Thursday, November 15, 2012

The 'beetus

One of my cats recently started drinking a TON of water and urinating more than my cat with chronic kidney disease(!) I went back and looked at his pre-op bloodwork from last month (before his dental cleaning) and his blood glucose was 529. Normal is around 100.
At the time I had dismissed it as stress-induced. Cats are especially well-known for their ability to spike a high blood sugar reading when stressed. However, his BG had never been greater than 200 before.
Hmm.
I brought him in to work today for recheck. Urine is pending (I sent it out), but his BG was 496.
Persistent fasting hyperglycemia + persistent fasting glucosuria + clinical signs of diabetes probably = diabetes.

So it appears that between him, my other cat, and several of my patients, I will learn the ins and outs of internal medicine despite my wishes to the contrary.

I'm also thinking of switching back to a 5-day work schedule so that I can (maybe) be a little less tired and only be alone 60% of the time instead of 80-90%. I just have to figure out how to pitch that when Dr. X probably wants to stay on a 4-day work schedule AND the clinic hours are 8am - 7pm.

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