1/2 Champ AMPS 597, +1.5 572, +3 388, +4 449, +6 529, PMPS 576, +1 516

Discussion in 'Lantus / Levemir / Biosimilars' started by Patty & Champ, Jan 2, 2018.

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  1. Patty & Champ

    Patty & Champ Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2011
    Yesterday

    Today’s numbers, especially first thing his morning, have been terrible and terrifying. I did give him the R today, but I obviously didn’t get that tiny dose right. I just returned from the vet about an hour ago. I think I finally found a vet who knows the current 21st century way of treating feline diabetes. It ended up being a very expensive visit, but we not only had all blood done, but also x-rays to see if anything was apparent. Unfortunately, it looks like Champ has heart disease and the vet thinks there’s fluid building up in one of his lungs, possibly pneumonia. No infection can be located anywhere except possibly in the lungs. He has scoliosis in his back so I’m to continue with the Adequan. He has mild hypertension, but, because medication for that could make his kidneys even worse, she wants to check his blood pressure in a week to confirm its high. If needs to go on blood pressure meds, we may start a phosphorus binder to help the kidneys. The cause of the astronomically high glucose levels can only be guessed at, but may be due to the stress his body is undergoing with all his health problem. She said the only thing she can recommend is continuing the antibiotics for another few days and, since I have so much experience in dosing his insulin, increasing his insulin until we see some action. I’m going to use the R every cycle if it’s needed. I need his numbers to improve ASAP!!!
     
    Andreea&Tilica likes this.
  2. carfurby (GA)

    carfurby (GA) Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 19, 2012
    Sending prayers. :bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug:
     
  3. Patty & Champ

    Patty & Champ Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2011
    Thanks, Carla!!
     
  4. Patty & Champ

    Patty & Champ Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2011
    I'm going to increase his Lantus dose to 1.75 tomorrow morning. When should I increase the R dose? Anyone know?
     
  5. Marje and Gracie

    Marje and Gracie Senior Member Moderator

    Joined:
    May 30, 2010
    I was just going to suggest you increase the Lantus dose. I wouldn’t increase the R dose the same cycle you increase the L dose. Let’s see what the increase does tomorrow. You can shoot the 0.1u of R with the increased L dose. We can look at increasing the R dose tomorrow night.

    If he has a heart issue, how does she know the fluid in the lung is not from that. That seems more likely to me than pneumonia.

    Did she retest his tT4? Sometime when there are concurrent issues going on, it can drop the thyroid levels so they appear normally. He’s in the gray zone for an elderly cat. If he is hyperT, that could potentially cause the heart issues.

    Sending many vines.
     
  6. Patty & Champ

    Patty & Champ Well-Known Member

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    Apr 6, 2011
    She’s checking a free T4 by something-dialysis, something my vet in Las Vegas suggested. It had to be sent out so we’ll have to wait for the result. I have a feeling she does suspect the fluid is from the heat disease but didn’t want to alarm me prematurely. She asked me if I have ever given any thought to how I would want to proceed with Champ, how far I would want to go to keep him around. I told her I definitely loved him enough to let him go when his quality of life was deteriorating. At his age, I wouldn’t put him through any surgeries or things of that sort.
     
    Marje and Gracie likes this.
  7. Wendy&Neko

    Wendy&Neko Senior Member Moderator

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    Feb 28, 2012
    Sorry to hear about the possible heart issues. :bighug: Did the vet talk about seeing a cardiologist? Neko had both heart and kidney issues. It's definitely a balance. I did gain some time with meds to help her heart, but it meant no more giving fluids.

    Neko had really bad white coat syndrome when it came to blood pressure. The first vet visit with an emergency delay, barky dogs and new technicians was BP through the roof. It took 3 tries before we got a good number. So good plan to try again.
     
  8. Patty & Champ

    Patty & Champ Well-Known Member

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    Apr 6, 2011
    I would have to travel to see a cardiologist and, since we're still early in the diagnosis, she hasn't mentioned it. We did talk about an ultrasound to better see what's going on in and around the heart, but she would have to send it out to be read by a radiologist because there are none in this frickin town.
     
  9. Amy&TrixieCat

    Amy&TrixieCat Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2011
    I'm glad you found a better vet at last, sorry about the potential issues. You've already gotten lots of good info, so I'm just piling on prayers....
     
  10. Wendy&Neko

    Wendy&Neko Senior Member Moderator

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    Feb 28, 2012
    Sometimes there are travelling ultrasound vets that will do echocardiograms. That's what I had done for my first heart kitty.
     
  11. Marje and Gracie

    Marje and Gracie Senior Member Moderator

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    May 30, 2010
    Sometimes there are also traveling cardiologists who do echocardiograms. That’s what we have. The closest cardiologist is two hours away but one (the best) comes to Tucson every Thursday.
     
  12. Patty & Champ

    Patty & Champ Well-Known Member

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    Apr 6, 2011
    You and Wendy!! hahahaha Almost the exact wording. I'll ask about that when I take him back in next week.
     
  13. Marje and Gracie

    Marje and Gracie Senior Member Moderator

    Joined:
    May 30, 2010
    GMTA...great minds think alike! We’ve also had a lot of the same experiences.
     
    Wendy&Neko likes this.
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