1/04/12 Ella PMPS 473

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tpr

tpr

Member Since 2012
Ella's AMPS was 218. We took some bg's overnight.
She's such as good kitty to have to be woken up from her slumber for ear pricks and all:)
I hear people saying to hold off on any dose increases if there is a food switch in the future. I know I'm still a super greenie here but looking at her SS and experience on 3u's over the last few weeks perhaps an increase to .25 will help make her feel more comfortable?!
Maybe that could be the right dose for the dry food she is on right now.

Thanks:)
 
Re: 1/04/12 Ella AMPS 218

tamara, i've been thinking more about your situation. i wonder if following the Start Low Go Slow protocol would be less nerve-wracking for you. it's an older protocol that was basically replaced by the Tight Reg protocol when it came out. the SLGS is designed for cats who don't get home-tested, or can't get much testing in, or can't meet the requisites for the TR protocol. the TR protocol requires 1 preshot test and one mid-cycle test to see how low the insulin is taking the cat, and a diet of raw or canned low carb cat food only.

I'll grab the link for you to look at. the basic idea of SLGS is that you start with a low dose of insulin and hold it for at least a week, then do a curve over the weekend, have someone who understands lantus/bouncing look at the curve to see if the dose needs adjusting or not.

i saw last night you were saying you might start changing ella over gradually to canned food. just based upon her response to the snack change at +9, i think both laurie & i thought cold-turkey on the food is going to be far less nerve-wracking to you. that small change elicited a big response, so your little changes could very well continue a lot of major ups and downs that are unpredictable in her BGs.

for what it's worth, i'm going to work on a few options for you and will be back before your next shot time.

SLGS
 
Re: 1/04/12 Ella AMPS 218

THANK YOU Julie!

I think that sounds like it might work better for my schedule and sanity. In regards to getting her used to wet snacks, I was going to add them to her current calories as opposed to in the place of so that it wouldn't drop her that low. In fact, I'm guessing she would probably go higher but not by that much. This way she can slowly get used to the wet. Does that sound logical?
 
Re: 1/04/12 Ella AMPS 218

i think your least-nerve-wracking option is to start over. change the dose to 1.0u, a nice safe dose, and simultaneously drop the dry food completely out of the picture. give wet food only. give the dry food to a neighbor or a shelter so you're not tempted by it!

you could do that tonight if you want. get some canned food frozen in pucks so you can leave them out tomorrow while you are at work. if you can't do that, just leave plenty (more than you think you need so you can feel comfortable being at work) of canned food out with a few ice cubes stuck in them. most cats will feed themselves if their BG is dropping.

some people put out a frozen puck and then add fresh on top. the frozen keeps the fresh cool and when it's thawed, then it's ready for ella to eat.

get tests when you are home, but you don't have to stay up all night to do it. for example, if you do it tonight, get a +2 to see where she's headed and post for advice. i'd think the dry might still be propping her up overnight tonight. i'd probably set an alarm and get a +5 or so tonight.

then tomorrow morning, if she's over say 200, give her the 1unit, leave out plenty of canned food, and head off to work. when you get home test her and post for pm dose advice. the assumption's going to be that she'll stay at 1unit unless we see evidence that it's too much.

if 1unit seems too risky for your comfort zone, you could start with 0.5units and we would do the same thing, watching the numbers you are able to get, and go from there. the SLGS gives the option of starting at either 0.5u or 1.0 unit if the cat is on a low carb canned diet only.

what do you think?
 
Re: 1/04/12 Ella AMPS 218

Hi Julie,

Thank you!

It sounds like a good plan but she doesn't love the wet yet so I really want to take a few days to let her adjust to some extra for snacks. I want to see how she digests it and how much she will eat on her own with a goal for a switch by Thursday. That way I'll be around on the weekend to monitor very closely. Do you think it's ok to feed her an extra snack of wet food on top of the food she's getting just for now?

Thanks so much for putting something together for me:)
 
Re: 1/04/12 Ella AMPS 218 (question about food)

So I've been reading a bit about food and am wondering if people feel that an all meat diet is better than a meat,veggie,fruit diet ex: wellness vs.fancy feast?
 
Re: 1/04/12 Ella AMPS 218 (question about food)

Cats are obligate carnivores. They do not need grain, fruit, veggies, etc. in their diets. Wellness does contain some fruit and/or veggies but these are more as a source of the nutrients that are necessary to a cat's diet. In the wild, cats do get something other than protein when they ingest other animals. (A mouse may have eaten potato, for example and it's still in it's digestive track when a cat eats a mouse.) The primary advantage of Wellness over Fancy Feast is that Wellness does not contain animal by-products -- it's more muscle meat than what you find in Fancy Feast. If you have been reading Dr. Lisa's webpage, you'll note she emphasizes the importance of muscle meat over animal by-products.
 
Re: 1/04/12 Ella AMPS 218 (question about food)

Thanks for the clarification Sienne! Much appreciated:)
 
Re: 1/04/12 Ella AMPS 218 (question about food)

What canned food do you have on hand when you need high carbs?
 
Re: 1/04/12 Ella AMPS 218 (question about food)

Gabby has issues with "gravy" since it contains gluten. I do keep some Fancy Feast around but because the gravy can give her diarrhea, I will often opt to use either Karo or honey. Most of the people here will use one of the FF varieties (roasted, marinated, or Gravy Lovers) for HC since you can squeeze the gravy out. (It's the gravy that contains the carbs.) The gravy on it's own isn't terribly filling so if you're needing to steer numbers over several hours, you're not filling your cat up on solid food.
 
PMPS 473:(
I don't like those high numbers. Just to clarify, if I want to get her interested in the wet can I just feed her a bit on top of the dry that she gets?
I would hate to think that I'm going to spike her even higher but I want to get her used to it.
 
Re: 1/04/12 Ella AMPS 218 (question about food)

Hi Celi and Binks!

Thanks for stopping by with some positivity:)
 
the canned food is low carb, so it shouldn't spike her BG. i think you're safe adding the wet in addition to the dry.

what dry food are you feeding?
 
here is the Binky's List of Dry Food - you can look up the one you're feeding ella and go to the 3rd column in for the carb content. that'll give you a comparison for the canned that you're giving her. the canned food list is here. you might need to check both the "old" and "new" food tables to find the one you're using.

most of us feed under 8%. i give punkin around 5% most of the time.
 
So if the carb content is very high in the dry then perhaps I shouldn't give her wet for a taste? Or do I need to substitute out some dry for wet?

That's what I did last time and her numbers went wacky!

Wellness is 4%
 
Hi Tamara,

It's ok if you want to add some wet food, I think the reason that Ella dropped so much was that you substituted the wet for the dry food. If you are feeding her normal amount of dry food and just adding a bit of wet food to get her accustomed to it, I don't think that will affect her numbers much, if at all.
 
One of the wise ones once gave me a good feeding tip when Binks went on a "wet food" hunger strike...

She had me run some dry kibble through a coffee grinder, and mix it in with the canned...
the moment he realized he was getting the "Holy Grail Forbidden Kibble"- he gobbled it right up.

I realize that doesn't quite apply here as you are trying to balance canned and dry foods to keep her from going too low,
but it's a great trick when you begin the actual transition ;-)

celi & binks
 
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