2/16/18 Love AMPS 406 UPDATE. PMPS 409

Yesterday

She continued to have a good night. Ate all her night meals. Didn't fuss with pokie this morning. She is learning fast. Continues to hiss at the others when they walk past. Today is her 1st vetty visit. You would think with a new cat that you know has a medical condition they would schedule you for more than a 15 minute visit. I am keeping an open mind regarding this particular doctor. It will be interesting to see how much her demeanor has changed since I last saw her over 3 yrs ago.

Here is hoping everyone has a good day.

 

Good luck at the vet visit today.

 

Sending tons of good-vetty visit vines to Love!

 

Sending vetty vines and no hissing vines too

 

Glad Love had a good night and is eating. Sending good vetty vines.

 

Only 15 minutes!? Heck, the vet techs spent 30 minutes with me and Forrest on Tuesday for his BW and to check his BP. I hope you aren't rushed and that you feel good about the vet visit.

Come down from those red numbers, Love. It is the color of love, but.........

 

Vetty vines for sweet Love.

 

I'm glad she was feeling better last night. It's still early in her adjustment so think she's doing really well. Hopefully the hissing will get less and less. Good luck with the vetty appointment. I had to take Moo to Doodles old IM vet......whom I called Dr. Ratchet. She's still Dr. Ratchet

Hope she comes down off the higher floors.

 

Back from vet. Dr Dana has gained her confidence. She agreed abdomen was a bit distended. I showed her a video I took this morning of her breathing. It's not fast but Love had to work at it. She said it was a bit more of an effort than she would like to see. Told her about the grunt or squeak that comes out occasionally on exhale. So abdominal and chest xrays where done. Came back normal except for being full of poop. She is going, I put pumpkin in her meals but she apparently still has a bunch in there. SNAP test for FIV and FeLeuk as well as heartworm was negative. Since we know nothing about her history, I asked for full chem/blood panel and the Cardio BNP test. I think Love has some Maine Coon in her, Dr thinks definitely some Persian or Himalayan in her. All 3 breeds are predisposed to heart disease so this test will let us know. Really no way to determine age so she said she will go with the 5 yrs the rescue stated. She didn't do to good on the dental check in my opinion, definitely looks like she needs a dental to me. I didn't see anything white in there. She said the nails were thick like an older cat. The glucose she got was in the 300's I think but not sure it was 383. At least it was lower than AMPS. She agreed to .5 increase, she would prefer I wait the 7 days but since I monitor and home she was okay with the 5 days. She also said she doesn't normally like to raise by that much, but since we don't know how long she has been diabetic and in the high 300's, again she was comfortable with the .5 increase. So all in all not bad. My mind can be at ease and we just wait for the labs which probably won't be back until Monday.

 

Good report so far. Does she seem constipated or she just holding on tightly?

 

While I was there another woman whose cat was diagnosed with diabetes was there. She heard the office staff asking me questions about Love when checking in. She mentioned her cats back legs were giving out. She doesn't home test, she said she didn't know how to go about it. Didn't tell me the name of insulin she was giving. She brings the cat into vet every 2 weeks to be tested. She is feeding dry and wet food but all with gravy. I asked more about the legs and she said the Dr mentioned something that starts with an N. I told her about zobaline and she asked where I heard about it. I said fdmb. She said she started googling last night and saw the site but didn't know if it was real or not. I told her it's the best place for any questions she has. So then I was called to exam room, I asked her to wait and I would give her the site info. Once Love was weighed, I picked her up, ran out to waiting room to give the woman my info if she had questions. Everyone gushed over Love then I was called back again. Hopefully she will contact me and she will come here. She was quite upset about her kitty she felt was getting worse, not better.

The best part was another person said "you specifically adopted a cat with diabetes, why bother?" My response was YES and she is from Canada. Take a look at her and tell me she isn't worth being healthy, loved and happy!! That person really ticked me off. How dare they!!!!

 

Glad you weren’t rushed and got lots of good info . After all she’s been thru she is a trooper

 

I think holding it in. She goes a couple times a day. Large in diameter. I'm going to get some miralax and give that for a couple of days and see if we can get it moving.

 

Love is absolutely beautiful and so very lucky to have chosen you. The preliminary vetty visit and tests/labs sound good.

 

Why I oughtta...

 

Happy to hear that you and Love had a good vetty visit!

 

Glad to read your vet has gained more experience and it sounds like Love had a pretty good overall visit, all things considered. Do you still have the other appointment next month?

It is very sad ,but my own vet told me that very few people are willing to do what needs to be done for feline diabetes. Which is why so many vets don't push the home testing. They say that most would be more likely to shoot blind and go in every week for one test, it's either that or they will put the diabetic cat down. ...........They were amazed at the people on this forum needless to say.

Fingers and paws crossed for good bloodwork!

 

I enjoy reading about the progress that Love is making every day. Glad to hear that the vet visit went well and hopefully you have helped another kitty and their bean find this site ... how wonderful! And as far as that other person ... .

 

"Why bother"... ugh. Man, these animals give us their best day in and day out. Don't they deserve the same? We have Hamilton, our diabetic with CKD and heart disease, a dog that beat transitional cell carcinoma, and rescued a senior lab that was abandoned and going to be euthanized with severe spondylosis and absolutely NO pain management. He couldn't even stand. After 6 months of pool therapy he runs and plays and is the sweetest thing ever. It takes one look from them to answer "why bother." I've been told time and again things like "wow, I would've probably just put them down, by now." How is that an option? I agree that there is a time and place for those tough decisions, but not because things get a bit hard. Not at all. THANK YOU so much for having a heart to LOVE even when it gets hard.

 

I’m glad the vet visit went well and the SNAP was negative. Love is so lucky to have a home with you and it sounds like you are lucky she entered your life too. Vines for great labs.

 

Love reading Love's progress! Glad this go round with the vet was better. I hope the labwork is largely unremarkable and Love settles down and is able to poo!

Nice of you to point someone else here and I have no comment about the why bother person!

 

Hi Paula,

Welcome back! I haven't been on much lately as I had hand surgery and it's hard to type with one hand, so I just found out about your new adventure. I read through all your posts and I agree that you are a very special person to take Love into your heart and home. She's beautiful and so deserves all that you have to give!

Your vet sounds like she has some actual knowledge of FD. I almost fell of my chair when she said she doesn't like to do increases as big as .5! We usually hear quite the opposite. She just might be a keeper!

The person that said "why bother" to you, did he/she have a pet there? I feel sorry for the critter if he/she did. Some people should not be allowed to own animals.

I hope that other lady finds us and joins. Should you ever be in that situation again, here is a link to some cards you can hand out. I posted one on my vet's bulletin board. Here is a poster, if you have a vet that will let you put something on their board.

Sending loads of vines for sweet Love, and calming vines for her new siblings. I'm sure they will come to love Love, too!

 

Hi Paula
Following your adventure! Love is adorable and one lucky kitty. Sounds like things are coming together quickly considering all that that little peanut has been through. You are an angel for taking her in.
Just a though I'd like to share on constipation. My IM vet felt that pumpkin can sometimes bulk up the poop too much. My civvie Ming's are large in diameter too and we only use Miralax now which works well. For us the pumpkin seemed to add the the size making it more difficult to pass. My other civvie has very skinny "logs", what you would expect from a cat. Ming sometimes drops poops that look like a people sized
I look forward to more Love updates

 

I have a scheduled appt for 2/26(with her) and 3/15 (with my favorite Dr). She said to keep them both. The one with her will be a follow up. The one with my favorite she said it would be good as another set of eyes AND so he can get his scritches in. Lol. Dr Dana never asked me about what food I was using. She did ask if I needed syringes, tester, and insulin. I told her about the insulin from Canada and that it came with her. She thought the $123 was for 1 pen which was cheap compared to the U.S. when I told her that price was for a box of 5 pens she nearly choked. Said she would have to look into it.

I do want my favorite to see her. Maybe he can determine the age and he will be able to get the teeth looked at better.

 

When I first took Smokey (my parents cat) my sister said put him down don't waste the money. I said to her "let's make your appt to be put down since your diabetic". I have not heard from her since that was 4 yrs ago.

 

Sorry about your sister. However, I feel the same way. Whenever I make a choice to add a fur baby to our house, that decision means to take care of them their entire life. They are just as much my kids as my own children and I would do anything for them (as we all would).

 

I had pumpkin in the house and she had diarrhea the first day. I am picking up miralax today.

 

My 15 minute vet visits have sometimes turned into 30 to an hour if the vet figures TiTI needs it. I sometimes wait while they run tests, analyze the results, and then confer with me. Hopefully, if necessary, that is the case with Love.

 

The visit was longer than 15 minutes. And i waited while the did the xrays. Labs were being sent out so have to wait for that.

 

That made me laugh...not funny but...excellent response!

 

What a jerk. Love is a beautiful kitty, and that woman a dead loss.

I do hope that woman signs in here -a test every 2 weeks is what my vet did, and it wasn't useful - TiTi needed FDMB

 

Good for you!

 

I shot Stu "blind" (PZI Vet) for 4 years. If I had found this board when we first learned he had diabetes, we may have had many more years with him. As it was it took PZI discontinuation and a switch to Lantus by a vet who treated it as if it were PZI for me to find the board, which saved his life.

This is a very promising report, Paula. Love is doing so well.