3/24: Sammy - AMPS 79; +3 44; +9 67; PMPS 114

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Tina & Sammy

Tina & Sammy

Member Since 2010
Yesterday's Condo

Ella & Rusty & Stu(GA) said:
Now that the increase has been done, we'll see what happens. It may take a day or so for you to see any improvement because the shed has to be re-balanced. You are working with a lot of variables and it is difficult to see exactly what is causing what. What were your criteria for taking him down to .5? (I only see 1 number under 50 at the .75 unit dose.)

Good luck with the increase. How is Sammy doing other than his numbers? The "whole cat" is important.

Have a good evening, Tina,

Ella & Rusty
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Last night when I decided to do the increase Sammy seemed to feeling and acting fine, but I had only stopped in two times during the day and didn't know exactly how he was feeling. He gobbled down the the small mini meal that I put out for him, so I thought he seemed fine. Until just before +2 he vomited, and then pretty much for the rest of the cycle he turned his nose up to just about everything. I did get him to eat a bit here and there throughout the night, but not much. At +3 I did give him famotidine to help settle his tummy, and it wasn't until +10 that he finally ate something. I had left food out from +8.5, which was the last time I got up to test, I wanted him to have it available if he decided to eat, and I would have to deal with the elevated BG if he ate too close to PS.

I had reduced with one under 50 because I personally was considering Sammy newly diagnosed because of the very short time he had been on insulin, but I also know that 49 is barely under 50 so maybe I did take the reduction a bit too quickly.

We are back in good numbers this morning, and I did give .75u this morning and will hold this dose until he goes under 50 3 times or if it is difficult to keep him over 50. It is really going to stress me out being at work, and Sammy being at home, and not being able to immediately test or give food. At least I do have the video cameras that I can keep track of when and what he eats, and when he gets up if he seems to be staggering or anything. He has never shown any major signs for Hypo, except when he was in the low 40's he would meow incessantly until I fed him.

At this point in the dosing scale I might have to start saving off insulin rather than taking a full .25u reduction. I really don't know if there was something else in play yesterday or if it was just a delayed reaction to the Chicken or something else. As always I will keep as close an eye on him as I can from work. I am so tempted to take the day off today because I am very sleep deprived, but I actually need to see the chiropractor more than I need sleep today, and if I am going to get dressed I might as well go to the office, and possibly take tomorrow off to catch up on sleep if I am still struggling.

I hope everyone has a great day.
 
Okay, so maybe it was a mistake to increase the dose again, but honestly how would I have known without trying it. Yesterday's HIGH's must have been a delayed reaction to the food or something else entirely, but how was I to know, those higher numbers just so happened to come after a dosecrease to .5u. I did realize this morning that not only did I give a dose reduction on Saturday, but that is when I also start giving the Beef and Chicken Wellness, so maybe it was a combination of the two that caused the numbers to rise. So now we have ruled out two types of protein that Sammy can't eat without having elevated BG - Chicken and Duck. Maybe once we get the BG under control we can reintroduce these in small quantities, but for now they will be completely off limits.

At +3 Sammy hit 44, this was even after I gave him 1/8 teaspoon of HC gravy before I left the house to go to the Chiropractor. I just gave him about a 1/2 teaspoon of HC gravy and a bit if 8% food in hopes that he will come back up. The problem is I need to leave for work. I plan on leaving a little late and testing again to make sure he came up after the HC gravy, but I am nervous that he will still drop further when I can't test and he doesn't seem to eat unless stimulated, especially at these lower numbers. I had left plenty of food out when I left for the Chiropractor, but he didn't eat any of it.

Does anyone else have this problem with their cat not eating when you aren't home?

I guess we will be returning to .5u dose tonight, or maybe we will just shave the dose a bit.
 
Tina & Sammy said:
Okay, so maybe it was a mistake to increase the dose again, but honestly how would I have known without trying it. Yesterday's HIGH's must have been a delayed reaction to the food or something else entirely, but how was I to know, those higher numbers just so happened to come after a dosecrease to .5u. I did realize this morning that not only did I give a dose reduction on Saturday, but that is when I also start giving the Beef and Chicken Wellness, so maybe it was a combination of the two that caused the numbers to rise. So now we have ruled out two types of protein that Sammy can't eat without having elevated BG - Chicken and Duck. Maybe once we get the BG under control we can reintroduce these in small quantities, but for now they will be completely off limits.

At +3 Sammy hit 44, this was even after I gave him 1/8 teaspoon of HC gravy before I left the house to go to the Chiropractor. I just gave him about a 1/2 teaspoon of HC gravy and a bit if 8% food in hopes that he will come back up. The problem is I need to leave for work. I plan on leaving a little late and testing again to make sure he came up after the HC gravy, but I am nervous that he will still drop further when I can't test and he doesn't seem to eat unless stimulated, especially at these lower numbers. I had left plenty of food out when I left for the Chiropractor, but he didn't eat any of it.

Does anyone else have this problem with their cat not eating when you aren't home?

I guess we will be returning to .5u dose tonight, or maybe we will just shave the dose a bit.
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Max won't eat while I am not home. Even when I am home it sometimes takes me getting him for a test and treat before he eats. It makes FD more difficult that's for sure. He also doesn't always appear hungry when he is too low either. I hope the hc brings him up. Under these circumstances I would get more hc into him and leave out some too. Better high than low. Since you can't bring him to work I would go with the .25 decrease if he were mine and I don't give dosing advice. Good luck.:bighug:
 
Hi again, Tina,
This is all rather disconcerting, but I think that whatever dose you settle on you should stay with it until it settles in (unless it is consistently dropping Sammy too low). It is very difficult to get an accurate picture when changes in foods and changes in dose are always being made. If you go back to .5 unit tonight, stick with it and feed consistently. Changes in foods can influence insulin action.

I hope you will have a good day with not too much stress!

Ella & Rusty

p.s. Rusty often "saves" his food until we get home.
 
I think I'd also go back to 0.5u. Yesterday's yellows look like a mini bounce to me.

Don't beat yourself up -no harm done. Remind yourself that you're dosing based upon his low numbers, though, not the highs that pop up here and there.

Btw, I'd think most cats would need at least 1 tsp of gravy unless your hc is very high hc, like maybe over 30%. The low numbers sticky says 1 tsp, I believe.

I hope your day gets better!
 
@tiffmaxee and @Ella & Rusty & Stu(GA) It is good to know that Sammy isn't the only cat that doesn't eat on his own when he gets low.

I went home to test at +5 and he was up a bit more, I don't know if he ate at all between +3.5 and +5. I had the cameras set to record, but I don't think the motion censor was sensitive enough to catch his movement. I put the food right by where he was sleeping. The food had been partially eaten, but Crystal had just been down there and I think she ate Sammy's snack. Not that there wasn't food upstairs where Crystal usually hangs out and also in the kitchen, but she elected to pass by all of those food choices and proceeded to eat the snack by Sammy. LOL! I had left food out all over the house because I didn't want him to have to go far if he needed food.

I tried to get him to eat a bit before I left again, but he wasn't interested. I did keep the camera on him from +5.5-+6.5 and at about +6 he did get up and eat the new snack that I left for him when I was home. The camera didn't pick up the motion so I wouldn't have known he had eaten if I had not watched him do it. I also just witnessed him eating again at +8, so I am a bit less worried about him

I will be going home again at +9 to do another test and will leave out more food.

@Ella & Rusty & Stu(GA) I totally agree that there were way too many variables. I thought we were good to go with the chicken, but apparently that wasn't the case, or maybe we can still use the Wellness Beef and Chicken, just not the straight Wellness Chicken. We will be removing both for the time being and see how he does. I try to keep Sammy on the same couple of foods, but I think he gets bored and then he won't eat anything, so I pretty much will open every type of food I have to get him to eat.

@julie & punkin (ga) You say you think the yellow was a mini bounce, could you point out for me what you think he is bouncing from. I am just trying to learn why he does what he does and it would keep me from freaking out all the time if I could understand this better. I am pretty sure that the HC I have is almost 30%, I don't know off the top of my head what it is, but it is definitely up there. When I gave Sammy 1/8 tsp at +2 I was mostly hoping that it would slow down the drop more than anything. And at +3 I only gave 1/2 tsp because Sammy usually recovers nicely from just a bit of the gravy, and I also gave him some 8-11% food at the same time to help sustain the recovery as well.

I think we will be going back to the .5u tonight, but maybe a f.5u. I have been splitting the .5 line with the top of the plunger for our .5u so maybe I will put the top of the plunger just at the line. I think this would be an extra drop or two over.5u. What do you all think about that?

Here is an image of what I was considering .5u. I would just be moving the plunger down a smidgen for a f.5u.

Untitled by msarobix, on Flickr
 
OMG, DH just got home from work early and he has agreed to test Sammy at +9 so that I don't have to leave the office again. This is a HUGE step for him, because up until this point he has pretty much REFUSED to test or shoot insulin. I really hope this is a turning point for him because it would really help me out if he could take on at least some of the responsibility of testing.
 
before I posted that about thinking it looks like a mini-bounce, i had looked at his ss and like you, there is nothing that looks like it could cause it. You tested night before last until he was over 80, and it wouldn't seem likely that he'd dropped back into some low numbers after that point. It doesn't look like he could've been low enough before then to have caused a bounce.

And yet, when you look at yesterday's cycle - starting about 100, no real downward curve in the mid-cycle, rising til pmps at 208, then beginning to decline - it looks like a small bounce that resolved early in the pm cycle. What was absent yesterday in the day cycle was any normal curve, no gradual decrease in BGs to some nadir before increasing back up to the next preshot.

I don't think at this point that it matters, other than maybe looking for something like that if you have the question next time about increasing the dose.

In any case, he's back on track and all green today!
 
suki & crystal said:
Good on your DH offering to test, great to have backup and should make your life easier. :)
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At +9 it didn't work out exactly as I planned, I did end up having to come home, because DH had never tested before and trying to explain it over the phone was nearly impossible, but he has agreed to learn and we have already had a mini lesson this evening. It was another failed attempt, but I remember when I was first learning and I didn't get it at first either, so I am trying to be patient with him. I am just really happy that is has agreed to learn.

@Sienne and Gabby I did return to the .5 dose tonight. I hope it holds this time.

Chris & China said:
How in the world did you get a picture that close and that clear??

Woo Hoo on DH pitching in!! That'll sure make your life a lot less stressful!!
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Yes, DH pitching is would be so amazing.

I took that photo with my iPhone. I zoomed in to be able to see exactly how I was measuring. I have been taking a photo at every shot time. Before taking the photos, there were way too many times when I questioned if I dosed correctly. Now I have a record that I can go back and look if something wonky happens with Sammy's cycle. Oh, and when I posted this photo to Flickr I did crop it closer in also.

@julie & punkin (ga) Okay, thanks. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. I think I figure it out that it had mostly to do with the Chicken that was introduced. Like I mentioned I had been feeding the Beef and Chicken Wellness and that didn't seem to affect Sammy, so I thought I would try just the Chicken, but that put him over the top. In the past when I have used the Beef & Chicken it has been in much smaller amounts, so for now I am removing the Wellness Beef & Chicken as well as the Wellness Chicken from Sammy's diet. It is really amazing how the food can play such a big part in BG. I am just glad I figured it out otherwise I would still be feeding Chicken and Duck, both of which seem to raise Sammy's BG.

I am still concerned that Sammy is jumping from high 60's at +9 to over 100 at PMPS. I think it might have a lot to do with the fact that he doesn't eat after +9 to PMPS. Even though food was left out until +10.5 he didn't eat any of it. I am considering leaving food out tomorrow through PMPS and letting him eat at will to see where he is at PMPS. Should I do this, or should I not do this experiment until Sammy is off insulin???
 
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