Looking for advice

[Frank&Lionel]

I am not sure what exactly is happening, Lionel has a lot of change: in the last 3 months he had a dental and got 4 teeth extracted in March, then he loss his “brother”in April and 3 weeks after we moved into a nice new house. I have a hard time testing him so I know I need to do a lot more of it, but just want to share our spreadsheet and see what I need to be doing, he has never been so active in his life til this new house, he adjusted really well, and I feel with the right advice we can maybe get into remission or at least stop the bounces ‍‍https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15LPJuF1Z8JVxS8YCTXO3ZZqjkUzsqtF_BrZhtP9iA1Y/edit

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Going to bump this to the top so we can get more eyes on this

 

[Tina Marie (GA) and Jan]

Lionel is beautiful!
I just looked at your spreadsheet and do see what's making things hard. You need a dose that you can stay consistent with. You want the amount of insulin in Lionel's body to be as consistent as possible.
When I first started giving insulin, I was doing a little of what you have been doing - adjusting doses based on preshot numbers, and skipping mid cycle tests, which are VERY important to see how low Lionel is going. Thankfully, I started learning on this forum that I wasn't doing it right, before I hurt my kitty.

It would be best if you picked a dosing method - SLGS or TR, and stick to it. Then people could give dosing advice.

DOSING METHODS

Can you check his BG at +3 for example, and/or +5 because many cats go their lowest at about +5. If you check during the cycle more often, you will know he isn't going hypo, and will be able to find a good dose to give every 12 hours.

The great thing is how much exercise your boy is getting in the new house! And it looks like his dose might keep going on down. Kisses to Lionel

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

Lionel is beautiful!
I just looked at your spreadsheet and do see what's making things hard. You need a dose that you can stay consistent with. You want the amount of insulin in Lionel's body to be as consistent as possible.
When I first started giving insulin, I was doing a little of what you have been doing - adjusting doses based on preshot numbers, and skipping mid cycle tests, which are VERY important to see how low Lionel is going. Thankfully, I started learning on this forum that I wasn't doing it right, before I hurt my kitty.

It would be best if you picked a dosing method - SLGS or TR, and stick to it. Then people could give dosing advice.

DOSING METHODS

Can you check his BG at +3 for example, and/or +5 because many cats go their lowest at about +5. If you check during the cycle more often, you will know he isn't going hypo, and will be able to find a good dose to give every 12 hours.

The great thing is how much exercise your boy is getting in the new house! And it looks like his dose might keep going on down. Kisses to Lionel

Thank you Jan

 

[Frank&Lionel]

Thank you so much for replying, we have been going at this for just over a year and I’m finally seeing good numbers, good pees, and he seems SO HEALTHY, so I want to get it right, do you think I should keep him at 1 unit instead of jumping around, or do u think 1/2 unit for 7 days and then see if he needs a increase? I ll definitely get more test during the day, when he is in the green I can pretty much call it cause he’s running around all crazy and having a blast, also I ve been using the petsure strips with my alphatrak and I feel like they aren’t that accurate, I have asked on fb and some ppl love them and some ppl hate them, when I was using the alphatrak strips he was always higher, I did a comparison once and alphatrak was about 7 point higher BUT each tube of petsure strips seems to be different, so at this point I m having a hard time believing his numbers, ‍‍‍

 

[Tina Marie (GA) and Jan]

do you think I should keep him at 1 unit instead of jumping around, or do u think 1/2 unit for 7 days and then see if he needs a increase?

I like your idea of 1/2 unit. Of course it would still be excellent (better safe than sorry) if you got some mid-cycle tests.

About the strips . . . I have seen quite a bit of discussion on that, and I think the general consensus is using the AT strips with the AT is always best. I do understand wanting to save money, even though I kept using the AT meter and AT strips for a few months. Then I went to a human meter and strips, and was glad I did. Since the protocol is written using human numbers, more people were able to relate and advise on any dose changes.

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

I agree with Tina Marie and Jan about the strips, they say you shouldn't be using any other strips in the Alpha Trak meter.
Most of us use human meters such as the Relion Prime its 9 dollars and the strips are 17.88 for 100 strips. You can get them at Walmart
You should also be testing during the night cycle

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Have you ever though about using a human blood glucose meter? The strips are so much cheaper, meaning you can test more for the same cost. Plus our dosing methods were written with human meters in mind. That's all everyone used to use until a few years ago when Abbott started heavily marketing their produce to vets. Abbott also does some extra testing with their AT strips, and naturally doesn't recommend using other strips (even ones they make) in the AT meter.

Out curiosity, what food are you feeding Lionel? Has there been any changes there lately? Any chance he was sneaking into his brothers food and that has stopped now?

As for dose, start with 0.5 units. And you really need to start getting more tests not only during the day, but also at night. The "before bed" test is a good one. Many cats go lower at night. We determine how to change the dose based on how low it takes the cat. The lows tend to be in the middle of the cycle, not the ends or the preshot times. I'm a little worried 0.5 might even be too high, but the data will tell us that, or whether it was just the depot that caused him to be low at AMPS this morning.

 

[Frank&Lionel]

He only eats FF pates, he had been sneaking his brothers food, but in January his brother was only wet food too, I have a human meter it just NEVER works for me, I am going to order some AT strips, but like I said he had LOTS of change lately, and within a week of being in the new house his numbers started going down, he is actually a very different cat since the move, and he is running up and down stairs for the first time in his 12 year existence, I’m thinking his teeth are finally healed and the excuse might be doing it, I think the strips r definitely a little off but if I was treating the cat and not the numbers I would think he was purrfect. He even missed two doses in a row because his numbers were so good, and every time I get a low number I wait 15 and retest, I ll definitely start getting more data, and keep him on .5 , and see what happens

Have you ever though about using a human blood glucose meter? The strips are so much cheaper, meaning you can test more for the same cost. Plus our dosing methods were written with human meters in mind. That's all everyone used to use until a few years ago when Abbott started heavily marketing their produce to vets. Abbott also does some extra testing with their AT strips, and naturally doesn't recommend using other strips (even ones they make) in the AT meter.

Out curiosity, what food are you feeding Lionel? Has there been any changes there lately? Any chance he was sneaking into his brothers food and that has stopped now?

As for dose, start with 0.5 units. And you really need to start getting more tests not only during the day, but also at night. The "before bed" test is a good one. Many cats go lower at night. We determine how to change the dose based on how low it takes the cat. The lows tend to be in the middle of the cycle, not the ends or the preshot times. I'm a little worried 0.5 might even be too high, but the data will tell us that, or whether it was just the depot that caused him to be low at AMPS this morning.

 

[Frank&Lionel]

I me

He only eats FF pates, he had been sneaking his brothers food, but in January his brother was only wet food too, I have a human meter it just NEVER works for me, I am going to order some AT strips, but like I said he had LOTS of change lately, and within a week of being in the new house his numbers started going down, he is actually a very different cat since the move, and he is running up and down stairs for the first time in his 12 year existence, I’m thinking his teeth are finally healed and the exercise might be doing it, I think the strips r definitely a little off but if I was treating the cat and not the numbers I would think he was purrfect. He even missed two doses in a row because his numbers were so good, and every time I get a low number I wait 15 and retest, I ll definitely start getting more data, and keep him on .5 , and see what happens

I have a human meter but I don’t know if it’s me or the meter but I can never get a reading it ll take 5 times the amount of tries! But I ll bust it out tonight and compare a reading

 

[Wendy&Neko]

Might depend on the size of blood drop needed too. There are a few human meters that used the smaller drop, but some need quite a bit larger. That made a big difference for me.