Don't count the old boy out just yet

Oh, this has been a hard week! And I have dragged you right along with me through all the hardship. But Boscoe is actually doing better now.  We will go through all this again some time, I fear. For now, though, he's more alert, eating better, and a little stronger.

I think the problem was what it has always been in the past--his diabetes.  A week or ten days ago, we brought him in for blood work, and the reading for his glucose level came back dangerously, dangerously low.  The vet advised us to lower his insulin dose dramatically, from 11 units twice a day, to 9 units twice a day.

I now think that that low reading was a mistake.  We lowered his insulin, and a few days later Boscoe started dying. He wouldn't eat. He could not get up without our help, and once up he could barely stand. He fell over when he was pooping and got covered with excrement. He drank huge amounts of water and when we carried him outside he would pee for a solid minute, wandering the yard at the same time and splashing his own feet.

The worst was the not-eating. I tempted him with everything I could think of--grilled cheese sandwiches!  Turkey burgers! And he would eat a little, but not much.

Finally on Saturday I said THIS IS WRONG. And I made the decision to bump his insulin back up to 11.  

This was not an easy decision for me.  I did this once before and should not have; a couple of months ago he seemed listless and overly thirsty, and I bumped his insulin up and he got sicker.  We brought him in, the vet tested him, and very gently suggested I bump him back down again.  I am not a doctor, and I am going blindly here, based on what it seems to me that he needs. But it's always just a guess, and I was so afraid this time of guessing wrong--the symptoms of not enough insulin are pretty similar to the symptoms of too much insulin (listlessness, lack of appetite, weakness), and I didn't want to make a mistake.

This time it was not a mistake. Today he is much better.  He will put us through agony and hell again, and some day he will die, but not today. Not this week. Doug and I will have to go through trauma again at some point, but damned if I won't be dragging all of you there with us.