8th-9th Feb: Tyler : 8th 8.30am =250: 8.30pm=301 No dose: 9th AMPS=362 - 1 unit +6=338

[PussCatPrince - GA]

Previously for Tyler - In today's news. Fri. 9th Feb

Tyler took himself off for a good walk this morning which was great to see. He has taken to sleeping under the downstairs bedroom bed so we have switched sleeping arrangements about for the time being. I suppose it is his defence against being snatched away again.

I have hopefully updated the SS correctly & it makes some sense.
As you will see he is now on 1 unit lanctus at the moment per the vet's instruction & the vet clinic wishes to know the numbers from my home testing.
They were very puzzled by the very low, almost hypoglycemic, BG at a time when he was clearly very poorly with pancreatitis. I think maybe they ( one of the vets) are now looking to understand his curve.

Obviously the past week has all been about stabilising Ty re the pancreatitis .

One issue for me already in the short time Tyler has been home is that it seems feeding him wet food has brought back the soft stools which he then is unable to keep from sitting in. I've had to clean him up a good 7 to 8 times the past 24 hours.
When he came back from the vet hospital his stools were perfectly normal and having just phoned the clinic , it appears they were feeding him Science dry diet kibble with a little wet jellymeat.
Obviously this is no good for Diabetes , nor likely CKD unless it was renal.

We can't carry on like this over the weekend so I felt I had to break out the dry renal to see if that makes a difference to the stools.

It is lovely to have him home , productive rear end or not. Home did not seem at all right without him calumping around on his wobbly feet. Dusty has brought him a couple of presents sadly. She must now be called 3 bells as I added an extra one.

 

[Carol in Chicago]

I hope the stool issue is quickly resolved. If his food has suddenly changed that might upset his system. Hope that clears up for you.

With no insulin for several days, it will take time for the depot to re-establish. I'm glad the vet wants to review your numbers, but please be cautious with any increases over the next few days especially with his recent history of low BG.

 

[Stacy & Asia]

I'm sorry he's still having poo problems, but yay that he is home where he belongs! I hope he relaxes and starts sleeping back in his usual spot, poor Ty.

I wonder if there is anything you could add to the wet food to bulk up the stools a bit? I don't have much experience here, but just trying to figure what in the dry food would bulk them up that the wet food doesn't have (besides carbs)?

I'm glad he's getting good walks in and I hope he grows stronger with each day.

 

[Alicia & Maggie (GA)]

I know you are all glad he is home! I hope you find a way to firm up his stools. How wonderful that he is having nice walks.

 

[Myagi (GA) and Heidi]

I knows his constitutional made your heart smile. It does mine. It sounds like tricky juggling and experimenting to get the right balance of food for the multiple issues. Ty's got the best parent for the job. Vines to you for a happy medium soon for a comfortable life for you both. I missed you. Glad your boy is home.

 

[Steph & Quintus & L & O]

I was stuck in icky poo land (thankfully still controllable, despite poo-paw in the face at 4am once) because of the wet food. I stayed stuck in a compromise, half wet DM and half dry kidney kibble.

I hope you can find a compromise-mix of whatever that keeps the stools liveable and helps with the BG a bit.

 

[Tracey&Jones (GA)]

I am so glad Tyler is feeling better, yucky poo or not.

Hope you find the right food balance for him soon. One less worry would be nice wouldn't it?

 

[Stacy & Asia]

I was stuck in icky poo land (thankfully still controllable, despite poo-paw in the face at 4am once) because of the wet food. I stayed stuck in a compromise, half wet DM and half dry kidney kibble.

I hope you can find a compromise-mix of whatever that keeps the stools liveable and helps with the BG a bit.

Stephanie, did you or your vet come up with any reason for why that is? What’s in the dry food that makes it more stool firming? Or what is irritating in the wet food, I suppose can be an issue too. Since it’s happen to Q and Ty at least, and perhaps others, it would be nice to get to the root of it if at possible for future benefit of your cats and others.

 

[Phoebes (GA)]

What about pumpkin added?

 

[Steph & Quintus & L & O]

Stephanie, did you or your vet come up with any reason for why that is? What’s in the dry food that makes it more stool firming? Or what is irritating in the wet food, I suppose can be an issue too. Since it’s happen to Q and Ty at least, and perhaps others, it would be nice to get to the root of it if at possible for future benefit of your cats and others.

That is a good question. The answer is "I'm not sure". I've always taken it for granted (for having heard it and seen it sometimes) that brutal food change could lead to diarrhea -- hence the transition protocol.

When I mentioned the diarrhea to my vet he said "yes, there is a ton of fibre in DM" -- I didn't double-check it but indeed, too much fibre could make for nasty stools. Specially if the GI tract is already upset by the food change.

Also: Quintus has a history of mildly unhappy stools (but nothing like the poop that ended up on my face that night) which I'd figured out was food-dependant, because it got worse with some and better with others. (All dry.)

So what I did is I went back to 100% dry food that he had pretty stools with, got him "stabilised" (his stools, not his BG at that point), then introduced a quarter of his calorie intake as the new food, waited a few days, etc. I messed up after that (see SS notes) but the theory would be 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 -- you get the idea. Waiting enough days in between for stools to be OK. And with Quintus I hit a point (roughly 1/2 1/2) where his stools were decent but if I tried to increase the wet food it would go downhill. So I stayed there, and it's with that mix that Quintus went off insulin. I did have to be careful to mix the dry and wet quite well as they were different carb % and I wanted what he ate to be reasonably constant to not mess up too much with the dosing. I just did it with a fork, but if I had a blender I guess I could have blended.

A sidenote, as I know you're considering metacam for Ty, @PussCatPrince: Quintus got a really upset tummy on metacam (which is how he ended up on Onsior to start with). But I've had other cats use it fine -- not an "anti-Metacam" note, just a "keep an eye open" one.

 

[Stacy & Asia]

brutal food change could lead to diarrhea -- hence the transition protocol

So for your situation, you think it was just a sudden food switch that did it, vs something in or not in the food? Did you try food other than the high fiber one?

 

[Steph & Quintus & L & O]

So for your situation, you think it was just a sudden food switch that did it, vs something in or not in the food? Did you try food other than the high fiber one?

I think it's the fiber (but again, didn't even look on the tin yet to double-check fiber content), but it could also be something in the food. Sorry, at this stage IDK.

I could go and look at the different compositions of the foods he had which worked better and worked less to compare. FWIW here they are, if somebody wants to go digging before me: Pro Plan NF kibble is the one he had good stools with. Pro Plan DM wet is the one I switched to and have been talking about here. Before that he was on Hill's k/d+mobility kibble, with slight stool problems. Hill's Urinary Stress c/d (kibble) gave slightly worse problems. Then I remembered there is zylkene in there, which is milk protein (roughly), and that I had noticed a link between Quintus's stool problems and licking the lid of my yoghurt drink, so I also stopped the zylkene at some point, suspecting it of playing a role. Pro Plan NF wet pouches make his stools bad, as do the Hill's k/d+mobility ones. I'm afraid that's pretty much all I have for now.