Xander is Back Home!

I showed up at the Cat Clinic at 8 this morning to pick Xander up; he was looking a lot better. I talked to Dr. Belcher about the next steps. I will be giving Xander 2 units of insulin every 12 hours; I need to watch if he develops hypoglycemia after the shots. He will also get 1 denamarin and 1&1/2 prednisolone each morning. Next Friday I take him in first thing in the morning for a blood glucose test; I'm not supposed to give him his morning dose of insulin that day so they can see how his body is doing without the insulin. What we do after that will depend on the results of the blood glucose test.

Xander on his way home.

I was given an insulin kit: 100 U-40 29 gauge syringes, 10 mls of protamine zinc recombinant human insulin (aka ProZinc), & a sharps container for the used syringes. I talked a bunch with Dr. Belcher about when and how to give Xander the insulin. He needs to be given it after he has eaten; the instructions say after a meal. But since I use the Wireless Whiskers feeder the cats have access to food 24 hours a day and there is no big meal time. For the morning dose Dr. Belcher says Xander should have at least 1/8 cup between midnight and 7:30. I have figured out that is equal to about 15% of his allotted food. For the evening I figured at 6 when Dad & I sit down for dinner I could check how much Xander has eaten, then check again at 7:30 and see if he has eaten at least 15% more than he had eaten at 6 pm. Problem solved!

Xander looked a lot better when we got home. He was walking around a lot more and eating more than he had been the day I took him in to the vet. I could tell he was feeling a lot better. At dinner I checked the Wireless Whiskers, it was at 53% which meant by 7:30 it needed to be more than 68%. It was at 75%, so I got the syringe ready and gave him his shot. It's a lot easier on him than giving him pills; its one quick stick and done before he knows what's happening.

Xander's bill today was pretty big; all I can say is that it's a good thing I have that Hawaiian Airlines credit card where I get miles for every dollar I put on it! In my nerdiness I decided to see how much Xander has cost this year so I got out all the cat-related receipts and built a spreadsheet. For 2017 I have spent $4,012 for the cats; 89% of it was for Xander. Unfortunately I got the Hawaiian Airlines card on 07/12 so I have only been able to put $2,334 of the cat expenses on it. Even though I'm getting miles, I sure hope the insulin helps him.

On my way to get the mail today I found a dead zebra dove under the mango tree. It wasn't there yesterday. I can't figure out how it died. It doesn't look like it ran in to anything or got chomped on by anything.


Happy Birthday to Jacque! Happy 34th Anniversary to Roger & Mai!