6/8: Sammy AMPS - 258;

[Tina & Sammy]

Yesterday's Condo

I just don't know what to do. His numbers still continue to rise. Last night Sammy did seem like he was a little more tired than normal, but wouldn't that be due to the higher sugar? He is still eating fine.

I am hoping that I can talk to the vet today, but I am really dreading the expense. We were just there 2 weeks ago and and full bloodwork done, including testing for infections. But now I am wondering if it is an infection, and if it isn't an infection what could it be?

I am stumped once again. Should I try an increase??

 

[Tina & Sammy]

I just spoke to the vet and based on my description of how Sammy is acting, she doesn't think it is an infection. We are going to see how today goes, but more than likely we will increase to .5 unit tonight.

 

[Amy&TrixieCat]

There were times when Trix was on the juice that she would just fall out of regulation (after being very tightly regulated for long periods of time) for no apparent reason, and then she'd resettle/reregulate again. I think their bodies can just change at times....one of those frustrations of FD. I hope Sammy settles back down soon.

 

[Tina & Sammy]

There were times when Trix was on the juice that she would just fall out of regulation (after being very tightly regulated for long periods of time) for no apparent reason, and then she'd resettle/reregulate again. I think their bodies can just change at times....one of those frustrations of FD. I hope Sammy settles back down soon.

I hope so also. I know you took Trixie off insulin even when her numbers were a little higher, and you stopped insulin abruptly, and you have had success with it. I am just so confused if I should increase or decrease. I know Trixie's numbers were above normal for quite some time after you removed the insulin, but she seems to have continued to come down in numbers over the last year since you stopped insulin. I makes me wonder if that is an option. I probably need to talk to the vet and ask them what number they like to see a cat at to stop insulin. It probably isn't under 100, and maybe if I could get him to regulate between 100-150 or at the very least under 200 I might be able to take him off insulin and see how it goes. I know it is rare but not impossible to have a cat go into remission a second time, but maybe I am trying to regulate at too low of a number and if I set my sights a bit higher he might have a little more luck.

 

[carfurby (GA)]

I'm glad the vet doesn't think there is an infection. Good luck if you increase tonight. I hope it helps Sammy get back on track.

 

[Peg and Toby]

I hope you can figure out what is going on with Sammy. It would be nice if he could go OTJ.

 

[tiffmaxee]

No ideas here but sending vines. I hope you figure out what is going on with him quickly.

 

[Amy&TrixieCat]

I hope so also. I know you took Trixie off insulin even when her numbers were a little higher, and you stopped insulin abruptly, and you have had success with it. I am just so confused if I should increase or decrease. I know Trixie's numbers were above normal for quite some time after you removed the insulin, but she seems to have continued to come down in numbers over the last year since you stopped insulin. I makes me wonder if that is an option. I probably need to talk to the vet and ask them what number they like to see a cat at to stop insulin. It probably isn't under 100, and maybe if I could get him to regulate between 100-150 or at the very least under 200 I might be able to take him off insulin and see how it goes. I know it is rare but not impossible to have a cat go into remission a second time, but maybe I am trying to regulate at too low of a number and if I set my sights a bit higher he might have a little more luck.

Trix's case is/was definitely very unusual. I stopped shooting because she was in the midst of a nasty p-titis flare (her first); she wasn't eating, and her numbers were in the low-end of the normal range even without insulin and with the p-titis flare. She tends to do things "backwards"; things like stress and illness cause her numbers to drop. The reason I never started shooting again was that even though her PS numbers were sometimes above normal, she always brought herself down to normals a few hours after eating, so shooting would actually have probably been dangerous. She was basically "bouncing" off her own insulin, which after her last round of zeniquin finally seems to have stopped (anti-jinx!). If she were eating during that flare, I probably would not have stopped shooting....it was just an odd situation where a bunch of things came together all at the same time (some of which have absolute no logical explanation!) and happened to work for her. It's hard to say if and how it would work for another kitty, though!

I hope Sammy's number level off and come back down again. When Trix would fall out of regulation, I did get fairly aggressive with increases until I hit a breakthrough, and after that happened, she usually came back down the dosing ladder pretty quickly.

 

[Tina & Sammy]

Trix's case is/was definitely very unusual. I stopped shooting because she was in the midst of a nasty p-titis flare (her first); she wasn't eating, and her numbers were in the low-end of the normal range even without insulin and with the p-titis flare. She tends to do things "backwards"; things like stress and illness cause her numbers to drop. The reason I never started shooting again was that even though her PS numbers were sometimes above normal, she always brought herself down to normals a few hours after eating, so shooting would actually have probably been dangerous. She was basically "bouncing" off her own insulin, which after her last round of zeniquin finally seems to have stopped (anti-jinx!). If she were eating during that flare, I probably would not have stopped shooting....it was just an odd situation where a bunch of things came together all at the same time (some of which have absolute no logical explanation!) and happened to work for her. It's hard to say if and how it would work for another kitty, though!

I hope Sammy's number level off and come back down again. When Trix would fall out of regulation, I did get fairly aggressive with increases until I hit a breakthrough, and after that happened, she usually came back down the dosing ladder pretty quickly.

Thanks, I know Trixie's situation was very unusual, but sometimes I think what Sammy is going through is somewhat unusual, just not all the other medical issues. We did go ahead and increase to .5 unit tonight, so hopefully that will help tip the scale.

What I did notice after staring at his spreadsheet today is when we decreased, without cause or because he had gone 14 cycles in normal, we have had to go back up and sometimes go up further than where we were before we tried a reduction. So I guess that is a sign to me that we need to hold the course until he earns that reduction, not just because he has had normal numbers for 14 cycles. I will need to keep repeating this to myself so I don't make this mistake again. So far it has happened twice since we restarted insulin in April. He was on a .1 unit dose for the longest time and then we decided skinny up the dose a little because he had such good numbers, as soon as the dose was decreased his numbers started to rise. and we went back to .10 unit, but now that dose wasn't enough. Then the same thing happened with the .25 dose only we increased to a fat .25 dose before trying a reduction back to a skinny .25. Then when we increased back to .25 it hasn't seemed to be enough and now we have increased to .5. Hopefully this will do the trick and he will come back down into the green by tomorrow morning.