9/3 Hyde AMPS 446 +4 309 PMPS 341 +2 254 +4 87 +5 78 +5.75 96 +6.25 115

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Aww I'm sorry Anne about the migraine :( My dad gets those so I've seen what they are like. I hope that nap helped and you get to see some blues again soon!
 
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Sorry about the migraine. I can imagine your interaction with the vet yesterday did not help. :arghh: Neko's main vet disagrees with me sometimes too, but is willing to humor me and learn about new things. When Neko's IAA and IGF-1 test came back positive when she though I didn't need to do them (but was humoring me), she gained a lot of respect for what I was learning and doing. Now we work together in a way I like.

Paws crossed she starts really working the additional juice soon.
 
ugh, i just read through the story about the vet yesterday. I guess the good thing is that if a medical problem is out of his ability, he's willing to say so. Better than faking it, I suppose.

You can tell him that you have excellent resources here on the issues that high dose cats face, so he isn't expected to be an expert on it. Almost no vets are. As long as he's open to learning with you, then hopefully things could work out. Unless you have a better vet that you can move to.

The situation with Jekyll would be unacceptable to me. Even the weight loss alone is very disturbing. Until I came here I didn't realize how many people treat cats successfully for cancer. We lost one kitty, Felix, when he had a mass at the end of his stomach. The vet did exploratory surgery and when he discovered that, we let him euthanize Felix. Now I see people getting their kitties treated for cancer and they seem to do very well with many kinds of cancer. I wish I'd known that before.

As you said, the good news is that they'll do the blood draw for you so you know what's going on.

I hope your migraine is better. I'm a bit excited by the yellow test tonight! Don't keep your mom up, though, Hyde. Another night would be better for dipping lower.
 
Yay!!! that's super. I'd give a little meal of low carb (maybe 1 ounce) and see if you can get her to "surf" along in green numbers for a while.

I'd retest in 30 minutes. She's dropping fairly quickly and you want to help her flatten out.

If she drops below 50, you're going to pop open a can of gravy food and give her a teaspoon of the gravy. Put the lid back on the can to squish out the gravy.

If you don't have gravy, add a couple of drops of karo/honey/maple syrup if she goes below 50. Then post here and ask for help in your subject line.
 
This is good but I know scary the first time. I'd feed a little lc and test in an hour. Remember normal numbers are 50-120.

I just read what your vet said about Jekyll. I'll comment in a minute but want you to read this first.

I see Julie beat me to it so I will continue. Besides weight loss what other symptoms does Jekyll have? Many forms of cancer respond well to treatment but you need a diagnosis first. To say he has cancer somewhere is ridiculous. Is there an IM vet anywhere near you?
 
Just fed Hyde (and Oscar and Tony) some LC. Will retest in 30 minutes. She seems fine other than not ravenously hungry like usual.
 
tiffmaxee said:
This is good but I know scary the first time. I'd feed a little lc and test in an hour. Remember normal numbers are 50-120.

I just read what your vet said about Jekyll. I'll comment in a minute but want you to read this first.

I see Julie beat me to it so I will continue. Besides weight loss what other symptoms does Jekyll have? Many forms of cancer respond well to treatment but you need a diagnosis first. To say he has cancer somewhere is ridiculous. Is there an IM vet anywhere near you?
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As for Jekyll, his only symptoms seem to be digestive, the vomiting bile (?), farting (generally when in the litter box) and sometimes pooping outside the box and very thin poops. I don't even know what sorts of tests to ask for? Possibly an xray?
 
I think that is why you need a boarded internist if possible. An ultrasound might be helpful to see if there is any thickening of the stomach lining. I don't think X-rays will show much unless there was a big mass and if that were the case the vet would palate that and feel it so I doubt there is one. I'm assuming the 22 pounds was too much but what do you think he should weigh? How is his appetite? Do you have a set of recent labs?
 
Took her upstairs to watch TV with DH. She rarely goes up there these days but she parked herself where my feet should be:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Any advice for tomorrow mornings shot? Since it will be at 5:30 AM eastern US, I'd like to have a plan. No one will be home to test. If she is in the 200 - 300 range should she still get the full dose?
 
tiffmaxee said:
I think that is why you need a boarded internist if possible. An ultrasound might be helpful to see if there is any thickening of the stomach lining. I don't think X-rays will show much unless there was a big mass and if that were the case the vet would palate that and feel it so I doubt there is one. I'm assuming the 22 pounds was too much but what do you think he should weigh? How is his appetite? Do you have a set of recent labs?
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He was quite a round cat at 22 lbs and 11 lbs is too bony. I'd be happier in the 15 lb range. I do not have his recent blood work but will get it on Saturday.
 
Fatcalico said:
He was quite a round cat at 22 lbs and 11 lbs is too bony. I'd be happier in the 15 lb range. I do not have his recent blood work but will get it on Saturday.
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When you get the labs let me know. They may be some clues at to what is wrong. That's a huge amount of weight loss. There are other things that can cause it besides cancer such as kidney disease and hyperthyroidism. I wouldn't assume it's cancer.

As for tomorrow see what Julie says. We do have members back east that will be able to give input at amps. I'd get a test at +11 if possible unless he starts to go back up before you go to sleep. That way you can test at amps and know if he is coming back up.
 
Fatcalico said:
Any advice for tomorrow mornings shot? Since it will be at 5:30 AM eastern US, I'd like to have a plan. No one will be home to test. If she is in the 200 - 300 range should she still get the full dose?
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What her preshot value is doesn't really figure into what her nadir will be, and it's the nadirs that are important. Neko has gotten reductions (below 50) from above 470, although that's been a while. Do you go right out the door after shooting? Or is there a chance for a later test. The other option is to get a +11 tomorrow morning and then figure out if she's going up by AMPS. BTW - my money is on a bounce and her being safe tomorrow. I'd also like to see how the cycle plays out in the next little while. Do we have the next test yet?

As for Jekyl, what is he eating? Wondering if there's an allergy/food absorption issue at play.
 
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Looks like it might be a longer night. :coffee::coffee: Welcome to your first PJ party.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Do you go right out the door after shooting? Or is there a chance for a later test.
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DH does the test, feed, shoot in the mornings and I leave about 1 hour after shot so I could get a +1 and in a pinch, probably work from home tomorrow. I also think she will bounce so may not be an issue.
 
She's not dropping very much, really just surfing along. You do want two rising tests, without influence of food, before calling it a night. If you don't feed now and test and she's stable or rising, that's the first one. But it's a gamble if she goes down.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
As for Jekyl, what is he eating? Wondering if there's an allergy/food absorption issue at play.
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For years, all four got a small meal of canned twice a day - maybe 1.5 cans daily between all 4. Jekyll generally gets pushed out of his unless I stand over him and keep the rest away. They always have dry available - it used to be Iams hairball (26 % carb) but have switched them since Hyde's dx in May 2015 to Evo cat and Kitten (7% carb).
 
If you get a +1 tomorrow, it'll tell you what sort of food spike she gets. If you read the section on Becoming Data Ready in the Shooting and Handling Low Numbers Sticky, it'll tell you what other data is useful to have. Yup, might be time to brush up on that sticky note. :) If you are ever worried about her going low, it's OK to leave out higher carb food for her. I know your signature says you leave out low carb dry. Do you have an autofeeder?

I had wondered about Jekyl's food, but it sounds like nothing changed in the time frame, though it could still be food. My civie is vomiting more than I'd like and I've got him booked for a U/S. I'm pretty certain he has some food allergies too. As of this morning, duck is now off the menu.:rolleyes:
 
We adopted a 6mo old kitten with chronic diarrhea in August 2010. Treated her with metronidazole and the diarrhea continued. The vet said that at that point, she likely had so much damage to her intestines that it would continue. We fed her vet-prescribed easy on your gut dry food. Then punkin became diabetic in December, and when I found FDMB in February 2011, I switched both cats from dry food to Fancy Feast.

Her diarrhea disappeared and has never returned. I don't know if she was allergic to something in the food, or if it was just too much ash in it. I had another cat years ago that was sensitive to ash in dry food.

Punkin also had chronic bladder infections (while eating vet-prescription easy-on-the bladder food) before he became diabetic, and never had another one after we switched him to canned food. My experience has been that dry food is pretty bad for them. Some cats seem to do ok on it, but after our experience, i don't trust it.

If he's got thin stools, it could either mean it's going through him too fast, or possible something is causing a narrowing of his intestines.

In any case, I'd think that there would be something to help him. It sounds like the vet sort of dismissed things, but i can't imagine letting it go untreated without knowing for certain what's behind the extreme weight loss and the digestive woes.
 
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