Help with Charlie's dosing please

charliesmom1

charliesmom1

Member Since 2019
It's been a week since Charlies hypo episode where he earned a dose reduction to 1. I have followed that for the week and his numbers are pretty high beyond the anticipated 6 cycle bounce. The good news is shots are going much better and we only had a few fur shots so that's good progress! I'm unsure if he should be bumped back up to 1.25, so would greatly appreciate the advice.
 
I’ve only been doing this since April, but hopefully my reply will bump your query and you’ll get another response. Also, if you put a question mark in your title, you will get more eyes on your post.

I would say that you could wait until you’ve had several cycles with no fur shots, depending on how scary your hypo episode was, but technically under the rules of SLGS, you can increase.

I would also say that the Start Low Go Slow protocol was made to be used with a human meter. The AlphaTrak will have your numbers showing higher than on a human meter.
Good luck! I had a lot of fur shots for a while, until I found some human syringes with short needles. It really changed everything and made the shots more comfortable for Jackson, too.
 
@Margie and Jackson is totally correct....the furshots make a difference.

We want to see at least 6 cycles with the correct dose before making the decision to increase the dose. (the 6 cycles is if you're doing Tight Regulation....if you're doing Start Low Go Slow, you need a full 7 days without a furshot and then you need to do a complete curve by testing every 2 hours for 12 hours

Since there's dry food in the picture (even if it's low carb), you have to do SLGS so try really hard to get all the shots in for a full 7 days and then run a curve.

Personally, I'd try to get the dry out of the diet so you could do TR....it allows you to increase as often as every 3 days if he's stuck in high numbers

Are you testing for ketones? If not you probably should with Charlie running that high.
 
Chris & China (GA) said:
@Margie and Jackson is totally correct....the furshots make a difference.

We want to see at least 6 cycles with the correct dose before making the decision to increase the dose. (the 6 cycles is if you're doing Tight Regulation....ifyou're doing Start Low Go Slow, you need a full 7 days without a furshot and then you need to do a complete curve by testing every 2 hours for 12 hours

Since there's dry food in the picture (even if it's low carb), you have to do SLGS so try really hard to get all the shots in for a full 7 days and then run a curve.

Personally, I'd try to get the dry out of the diet so you could do TR....it allows you to increase as often as every 3 days if he's stuck in high numbers

Are you testing for ketones? If not you probably should with Charlie running that high.
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The 7 days without a fur shot is new. If that is the case I should have never increased his dose from the beginning! I am doing my best with a cat who has not been cooperative. This past week has been better as I have been shooting him more toward his back legs and he doesn't seem to mind as much. Also letting the insulin warmed up a bit in the syringe in case that would help. In the beginning I was also struggling with getting enough blood for a test with a human meter and again Charlie was not cooperative. The vet suggested I switch to the Alphatrak and it has been a breeze since that meter needs about a pin drop of blood! I can try to switch back, but I hesitate because currently Charlie sits so well for that test.

I have 3 other cats who love dry food and it was a challenge to switch to a low carb option they would eat. They all love the Dr. Elseys. I don't see Charlie eat as much of that as he does Fancy Feast and he eats a lot of chicken. Can you explain why it matters if he's eating wet or dry if they are about the same carb content?

I only tested for ketones last weekend during the hypo episode when he was not eating and very lethargic. I don't see the need at this point especially since for whatever reason this past week he was acting more like himself than usual. Playing with toys and his brothers which made me happy to see.

Thank you for the help. I will continue at 1 unit until I can get no fur shots for 7 consecutive days, then do a curve.
 
charliesmom1 said:
Can you explain why it matters if he's eating wet or dry if they are about the same carb content?
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It's not our rule. It's one of the requisites of the TR Protocol itself:
  • you will need to feed the right diet: high-quality low-carb canned food or raw food exclusively
http://www.tillydiabetes.net/en_6_protocol2.htm

We at the FDMB can't take it upon ourselves to change one of the fundamental requisites specified in someone else's protocol. Low carb dry food has been available for quite some time and yet the requisite has not changed.

So if there's dry food in the picture, no matter the carb count, we can't recommend using TR.
 
DRY FOOD AND TIGHT REGULATION PROTOCOL

The bottom line here is that we just don't know how dry food will affect regulation. The Tight Regulation Protocol is very aggressive and we cannot afford to have unknowns when we are letting cats run below 50 on insulin. I personally am not willing to take that risk with someone else's cat.
 
charliesmom1 said:
I am doing my best with a cat who has not been cooperative.
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I totally understand and hope my comment didn't come off as me being critical of you in any way. Some cats take a little longer than others to accept home testing and shots. Luckily, the vast majority eventually do though!

Are you trying to use the "tent" method?
 
Chris & China (GA) said:
I totally understand and hope my comment didn't come off as me being critical of you in any way. Some cats take a little longer than others to accept home testing and shots. Luckily, the vast majority eventually do though!

Are you trying to use the "tent" method?
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I appreciate your help and advice. I think I have tried every shot method I can find and the tent was difficult because Charlie is very skinny and it seemed to bother him to pull up on his skin like that. I am now having success on another method I saw on this forum where you pull up on the fur to be able to see the skin and shoot him there which helps since Charlie is a medium hair. I will stick with the SLGS method because I do not really have the time to constantly be monitoring him under the TR and don't want to eliminate the Dr. Elsey's dry. However, I am going to switch over to the human meter today so the numbers more accurately represent the protocol for SLGS . I did his last reading with it a few hours ago, as well as the alphatrak, and there was a substantial difference in the readings.
 
I believe (please correct if wrong) wet food goes though the system faster, creating a shorter rise and fall of blood glucose. Dry food tends to take longer to hit the bloodstream and longer to leave it, AND be less predictable.
 
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