04/10 Butters AMPS 106/+2.5 92/+5 90

Yesterday overnight, Butters ate her snacks.

She is eating well today so far and sleeping. The vet called with her Spec FPL result. It came back and it is 5.2. It was last checked in January with routine bloodwork and it was 4.3 and she had no symptoms then. So it is not really telling us anything. Since she is holding steady, the vet isn't recommending an ultrasound. He is putting this episode down as a diagnosis of acute on chronic pancreatitis, and will see how she does over the next few days.

Disregarding the number from the labs makes sense. So Butters was officially all green for seven daysBut her preshot was blue this morning. I didn't reduce because of it. Oh well. I am still overjoyed with all of the green.

Surf safely, kitties

 

Good morning Lyla, so sorry to hear Butters was not feeling well and had a vet visit. Hope the next few days show improvement, in my prayers for a full recovery. Her numbers as always are beautiful, what’s one blue in a sea of green. Have a nice weekend and Butters surf safely and try not to worry your mom Sending big healing hugs

 

The number on the SpecFpl doesn’t show how sick she is or bad she feels. The test isn’t perfect either. I think your vet is right fwiw. So glad she’s eating.

 

Yay for snax! Pancreatitis is such a difficult thing to deal with. I read the paper @tiffmaxee posted in the Main forum. Seems like you're doing everything you can to manage her symptoms and to keep her comfortable. Sending Butters more healing light and you, Lyla, a big big hug.

 

Oh come on 106, that's meter variance! You really don't like reductions

Glad she's feeling better, pancreatitis is no fun

 

I'm glad to hear Butters is eating all her snacks, etc. That's a good sign. It's very frustrating to have these tests run and not to have them give valuable information. Hopefully, you'll feel like she's all the way back to normal very soon.

 

But if we go with meter variance, then maybe some of those greens on previous days are blue. Does meter variance work both ways? lol. Uh oh, I definitely shouldn't take a reduction if this is the case.

I love reductions! I love them so much, just for other people's cats.

 

Lol my wallet could use some reductions soon!

 

Thank you I definitely feel better about doing them after reading about Perry and knowing that I can call on you both, and others, for help.
Lol, Tanya, sounds just like giving insulin. Don't forget other similarities, like how the needles are almost identical, except the one for the fluids is about 5x longer and several gauges lower.
Diane, Butters is no Perry. She doesn't stay still for anything or anyone. She has trained me to give her a special insulin treat of cooked ground pork. But I have to give her the treat before I give her insulin, and then she races to try to finish it before I've finished giving her the shot. I know I say she imitates a throw pillow all of the time, and it's true. But as soon as I want her to stay still, forget about it

 

Unfortunately, I also hate winter so I'm not going to be the one to convince you.

Looks like Tanya might be able to, though. Give me a Vancouver winter over a Toronto winter any day. Except my vet isn't in Vancouver. Maybe he'd hop on a plane for you if you move there.

I'm so glad you have a good vet, too! She only had one other acute attack, so I'm not sure if she gets BG increases or not. That was back in October and she had to be hospitalized for several days. The IM vet declared her in remission because she came in tightly controlled on 1u of insulin, and she stopped giving Butters insulin. It was an ordeal and she became an unregulated diabetic again. So unfortunately I don't know for sure if that attack would have made her BG go up. Taking her off insulin took care of that

 

Maybe dumb question...but how did the vet determine acute pancreatitis? Because it came on more suddenly, vs chronic which is just kind of baseline "there's underlying damage so in general she may feel crappy"?

 

Don’t quote me on this but I think when the case is severe that it’s acute. I think it’s based upon symptoms.

 

With pancreatitis in cats, it can be acute, chronic or acute on chronic as per Dr Steiner and Lidbury.. It can be an acute episode.....aka “sudden” episode and that episode can be mild or it can be severe with respect to symptoms & also the required treatment (outpatient vs hospitalization). There is then chronic which is when the sudden episode, whether mild or severe, is treated, however, then there are additional episodes. This is now a cat with chronic pancreatitis and the cat can have ongoing low level inflammation with or without additional acute episodes (again, these can be mild or severe).

This is important because the ongoing treatment/management of chronic pancreatitis differs from the treatment of a one and done acute episode. Think of it as a spectrum. If it is a cat with minor occasional symptoms, supportive care in those moments may be enough without risking further issue to the organ. However, if the cat is routinely or more regularly requiring supportive care, like pain meds, appetite stimulants, anti nausea meds, OR the cat is having moderate to severe acute on chronic episodes more frequently vs not often, this is when decisions are made about the need of immunotherapy using meds like Pred or cyclosporine.

 

YES! That's exactly what I thought. A friend told me that the cat wouldn't even notice, it's such a "small" needle. Needless to say, her cat was not diabetic so her frame of reference was a bit different. One silver lining of Minnie going into the hospital is that I haven't had to give subq myself (yet!) anti-jinx. Good luck if you have to do it and hope you don't!

Butters, don't be like this and make mama like this

 

I'm glad Butters is eating. I hope she feels better soon. Sending prayers.

 

Ah thank you!

 

sending healing vines to butters.
keep channeling those jax snax

 

It looks worse than it is. I promise It has been a while since he has needed them, but we try to give Cosmo’s sub q fluids when and where he is resting. Make your tent, slide the needle in (with the bevel side up) and then open the line. We have a thumb tack above our couch to hang the bag so we don’t have to move him. You can gently pull on the fur to help the fluid ball fill. It takes about 7mins to get 100 CC’s. Some people need to burrito the cat, so they can’t get away. We have a 2 person system, so never needed the burrito.

You got this!