Whistle- back at the vet

So Whistle is back at her regular vet today. Having her home has been a roller coaster ride for us both, and I say this as a person who hates roller coasters. She was very active and eating well for the first two days at home, but it became clear that her blood glucose was out of control. Rarely did she not test HI on my meter. She was also doing a lot of peeing outside the litter box, something she rarely ever does. Ketones were negative though--the only upside to the outside-the-litter-box pee was that it was easier to test. By Saturday I was fed up with the Hill's k/d the emergency vet wanted her to eat (I thought it was causing the blood sugar issues), and Whistle was too. She started refusing to eat it, which scared me. I was also having trouble getting enough blood from her to test that day, so I took her in to the emergency vet. They did a spot check, and Whistle was all the way down at 68 (around 4pm) from being in the 400s that morning. I think this was due to her poor appetite--she ate before insulin, but would not eat again. However, going from so high to so low meant that her insulin schedule was getting inconsistent--sometimes she needed it, but that night she was still too low to have it. I did later catch her eating my civies' left over Fancy Feast, so I set out to find something fairly good for kidneys and diabetes that she would eat. I bought a variety of foods suggested here, and Whistle was happy with the Friskies' special diet turkey and giblets.

The next few days were better. She didn't pee outside the litter box, and her blood glucose was coming down nicely. She had an appetite. She was not particularly energetic though, and was spending more time than usual underneath the couch. I continued giving the new insulin dose of 3.5 units Lantus and that seemed to be working well since she was eating. However, I awoke this morning to lots of pee outside the litter box. Whistle was also drinking a lot and hiding. I was again unable to get enough blood from her to test (I use a meter that requires a very small amount of blood, and I've never had this problem until recently). I had an appointment for her to see her regular vet on Thursday, as the vet was concerned that she saw no record of urine culture results on the things the emergency vet faxed over. She wanted to make sure Whistle's problems weren't being caused by an infection of some sort. I called today and they worked Whistle in--she'll have to hang out at the vet's office so they can test her blood glucose and do a urine culture in between surgeries, but at this point I'd rather be safe than sorry. I know she needs her time alone right now, but I'm also very sad to see how much she avoids and is even hostile towards my two-year-old Maine Coon civie, with whom she is normally very affectionate and playful. He seems a little depressed about it too.

 

I'm sorry you guys are on this rollercoaster...I don't like them either! Fingers crossed that she feels better very soon

Jen

 

Awwww por kitty kitty. Sending prayers for Whistle.

 

Ahhh (((((Whistle))))).

 

Sorry for the additional vet visit, but I hope they find what's going on. On the K-D Food, when my vet wanted Blackie it eat this last year, I checked it out. It has glucose in the food! I don't know how much, but it's not that far down the list. If Whistle needs kidney food, there are some good choices of low carb, high protein, lower phosphorus foods.

 

Thank you everyone for the well-wishes.

Ele:
I saw glucose listed as an ingredient in the k/d too! I was very unhappy about this--I also knew the carb content wasn't great because I checked on that when the emergency vet told me they were feeding her that. It's interesting because while the emergency vet was very set on having Whistle eat it, her regular vet seemed very understanding when I explained the whole situation to her. So far the Friskies Whistle is eating is working better. It's lower phopsh. than her pre-diagnosis diet, lower carb than k/d, and as for the protein, I'd like to see it lower but this happened to be the one thing she was interested in eating. I'm hoping this is an infection or something else treatable. I hate watching her bg values rise despite my best efforts and I'm hoping her kidney problems aren't behind it. I would have expected it to go the opposite way--I know Tanya's CRF page says that usually when diabetes is under control kidney values improve, yet the emergency vet really thinks that her kidney problems are exacerbating her diabetes.