lil' dude.

when i got home from work last night at 8, i fed mokie and tigger.  mokie ate a little and then started sniffing the wall, chair, floor...anything sniffable.   he started trying to maneuver under a bar stool..instead of going under the foot rest, he tried to get his little plump belly over the dowels.   He did this once before about a month and 1/2 ago and i couldn't figure out what was going on.  at first i thought there was someone in the house because he acted like he smelled someone/something different.  then, i thought there might be a rodent in the house because he was going crazy sniffing the walls, floor, baskets, whatever.  after an hour or more of trying to figure it out and not being able to distract him from his sniff quest, i  called  my sister, Joyce (a nurse), she suggested it was hypoglycemia and this was his demonstration of disorientation.  I started giving him honey and corn syrup and eventually took him to the emergency vet hospital after an hour when my care didn't seem to have an effect.   his blood sugar was extremely low and they kept him overnight to continue a glucose drip.  ka-ching. 

so, at least i knew what was going on last night.  i started giving him  slightly diluted corn syrup (which the vet told me today does not need to be diluted at all)and i eventually spoke with the vet (he had given me his cell to call if this happened again after hours) and joyce.  I sat on the kitchen floor and held him while he continued to sniff my arms, the air, my sweater...and kept giving him honey and corn syrup for three hours. (I would let him walk around occasionally to see how he was doing and to make sure he wasn't losing his ability to walk.  another sign of his disorientation is that he gets in a corner or against the wall and can't figure out how to get out...it's like he can't back up.)  anyway, after three hours, we were both a sticky mess from the corn syrup and honey that didn't quite make it to his belly.  he eventually stopped sniffing and started to relax.  i kept giving him honey and corn syrup every 1/2 hour and then every hour until about 3 when he finally fell asleep and was okay.  i checked on him throughout the night and all was good.  took him to the vet today and am starting him on lower doses of insulin.  not sure what happens; maybe he was eating less...maybe his blood sugar levels were normalizing and he no longer needed as much insulin...who knows.  i'm just glad i knew what was going on this time and that all ended okay..oh yeah, and that i didn't have the expense of the emergency room again.  gulp.  between the vet, emergency room, insulin, needles, high protein food...it's spendy.  i hope this doesn't sound like the cost is what matters, but it does add up.  i was just glad i was able to care for him and get his blood sugar levels back up without the additional stress and cost of the emergency room this time.   

perhaps to people who have kids or those who don't have quite the same connection with their little furry family members, this exercise in maintaining his health and the costs associated with it are excessive.  maybe there was a time when i wouldn't have understood it either.  now i do.