? Opinions on Sammi's #s, dosage, and senior panel?

Hello,

I've been slowly increasing Sam's Prozinc dose, trying to get him at least below 200 at nadir. Depending on today's numbers, I'll likely increase to 1.75 tomorrow. I wish I had more PM mid-cycle numbers, but mostly we're all asleep for the night by +1 and stagger out of bed just in time for his AMPS.

I'm wondering if Prozinc is the right fit for Sam; if I should give it another month or so, or see about switching him to Levemir. (I'm not sure about Lantus, since he's already getting twitchy skin from the Prozinc injection -- I don't know if the little Lantus sting would make it worse.)

And I kinda camped out at my vet's office until they gave me a copy of his senior labs. On the phone Sam's vet told me he looked good other than the BG level, that liver was a little elevated but nothing to worry about. But... is there a problem there? Any signs of maybe a little infection hiding somewhere? I had Sam scheduled for a dental, but the vet cancelled it until we could get his BG regulated.

On the plus side, I think I finally have Sam's weight stable, and he's properly hydrated. So the Prozinc is having a positive effect, even if I'm not seeing it in his BG#s.

 

@Marje and Gracie

 

The slightly elevTed ALT and AST are not a concern. The high albumin and HCT make me wonder if Sam was dehydrated. That’s a great panel in my opinion.

 

I agree with Elise regarding the albumin and HCT. My civvie Tobey usually has an elevated albumin and HCT so I add a lot of water to his raw food when I make it.

The half life for ALT is pretty short and the elevations are very, very mild. My Gracie would get into the 300s and the vets would still consider it mild. However, ever to be cautious, you might want to repeat an abbreviated lab in a few months just to see where the liver values are unless you have previous labs that show he trends a little high in the ALT and ALP.

My other thought is whether he eats more Rawz chicken than canned food? Dr. Dodds at Hemopet has found that the normal lab ranges are based on kibble diets and that for several parameters, including ALT, the normal ranges should be higher for raw fed cats and dogs.

 

@tiffmaxee Thank you! I'm pretty sure that he was dehydrated; I'd taken him in because he'd given up on eating on top of sudden weight loss.

@Marje and Gracie Thank you for looking! I'll try getting more water into him, just in case it's an ongoing concern.

I'm so glad to get confirmation that his liver results weren't particularly bad. That, and it sounds like it's probably safe to hold off on his dental for now. I do like the idea of rechecking in a few months, maybe new labs for the new year I'll tell Sam he needs to work on better numbers for his resolution.

His Rawz to his Friskies is around 2:1 right now. I've been babying him these past few weeks (years) and offering him both when he's hungry. Now that his weight is a bit more stable, I need to start paying better attention to how much he's eating, and see if I can slowly get him down another pound or so.

Thank you both for checking over his labs. It's a relief to know that I can focus on his FD without worrying too much about other possible medical problems.

 

@Marje and Gracie what other parameters run higher on a raw diet?

My IM vet also said ALT was not a problem u less more than double the high range provided everything else was normal. Max ran high most of the time. For Max it was also a sign of his pancreatitis acting up.

 

The following parameters ran higher on raw diets: PCV, BUN, HGB, ALT

These parameters ran lower on raw diets: WBC, neutrophils, lymphocytes, phosphorus, glucose,

@Sam & Esse you're welcome!