Will do! He dropped to 336 by his pm shot, so I feel like that must have been the issue....if he was just rising on his own, I can't imagine he would have dropped so quickly. Once he dropped he looked like he was feeling a lot better. I'm feeling a-okay again! Thank you for talking me through this moment of confusion and panic!
Eh, I got cold feet and shot 1.75u. I'm quite tired tonight and was worried I would fall asleep before he dropped. Plus even though I probably wouldn't have tested him in that two hour window tomorrow morning anyway, I'd feel better if I was with him. I'll start tomorrow night. I do worry I'm holding doses too long, but I also worry much much more about hypo.
Thank you for the reassurance! I ended up increasing this PM, I'm a bartender so I tend to sleep in later during the day and am up later at night than most...so increasing at night makes sense for me
I'll let you know how the increase goes!
He ended up all the way in red by AMPS, but he had diarrhea this morning, so I decided to wait until tomorrow AMPS to raise his dose. I'm guessing his IBD is acting up again because of all the wet food we've been trying to get him to eat :/. I'm making him a vet appointment tonight to get him in next week. Not really sure what to do from here...wait it out and see if it passes, take the wet food away? Idk.
He ended up refusing to really eat his wet food tonight anyways, he took a few bites, but wasn't into it. So I offered him dry instead, and he ate that with no hesitation. In the past when his tummy hurts, he doesn't want to eat wet food...not sure if he's somehow aware that it makes him not feel good or something, idk. I'll keep offering it to him, but I think it'll probably be mostly dry the next few days until he gets back to normal and we can try again with a different wet food. He has an appointment on Tuesday at the vets, just to put my mind at ease I want them to run some blood work and make sure there is nothing else going on (he just had some ran less than a month ago, but I'm paranoid. His voice has been a little wheezy too and I want to make sure there's no type of upper respiratory infection brewing).
I've been checking for ketones daily, sometimes they come out lighter than anything even on the chart, sometimes a bit darker, nothing more than trace ever though (it never starts to turn color)...it's just like the test strip gets a little darker, but doesn't change color itself (into a pink or purple) if that makes sense. I don't think ketones are a problem right now. I think it's just his tummy hurting, and so he's not eating quite as much as usual. He will eat the dry without issue. I'll make a trip to the pet store tomorrow to try and find some low carb grain free wet food and see if that helps. I've heard people talk about Weruva (sp?) and I know they have that at my local store, so I was thinking of trying that. I knew things were going too well with him eating wet food.
He got his increase today, was a weird day with numbers. I did overfeed him a bit, I read up on pancreatitis and got paranoid so I kept feeding him to make sure he wasn't off food (spoiler, he's definitely not). Still refused his wet food tonight, but chowed down on some canned pumpkin once I topped it with dried freeze chicken! So hopefully that helps
Could you take a look at his numbers, Linda? We started last night giving him wet food instead of dry at the 10pm/am mark, and he's been on what I assume, is some dramatic bouncing. Not sure if I should do or change something. He's been up and down by 200 points!Sounds like a good plan! Good luck! I hope this helps keep the diarrhea at bay and his BG down. Will be watching for an update.
Thank you for the reminder to be patient, I needed that! I'll start an increase tomorrow am, and I'll get those extra tests in. He has a vet appointment on Tuesday, I'm gonna have them to take blood to make sure there's nothing else keeping his numbers up. I'm also interested in eventually trying lantus, but I read it's recommended to stick with the same insulin for three months.
I guess it just may be! I had been concerned about a possible upper respiratory infection, and I plan to have the vet make sure on Tuesday, but he's never had one before...and he seems otherwise fine...kitties are so strange sometimes! That's very funny about your kitty, I have another cat (a maine coon) who has a whole range of strange noises...she still meows like a kitten but chirps like a bird when she's excited! Oscar also has a specific meow that we dubbed his "Minnie cat meow" because he only does it after he gets into a fight with his sister, it's like a very loud very dragged out "mrrrraw rar rar rar rar" where he sounds so upset and depressed! He'll walk around doing that while he looks for his sister after he played too rough with her and she got upset and ran away
Hey Linda, so tomorrow will mark 4 days of the 2.5 dose, with no improvement. Thinking about raising him to 2.75 tomorrow PM. I've been sick and busy the past couple days, so have been getting pretty minimal testing in...do you think there are any tests that would be important to get before increasing? His appointment was rescheduled from Tuesday to tomorrow due to my being sick, so I won't have those results for a couple more days.Yes acro can change a kitty's voice but that's a long shot. Keep us posted on what the vet has to say.
Yes it does look like Oscar needs a little more insulin so go ahead and increase when you can monitor a bit between +2 and +6 of the cycle. Hard to see exactly when Oscar is hitting nadir yet.....it seems to possibly be around +3 some days but other days it appears to be later around +5. That may just be because of the testing times and some cats do not always nadir at the same time and sometimes it changes anyway so it makes it hard to suggest exactly when to test. You're getting good testing at night so maybe try to aim for the +4/+5 timeframe for a night or 2 if possible to see if numbers are any lower then.
Hope you are feeling better now.
Thanks, I've been careful about not allowing bubbles for measurement accuracy. This all started after I shot insulin back into the vial, so now when I get a bubble I can't get out, I just shoot into the sink and do it again until I get it right. I've gotten better at flicking the bubble out, and the bubbles do seem to be lessening in the insulin itself, just a few hanging out at the neck of the bottle. My main fear is that if it's losing it's effect and I keep going up in dose, when I do start a new vial, he could seriously drop. There's been nothing happening yet to indicate its losing it's effect, numbers haven't been getting worse (except for that day at the vet) and I'd go as far as to say they're looking a tad bit better. Not nearly where we need to be, but I took a +8 today and while he's normally in the 400's by this time before dropping a bit at PMPS, he's at 301. So hopefully that's an issue yet. I'd like to go up to 3u on Wednesday night since that's my night off if numbers don't change much by then.
Maybe not so soon! We had our first yellow preshot today! I'm nervous because I won't be home to test him until +8, but I have someone keeping an eye on him. His +1 was 243. I have a feeling he will drop into blue at some point today and I won't be there to catch it! Grrr.If numbers stay in same range as now then by all means increase to 3u on Wednesday.
When you get a new vial, it's always a good idea to monitor the first cycle whether you suspect your old one was losing efficacy or not. A day at the vet doesn't count as worse numbers.....just a stressed out puddy tat!
Thank you! I did put a bit of extra dry food in his feeder just in case, and when I got home, it was all gone. Can't say for sure his sister's didn't help with eating it, but they don't usually eat dry. That plus the fact he's now 331 @ +7, makes me feel like maybe he did drop a bit lower than he's used to, and when that happens he eats a ton, and now that's why he's already high again. Hoping we don't see a bounce
Hey Linda! So he didn't seem to bounce yesterday, but he did go back to his normal numbers, and AMPS today was back in the mid 300's. I have tomorrow off, and was planning tonight to do his increase...but with his lower AMPS yesterday, I wasn't sure if I should let him ride out a little longer on this dose. Wondering what you think! I probably won't be able to increase until sometime next week if I don't do it tonight/tomorrow.
That's what I was thinking, thank you! The increase was inevitable anyways, so makes sense. Not sure why, but I have really high hopes for this increase... haven't had this feeling with any other increase so far so really hoping my gut is right this time!I'd increase now while you can monitor. While that AMPS yesterday was lower, it wasn't hugely different so I don't think that should factor into your decision to increase now. Better to stay on top of numbers and if you can monitor, you can keep Oscar safe even if he did decide to surprise you!
Right as you replied I added an edit about his shot schedule, and feeding schedule, was wondering if you had any advice on that. Sorry, didn't think I'd get a reply so quickly! And sounds good, I'll raise him tomorrow PM to 3.5u
Hi Linda, hope you had a nice Christmas and you're doing well! Things are finally starting to settle over here (Chloe the cat is doing much better and recovering well). Oscar's numbers should be true (not influenced by HC or stress) and I think I have enough data now to know that the old insulin likely wasn't the leading issue with his numbers. I made the decision on my own to raise his dose on 12/25 to 3.75 and we're still looking high. Wondering if it is still too early to raise him to 4u? I'll be home this weekend to monitor him, I'm feeling anxious and wanting to get him to better numbers so if you think it's okay, I wanted to increase tonight.