01/06 Ivana AMPS=284, +2=304, +6=266, +9=236, PMPS=207, +2=191, +4=185 POOP PARTY!!! :-D

Yesterday's gorgeous greens

Thanks everyone for all the poop vines over the last few days. It's now Wednesday morning, and Ivana hasn't pooped since Saturday night. This morning we'll be coming at her with the enema. We wanted to do it last night but her early foray into the greens made us reschedule due to needing her to be feeling fine incase we needed to feed her if she got too low. She didn't come to the poop party overnight, so this is it.

In other more pleasant news, Ivana had an amazing green surf last night - I really hope this becomes a routine!

 

Enema vines and prayers coming your way!!! I agree that holding off last night was a smart move. Hopefully things will go smoothly today...poor little girl.

 

I don't blame you for waiting. She did look good last night. I hope the enema works. Good luck. Sending prayers.

 

Good luck with the enema...

 

Trying to stick things up my cat's bum is not my idea of fun things to do at 7am in the morning! Sadly the enema was a non-event. We tried, but she just would not have a bar of it. I used lots of lube, went in slowly, but she was resisting and squirming and pretty much saying a big fat NO. I tried three times to get it in, and she was getting really shitty. The vet opens in a bit over an hour, so I'm going to take her in and have them do it. She is always a lot more tolerant when she's anxious.

 

I'm sorry you had a hard time, but honestly I do think it's probably one of those things that is better left to the vet. I know I would rather have them do it. Sending more poop prayers!!

 

I reckon it is hard to safely get anything safely up the cats backside because they clamp up and I would be worried I could do damage. Sheba clamps up if I try and use a thermometer. I think you are wise letting the vet do it too.

 

Yeah I think there was definitely some clamping going on! It was the vet's idea to have us do it at home where she will be less stressed and easier access to a litter tray, which sounds great in theory. Didn't quite work this time though, ahh well. At least Ivana doesn't think too badly of us, as she came and sat on the lounge with us 10min later.

 

poor Ivana, I was really hoping that she would go overnight all by herself, hope the vet has more luck.

I have dreadful trouble with my 1 year old spaniel/waterdog cross Jasmin, I can't get a thermometer anywhere near her rear end , Matt and I can't get her to hold still, yet when Victoria are vet does it, she holds still and behaves go figure.

Sending more poop vines and

 

I do love how quickly they forgive and forget...amazing little critters!

 

Just had a thought, while we are at the vets I will ask them to check Ivana's blood pressure too. And to do that first, before the enema.

 

Great idea...and yes, definitely first thing, before the enema!

 

she is going to feel so much better after a good pooh!

 

The funny thing is, she doesn't actually appear to be feeling poorly except for on Sunday when it all started with the vomiting and low BGL etc. She's been eating normally for days so all that poop must be somewhere in there... I'm surprised her belly isn't the size of a house.

 

that is crazy?? I would think she would not feel good at all-I am glad she feels good so confusing???

 

You'd imagine if anything she would be feeling worse, and exhibiting behavior that would lead you to think she was uncomfortable (there again cats hide things so well)
Is there any chance she could have been pooping elsewhere in Secret?? Unlikely I know, but just a thought.

 

I've check everywhere to make sure she hasn't suddenly changed her mind about using the tray. Nothing. She still uses it for wees, so it's not like she's abandoned the tray altogether. And she rarely goes outside, so it's not there. Even when she goes out, she comes inside to go to the toilet. I have a feeling she's just hiding her discomfort, being a cat and all. That, and because we were starting to get a hold of the diabetes and get good green numbers, she felt she needed to shake things up a bit

 

Poor little girl, but hope the enema helps. Sending lots of prayers and vines for her and you guys too!

 

Wow, what an 'eventful' vet visit! You will all be glad to know that Ivana has FINALLY pooped!!!! Thankyou so much for all your poop vines you sent to Ivana, I'm sure she's feeling much better now - I know I am! I will spare you the gory details, but the outcome is that it was mostly fur. Rock hard furry poop. It's just unfortunate for Ivana that the fur went too far to be vomited back up, but instead got stuck coming out the other end. Obviously this means we need to be more diligent about grooming her, and do it more regularly even if it doesn't look like she needs it. We use a Furminator which is awesome at getting through her thick fur. An important lesson for us beans, though I'm sorry you had to suffer for our mistake Banana Girl

Also, I got her blood pressure checked too - 146/79. The vet was happy with that, given the stressful environment and that it took three goes to get a reading - front leg, back leg, and finally it was the tail that worked. So that's good not to have to worry about something else as well. While the machine was trying to get a reading on the legs, she check her retinas and all the blood vessels looked fine.

We also spoke a bit about Ivana's insulin treatment, and I mentioned that lately she seems to be great in the PM cycle, but not so great in the AM cycle. The vet said that she has had some success with varying the dose between cycles, so giving say 2.00u in the AM and 1.75u in the PM. What do you guys think of this? I'll be sending her the spreadsheet again this afternoon for her feedback on the actual numbers and dose suggestions.

 

wohooooo!!! yayyyyyyy for pooooohhh!!!
I just saw the insulin suggestion--I think the more experienced ones will drop in
Have you ever consider trimming her hair? You can just do the underside if you like the long hair on top? It helps my 2 with the hair--they are shorthair and medium haired-They seem to prefer being kept shorter as well. We use a 7F blade.

 

WOO HOO!!! HOORAY FOR POO!!

I'm sure Ivana feels much better....now it's just important to keep things "moving along"!! It's good that she likes the pumpkin too. I'd keep using it to keep the extra fiber in her diet and hopefully she'll be back to pooing regularly soon!

 

Yay for poop!!!! And I love the graphic I am sure she feels much better!

 

What a relief for Ivana and you!

 

So glad you had a successful vetty visit, at least the part about the poo. If you keep up the coconut oil/pumpkin regime you might be able to avoid this is in the future. I imagine it's prime shedding season down there.

Great choice for in and out insulins, not so much for depot insulins. Neko did the lower dose PMs when she was on Caninsulin. The problem is that Lantus is a depot insulin, and often what you shoot one cycle is heavily influenced by what you shot the cycle before. You may have seen the mantra "Lantus likes consistency". You can end up with wonky numbers if you seesaw the dose. And then if she earns a reduction, what do you do? Which dose did it?

ETA: Great news on the blood pressure!

 

Yay!! So glad the poop is out!

 

This is something the vet said too. I also bought some OsmoLax yesterday (same as Miralax), I will start using that when she gets regular again.

I was also thinking this, as I drove home and thought about how it would work. Didn't even consider the earning reductions side of things, but yes that's very true too.

 

Super POOP news! If hair was the problem, maybe you could try a hairball gel. We got good results with NaturVet

Happy evening, Tara & Ivana!

 

Thanks Ella! We have Laxapet gel, but we can't use it long-term apparently. It's more of a cure rather than a preventative. All good, pumpkin, OsmoLax and more grooming should do the trick

 

so glad that ordeal is over for all of you!!

For some reason, I have the urge to go brush my cats!

 

Do it, it will be a heckuva lot cheaper than what I've forked out over the last three days! May as well just give the vet access to my bank account haha

 

I'm with Julie on that, now where did I put my furminator

 

Aren't Furminators the best?! The first time we used it it was almost like we created another whole cat - so much fur!

 

I've never used one. I probably should try one out - 2 of mine have very long, thick hair. McGee is a sleek tuxie boy and has fairly short hair, but both Anya and Frodo are very fluffy. I have a "rake" that the vet sold me - it brings out the excess undercoat hair and is very effective.

 

Your rake sounds very similar to a Furminator Julie. I linked it in my Poop Party comment above if you want to compare. Ivana being a Russian Blue has extremely dense hair and a really thick undercoat. In winter, it's like she's a pom-pom on legs. In summer, our house gets an extra layer of carpet.

 

LOL yes and that's saying something with the size of George, I keep thinking I'll give it to my friend who has a spinning wheel and get some George yarn to knit me a jumper LOL
George is just a moggy, but he does have very dense fur like you are describing, especially in the winter, he sort of has a downy undercoat, it's sooooo soft, he's just like a big teddy bear.

 

It can be done!! Back when I was with Maine Coon Rescue, I heard about a lady in Canada that was spinning cat fur into yarn and using it to knit with! She had asked for "donations" from the Rescue

 

Yay for poo!

 

I saw it on the TV once, though they were using dog hair LOL

 

WOOT for POOP!!!

 

Great news, Ivana must feel so much better having finally got rid of her blockage.
fiddling with feline rear ends is best left to the professionals, I couldn't take Poppy's temperature the other week either, but no trouble with the vet doing it.

 

You'll all be pleased to know that Ivana left us a couple more nuggets last night, so happy when I checked her tray.

Also, forgot to mention that her fructosamine was 520.