Gandalf 1/3 296 1U

See yesterday's post. He's acting better though - visited me in bed a couple times overnight and came to the bathroom on his own for shot, but he's learned he gets food afterwards, duh. I never gave him treats after his test/shot.

 

You never gave him treats after a test?! Wow. It makes it so much easier. I am sure that is why Beau purrs the entire time. He always gets a treat or food afterwards.

Glad Gandalf is feeling better. I read your other post about taking him to the acu vet in this cold weather. I do hate having to do that too. Also when it is really hot out. But your plan to prewarm the car and use blankets should do the trick.

 

Much better number this morn (compared to the past 2 days). How's the eating going? And for the love of Pete (i have no idea who Pete is, i once dated a guy named Pete and he..oh never mind) would ya give that gray cutey a snack after testing! Don't even get me started on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Learning Paradigm (S->R->C)!

I never gave much thought to strips and the cold but hey, thanks for giving me something else to worry about! cat(2)_steam

It's so cold here (okay, i shouldn't complain, my 19F degrees are probably balmy comapred to your temps) that the cats refuse to go outside. And who can blame them, but i find they are just so incredibly bored and just continuously begging for food. Oh how i hate the cold!

 

Not understanding this at all - he was 308 at +6. I was gone so didn't get an earlier test. I highly doubt he went any kind of low. More than likely the fact I scared him with all the getting ready to go somewhere *with him* action - especially the going out and starting car before changing clothes - kept any action from happening. Will test again at +9.

Trying to decide whether to order test strips or wait till next week. I have back up meters/strips, so not like I'm running out, I just don't want to spend money if there's a possibility they'll be ruined by the cold in transit.

 

Yeah, so that 308 sure does seem out of left field. I know you don't want to hear this, and i've needed to be reminded of it myself a few times, but it's just one number. Maybe on top of you getting everything ready, he also had some kind of fright. I know for a fact that after Favorite bites Molly on the back (bad Favorite!) she temporarily sky rockets. I'm curious to see the +9.

Did you go to the acupuncturist today?

 

Acupuncture is Wednesday. And I'll be getting blood work on him too if he doesn't come down by Tuesday. He's only gone up today, very uncharacteristic and last year he had a bad infection which made his numbers wonky.

This is why I was very glad to be able to get 2 oz of raw mix in to him last hour! He's never ever had ketones and I don't want to go down that road. I need to get a ketone test on him tonight.

 

PMPS 343 1U, 75ml fluids, fed 1 oz raw mix

I may have watered down this batch of raw too much though. Sure hope he doesn't puke later!! That would be gross. I had forgotten about a bowl of mix in the fridge and the other day noticed something stunk when I opened the door. Not realizing what it was, I threw out some old tangerines in the vegetable bin, but the smell was still there the next day! When I realized it was the raw mix it was thoroughly disgusting!!! Rancid smelling stuff. Yuck!

He ate pretty good today, so no worries there. And I did get a ketone test earlier this evening; it looks to be negative, but these strips are more than 3 months old. I have to decide what to do by tomorrow so I can make an appointment. I'm fine with him seeing a different vet for blood work; our acu vet doesn't really treat patients here anymore unless she is filling in for someone. I have to call her tomorrow anyway to move our appt from Thurs to Wed. since my day off is different than anticipated. I will ask her if she can do a blood draw to send off after the acu rather than a full exam. Trying to get by a bit cheaper - a blood draw and visit run about $150 now and I should probably have them send off a T4/free T4 test as well since we discussed that here, unless he comes back with an infection.

 

Hmmm, weird numbers the past three days. I day where he went pretty low (53), then a day at reduced dose with not much drop and now high, flat numbers after a dose increase. I just wonder if you could have held the .75u for another day if he would have settled down? I hope he isn't feeling a lot of pain and that the acu vet will make him feel better.

 

I'm not convinced he needs less. Any drop in insulin needs is very unusual for him and the only reason I can determine logically is whatever's going on with his pancreas - hey, hi, Mr. P has been ill for 5 years! He's not headed for OTJ, it's something else and I think it's a factor that may waffle back and forth. It's more likely he needs more insulin again than less.

A drop to 53 only seemed like a red flag because it came from a 200+. It's where he wants to be. I don't think I should have dropped the dose - it was not a scary low. He may simply be having a prolonged bounce from it - or he has an infection. I've seen this with Lev before, last winter's a pretty good example.