Angel, new here! PMPS 161, +3 222

AngelKitty2019

AngelKitty2019

Member Since 2019
Hi all! I'm hoping between this group and the FB page my mom and I can get Angel doing well. This is quite the learning experience. First vet suggested diet change would have no impact at all. Second vet suggested Purina DM dry (of course), and absolutely no point in home testing... I've found a third now thanks to one of the members. She's on board with home testing and low carb wet food (Fancy Feast) but doesn't want insulin given below BG200. We are getting more comfortable with shooting lower numbers (down to about 120 now) but Angel has us confused! She's all over the place. I thought it might be good if we could stick with the same dose for a week, so recently we are trying 0.25u. (she started with 1u 2x/day. 3rd vet looked at her numbers and said drop it to 0.5 on 2/1) She got low enough that we felt we had to skip a couple doses, and now she's back up and bouncing around.

I travel for a living, so a good bit of the time she is at my moms. My mom is getting frustrated with the testing... I'm picking her up Sunday night, and am going to try to do a curve Monday.

Do you think this dose is ok? does she need to go back up to 0.5? Wait for the curve Monday?

Why would her +3 be so much higher than PMPS? I thought that was supposed to be the lowest part of the day!
 
Hi there and welcome to the L,B, & L forum. Good job with the home testing even though one vet said not to, ( my ex-vet said the same thing, "ex" being the optimum word here ...) And for setting up your spread sheet. When was Angel diagnosed? Could you put that in your signature?

As far as the +3 being higher, she could be going into bounce mode from a lower number than she is used to. Without seeing those numbers,( not on the SS) it's just a guess. Bouncing happens for three reasons. 1. dropping to fast , 2. going into a lower number than they are used to being in, or 3. a combination of both.

You are correct about needing to keep the dose the same for 1 week and then do a curve to see how low that dose is taking Angel. The dose was erratic until just recently. It doesn't look like .25 is doing it for her. If she were my kitty, I would take her up to .50 and get lots of data to see what that does. That dose might not be enough either, but since you travel a lot and your mom is getting frustrated with testing, it might be a good starting point. Hopefully, some others will weigh in with their opinion.

Also, if you could get some more tests in during the PM cycle, especially before you go to bed. There were no test after the few times you reduced the dose to 0.1 . The problem with that is just because you reduced the dose for a lower number doesn't mean that the BG won't go down too low because of the depot. It's a false sense of security. Also, most kitties go lower during the PM cycle so it's important to get at least a test before you go to bed and possibly more if the number is dropping. A great test to get is the +2. If the +2 is the same number or lower than the pre shot number it could indicate an active cycle and that would be when you would want to test.

Keep posting and asking questions. That is how we all learned. :)
 
I added that - diagnosed Jan 26th with a 380 by the vet. The numbers are all on the SS, not sure why you aren't seeing them.? (She did the +3 yesterday)

I'll add more testing when I get her home. I'll have her for almost 2 weeks before she goes back to mom's. So I'm hoping for a curve Monday, adjust the dose and hold for a week and another curve, then mom will have her for 2 weeks.

If she's staying above 100, then I think I'll up to 0.5 for next week.
 
To see if your ss is displaying everything, make sure you are logged out of google, and then click the link to your ss in your sig. I did that recently when someone asked why I didn't test one night, and noticed that my data didn't show on that day. There is a bug in google sheets, that shouldn't have affected your data but may have.

If there is a difference between the sheets, let me know and I will pm you or tag someone to help.
 
I think a curve would be good idea. As Bobbie said some more testing at night would be great. It does provide half the picture each day. I would do the PMPS one and then one about an hour before bed...which gave me a +3/+4. If I needed more testing or need to give Jones more carb then I would know before actually heading to bed. I made sure to get 4 tests a day. DH would only do 1 test a day...so he did the mid-cycle day one and I did the rest and used my weekend to fill in blanks as needed. As time went on, he would know to text with a low number and then we would work through that.

The dose has moved around a lot and with the skipped doses...I would stick to the .25 units for now. Lantus loves consistency. The changing of the dose without holding can create some instability in the depot. That said, safety is always first, so if you have a low number and are wondering what to do...post. And as you get more comfortable and learn what Angel will do, then you move the "shoot zone" lower. The saying is to shoot low to stay low but it take a bit to get there...knowledge is key.
 
If your mom can test tonight, yes, I'd give the .25

Getting a +2 is a great test to get too. A lot of times it can act almost like a crystal ball in predicting where kitty is going later in the cycle.

If the +2 is lower than the Pre-shot, it's a really good idea to plan on getting more tests in later in the cycle.

If it's about the same, it's usually going to be a pretty normal cycle...gradually down to nadir and then gradually up.

If it's higher than the PS, it could be signaling the beginning of a bounce and those are the cycles you can take a pokey break.
 
She did, and got a good +3! Sorry if the SS isn't updating yet. I don't have time to deal with that. I can get it straight Monday.
 
Welcome to the group! It's the best place you never wanted to be.

Just out of curiosity, would your mom want to post here? If you're traveling, you may be hard to reach and there's usually a member or several here 24/7. We will, no doubt, underscore the importance of getting tests so you don't have to do all of the convincing!! Of course, pointing out that if Angel was an infant, you and your mom would be getting tests in to insure that the baby was safe. It's no different with cats, especially since Angel is not unlike your baby.

If you're planning on following SLGS, it's important to remember you need to get a weekly curve. Likewise, with Lantus, dosing is based on the lowest number in the cycle -- which is somewhere around +6, give or take a couple of hours. (Getting a curve will give you a better idea of where the nadir often falls but it helps to remember that nadirs can move around.)
 
I think I have the SS link fixed. I might just let mom use my account instead of creating another profile, that might be easier?
Curve tomorrow! She's been getting lower numbers last few days.
 
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