Chloe 8

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I was thinking that cold ears are unlikely in the Arizona heat, but air conditioning could certainly cause that! Sam's have to be pretty warm before they'll bleed. I've also found that hydration can impact how easy/difficult it is to get blood. You could add some extra water to the wet food to try to get her a little better hydrated.
 
Djamila said:
I was thinking that cold ears are unlikely in the Arizona heat, but air conditioning could certainly cause that! Sam's have to be pretty warm before they'll bleed. I've also found that hydration can impact how easy/difficult it is to get blood. You could add some extra water to the wet food to try to get her a little better hydrated.
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You bet I have AC in 115-degree heat! I don't keep it especially low, though. I think I can tolerate up to 81 degrees inside with the fan on. I use the warm rice sock. I think you're right about the water. Sometimes I forget to freshen it.
 
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StephG said:
I've only had problems getting blood a few times but it helped when I would run the ear between my fingers for a few seconds. You could try warming it up with a rice sock if being cold is the issue.
I have had a bent before before. No idea why that happens but I'm sure it doesn't feel good.
Glad she forgives you.
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I think it bent a little when I put it in the bottle.
 
I just noticed my typo. Well not really a typo... More like autocorrect strikes again. I need to proof read more.
I have bent a needle trying to flick the bubbles to the top of the syringe. I think some are a bit more delicate than the others in my batch.
 
StephG said:
I just noticed my typo. Well not really a typo... More like autocorrect strikes again. I need to proof read more.
I have bent a needle trying to flick the bubbles to the top of the syringe. I think some are a bit more delicate than the others in my batch.
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I haven't been doing that. I just pull down more than is needed and push it up to the amount I want. Do you think that gets the bubbles out? What happens if there are bubbles? Does it hurt the cat? Maybe that's why she hates the needles. Anyway, I just tried again 3 times in her ears and got not a drop of blood. I have to go out for a few hours but I'll test her as soon as I get back.
 
8:30. I'm losing my touch. Have to poke very hard to get blood, 3 tries again, and poor Chloe couldn't take it any more. Maybe I need a fresh rice sock.
 
srk3cats said:
8:30. I'm losing my touch. Have to poke very hard to get blood, 3 tries again, and poor Chloe couldn't take it any more. Maybe I need a fresh rice sock.
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Do you reuse the lancets? If so, maybe you need a fresh one?
Have you seen the tips about "milking" the ear to get a drop?
I can tell you that the more you poke the better they bleed. They learn to bleed on a way. I use to poke Chuck on setting 3. We use the lancet device. Now we poke him on a 1. If it's any higher he bleeds like we got the vein. I don't have to push it for on his ear anymore. We use to put some pressure on both the ear and device to make sure it got him enough to bleed. Now I just hold it up to it and poke.
Anyway, I'll try to find the post about milking the ear. That might help.
Have you done the scruff test to see if she's dehydrated? Pull up the scruff and see if it snaps back down or slowly melts back down. It should snap back fairly quick. If it's slow or melts back down she is probably dehydrated. I would give Chuck 1/4 cup water with a tiny bit of chicken baby food or his pate mixed in to get him to drink it. It was also a snack if he just thought he couldn't wait til mealtime... But not 2 hours before preshot.
 
Found it:
Written by Yong:
"When milking the ear, move from base of the ear to poked spot"
I would squeeze/pinch gently with one finger on each side of the ear working my way up.
I hope this helps.
 
StephG said:
Do you reuse the lancets? If so, maybe you need a fresh one?
Have you seen the tips about "milking" the ear to get a drop?
I can tell you that the more you poke the better they bleed. They learn to bleed on a way. I use to poke Chuck on setting 3. We use the lancet device. Now we poke him on a 1. If it's any higher he bleeds like we got the vein. I don't have to push it for on his ear anymore. We use to put some pressure on both the ear and device to make sure it got him enough to bleed. Now I just hold it up to it and poke.
Anyway, I'll try to find the post about milking the ear. That might help.
Have you done the scruff test to see if she's dehydrated? Pull up the scruff and see if it snaps back down or slowly melts back down. It should snap back fairly quick. If it's slow or melts back down she is probably dehydrated. I would give Chuck 1/4 cup water with a tiny bit of chicken baby food or his pate mixed in to get him to drink it. It was also a snack if he just thought he couldn't wait til mealtime... But not 2 hours before preshot.
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I try not to reuse lancets, but sometimes it takes too long to get a new one and a new strip as well. I never heard of that scruff thing before. I'll try it. I don't use the lancet device.
 
srk3cats said:
I haven't been doing that. I just pull down more than is needed and push it up to the amount I want. Do you think that gets the bubbles out? What happens if there are bubbles? Does it hurt the cat? Maybe that's why she hates the needles. Anyway, I just tried again 3 times in her ears and got not a drop of blood. I have to go out for a few hours but I'll test her as soon as I get back.
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It's not a good idea to push the extra insulin back into the vial. It can cause contamination and shorten the usable life of the insulin. Draw up just a tiny bit more, pull the needle out of the vial, flick it to get air bubbles to the top, then use a "screw turning" type of motion to get the plunger to the dose you want.
 
I focused really hard, got a good grip on Chloe and managed the test in one try. 447 is very high and I'm wondering if she had a hypo during the night because she woke me at 3am with vomiting. I need to get her back on the YA because I can't stand her screaming for food in the morning.
 
Kris & Teasel said:
It's not a good idea to push the extra insulin back into the vial. It can cause contamination and shorten the usable life of the insulin. Draw up just a tiny bit more, pull the needle out of the vial, flick it to get air bubbles to the top, then use a "screw turning" type of motion to get the plunger to the dose you want.
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I'm assuming that after you flick the syringe (with the needle pointing up?), you keep it pointing up when you do the 'screwing' motion?
 
Not sure what's going on here. No curves, just a straight downhill line. I meant to do a curve today, but fell asleep.
I think I'm finally getting the hang of adding comments to show what time the test was given.
 
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I think she may have gone very close to or hypo on the AM cycle of 6/24 before you got the 71. Is that your "night" time?

I definitely think you should decrease to 1.75 or 1.5 units.
 
You got a 300s am preshot on 1.5 which could have been a low number bounce since you didn't get a preshot reading it's hard to tell. Either way it's lower than the AMPS after no shot.
Starting tomorrow on AM cycle...
I think you should try 1.5 units for 3 days (6 shots) to see if her preshots level out. It's better for her pancreas to try to heal if she's getting the support from insulin around the clock. So giving the bigger dose on your am shots and then no shot in the PM is taxing her pancreas on the PM cycle.
Try to get as many spot checks as you can to see if this theory is true or if I'm mistaken.
Do you think you could try this?
 
srk3cats said:
No curves, just a straight downhill line.
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This is a sign of the dose being too big. Dropping from 400s to 94 is enough to make her bounce.
I definitely think you should decrease to 1.75 or 1.5 units.
You got a 300s am preshot on 1.5 units which could have been a low number bounce since you didn't get a preshot reading it's hard to tell. Either way it's lower than the AMPS after no shot.
Starting tomorrow on AM cycle...
I think you should try 1.5 units for 3 days (6 shots) to see if her preshots level out. It's better for her pancreas to try to heal if she's getting the support from insulin around the clock. So giving the bigger dose on your am shots and then no shot in the PM is taxing her pancreas on the PM cycle.
Try to get as many spot checks as you can to see if this theory is true or if I'm mistaken.
Just to be clear:
I think you should try the 1.5 units for both shots for 3 days (if they are above 200) and do a curve on the 3rd cycle after tonight's. So am cycle on 6/27/2017.
Do you think you could do this?

Sorry for the multiple replies. I added them all to one to try to make it less scattered around.
 
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I have to sign off soon. Early and long day tomorrow so I'm heading to bed.
But I'll be on early tomorrow, 7ish am eastern time. So I'll check in before your shot time to see if you have any questions or if there's any replies. I'm not getting alerts for your thread again. Darn technology. :rolleyes:
 
StephG said:
This is a sign of the dose being too big. Dropping from 400s to 94 is enough to make her bounce.
I definitely think you should decrease to 1.75 or 1.5 units.
You got a 300s am preshot on 1.5 units which could have been a low number bounce since you didn't get a preshot reading it's hard to tell. Either way it's lower than the AMPS after no shot.
Starting tomorrow on AM cycle...
I think you should try 1.5 units for 3 days (6 shots) to see if her preshots level out. It's better for her pancreas to try to heal if she's getting the support from insulin around the clock. So giving the bigger dose on your am shots and then no shot in the PM is taxing her pancreas on the PM cycle.
Try to get as many spot checks as you can to see if this theory is true or if I'm mistaken.
Just to be clear:
I think you should try the 1.5 units for both shots for 3 days (if they are above 200) and do a curve on the 3rd cycle after tonight's. So am cycle on 6/27/2017.
Do you think you could do this?

Sorry for the multiple replies. I added them all to one to try to make it less scattered around.
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She's been eating voraciously, almost 2 cans of FF. I added some water and she licked the bowl clean just a moment ago. I'm going to test her again in about an hour and give her 1.5 units if she's over 200. See you in the morning.
 
srk3cats said:
I'm going to test her again in about an hour and give her 1.5 units if she's over 200. See you in the morning.
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If you give her a shot this late, you'll be off your schedule. Plus an hour after eating, her test will be food-inflated, so you could end up giving her too much insulin. If she was 94 at shot time, I think you should just skip the shot tonight. It can be dangerous to give a dose based on a food-inflated number. If you already did give the dose, please try to get another test in before you go to sleep and/or during the night so you know she's okay. And then make sure that the morning shot is 12 hours after the shot you give tonight. Keeping the shots 12 hours apart is really important.

Let me know if you have any questions about all of that. :)
 
srk3cats said:
She's been eating voraciously, almost 2 cans of FF. I added some water and she licked the bowl clean just a moment ago. I'm going to test her again in about an hour and give her 1.5 units if she's over 200. See you in the morning.
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I agree with Djamila's post.
It is safer to skip. Others with more data to show how food effects the no shot cycle have given a reduced dose 2 hours after they feed. Usually they are the cats who have a big spike from food and don't go down or get control on their own. I don't think you have enough data yet to attempt this.
Chuck is one of those. He eats and without insulin will spike 300+ points in 2 hrs just from eating and stay there. His body doesn't control his blood glucose on it's own. I have months of data showing this even with a small dose of insulin before eating.
Again, I don't suggest doing this with Chloe due to not enough data and I suspect her body is helping a little at least.

Please update us on if you gave insulin. I see the 295 @+3.
Please give the next shot 12 hours after her last. It's best for her and you can change the shot time on the next cycle after you have a no shot again.
 
What time did you give insulin last night?
I see the 206 for AMPS on your SS.
I would not shoot early.
 
StephG said:
What time did you give insulin last night?
I see the 206 for AMPS on your SS.
I would not shoot early.
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I gave her a fat 1 unit at 9 pm after testing her. I just finished testing her now, at +3 and she's eating FF. I plan to give her 1 unit in 5 minutes, 9:eek:o am. I'm probably messing up my chart. Should I have put her am (206) test at +9 PM yesterday and make the AMPS her current shot?
Also, I don't like skipping shots. I think it really messes with her BG level. I would rather give a reduced shot than nothing at all.
 
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Yes, if 206 was at +9 then put it there.
Did you feed and shoot at +9? If so you should keep it in the AMPS spot but add +9 with it.
If you fed at +9 but shooting at +12 make a note of it on your spreadsheet. Put the 206 at +9. Then put the number you get before the shot in the AMPS box but add "3 hours after meal" so when we look at the data from today we will see that it wasn't a "normal" schedule.

The schedule of no food for 2 hours before shot time and TEST, FEED, SHOOT are to keep her safe and keep the data you get as accurate as possible.
Giving the reduced dose every 12 hours will give you a shootable number so you don't have to skip. That's what I've been trying to make happen by suggesting the 1.5 units every 12 hours.
I think 1 unit on the 200s is a good idea.
But to prove all of this we need you to get some mid cycle tests.
Once you get more data to show how the insulin is working on each preshot you will eventually need to shoot under 200. BUT that is NOT NOW.
PLEASE test again BEFORE you give her insulin.
 
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StephG said:
Yes, if 206 was at +9 then put it there.
Did you feed and shoot at +9? If so you should keep it in the AMPS spot but add +9 with it.
If you fed at +9 but shooting at +12 make a note of it on your spreadsheet. Put the 206 at +9. Then put the number you get before the shot in the AMPS box but add "3 hours after meal" so when we look at the data from today we will see that it wasn't a "normal" schedule.

The schedule of no food for 2 hours before shot time and TEST, FEED, SHOOT are to keep her safe and keep the data you get as accurate as possible.
Giving the reduced dose every 12 hours will give you a shootable number so you don't have to skip. That's what I've been trying to make happen by suggesting the 1.5 units every 12 hours.
I think 1 unit on the 200s is a good idea.
But to prove all of this we need you to get some mid cycle tests.
Once you get more data to show how the insulin is working on each preshot you will eventually need to shoot under 200. BUT that is NOT NOW.
PLEASE test again BEFORE you give her insulin.
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I always test before giving her insulin. I'll have to fix my SS. btw, I saw on another kitty's blog, you said,
Also, was just reminded of this, you don't rub the injection site after dosing do you? I always rub because it seems to hurt her. Why is that bad?
 
srk3cats said:
I saw on another kitty's blog, you said,
Also, was just reminded of this, you don't rub the injection site after dosing do you? I always rub because it seems to hurt her. Why is that bad?
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That was Yong. I've read it can effect how the insulin is absorbed.
I don't rub but I do run my fingers through his fur where I shoot to feel for wetness. I give a quick ear rub after injection to take his mind off the poke I just gave him. I don't think it hurts him but I don't want him to think I only want to poke him all the time.
 
StephG said:
That was Yong. I've read it can effect how the insulin is absorbed.
I don't rub but I do run my fingers through his fur where I shoot to feel for wetness. I give a quick ear rub after injection to take his mind off the poke I just gave him. I don't think it hurts him but I don't want him to think I only want to poke him all the time.
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Yes, I also want to see if it is wet. I do more of a massage thing. How does it affect the absorbtion? I would guess it would help it absorb faster.
 
It looks like Chloe is doing well on only 1 unit. Her nadir is 140. I hope she's heading towards remission.
 
She is looking good! Are you doing a complete curve today? It will help see how long the 1 unit keeps her down.

Seeing these numbers makes me think 1 unit might be a good dose to stick with for 3 days to see how she levels out. You should see shootable numbers for both am and pm shots with 1 unit. But we can look over it again once we see your PMPS number.
 
I would be parked in front of the AC! I try not to leave the house when it's in the 80s here! The humid heat too long and I look like I ran a marathon. But as long as I have a I'm ok! Lol
I'm off to bed. I'm sure one of the pros will be around to help with your PMPS if you have questions.
If you can, get a +3 or +4 tonight to see how the continued 1 unit is dosing is working it. If you have a preshot over 200.
If no one answers you can try on main health forum and if they need more info direct them to this forum thread.
I'm excited to see how this turns out for Chloe.
 
Bummer on the ns last night. Did you test again at +12 to see if she went up at all? She was close to 200.
If your schedule permits it you could stall for a half hour to see if she goes up without food. If she goes up over 200 after stalling you would feed then give insulin like usual but make a note on your chart. But be prepared to get another test in to be safe.
I think you'll see a shootable number tonight. Getting a few mid cycle tests on the pm cycle (when you do give insulin) will help figure out how she does at night with insulin.
But a +2 even on the cycles without insulin will show us how high the food takes her with no shot.
 
DSC05221.JPG
She looks mean, but she is always very sweet, and never hurts anybody.
 
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So pretty!
I see that shootable pmps! Yay!
If you can, get a +3 or later mid cycle tonight. See if she goes lower at night like some cats like to do!
:cat:
 
Two yellow preshots in a row! Looking good!
If you could get some mid cycle tests in for the yellow preshot cycles it will help see where she's going and if the dose needs adjusted.
How's she feeling and acting?
 
StephG said:
Two yellow preshots in a row! Looking good!
If you could get some mid cycle tests in for the yellow preshot cycles it will help see where she's going and if the dose needs adjusted.
How's she feeling and acting?
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She's acting normally even though she sleeps most of the days. I heard cats sleep about 70% of the day, anyway. She doesn't have a spring in her step, but that's normal for her age. We are growing old together. We take naps together after General Hospital. She's the only on who sleeps with me anymore, since Pogo and Genghis are gone. They used to chase her off the bed, so I think she's happy with the attention now. Tomorrow, I'll be home until evening, so I'll get a mid-cycle reading around noon.
 
Aww all 3 of mine plus the dog would sleep in bed with us. Bubba has been gone since 2013. Chuck won't go far away from his dish/feeder for long. So I get sandwiched between my civvie, Kitty, and my dog April.
I'll check in to see her numbers tomorrow!
 
Mine don't sleep with us...we used to leave the door open and they wouldn't get in bed with us then. Now we don't let them in the room as they took to attacking feet in the middle of the night! :stop:
 
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