3/10 Buddha

Loose ends:

Yogurt on the top shelf of my fridge, not frozen, and temp between 30 and 40 on my $5 Ekco thermometer. (Ice water has a temp closer to 20 then 30. Also, I had moved the fridge setting to the warmest setting, and the orange juice went funny, so the setting is back to where it was.)

I finally got around to testing Lemur (the civvie) with the Contour. Thought he would be a monster to test. But I just sat him on my lap and petted him and he purred and I warmed his ear and he purred and I poked his ear and he purred and no problems. A fasting 56. Which is so great, 'cause he's getting chubby and I worry that he'll go diabetic too.

Buddha was rechecked at the vet after 2 weeks on Clavamox for a UTI. He still has glucose in his urine (no surprise at his bg levels) and bacteria. So I asked for a culture. The vet wants me to give Clavamox for another week or until the culture results come back. And Buddha has gained weight! Yeah! Up almost a pound. The vet still wants to do a curve in the office. She does not seem at all willing to work with the data that I collect daily. Would be SO VERY HELPFUL if she would give me advice and guidance on dosing. Wish I had more choices of where to go.

Today:
Buddha had a low (for him) amps and I shot him 2u. I'm going to stick with 2u for several days, unless he has clinical signs of hypo. I really don't know what to dose and I really don't trust the vet not to do something stupid if I leave him at the clinic for the day (like up the dose by a unit without consulting me first). Hmm, that sounds much more pessimistic than I feel. But I truly don't understand why Buddha has such drastic highs and lows.

 

Hi Donna,
I'm sorry, but I can't make sense out of Buddha's spreadsheet either. It seems you get vastly different bg's on not very big changes on dose. What does the X mean in the pmps column of your spreadsheet? I wish I could help, but I'm having similar problems with Blackie.

I became frustrated with my vet for similar reasons. They would insist on a fructosamine instead of looking at my spreadsheet. And then they would tell me to dose some ridiculous amount. I finally called around to other vets and found one that will work with me.

I also looked at your profile, and Buddha's fascination with socks is really cute. Other than the weird numbers it sounds like he's feeling okay. I hope you get some resolution from the culture too.

 

Thanks for looking Ele. The x's mean that I didn't wait til +12 to shoot. I'm trying to find an easier way to show when I'm not on a 12/12 schedule. It's always in the notes, but I'd like to be able to just see it on the spreadsheet. And I often shoot a bit early if Buddha is telling me dinner time should be NOW, or if his bg is already so high.

Could I be messing him up not keeping to a strict 12/12 schedule? I'm not at all worried about the coming time change ...

Did they find bacteria in Blackie's last U/A, but weren't able to culture it? Buddha still has bacteria, and I'm so hoping that the culture will identify what it is and that we can kill it with another ab. If it doesn't culture, then, then, I don't know. Such a catch 22 with glucose rich urine and regulating blood sugar. Sugary urine is great for growing bacteria and infection will interfere with bg regulation.

 

ProZinc should be as flexible as PZI, which is very flexible time wise. I wouldn't worry about shooting early. I rarely shoot early, but now that I know, your x's make sense.

Blackie's last u/a had a little blood in the urine, but no bacteria. We go in for an ultrasound on Friday. The uti's and high bgs put us between a rock & a hard place. The uti makes higher bgs, and the high bgs cause uti's. I have been trying to keep Blackie's bg's down, but I have not had consistent success.

I hope they can identify the bacteria for Buddha and give him the right ab.

 

Buddha is a mystery to me too. Shooting early shouldn't be a problem, but if then the following shot is later than +12 you can expect the #s to be high. The secret with not shooting 12/12 is to maximize overlap - when you shoot early you can really take advantage sometimes of increased overlap, but then past +12 (or for a lot of cats even before +12) you will tend to lose it really fast. I never mastered getting the dosing right except for sometimes shooting a little early now & then before zoom set in, sometimes I had good success with that. But you probably aren't messing anything up, if anything, in theory shooting early sometimes should be a help.

 

When I was sometimes shooting early or late, someone here (I want to say Joanna but am not sure) told me to grey in the boxes on the SS. I can't explain it as well as she did, but if you look at my SS on 9/22/09 you will see what I mean. I shot that day at +10 so I greyed out the +11 and PMPS box and put the dose in the regular spot.

 

sounds like something I'd say ;-) of course, no one could make heads or tails of mine when I shot off 12/12, that's why mine is in a different format...

 

Joanna, I've noticed that you and some others have a different format. Must give you lots of flexibility. I think I'm too used the 12/12 format to change. Keeps me organized, but I wish there was more room for notes. And a place where I could explain my abbreviations. I'm sure I'll forget what half of them are in another 3 months.