1/18 Makoto AM (137) +3(190)+6(131) PM (136)

yesterday
I feel like the liquid Gabapentin causes little spikes now that I'm looking back at his spreadsheet. Well, it might also just be that he's uncomfortable when one dose wears off and another has yet to kick in. Added his labs in. Back to work for me tonight, so we'll hold this dose through Monday.
I'm feeling less okay about going out of town in a week, so I might change plans again and not travel far.

Happy Saturday.

 

Ari - those labs look pretty good to me - kidneys not out of range either. If you are ever concerned about labs, one of our Moderators, (Marje and Gracie) is quite experienced and helpful (she may not be available right now, but will be back).

Just wanted to pass along in case you could use
Even when I was giving the chewy gaba (another possible fail I thought, because it also had added sugar) I couldn't ever prove a difference in BG. I started to see something, then I didn't. Just don't know.
I learned here about Wedgewood Pharmacy and their NO sugar Gourmed version of Gabapentin (on bottle: Wedgewood Village Pharmacy, Swedesboro NJ). It has no added carbs, and is a crunchy tablet. I crush and mix in food. I'm in Texas, but my Vet knew about Wedgewood, and called in the prescription. That pharmacy mails directly to me.

 

Waiting on the tiny tabs of Gabapentin...just seeing if we noticed a difference and I had that on hand. I can't exactly tell if it's " helping ", but he hasn't been grinding his teeth so... We will get an antiinflammatory meds to have on hand and I'm looking into hemp/ CBD oil.
I thought most of the bloodwork looked okay too...his ALT is much better and that was usually worrisome, but some of his values moved a bit. His Creatinine is higher and the Albumin is borderline here. His Bun/ Creatinine Ratio is good, but I'll have to look through the rest of his bloodwork and plug it in. Trying not to obsess over numbers honestly- his vet thinks I only see ' a chance of clouds on a clear day'
And if it came down to it, I'd take Kidney issues over Liver. I haven't seen many older cats do as well with liver disease.

 

It might be worth putting in previous labs if you have them, sometimes the trends over time are more important than the one-off values. I remember you mentioning you might want to switch to TR at some point, but the other option is you can consider a modified SLGS, with a lower reduction point. SLGS is meant as a general guideline, and you are gathering enough data where you could decide to lower your threshold. I only mention it since *technically* that 87 the other night earned a reduction.

Much better today cycle today, hope Makoto stays safe tonight while you are at work.

 

* looks around*
what 87 ....?

I know. I think I am going to try and take reductions at 70 since someone mentioned on the AT below 68 was low. The other option someone mentioned was (3) separate drops below my threshold then a reduction, so we will see. We tend to run outta reduction room here following SLGS strictly.
I left him a little MC food in his autofeeder for +2 - overdid it last night and this morning with the MC.

 

Do you mean the 3x under 50 or once under 40? That's usually for long term diabetics/those diabetic longer than a year.

But honestly, Ari, you test enough to try TR if you wanted

 

I meant 3x under my adjusted threshold of (70) on the AT reader. I might try that since we don't have much reduction space and I want to try and hold on to some nice numbers for awhile. My hesitation with TR was that I am gone for 12 hours overnight and that's when I really see how low a dose it taking us. If I can't test for 3-4 days at time it didn't seem like I would be able to follow TR and reassess doses every 3 days. I feel like I would only have all the information half of the time.

 

Hmmmm yes, I do see your dilemma. It's such a shame though because you're not gone for 12 hours every day.

 

I know...working on a schedule compromise where I work 3 (8) hours shifts @ 11 PM and only 1 (12) hour shift, so that might help.