7 / 12-14 Dusty and Jo (by proxy)

This is going to be interesting ....

I went over to Jo's house to bring her needles with half unit markings from the rescue and to go over basic care for Dusty. While I've encouraged her to sign up here, it hasn't happened yet and I want to start documenting what I can. She has some vision and mobility issues.

Dusty is roughly 5 pounds (emaciated), has red, medium length fur, and tolerated me testing him with nominal squirming. He seemed somewhat lethargic. His breath smelled normal. I didn't have any ketone test strips, nor the NovaMax meter from home for which I need to get strips.

The insulin she has is Lantus. She'd been giving only 0.5 units, as best as she could guesstimate, but with the high carb dry, he was HI on the human glucometer.

She had picked up a "weight maintenance" formula dry food which was high carb and high fiber. As he was already eating Fancy Feast, I said not to feed him that and just feed the canned classic Fancy Feast or Friskies pates.

Sunday, I called to check how things were going. She noted major diarrhea. I surmised this was due to the food change. I have some FortiFlora I will take to her after work Monday. I advised (now don't cringe), feeding 1 teaspoon of the high carb dry twice a day, as it has a lot of fiber in it, until she can pick up some unflavored Metamucil to help with the diarrhea.

She's not likely to hometest, so it'll be catch as catch can for me to get over there, barring a willing volunteer (or two or three) interested in learning about feline diabetes. I'm going to make a spreadsheet chart of the Secondary Monitoring Tools so she can track what she can see; I'll track any glucose numbers I can get.

She is feeling somewhat daunted by the necessity of testing every 8 hours, having to find some to care for him during visits to family out of town, and more.

Any ideas folks have to make this work better are appreciated.

Thats great you are helping her out

I am surprised she moved cold turkey to wet.. I think I have seen you advise a slow transition for other cats many a time?

Is the vision issues the main testing concern? Depending on the issue, maybe she can set up a big magnifying glass on a stand in the testing area? Meanwhile your secondary testing will do and maybe he will be one of the 84% that go into remission quick. At a minimum the two preshot tests should be a good start and then a mid cycle test every other day (at slightly different times) should give us a rough guide.

What was the trigger? Dry food? And how long has Dusty been diabetic?

Wendy

I though he was eating enough canned already and he wasn't, so now we're playing catch up and trying to control the diarrhea. I suggested putting down some sacrificial sheets or newspaper to reduce time spent on clean up. May need to up the awful dry for a bit.

If I can't help her stabilize him, she'll give him back to the rescue ... and they'll euthanize. He is very gentle, at least he is in his debilitated state.

At least 6 months untreated, from what the rescue said. She initially returned him in awful shape and he's not improving vry fast.

I found a syringe magnifier locally, but it didn't clamp on, so that was a bust. She does have readers and still has difficulty. Also her finger dexterity is a bit iffy. She is partially wheelchair bound.

I'll see if she'll let me come by to catch some nadirs. I also want to check with the local Vet Tech school to see about a field experience in feline diabetes - a combination of practical care (getting some of those pre-tests and mid-cycles!), plus readings on feline diabetes, and putting together a poster or presentation to give to other students.

Is she active in her local church? Maybe see if someone there is willing to come in and help her out.

Maybe she can have some compromise like most people do who dont come on here. I would put him back on the dry and transition more slowly to say a medium carb. The high end friskies might work.

She could take her chances with occasional testing and feed a medium carb food. Forget remission and aim for yellows and blues, maybe an occasional pink. Stay away from the dangerous greens. Start with a low dose and work up say 1/4 unit a week until the urine glucose drops to say trace, and the PU/PD goes away.

And use the secondary monitoring tools.

Its obviously not ideal but gotta be better than euthanasia right?

Wendy

How many cats you got right now? Got room for another

Sounds like a lovely idea if Jo cant cope with him. there are other special needs kitties she can have that arent as challenging for her. Or you could foster Dusty, and if he goes OTJ, give him back.. although that was my plan with Bailey a year ago but I fell in love and he never did go OTJ...

There are 14 cats, 1 fiscally challenged adult male friend (lost the house to foreclosure), my stuff, his stuff, stuff I inherited from my mom, my dad, and my grandmother... slightly overstuffed here. I'm pretty cluttered and crowded.

We're also having some turf wars among different age groups of cats, necessitating keeping Tux in the basement where she is hassled less and she used to sleep with me. Another (Mason) that is so timid is with her in the basement for company, and I'm swabbing pee around the condo.

It sounds like you have your hands full, maybe play it by eat for now and see how Jo gets on. She might surprise you.

Exactly.

I get very tempted, then I remember trusting the housemate to shoot when I had rehearsal, then him misreading new syringes and overdosing Spitzer to the tune of over $2,000. And having to get up early on Saturdays, despite the sleep disorder, to shoot Lantus on time.