UTI, antibiotics, more crazy numbers

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stacia

stacia

Member Since 2014
I posted last Monday that Tasha had left a pee puddle on the floor with a substantial amount of blood on it. The vet tried to do a cysto but Tasha opted out (aka did a devil impression, peed on herself, exited the room). The sample they were able to examine had blood in it, elevated white blood cells, general cloudiness. That plus my report of Tasha's random BG readings and peeing outside the box was enough for the vet to say likely UTI and she sent us home with antibiotics.

FF to day 9 of antibiotics. Tasha's no longer peeing outside the box but her numbers are still all over the place. We're trying to shoot on a sliding scale but she's so unpredictable. Is it the still the UTI? Could the antibiotics be causing it? She's on Orbax, a liquid, once a day for two weeks. We retest urine next Monday. She's generally been in the low 200s but this morning, she was over 400 with a +5 down at 83.

Any words of wisdom?

Secondary pressing issue is that we've been working toward some travel. We booked our trip home for Halloween weekend. She's letting the cat sitter inject her but what in the world do we tell her to inject? I was thinking just once a day but still, what dose? We'll be gone Friday afternoon to Monday evening, planned on PM visits. Without testing, which there's no way Tasha will allow, what do we advise?
 
It sounds like the antibiotic is working which is great. It and the infection could have an influence on the numbers, but I am guessing she is bouncing from lows to highs. For example,the .5 on the pmps of 251 gave you a lower amps the next morning indicating she mght have gone lower overnight. Not sure about last night but with two cycles of lower numbers, tonight just made have been the big bounce for both. And if she dropped from 400 to 83 - that is a huge drop (usually 50% is a normal good drop) so probably you will get another bounce.

If she were mine, I'd drop the dose overall. Maybe .5 for pinks and .25 for yellows. See if she settles down and flattens out. I guess I'd see how she does with the lower dose before deciding on the pet sitter.
 
We raised it up to 1 unit initially because of glucose in the urine about 2 weeks before the UTI situation. But I'm not liking her BG numbers at all lately. I feel like we're constantly guessing at a dose, afraid she may go hypo on us because we don't know how far she's going to crash after. I can't believe she dropped so far from the 426 this morning - my husband was really confident about giving her the 1 unit then.

I think we will go to the .5 and .25 as you suggest, Sue. I'm going to get some more of the u100 syringes tomorrow when I pick up meds for me. I need to figure them out again but I'd like to be doing this accurately instead of estimating doses. The randomness can't be helping the situation.
 
Update: After taking Sue's advice, we're a little less bouncy with the numbers. I got the u100 syringes again and we're giving .2 for yellow, .6 for pink. I need to grab some more mid-cycle tests but kitty's acting well and her numbers are settling a bit. We only gave .2 this morning despite an AMPS of 334 because we're going to be out tonight (not sure yet if it will be overnight or just a late return home) and the kitty sitter is coming in for the evening so there won't be a PMPS test. Of course I'm spazzed about what to have her inject for that. I may leave a pre-filled syringe (it would only be pre-filled for a few hours in the fridge).

She'll be off the antibiotic Monday and her urine retested then as well. I'm really hopeful her numbers will even out enough that by the time we go away next weekend, we can leave the pet sitter with instructions for dosing that we all feel comfortable with because right now, I'm still a nervous wreck about this trip.
 
Hi Stacia,

When Saoirse had a UTI a couple of years ago, the vet prescribed something for pain relief. If Tasha has been in pain with the UTI that won't have helped her numbers. Maybe as the UTI clears Tasha will feel more comfortable and hopefully her numbers will get even better. Fingers and paws crossed ...
 
So she's done with the antibiotics and her retest shows no blood in urine or other signs of infection but there's glucose in the urine. They want me to do a curve tomorrow, send in the numbers.

What does a curve really tell them other than if it's safe to increase her dose based on what kind of numbers she's hitting throughout? My vet seems to be very anti-sliding scale. She's definitely anti-u100 syringes. I have no problem doing the curve but I'm not sure what it's going to accomplish, especially with her start numbers not regulated. I'm not going to make major changes right now before we go out of town this weekend, though I still don't know what to tell the cat sitter to inject.

In the meantime, what do you make of her numbers? Note: She was attacked by our other kitty about an hour before PMPS last night. I think her number was still elevated from that and I overdid the dose a bit based on it, though no hypo.
 
stacia said:
She's definitely anti-u100 syringes.
Click to expand...

I would ask your vet to call the Prozinc manufacturer in order for her to get comfortable with the U-100 syringes being used with the conversion chart. My vet did this and now is pro-U-100 w/the conversion chart as they were able to tell her the conversion chart is accurate.

As for the sliding scale, I'm not very experienced so I don't feel comfortable giving advice in that area. However, I would do what YOU think is best for your kitty. Ultimately, we know our cats better than the vet and we see their reactions to different doses, etc.
 
I should clarify as well that regardless of how my vet feels about the u100 syringes, I don't have a problem with them so I'm using them. I just know that it's somewhere that we disagree so her idea of adjusting a dose is at least half a unit at a time and she thinks the idea of giving these tiny doses is ridiculous. Which means I'm already not sure what to make of anything she's going to say in response to a curve when I share the results.

Sometimes, I feel good about my vet. Sometimes, I'm very frustrated with her. I really value their patience with Tasha because kitty can be such a nightmare.
 
Don't feel bad, I haven't seen my vet since I didnt take her advice. She didnt want me to do home testing, didnt think diet would matter, and wanted to keep Hidey on Vetsulin......of course I took it upon my self and did all of the above and he luckily went into remission in a little over a month. After that month I had to take him in for a cleaning and a few extractions and I never even met with her, just the vet assistant. I seen my vet pass by when I was picking him up and she just gave a slight smile and walked by. I'm curious to see how she acts when I take him in for his yearly check up in a few weeks. Its a shame too because, like you, I have really liked her and all her staff. Theyve all been so caring and nice even her, up until his diabetes. I think she might just have a hard time with someone not taking her full advice and sticking to it but I hope when I return she will be over the ego thing and realize I was just doing what I thought is best for him and it was nothing AGAINST her.
 
My vet personally has a diabetic cat at home. I think that's what really puzzles me about it all. She told me this when Tasha was first diagnosed to reassure me that I was in good hands. She's since joked that maybe I should come test her kitty for her because she can't/doesn't test hers. I had such high hopes that she'd be super knowledgeable because of her own pet and we'd benefit from it.

Ultimately, it's not going to hurt to do the curve and send in the results tomorrow. I don't see it being of any value but it doesn't cost anything. Tasha will be thrilled to get so many chicky treats. And maybe after the trip this weekend, I'll consider again digging around for another vet to at least get a second opinion on her diabetes.
 
I apologize if I've asked you this in the past, or if its in an old thread but how often are you feeding? Looking at Tashas numbers she seems to be doing pretty good for the most part. I noticed some tests are a bit wonky like that 414 (what happened there lol) but overall at least shes not always in the 400+ Im just wondering if doing mini meals (if your not already) might help lower her bg, or even maybe a lower carb food. I know Hidey is carb sensitive and has to have foods no more than 5% the lower the better with him.
 
She's eating Friskies pates, but not any specific flavors other than not Mixed Grill. I'm trying to convince my husband not to buy as many seafood flavors, despite his belief that "cats like fish!"

She gets her 12-hour meals when we inject her and always a midnight (well, before the beans go to bed) snack. I need to give her a mid-day snack as well but even though we both work from home, we just don't remember to do it. I'm going to commit to doing that as of tomorrow, whether it means setting an alarm or getting an automatic feeder or both.
 
Petsafe 5 BEST thing in the world lol.

I was feeding Hidey every 4 hrs!!!! I set an alarm to make sure he ate, until I found that feeder recommended from people on this site.....yes it was pricey because I had to buy 3 of them for all my cats but it has been a life saver and has helped me so much. Before Hidey was diagnosed he always had dry food out and then I'd give them a can of food at night.....how'd they get so fat lol Well then I had to worry about at LEAST 2 feedings a day, doesnt sound hard but I had a difficult time then adding in extra feedings.....I was so scattered lol Now all I do is at about 6:30 I pull their dishes out of the petsafe and fill it for their next 3 feedings. 7 am, 7 pm, and 1 am. at 7 am I also give each of them 1 TBS of young again kibble. I know I need to stop that :oops: So they basically get 4 meals a day. Its just so much easier handling their food all at once and not having to worry about it. Whats sad is, I dont work and I still forgot lol
 
You freeze some of the meals then for the other compartments? I'm just going to order one and give it a try. What's $40 compared to the eleventy bajillion dollars we've already spent in her diabetes journey? I mean, seriously, we tore out all the carpets and put down hardwood floors. A $40 feeder is nothing. Money grows on trees, right?
 
I dont freeze mine, I know some on here do, some dont. It really depends on preference. My cats refuse to eat anything cold so its best for me to just put it from the can to the dish. Its not out long enough to go "bad"

The cheapest I found were between amazon and chewy.com just depends since they seem to vary from time to time.
 
Having regular feeds really helps with Saoirse's BG levels. If she fasts too long, her liver panics and it dumps way too much glucose into her bloodstream. I'm home all day so I can dole out her food portions manually but I use timed feeders at night. I don't think her numbers would be as well-regulated as they are without them. They have been an absolute godsend. I hope that your timed feeder will help Tasha's numbers, too.
 
Convinced - the feeder will be here tomorrow. Thanks. We'll see if this makes a difference. I think since someone has to be here every 12 hours to inject anyways, I'm not going to worry about freezing the food for right now. Someone can always just drop a +4 feeding in there, which will help see her through her nadir and I think even that will make a big difference. I'll just see how the kitties feel about the feeder first. I can get a second one, look at freezing foods, etc, later.

It's funny because I'm personally such an over-achiever by nature, and so is my husband. He's a data guy, an analyst. I'm an editor - I literally put errors right all day long. So my inclination is constantly to "fix" her spreadsheet. But Tasha? Whoever has those secondary monitoring gauges in the signatures, Tasha's happy as a clam.

Thanks for giving me something else to try. I'm going to "fix" this cat one way or another! ;)
 
If the 4-hourly feeding schedule doesn't do much, try feeding smaller meals every 3 hours. (Needless to say, I'm assuming that you'll tweak the amounts to align with your insulin's action profile. :smile: )

I'm gradually learning how to tweak the timing and sizes of Saoirse's meals to get smoother curves.

Looking forward to an update about how Tasha gets on.
 
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