a couple of days and it's 12 hours each way by car. It seems like a lot of stress for her to fly. Plus, how do I say this?, once we arrive, it's not a good place for her to be. No pet-friendly hotels, I'd hate to ask the friends we stay with to allow her there - they don't have pets and I think the wife is allergic to cats - and if we stay with family, their animals are usually sick/not vaccinated/have fleas.

Her numbers have been in the high 300s the last couple of mornings again. The sitter came last night and injected her with no problem while we stood nearby but Tasha growled at her as she left. She'll try to inject her tomorrow while we're not here. At this point, we're thinking because of the way kitty's numbers are all over, we're going to try to just go for one injection a day, if Tasha will allow even that. And we're going to put the trip off until Nov 1/2 instead of Oct 18/19. If we can't do it in November, we'll wait until spring. I don't travel north any later than that because of weather.
 
Hope she settles down with the petsitter and makes your life a little easier. A curve sometime would probably give you some good data. I would guess the higher amps number is a bounce. Wonder how low her nadir is...
 
I'll do a curve tomorrow. It's been awhile since I did one and I don't believe I've done one at all since raising her to the 1.0u dose. I guess I wondered if it was even worthwhile with her AMPS being so random. We won't get a true PMPS tomorrow since we'll leave the house around +11 and the sitter is planning to do her evening shot.

Dear kitty: Liza-sitter would love you if you'd let her. She really would. Please be friends!
 
Do you give Tasha freeze-dried protein treats? If you got the sitter to be the only person to give her the treats for a while before your trip, might that make Tasha more favourably disposed toward her?
 
We do give her the treats, only at testing time. I'm not sure how Tasha would feel if we don't give them to her at test time. The sitter is definitely liberal with them when she visits and that's the only time outside of testing that Tasha gets them.

I can't do a curve today. Tasha's number was only 184 at AMPS so we stalled 40 minutes and she was only 185. Because the sitter is coming to inject tonight, I only gave half her usual dose, wanting to give her something but not make her too low to inject this evening. I'll have to test at what's basically +10 and the sitter will inject at +11, assuming the +10 is acceptable. Otherwise we call it all off.

I'm feeling more and more like we should just cancel all travel until spring. I'll go see my family on my own. My husband can take his trip in November on his own. And over the next few months, we try to regulate Tasha's numbers AND her sitter-hatred. I'm about to concede defeat.
 
Out of curiosity, how much experience with diabetic cats including testing does your sitter have? The reason I am asking is if she is nervous, Tasha will pick up on it.
 
We're planning to fly either Oct 31 or Nov 1, back Nov 3.

The sitter does give injections regularly but no experience with testing which is why we didn't ask her to do that. I think you're right about her being nervous. Tasha's always kept her at a distance and been stand-offish, sometimes swatting if the sitter tries to pet her. Kitty may have picked up on her nerves and now that Tasha has completely spazzed on her twice when we went away last and she tried to inject, there may be no recovery between them. So if tonight doesn't go well, we're going to pursue the vet tech route. Someone with more experience and more confidence may be the answer. As a backup, the sitter also has a friend who is a pet sitter and has her own diabetic cats.
 
Maybe a bit of play therapy? Or grooming, if Tasha likes that?
If Tasha likes to play, the sitter can start the visit with that first and play for a good 15-20 minutes, then do the shot.
Or if grooming is TashaKs thing, spend several minutes brushing/combing.
 
:RAHCAT

SUCCESS!!! Tasha let the sitter inject her last night! I had seriously given up all hope. I think so had the sitter.

We barely managed to get out the door before the sitter arrived so we're going to try again over the weekend with more of a gap between our disappearance and her appearance. If that goes well, we'll try a couple of nights away but nearby so we can come home if necessary around the 18th.

Of course, Tasha's decided "fine, the sitter can inject me but I'm going to poo on the floor now to punish you for it." Fine, that's why we ripped out the carpet. It's easy to clean and I can't even be mad. (I'll keep an eye on it - she seems to have a little tummy trouble happening.)
 
I completely understand your frustration. This is hard. Glad to hear you had some success with the petsitter.

Of course, Tasha's decided "fine, the sitter can inject me but I'm going to poo on the floor now to punish you for it." Fine, that's why we ripped out the carpet. It's easy to clean and I can't even be mad.[
Click to expand...

A couple years ago I ripped up all my carpet too... now when there is an "accident" I just do a little happy dance because a few paper towels and some clorox spray, and bye-bye mess. It's great.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top