Lucy's spreadsheet?

Hi guys,

Just hoping that someone can take a look at Lucy's spreadsheet and let me know what you think about her current dosage and any patterns you see etc.

These last couple of days, she seems to be eating a less than usual but she has not been sick from what I can tell.

I don't know if she is just finally getting over the ravenous hunger thing or what, but I am wondering whether or not I should keep her at 3 units of Lantus but if she continues to eat less, could that become problematic?

On 3 units, she still bounces into the pinks a bit but mostly it seems to be keeping her BG in the yellows and blues which seems like a good thing.

Anyway, any advice would be most welcome.

Thanks.

Wow, you have a bouncy girl. Sam is that way at times too. He's starting on a new bounce today. It seems she is getting an awfully high dose. You might try feeding the friskies Pates fish flavors if she likes fish. It took my guys a while to really get into the canned food. If you need to feed warm food you can always refrigerate open cans and heat it up about 9 seconds in the microwave. That way it doesn't explode all over the place and stink up the house. Or add warm water, stir it up and make it pretty mushy. I feed my Sammy throughout the day so his numbers reflect this. I don't do the 12 hour feeding thing. I doubt this is much help but it's frustrating not seeing any input.

Yeah she really is very bouncy which is why I was trying different doses. Not sure that is causing more problems or not.

I think part of it is that she is still eating more than she probably should. At least until the last couple of days. Today she ate fine but didn't beg for food like she normally does when she decides she wants to eat. She just ate whatever I put out. I want to see that as a sign that her appetite is finally getting back to normal. I think I will keep her on the 3 units for a couple more days and see what happens with her appetite. If she continues to eat less, I am assuming she would not need as much insulin, so maybe I can scale her back a bit if that sticks. I don't really know.

Question: Is it better to be in a steady yellow or is it better to bounce a bit into pink but dip between the yellows, blues and greens?

In terms of her health, when she is bouncing, she generally seems to sleep a lot more. But when she is in the yellows and blues, she is her usual perky self and wants to play and cuddle a lot.

So that is where we are at.

I would feed her as much as she wants. When Sam started back on insulin he was so skinny we were feeding him every two hours. I also free feed all my cats even the civvies. They like the canned food diet and so do I. No one is fat or puking anymore. It usually takes 3 cycles to clear a bounce. As she gets acclimated to the diet you can reduce the dose.

As long as she doesn't go to low, bouncing into the lower numbers is okay. It's better than the really highs or the really lows.

Thanks for the input Sue.

Lucy has been on the Lantus since September and she has regained all the weight she has lost. I mostly free feed I guess since I am out most of the day. I leave enough food out to last her and my other kitty. She probably eats about 9 - 10 oz/day.

She has always been bouncy and yeah usually every three days she dips into nice blues and greens then bounces back up. I am still not sure if it is because her dose is too high but it does seem like she bounce isn't quite as high for a day or so, then settles into yellows, then drops into the blues and bounce. That pattern seems to hold on lower doses as well. But then she eventually just stayed in the yellows, so I increased her another .25. Maybe she will always be bouncy. I don't know. But all her other unreg. diabetic symptoms have stopped and she seems relatively healthy now and her usual happy/cranky self, so I guess we are doing OK for now.

Kaly,

Have you ever tried taking her below 2u b.i.d. ? From looking at your spreadsheet it looks like she was started at 2u and never went below that. Because her spreadsheet looks a lot like Musette's when I first adopted her. Her vet started her out on 2u, and she bounced all over the map, she would go from near hypo to 400. It finally took me dropping her below her ideal dose to stop the wild swings, and then slowly inching her back up to get any kind of control.

Then it took figuring out that she just isn't a b.i.d kitty before I had any real success regulating, now I'm split-dosing her and trying to slowly move her to t.i.d dosing, which hopefully we can get to and then slowly work her back to b.i.d dosing. Right now Musette is back to bouncing on me again but that I think is because I have moved her splits too far apart thanks to a couple family emergencies that made it impossible to be home when I needed to give her second shot, so now I'm in the process of moving her back again to where we were when we had good control.

But it makes me wonder if Lucy would stop bouncing if you reduced her down to either 1u or 1.5u. Musette is the same way about her clinical signs, she doesn't present any of the normal unregulated diabetes symptoms even with her bouncy nature.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang

Mel,

Thanks for the suggestion. You are right, the vet started her at 2 u and then suggested I jump her up to 4u. But after talking to you guys, I decided not to do that.

I will definitely try your suggestion, but should I drop her down gradually by .25 units or would it be OK to go straight to 1.5 u and see how that goes?

As long as you are testing for ketones I would go head and just drop her back to 1.5 and remember her numbers may go a little wonky for a few days since her shed is going to need to drain off. But since she was started at such a high dose its a pretty good chance that you missed her ideal dose. Since most cats are started at either .5u or 1u b.i.d. I would almost be tempted to say try starting over at 1u, let her shed drain, then if 1u isn't enough slowly add back by .25u.

Lucy's story sounds a lot like the vet records I got with Musette. Musette was dxed diabetic and in DKA in the same breath, which is why she was started at such a big dose, to combat the ketones. But once she was healthy again even 1u is too much for Musette. I'm thinking that may also be the case with Lucy, she was started high to get her BGs down NOW, but now that she is on a better diet and feeling better she is in constant rebound. But the only real way to test that is to drop her way down and see if she levels out.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang

OK thanks. Maybe I will do the 1 u and work back up from there. AMPS was 6.6 so I have not shot her yet. Since I will be leaving the house early tomorrow and for the rest of the week I need to change up her sked again. (We have been getting later and later because of delayed shots) so I think I will wait until her PMPS and then give her I unit. I have ketone stix but have not had much success with testing. I guess I will have to follow her into the bathroom and catch her in the act, so to speak. LOL!
Thanks again for the advice Mel.

How is you Musette doing now?

Well right now she is a little stressed out and running a little high, but in the last two weeks I have upset her world. Last week we upset her by rearrangingher favorite room our bedroom after one of the civies got a paw stuck in the box spring coils. So out went the bed frame and it got dropped on the floor. Plus we rearranged all the furniture in there. Which actually works out better for the kitties since they can now lay on the bed and look out the window.

This week I've got the kitchen torn apart while I'm painting it, and since it connects to the bedroom I have the door to there open and several of the cats that normally ignore that room have been in there. So Musette has been showing her tortie-tude. :lol: Also her daddy (she is such a daddy's girl) has been working out of town for the last few weeks and only home on the weekends which isn't making her any happier. Its almost funny to watch her numbers...on the weekends they go way down then Monday rolls around and daddy leaves and she shoots back up again. I think we all will be really happy to have this out of town job finished so DH can be home every night again. With it only being me here right now everyone is upset and I don't get to spend the time with each of them that they are use to. Even the civies have been more hissy and growly than normal just because mom is too busy to spend time with them on a one to one basis.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang

Awww sounds like is a little more stressful than usual for all of you. Hopefully Daddy will be back working in town soon.

Thanks again for the advice. - k