8/31 Grandpa AMPS 95. Up to 203 after eating. Gave shot late.

Beck and Philly

Beck and Philly

Member Since 2018
Yesterday

Hi all. Grandpa is having a strange morning. My roommate does his morning routine. When I woke up she said his 6 AM test was 115 on an AlphaTrak with AT strips. She didn't know about stalling so she fed him. He wasn't interested so she put a dried minnow topper on FF and he slowly picked at it. She tested at 6:30 and he was 95. He ate most of the can of FF eventually and licked the juice from a Friskies offering.

He's now at 117 and we haven't given insulin. It's been two hours since he started eating and almost an hour since he finished.

What should we do?
 
Kris & Teasel said:
If Grandpa wasn't a "special needs" kitty you could try the full dose. The 2.5 u depot is there but who knows how it behaves in circumstances like his. Maybe try a token dose of 1 u? I'm going out on a limb here ... others might disagree.
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I just got back to my phone and saw this. He was up to 203 so I gave full dose along with his Lysine chew. Hope I did the right thing, but after two fur shots this week I wanted to try to keep him on track.

Thanks for your advice. Sorry I didn't see it before I acted!
 
Kris & Teasel said:
I'm going out on a limb here ... others might disagree.
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Nope, there's nothing to disagree about. I'm going to be careful (and this will be the only time I'm bringing this up) about using phrases like "At this point in his life/We're past that/There's no going back now". Those have such negative connotations. I think we have all been realistic, supportive and hopeful as a group. I've been in this situation more than once where it's just impossible to say what organ is pressing up against something else, what has moved 3 millimeters overnight, how much pain is there.
Grandpa is going to let you know if something hurts and maybe it's just arthritis you didn't know he had. He might not eat on schedule because that's what cats do. There may be a few moments in time (Noah does this, such a manipulator) where you briefly question yourself about is this the right thing to do. That's when Noah gives me the look, "Where's my dinner?"
Yes my friend, you are doing the right thing. Without even knowing it you may have adjusted his doses and/or timetable to what you "feel" is right. There is no software or printed page for this. The positive feedback and love you get helps but in the middle of the night you are still dealing with a medical situation and in my opinion you are doing everything the right way.
I hope this comes out right. It's good to have friends. ;)
 
Thanks, Dickson. I understand what you're saying and appreciate you so very much. In May I thought we were "only" dealing with diabetes and I set out to learn and do everything by the book. In June vets told me that his time is so short, there's no reason to treat the diabetes so we stopped and Grandpa felt lousy. We decided that as long as he is here, we want to treat his diabetes as if he was a regular, healthy cat as much as possible although the vet warned us that his compromised organs may cause unpredictable numbers. As a result, his vomiting is much less frequent and he seems to feel better, especially if we get him into yellow numbers.

Regardless of his cancer, his numbers have been more pink, red, and black than blue or green. We find ourselves stumped when we get lower numbers before his insulin times. I think I'd have the same questions even if he was only diabetic since I am horrible with numbers and have trouble spotting patterns in his spreadsheet or identifying onsets and nadirs and such.

I know there will be a time when nothing helps, but I've found that only by doing everything as "right" as possible in his insulin and meals can I keep his vomiting at bay and keep him eating. It also helps me narrow down what is causing bad days. If I skip a shot or allow him to eat too much, I don't know if his lethargy, vomiting, lack of appetite, etc is cancer, pancreatitis, etc. Or bad sugar management.

Does that make sense?

And you're so right. It's good to have friends.
 
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Morning sickness is over. Maybe he's pregnant.

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Ole!! Look at him reaching for it! :cat: :joyful:
Love the picture!

I wanted to say I think you are doing such an amazing job caring for him!! He is lucky to have you as a momma bean!
And your roommate, helping with morning schedule, amazing home for him!
Sending love and hugs for Grandpa, he is such a champ! :bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
That reminds me of the house I rented on a tree farm. A quarter section of land, two outdoor cats and horses next door.
I loved it, my mom was horrified. "Does this house have a bathroom?" It's down by the creek mom, nice to see you too. :blackeye: :(
 
Noah & me (GA) said:
That reminds me of the house I rented on a tree farm. A quarter section of land, two outdoor cats and horses next door.
I loved it, my mom was horrified. "Does this house have a bathroom?" It's down by the creek mom, nice to see you too. :blackeye: :(
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Not far off. It was built in the early 50s as a tenant house for the farm behind me. It is under 1,000 square feet, but I have just under two acres and back onto the 1,000 acre farm. I haven't changed much in the house since moving here in 1991. At first I was too poor, but now I like the original look. I still use the 1952 furnace as my winter heat. It's so big it would take three people holding hands to circle it.

The difference here is instead of being horrified, my mom liked it enough to move 200 miles to live next door on the neighboring farm.
 
Olive & Paula said:
I love country life. My neighbors, cows literally. Are better than people. Early spring 3 new arrivals were on my front lawn. Today momma deer and her baby are spending the day under our shed eave out of the rain. They don't run anymore when we are out there. This was the best move ever.
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Nice!! I couldn't agree more.
 
Manu & Porto said:
Ole!! Look at him reaching for it! :cat: :joyful:
Love the picture!

I wanted to say I think you are doing such an amazing job caring for him!! He is lucky to have you as a momma bean!
And your roommate, helping with morning schedule, amazing home for him!
Sending love and hugs for Grandpa, he is such a champ! :bighug::bighug::bighug::bighug:
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Thank you so much for your kind words! I agree, I'm very lucky to have a friend like my roommate who loves animals as much as I do and is so good with them.
 
Sending love and prayers to my favorite Grandpa man, that he is all tucked in for the night :bighug:
 
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