Update on Tink - no insulin in almost a week!

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JenM

JenM

Member Since 2013
So... I'm not sure what to do for dosing on Tink.

I'm SUPER happy that he's doing well. Putting weight on, starting to eat more on his own (I didn't syringe feed at all yesterday!) and we're weaning off the subQ fluids, down to about 50ml every other day or so.

His numbers are really confusing me though. We havent been over 200 in days, which is great. But then this morning, he was ALMOST 200. Last time this happened, I gave .25u of insulin. But his bg last night was under 100 on it's own, after being higher earlier that day. So I'm afraid to give even .25u for a 200ish reading if he's regulating that well on his own. What would you all do??

He's holding steady(ish)... but still a little to high to be considered in remission from what I can tell. His bg bounces around quite a bit, but he's currently eating whenever he wants and it does seem to be tied to that. Also... he HAS still been getting SOME kibble. Not much, maybe 1/8c per day. It's the Precise Holistic grain free, turkey & chicken with peas. Potato free. I emailed them to see what the carbs look like on it. I can't "get" the math on calculating it and I've found the online calculators to be VERY wrong on several foods. For instance, Stella & Chewy's freeze-dried foods show up as quite high in carbs. But I emailed them and they said their foods are less than 1% carbs, which makes sense since it's almost all freeze dried meat and nothing that yells "carbs" is listed. I dont really understand how carbs can be calculated without referencing the actual ingredients at all.

I've been looking for EVO, but it seems nobody here sells it anymore. The feed store cited a poor response to a recall, and the "pet health food store" we have cited the fact that they were bought out by Procter & Gamble. Darnit. Their cat/kitten formula claims to be (I think it said) 7%.

He's been eating his canned food semi well. He hasn't established a reliable "go-to" food yet though. What he LOVES one day, he wont touch as soon as I buy a few more cans. We've had at least 3 different "favorites" that become much less desirable after I buy more. :roll: Most of it he just wont touch.

Anyway... what's your take on his numbers and at what point you'd give another small dose of insulin? I think as long as he stays under 200 I might wait till the weekend, so I can keep an eye on him in case things get TOO low.
 
You two are amazing! I would eliminate all the dry and see what that does - it could be just enough to send him down consistently under 120. You could crumble up some of the Stella and Chewys or the freeze dried treats to give the wet some "crunch"

Yes, if you will be around the weekend, you could decide on a shoot number like 150 and shoot a drop (yes, a drop - we have ways to do it) and monitor. Joyce (SimonsMommy) who posts on the PZI forum is doing that for Simon. You might look at their ss to see how it is working for them.
 
:-D Awww... thanks.

I'm really relieved it's going so easy (though I'm not expecting it to always be easy - cuz that would be a SURE way to make it get complicated! lol) I just wish he'd pick a darn food already! I thought it was gonna be the Instinct canned duck. He really like that. But then last night he wouldn't touch it. Before that it was Weruva "Paw Lickin' Chicken". Then it wasnt. THEN he liked the Weruva "On the Cat Wok" or something (beef and chicken with pumpkin)... then he didn't. @-) I'm gonna be able to open my own pet food store pretty soon! I'm hoping if I alternate between these, he might eat it... but that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case either. But he does seem to be eating more and more of the kibble... so I guess I need to not have that be an option.

Why can't cats be more like dogs?? My dogs will eat anything. No really. ANYTHING. Paper, foam pieces, kids toys, the door jamb... :shock:
 
To answer your question - because they're cats and we are only their servants, who should be able to find the food they REALLY like. :mrgreen:

You might try Fortiflora. It's a probiotic that is made from the same enzymes that make dry food so irrestible. Some cats will eat anything if it is sprinkled on top; some cats could care less. You can buy it on the internet.
 
Jen,
so glad Tink's doing so well. My Pudge (OTJ - first remission on ProZinc, second after a brief use of Levemir) also can never settle on one food. He likes a variety & especially freshly opened cans. Once in the fridge, no matter how gussied up, he's likely to eat only to do me a favor while looking at me as if to say 'this is garbage.' Welcome to the club...

You're right to go slowly & carefully with diet change & low dose of insulin, now that his pancreas is kicking in. Sue is right. A drop is a great idea.

Best wishes,
Sophie
 
So... how exactly do I do a drop? I have a couple ideas in my head... but none of them would keep the "juice" sterile. ??
 
One approach is to practice with colored water. Pull up the smallest amount you can still see and mark that on the syringe. (It's going to be your sample each time) Then slowly push down the plunger and see how many drops are in that amount. So say there are 5. Now you know you can draw up the insulin to that mark on the sample syringe and push out 4 drops. Then shoot what is left. And yes, it will be a very tiny amount.
 
Yay! I'm so glad things are going well for you guys! What a marked improvement from just a week ago! :YMHUG:
 
PMPS last night was 93, with no insulin since 11/8! AMPS was 113 today.

However, he also tried to bury his food this morning... so apparently the rotation of "favorites" needs to be altered again. :roll:

I haven't syringe fed in a couple days now and his weight seems to be holding steady at 11lb. I'd like to see him gain a little more still, he's a pretty stocky cat and still feels skinny in the hips. But it's a pretty big improvement over the less than 10.5 he was at the vet.

I've not seen him drink water at all... but he has a fountain, so it's hard to tell if I dont see him doing it. He doesn't seem dehydrated though - no tenting or anything when I pull his skin up. We're still doing fluids every other day or so, but he will only tolerate 50-75ml at a time. The vet wanted me to give 150 - but I'm not sure how that would even fit under there! 50ml makes a pretty firm bubble in his scruff. Anyway... I'm just so used to him drinking from the faucet every time I use my bathroom... and he has not asked to do that since coming home. I wonder if all that drinking was due to the diabetes this whole time - he had been doing it more and more often the last six months or so.
 
Yes, PU/PD is one of the tell-tale signs of diabetes. Since you're now feeding him mostly wet and still giving him fluids, he's probably getting most of his water needs met through that instead. I add water to my cats' food so I never see either of them drinking out of the water dish. Literally never: as in the only time in the last year either of them drank from the water dish was when my Henry got locked up some place for a couple of days and when he finally came home he went straight to the water dish, gulped down all the water, and then went straight to the food and ate about 2 cans of food.

Tink sounds like he's recovering quite nicely and is doing amazing! Great job, MamaBean!
 
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