Thursday, June 11, 2009

PJ update

Well, it's time again for PJ to return to the vet for a check up. They will draw blood to check his levels and determine where he is with his kidney disease and diabetes.

He has been on twice a day insulin shots that are 3 units of U40 type insulin, which is better formulated to the way an animal would process the insulin vs. human insulins. He also take 1 pill a day of a med called Benazapril, which is a medication that helps slow the progression of the kidney disease. A side affect of the kidney disease causes his tummy to make too much acid, which in turn gives him an upset tummy. He desires to eat but he would just go to his bowl, smell his food and then look up at you with a sad look on his face. So the vet prescribed Omeprazol which is the medication inside over the counter human meds for the same reason, like Prilosec. This medicine is in the form of tiny pellets. Each capsule has .5 mg inside and his daily dose is .25. So I get 2 days out of 1 pill, a little creative finanical ploy going on there since you pay for each pill, not what's inside apparently!

So PJ is at home right now, not knowing that in a few short hours, I will arrive home early and figure out a way to get him in his carrier, not an easy task usually. And off we go to the vet's office and to pick up a RX from the drugstore. It will be a couple of days for the test results so I'll post that info when it comes in then.

1 comment:

BeccA's Buzz said...

To follow up, the vet called back today with the results from the blood work. His kidney disease is better but his diabetes is still bad. His glucose level was 653! An acceptable level is below 300 so we are going to up his dose of insulin over the next few weeks. Also a new development, he is beginning to show signs of anemia so we'll have to watch that. I didn't think to ask at the time to see if there is something I can feed him to boost his blood levels. I'll call back on Monday to see.