Easter at the Cosy Apartment

I would like to wish everyone a happy Easter. Many of you have already sent such a greeting to me, so please don’t feel you need to respond. But I can take this opportunity to let readers know that things are going well at the Cosy Apartment.

Tucker is eating. I may jinx the situation by so writing, but the Mirtazapine he is taking appears to be working. He is hungry in the morning, after the drug that I gave the evening before has taken affect, and after having eaten nothing during the night. Throughout the day, he continues to eat small amounts. He doesn’t consume food vociferously, but it is constant. I would prefer the former, since I could feed him a large amount at once, which would be helpful when I go to work. Putting a mound of food out and leaving it for the day does not provide the same reward; firstly, because Renn will eat much of it, and secondly, because Tucker tends not to like soft-food that has been sitting for a length of time.

However, my roly poly is eating, and is cheerful. I have not begun the experiment of putting him back on the kidney-powder, but may next weekend, when I will be home to observe the results. Oddly, Tucker’s water-consumption and his wetting seem to have diminished. The water in-take would be affected by the amount of soft-food he is eating, but I would think the litter-box visits would be numerous, with his kidney problems. Also, the doctor told me that a cat can be on Mirtazapine indefinitely. If readers have had experience with long-term Mirtazapine use, can they let me know how it went, please?

Renn is in good form. There are no signs of issues related to his recent hospital visit. He has recovered from them, is eating well, and in good spirits.

Other good news is Neville’s latest ‘curve’, to study the effects of insulin on his diabetes. Starting high – at 19.0 – he dropped over six hours to 8.8, before heading back up. This is a deep ‘curve’ but a good one. This is the first decent set of readings in months, and I am concerned that it has to do with the method of delivery. He is receiving glargine-type insulin from a ‘pen’. Unlike a syringe, the pen depends upon transmission of the insulin from its store into the cat by a mechanism triggered by twisting a cap to determine the amount, and then pressing the cap down. I have noticed that sometimes an amount of insulin does not successfully come out of the pen’s needle, which is why I always make a few drops come out prior to injecting the cat. New pens have a much freer flow of insulin, before they seem to slow down with decreased supply. This weekend, the Nevsky was started on a new pen, and I worry that his good ‘curve’ was due to that reason – a flow of insulin that was as it should be, rather than a restricted flow from an older pen. This is something I will ask the doctor about.

But, like my concerns over Tucker, this one does not negate the good reading, which shows both that Nev is responding to the insulin (you may recall I switched him from another type some months ago) and that his current dosage is adequate.

I am pleased at what the weekend gave us here. That, and an extra day off from work, made for a happy Easter indeed at the Cosy Apartment.