3/15 Max AMPS 380

Well we made it just fine through the weekend. If you'll remember, Thursday night his numbers were in the 500+ range. Miraculously tho, his PMPS on Friday was only 177. Looks like the Lantus finally started working for him!

I had been toying with the idea of backing the dose down to 1U and seeing what happened, but after getting that number Friday night decided to hold with the 2U for a few more days to see how it went. With the time change and DH being sick over the weekend and throwing off shot times a little, I'm thinking the lower PMPS numbers are due to it being a little less than 12 hours on that dose, and a the high AMPS numbers being a little high from being a bit longer than 12 hours. Hopefully it'll even out during the week as our schedule is more predictable then.

Last week's switch to clumping litter was an epic failure! It's hilarious when I think about it, but at the time I was peeved. So I switched to clumping litter on Tuesday in the hopes that if we could keep the boxes cleaned out and drier, that Max would stop peeing on the throw rugs on the main floor. The rugs were all in the wash, so he did stop peeing on them for a few days, but instead someone (I don't know if it was Max or Truman) decided they REALLY didn't like the new litter. I think there were 3 or 4 instances of someone peeing on the floor directly in front of the litter boxes (and no, they were definitely NOT full), and 1 instance of someone peeing ON TOP of the litter box. I have those covered ones, and someone peed in the reservoir on top that the handle folds down into. Naturally, tho, I didn't realize this until I stuck my hand in it to take the top off to scoop the box. GROSS. I've also been reminded of all the reasons I hate clumping litter myself (it getting tracked all over the house and stuck in the cats' paws being the top two)...so we're back to non-clumping litter. And the throw rugs were back out for about an hour last night before one got peed on. We might just have to put the throws away until we get Max under better control.

Edited to add last Friday's condo: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8911

It does look like the Lantus is starting to work. It was a good call to not reduce the dose. You might want to print out the dosing protocol since you won't be able to access it from home. This is the link to the Tight Regulation sticky that has the general guidelines written out as well as links to the full protocols. When a dose reduction is earned, it's earned by a BG of less than 50. The amount of the reduction is 0.25 units. If you had reduced by the full 1.0u you were thinking about, Max's numbers would have been a mess. In most cases, Lantus does not respond well to big changes -- it likes consistency. I know your home situation is very busy. I want to encourage you to get at least a before bed test every night. Many of our cats have lower numbers at night. You can end up missing dose reductions as well as half of your data if you don't get those checks.

One thought about the litter box issues, many cats do not like enclosed litter boxes. Because of the lids, they tend to trap odors. Given the sensitivity of kitties' noses and that Max is still peeing a lot, uncovering the boxes may help. (It will also prevent the kitties from peeing on top of the lid and, well, you know the rest!!)

Also try using unscented litter. All the perfumes and such are really horrible and many cats don't like them.

I found that Pet Smart sells Exiquisicat brand and it's a hard clumping fragrance free version (look for the green label). Also, the super club BJ's sells their own brand fragrance free clumping.

I switched to the Tidy Cat BREEZE litter system an n love it...it has hard pellets and a tray underneath that catches the liquids. You change the pad and it is so stress-free i cannot believe it. My two were leery of it at first cause they cannot scratch at it the way they did with the old litters, but it is such a wonderful invention. No morel lugging up boxes of litter and lugging out solid litter...scooping and forever dealing with the LB....ugh. I feel that this is worth the price...I watched for it on sale at Petsmart. end of commercial!! LOL

I have not stopped by to welcome you yet and wanted to say HI Max!!! :mrgreen: My two, Raja and Shadow, are having a big St. Patrick's Day party on Wed and would love it if max could come. We love to par-tay around here...Maybe Maui will come too???!!!
Anyway, there will be dancing and a parade and all the kitties will be laughing and having a great time!! Max just has to catch a moonbeam and come on down to Florida....Beans are not allowed, so you will be able to relax that night while he is here with all the other kitties... :mrgreen:

I agree with Sienne about studying the stickies....we don't reduce or raise doses by more than .25u at a time. there is a way of reducing--a system--that we use here. Unlike the vet prescribing raises of insulin by full units, we go slower and that give the kitty time to adjust to the changes. When posting daily, people will come by and talk about Max's numbers and what they think you might try doing... so many kitties on theis forum and there have been many that have gone off the juice in the past using this method. The pople here are very knowledgeable about FD and this is the best place to be!! Welcome to Lantus land!!! :mrgreen:

Pat--HI!, and thanks for the Breeze suggestion on the litter. I'll certainly have to look into that, but right now I don't have the cash for the outlay. Otherwise it looks like maintenance-wise it's similar in cost to regular litter, and the litter staying IN the box is particularly appealing! Right now it's not that big of a deal as the boxes are in the basement and the basement is unfinished. Once we finish the basement, tho, the litter is definitely going to be a problem!

I've tried not having lids on the boxes before, but Max is a mess and will kick litter everywhere if I don't...and Truman has never had an uncovered box. The peeing on the rugs has only started since the diabetes started, and I assume will go away once he's not drinking water like a fish anymore. And as much as I would prefer to have unscented litter myself, that usually requires a trip to a pet store to find it, which from where we live is quite a haul. The town we live in has only 1 stop light, so if I can't find it in the local grocery store, then it probably isn't going to get used in our house (i.e. we use Tidy Cats because it's what I can find). It's about a 40 minute drive to get to shopping center areas from home.

I'll have to see if I can find the link to add Friday's condo. The reduction to 1U was more of a "start over" kind of measure since the vet prescribed 2U based on his weight (and said for his ideal weight he might be a 3 or 4U cat). Since his BG numbers were going up, not coming down, the suspicion was that he was rebounding and the dose was too high. Now that it looks like he might be leveling out, we'll stick with the 2U and go from here...which is actually looking like maybe he needs an increase, but I want to give it this week to see what happens. Oh, and I've ordered syringes with the .5U markings, just don't have them yet and want to use up the last of the whole-U's I have (which is only 10).