1/15 Ozzy AMPS 206, +2 159, +4 121, +8 126, PMPS 158, +2.5 88 (Big Drop), +3.45 78 , +4.5 102

Yesterday's Antics
Good Morning. TFSing...

 

That's not too bad of and amps, almost blue if you squint

 

Hehe..

Still a bounce though, right? He just went up up up last night. Not sure if he dropped after +4, I stopped testing.

 

Ozzy threw up on the arm of my couch last night but vomit was a lot less in volume than the last few times. When I woke up this morning, he was hungry and waiting for his food so that's an improvement (appetite wise). Hubby syringed him half a probiotic mixed with water and a little food (slurry).

Fingers crossed today goes better. I will give him the anti nausea support again later today. Forgot to give it before his breakfast, so will give him some before his next snack. It did seem to help his appetite last night. I am hoping that this along with the probiotic and sticking to one food will allow things to calm down over the next few days. Fingers/Paws crossed.

 

I plan to post Ozzy's labs if today from when he was in DKA and his follow up appointment. If anyone cares to look and has any insights, I'd really appreciate it. I think I remember his thyroid number coming back low (will have to check) and the vet saying he wasn't concerned.

 

Yes I think so, bounces don't have to be all the way to the moon, as they start to see better numbers more frequently sometimes they bounce less high, and start to clear sooner.

The last bounce triggered by green on the 11th didn't last too long, he started clearing it on his third cycle. It will be interesting to see what Ozzy does today, will he continue with a low bounce, go a bit higher, or has he got other ideas?
the last 40 hours or so have been the longest stretch of green/blue he's had since you've been doing this dance, that's a great step forward for him. I wouldn't be surprised if he get's back to a real blue soon (anti jnx).

Paws crossed no more vomit.

 

I know, it was a great run for my little guy and we were so thrilled!!! We are so happy we switched to Lantus!! I don't think we would have ever gotten that kind of duration with vestulin.

I know. We just started some home tx options yesterday so hoping those will help. If not, he's headed back to the torture chamber ...ahhemn..vet.

 

@Gill & George Scritches for that cute little Georgie!!!! I'm obsessed with his photo!!! He's SOO cute!!!! Will you send more???

 

There are loads on his OTJ vid link, it's on my sig block.

 

Oh ya...didn't think to look there. Going now!!!

 

OMG..BFG! He's so cute I just want to squish him up! Loved his OTJ party...got me a little teary! Sounds like you guys had quite a journey and you personally learned so much! Awesome!!

 

Good morning....nice BG to start the day but the vomiting again has me concerned.

I hope you all got some rest.

 

Me, too. But last night was the first time we gave anything for it.

Ozzy seems MUCH more alert and happy today. And hungry. His appetite has definitely gone back to normal which I am happy about. Want to see how the next 24 -48 hours or so go and then make a decision on whether we should take him to the vet.

Can you tell me more about the SEB? Where do you buy it? Is this another syringed application? What does it do for tummy upset? What is it used for in general? I know I have personally used it in herbal teas for sore throats. But never with my kitties.

 

+4=121.

I wanted to wait till +5 or +6 to get another test and give him a break, but he's been following me all over the house for the last 15 minutes telling me he is hungy. So glad to see his appetite improving. Decided to go ahead and test him before feeding him again. May get a +9 for data purposes and give him a break for rest of cycle.

This is his 3rd meal today (1.5 oz at 8am, 1.5 oz at 10am, and .5 oz now) and he kept down the first two meals without vomiting, so that's an improvement, too. Will see how the rest of the day goes.

 

That was a quick bounce! Ozzy likes this dose and I'm glad he's feeling better.

I buy loose, organic, certified SEB powder at my local health food store. I'd on,y buy 1/8 cup to start with if I were you. It is tasteless so some cats take it sprinkled on food but I think it is more effective if made into a slurry. I mix 1/4 tsp with enough filtered water to make it a slurry and then syringe it. It needs to be separated from meds or supplements by two hours as it coats the intestines. It is a nutritive as well and George Washingtons troops lived off of it at Valley Gorge when food ran out. It helps with acid tummy by also costing the stomach. I always have it on hand.

 

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of 'clearing the bounce'. I mean I get what it means, but what patterns should we be looking for?

For instance, Ozzy's numbers only went up on the first half of his PM cycle last night (not sure about second half because I finally decided to sleep), and then ended with a yellow PS this am. On this cycle, he is now trending down slowly... so is this clearing the bounce? What if he is yellow at PS tonight (I kind of have a feeling he might be). Is he still 'bouncing' or 'wobbling' then?

 

Hey Jo, agree with Marje...SEB is the best and always given 2hours before or after a med as it can possibly interfere with absorption. How Marje said to buy it is preferable as it is organic and no fillers , as when purchased in pill form.

 

I have been receiving amazing guidance and help here from all you wonderful people. I have noticed I have asked some of the same questions more than once and that's because there are so many threads and info shared here that's it's hard to remember where someone wrote something. Sorry for asking duplicative questions.

I decided to create a tab on my spreadsheet called "helpful info" where I list the topic and add the link that was provided. I will keep updating it with info received in the future for a quick go-to guide.

 

When you get them done, just add something to your subject line like "labs posted" so we know to take a look. There is something calle euthyroid sick syndrome where kitties can show low thyroid numbers temporarily, because of another condition. Not eating is one of them. Neko used to get this periodically. For her it was more of a worry because kitties who've had SRT can go hypothyroid and I didn't know which it was until we got more extensive tests.

Love that nice steady low blues.

 

I tried to find his folder with all his info from the vets but I think I left it on my desk at work. Will look tomorrow when I am back in the office and will update the lab sheet when I can.

Thanks!

 

Have you got a +6? He seems to be sliding down nicely, wonder if he has made it to green. 40pts in two hours from +2 to +4.

If he is clearing a bounce, they can sometimes gather quite some momentum, so it might be an idea to check him.

 

We know the bounce is over when the numbers start coming down and staying down.....in the 3 day period we watch for "bounce clearing", when they have a whole cycle where they are coming down, they're probably clearing the bounce....some bounces will clear slowly and some will clear fast!!

 

Also, with euthyroid sick syndrome, the thyroid levels can also be in the low normal range; DKA has been cited as a reason why you might see low thyroid levels and euthyroid sick syndrome.

 

I had decided to give him a pokey break until +9 because I didn't think he was going to go concerningly low this cycle. I just grabbed a +8 (close enough) and he is at 126. I suppose he could have dipped lower but he's staying pretty flat (which is good, right?) so I kind of doubt it. But who knows what happened around +6 and/or nadir.

If I had a crystal ball (nope, don't!), I think he might end this cycle in the blues or maybe low yellow and then maybe go into the greens tonight. Never know though. But it would be great to see green tonight. I'm still really happy about his mostly blue cycle today that has been under the renal threshold. He's been doing so great these last 5 cycles and it's such a wonderful sight!

As Beth pointed out in another thread, I really am starting to gain confidence in this whole FD dance. My only worry now is the day time cycles when I'm at work and can't monitor him. That's 18 cycles out of the month (18/60-62) so I have good chances that I'll be monitoring most of them and I feel like I know what to do now to handle low numbers. Hubby works just 10 minutes away and as of now is able to get a +2 and may be able to come home or put out MC/HC food when needed. We are figuring it out one day at a time.

I cannot express my gratitude enough for the folks on this board. I want to acknowledge the wonderful knowledge that is shared here and I truly appreciate all the info and additional links/reading material that is provided. I read every single piece of literature that is sent to me in my threads/and others threads so please keep it coming and know that someone finds it useful and that the time you all spend researching and responding is not gone to haste.

Re: the vomit news- none so far today! But Ozzy tends to throw up at night more often than in the day. Not sure why that is. He's been snoozing on my bed for the last few hours and loving snuggling in all the scarfs I'm tossing out of the closet (I am doing some early spring cleaning). Silly kitty!! I love my little boy!

 

This is interesting....need to look more into this. Maybe this is why vet was not overly concerned about his thyroid test. Wish I had the paperwork here now to post his thyroid numbers. Will soon.

 

Just looked at the link provided by Wendy&Neko (thank you!). This makes sense. Ozzy was not eating good for about 18 hours before we took him to the vet. And shockingly, while he was in the hospital for 4 days, they did not start syringe feeding him until the night of day 3. We had to make a huge stink over it and then insisted that we come twice a day and syringe feed him ourselves. He was getting sugars in his IV and they had food out for him (we brought him his favorites too). Just remembering seeing my sweet little boy so sick in the kitty hospital in a cage with urine all over him (and urine scald all over his legs) breaks my heart all over again. It was absolutely awful and the most heart breaking thing ever. He has come such a long way.

 

Oh that poor boy!!!! When Gracie was in the hospital, she had an accident on the exam table when they just expressed her bladder for a sample and the vet personally cleaned her off so she would not get urine scald. He did this before I could even react and I reacted pretty fast. I was impressed that he did not hand it off for a tech to do. So i totally understand you being heartbroken over that. It’s just wrong if they don’t make sure the kitty has its dignity.

 

They were trying to clean him with some alcohol mix but he was so pumped full of fluids and had such acidic urine with the DKA that it was hard to keep up with. He had some tiny litter pan in his cage one time when we came to see him, but he is a big boy and it was small and some pellet like litter he was not used to. Everytime after that he just had pads in his cage to pee on and mostly he got it all over himself. I visited him about 6 hrs a day while he was there (they were so nice and eventually gave us our own room with him) and several times he peed on the blanket we brought to cuddle him. I could tell he was defeated dignity-wise. The very first thing he did when we brought him home was go to his own LB!!! Although the next night he was not feeling well and had an accident on himself. He layed under a blanket with me all night- wanting to feel safe and cuddled. I cannot tell you how much I was heartbroken. Just utterly so sad about my sweet kitty.

Here's a pic of him at the hospital when we were visiting. He looks soo sad and so weak.

 

Everytime we came to see him in his cage, he just had his little nose stuck in the corner. He was so scared. They were poking and prodding him every hour and tons of kenneled dogs around him barking. He is already such a fradey cat so this was pure hell for him! My poor kitty- all I wanted to do was hold him and make him feel safe.

 

You can see that they shaved his tum tum (for the ultra sound). Also shaved his front paw for the IV (you can see it in the first pic) and the insides of his back legs for blood draws. His fur still has not grown back 6 weeks later. We tell him he is a rock star kitty and got him a camo collar because he had been thru war and back.

 

He looks much better after 2 days at home here..

 

and now he is sooo happy to be home!

 

and one of Civvie Figgie...cuz he gets jealous if he is left out!! He loves his fireside seat!!

 

I just want to smooch that nekid belly!

 

I KNOW!! I blow raspberries on it all the time!! Its so cute- but I totally miss his little tummy tuft! It was all white for awhile then I noticed it starting to get dusty/dirty looking and then realized his stripes are starting to grow back in.

He is such a sweet kitty. I just adore him so much! Looking back at his hospital pics and remembering what he went through made me get teary eyed again. One of his test results after said he had a tachy heart rythum- he was soooo scared there he could have almost had a heart attack. I'm sure the shaving was the most scary part. My poor sweet boy!! I just wish we wouldve understood his symptoms sooner and could have avoided the DKA. He was losing weight but we had purposely put him on a diet to avoid this exact thing (DM) so him losing some weight seemed normal with a diet. The DKA came on Thanksgiving weekend. We left out a bunch of dry food for a couple days because we went out of town to visit family. He was a hoover and probably scarfed it down in the first day or so- and then being stressed with us gone (he is a mama's boy) on top of having the undiagnosed diabetes...it was just a perfect storm.

I am so happy he survived. Vet said poor prognosis. And all the wonderful folks here are contributing to his success!!! THANK YOU FDMB!!!

 

Oh Jo, I love this pic of him ...brought tears to my eyes . Precious boy...

 

Elmo's DKA was first hospital stay in his 17 years of life ...gut wrenching ...I totally relate to your pain with Ozzy's ...just the thought of it makes me cry for you and for him. But he is home now and on his way . What a wonderful momma (and daddy) you all are

 

Your story of Ozzy at the vet brought a tear to my eye. When Neko was in critical care for a couple of nights in November, she had to go in an oxygen cage. But the first night they didn't have a spare one available for her, so she was stuck in a too small kennel with barely enough room for her to turn around, much less room for an LB. So she had to use the pee pad an lie in it. Which I didn't find out until later. Thankfully the proper oxygen kennel became available not long after.

 

Thank you Beth!! He is soo sweet. Little cuddly dreamer boy!! He is soo spoiled with love!

 

Ahhhh...and I know vets need to be honest with us but to see our kitties be there and go thru that then be told " poor prognosis" or like Elmo" he has maybe 40%chance of pulling thru"...still makes me ill to recall it ...so glad they pulled thru...so grateful for FDMB coming to the rescue ...no words can express ..

 

Wendy- I am so sorry! That sounds soo awful for your little Neko! We spoil them so much that when we see them uncomfortable its just awful. My kitties cage was small (not as small as Neko's!!) and he was stuck in it for 4 days. I felt awful. We came for 6 hours every day and got to have him in a room to himself. I thought after being cooped up for so long, he would want to walk around a little. But he didn't- he just wanted to hide. A few times he tried to climb into the trash can until we blocked it off!! It was soo sad! There were a lot of tears.

 

Oh Wendy, that makes me cry....for you and for her.

 

Awwww, little Figgy ...what a sweet boy

 

Our kitties do so much better at home. Ozzy looks like he's thriving now under your care.

Unfortunately our timing at critical care was off - they had limited oxygen kennels and all were full. Then they all became empty and Neko got a double wide. She was much perkier in that.

 

+11.10=158. Looks like he is going to start his PM cycle blue.

Feeding and shooting in 20 mins. Need to get back on track for tomorrow am. (half hour earlier). Will do the same dose 1.25U. He is responding well to it.

 

...like that "double wide"

 

That's a cute pair of boys you have! The stories of DKA episodes reminded me of my scary time with Teasel last March. It was gut-wrenching.

 

So so amazed at and proud of you, Jo....u have only been at this little over a month and ur knowledge/ability has grown by leaps and bounds ....monster kudos to you, DH and of course the Angels of FDMB

 

Absolutely , totally gut wrenching , Kris..could not agree more.

 

Uh oh...that's a big drop at 2.5. From 158 to 88. He just ate exactly one hour ago. I try not to feed him 2 hours before a test but that didn't work out with our schedule. He had just had a snack and I was late to the +2 test. Hope he has a mellow night...but with that big of a drop I am worried he might keep going. Maybe bounce again for the am (which would not be that bad since I have to go back to work). We will see. Will test him here again in about an hour.

Ozzy says, "you only get one night off mama!"

 

Getting him to eat a little more now to try to slow his roll.

Crap- I can't stay up too late tonight. Why can't he pull this in the day time when I am here. I know he knows I love him but I think he wants me to 'prove' it!

 

love seeing all those pictures - Ozzy is so cute!

I think he is in the process of getting used to green numbers and his bouncing is definitely lessening. When a kitty is ready to give up bouncing, some of them will only bounce to 150 or so and might only stay there for an hour or two before getting back to green. Ozzy looks really good.

Did you get the links to the discussions about kitties that vomit even when they don't have long hair? I can't remember if I've told you (I know I've told several people in the past month) about my McGee, who looks a lot like your Figgy. McGee was vomiting daily, in spite of having short hair. He also has a plastic fetish and will eat any thin plastic that he can find.

Anyway, the section below is from the "Where Can I Find?" thread. We started giving McGee Renew Ultimate Colon Care probiotics - worked up to 80,000 cfu daily for about 2 months, then tapered it to 80,000 every other day. It's ended the excessive vomiting - from daily to only when he finds plastic and eats it. I saw you're giving him some probiotics (above) but wasn't sure if you're doing it daily or just when he vomits. I open the capsule and add it to his food. He doesn't seem to even notice it. The last 2 links are the ones I'm referring to.

Digestive Problems:
Constipation, Maggie11 & Ann; Feline Constipation
Hairballs/Chronic Vomiting
Probiotics in IBD (or other) cats

 

by the way, I copied the link of any interesting condos and pasted it into the comments section of punkin's spreadsheet. That way, when I was looking back at something I could go to the condo with all of the explanations and discussion if I needed to. It's been a very helpful thing. Any link on your spreadsheet is live, since it's a google doc, so you can just click it in the comments cell and it will go.

 

Thanks for the info! Will check it out tomorrow when I have more time. Just started the probiotocs last night- only given 3 xs so we will see. Ozzy hates it in his food. Not sure if he is considered a short hair. He's pretty fluffy ans has mutton chops! LOL.

Interesting about your kitty eating plastic. Figgie will lick plastic alot but not eat it. I swear he has pica or something. But I think its his way of saying he is hungry.

Thanks for complimenting Ozzy. We adore him!

 

I just set something like that up on my SS today too! Will add your links when I have a moment.

 

Yup. That's a cat, alright.

Your stories and pictures of Ozzy's DKA takes me back to Cinco's. Once he was out of the hospital, he was in a cage in our garage, because he had only just joined our family and wasn't integrated with the other cats. He had such bad urine scald! We washed his back half in baby shampoo every day. The vet thought we should give up on him. He never would have survived it all if it hadn't been from the people here. I don't know if you can see it here, but he still had some fur missing on his back legs. It was healing up nicely.

You can really see it in this one:

Poor baby.

My Minka loved to lick plastic, too, especially plastic bags. The vet said it had to do with the oil in the plastic.

So, Ozzy, Mama needs to get some sleep tonight, so let's get up on our surfboard and hang ten, 'k?

 

It's not necessarily pica....there are actually quite a few reasons why cats lick/eat plastic!! Who would have thunk??

Why cats eat plastic/plastic bags

 

Those pics of Cinco are heartbreaking. I can just see the pain and sadness in his eyes in the last one and it is makes me want to cry. You are amazing to take in a stray and help heal him like that. He was so lucky to have you!!

I looked at your pics of Cinco the other night and thought he reminded me of my Ozzy a lot too! I love the little orange tabby boys! They are soo sweet and goofy! They didn't make a zillion cartoons after these types of cats for no reason!!

 

Thanks for sharing that link, China. I had no idea cats licking plastic was so common! Figgie is obsessed with licking the plastic bag that our toilet paper comes in. It drives me nuts!!

 

Here's my dirty little secret: I didn't like orange tabbies. I resisted Cinco as long as I could, but I couldn't let him starve on my doorstep, and then once we found out how sick he was, I couldn't let him die! He wasn't an affectionate cat - he never really learned how to accept lovin', but he wormed his way into our hearts and taught us so much. We really miss him.

 

OMG...me too! I didn't want a tabby cat. I wanted some exotic kitty that had pretty beautiful hair and eyes. My first kitty was a white flamed tip Siamese with gorgeous blue eyes- his name was Bleu. We lost him unfortunately when my room mate left the door open. He was Figgie's littermate and they were bonded from birth. When Bleu went missing, Figgie was so distraught to have lost his best buddy so we got him another kitty. We found a lady who was a vet tech and had some kitties she was trying to adopt. Hubby said let's just go look so we did and Ozzy came up and chose us. I was SMITTEN from the second I met him. He was SOO cute and sweet. I always used to say to Hubby 'there is something so special about this cat' and all these years later he still teases me and says that to me- but it's true. He was meant to be ours!!

 

So Ozzy is 78 at +3.45. Gave him a big ole' snack so I can go to bed and he can go surfing. I think he is going to be fine. Food is in the autofeeder too in case he needs it.

These have been the best 3 days for Ozzy numbers-wise since he came home from hospital. And it was over my 3 day weekend so I got to watch/monitor it.

I am so happy!

So far so good on the vomit front, too.

Immediately after I syringed him some anti nausea meds, he tossed it up. But I kind of gave it to him quickly because I was in a hurry to get out the door to do a chore. He ate after (about 15 mins) fine and didn't throw up so I'm not going to count that one. He tends to vomit more late at night/early morning, so we will see what happens. I have noticed that I am not smelling any more stinky poos. Not sure if they are still soft, but you could smell the poo from the other room and that has stopped so that's an improvement. One day at a time.

 

The best ones choose us....one of my first "soul-kitties" was a yellow tabby. I went to the shelter to see what they had and went from cage to cage picking up all the kittens and seeing how they acted....One reached out with a gentle paw and batted me on the nose...SOLD!!!

Next time I went looking for a cat, one cat out of the bunch did the same thing......guess who came home??

Last time I went to a shelter looking for a cat was when I got China as a kitten....and yes....she got the nose too!!.....and she's never batted at it since!! She read my mind, knew what she had to do and did it!!

 

Love this!!!

 

+4.5=102

I might have overcarbed him with that last big meal. It was still LC but he ate about 1.5 oz. He's up to 102 now and in the blues. That means bed-y-bye for me. Ya. I'm gonna be so tired tomorrow.

I have a feeling he might bounce up in the am. We will see.

Nighty Ladies of Lantus! XO