7/19 Cosmo AMPS 560,+4.5 85, +5 73, fed HC, +6 103, +7 149, +9 PMPS HI

Hang in there. I won't give advice since there are people here with much more experience, but I do want to say "breathe." Did you do a second test just to confirm the number?

While it's a big drop, 85 isn't a bad or really a scary number. When Philly hit 84 for the first time, I made changes to bring him back up. My vet asked why when 84 is a normal range number. Maybe be careful giving much high carb gravy food right now. You don't want to spike his numbers back up. Maybe a few bites of a lower carb food to keep him coasting until his normal rise kicks in.
 
Yes, I did a second test to be sure. We had been coasting in the 500's for several days without much budge...I wasn't expecting this.

Cosmo has megacolon and has had a long couple of months of back and forth to the vet. He eats gastro wet and some drenched kibble as his diet.
 
thebigfuzz said:
Yes, I did a second test to be sure. We had been coasting in the 500's for several days without much budge...I wasn't expecting this.

Cosmo has megacolon and has had a long couple of months of back and forth to the vet. He eats gastro wet and some drenched kibble as his diet.
Click to expand...
I'll keep you company if you like until one of the experts chimes in. I know it's hard to post a 911 and wait for help. I can only speak to my experiences with two diabetic cats.

I'm thinking the gravy food will start bringing his numbers back up, but you probably want to get some tests to confirm they're not dropping. When Philly gets into the 80s and 90s I try to feed him small snacks of medium carb food to help him stay there as long as possible.

When Philly has a big drop, I know we are looking at three days of bounces. Don't let it make you discouraged.
 
Hi, it's super critical on a sudden +4 drop hours after such an incredibly high 2.50 amps.
Fast acting recourse to bring him up in the Yellows, Safe, is Dextroxe water in ordinary food syring. Fast act now.
 
Test again 30mins after the 85, let's see where he's got to now!

Also maybe test yourself with the new strips-- you never know, maybe this new pack is the bad one giving odd answers. I'm not familiar with the meter you use-- it doesn't by any chance require coding, does it?
 
Beck and Philly said:
I'll keep you company if you like until one of the experts chimes in. I know it's hard to post a 911 and wait for help. I can only speak to my experiences with two diabetic cats.

I'm thinking the gravy food will start bringing his numbers back up, but you probably want to get some tests to confirm they're not dropping. When Philly gets into the 80s and 90s I try to feed him small snacks of medium carb food to help him stay there as long as possible.

When Philly has a big drop, I know we are looking at three days of bounces. Don't let it make you discouraged.
Click to expand...
Thank you!
 
Yes, definitely want to keep him a little hungry!

Just so you know, we don't usually feed HC at these numbers-- you're still in very safe territory, nowhere near hypo-- but there's no real harm in doing so. As @Beck and Philly pointed out, he'll likely be bouncing for a while no matter what!

Looking at your spreadsheet, I wonder if what is going on is that you have increased too rapidly recently. You have a couple of 0.5U increases after only a few days of a particular dose, which is faster than SLGS recommends, and a larger increment than we usually do around here. It may have just been too much, too fast.

Could you take the 911 off your post title, now that you have some replies?
 
Cosmo was really sick and 2 sedated enemas in the past couple weeks and then a reaction to the Meds (cisapride and lactulose). Yesterday and today were the first days he seemed to feel a bit better /recover.

The vet wanted us to go up to 3 units to fill his depot again, with the goal to get up to 3 soon. We chickened out and went up by 0.5 units and 2.5 for a few days now. I know it doesn't really follow SLGS.

FYI - he eats HC food (gastro) to treat megacolon since 7/1.
 
Oh, I see. Thanks for filling me in on the history here, I think you said some of this earlier in the thread but I didn't really catch the significance. This makes sense regarding the dose changes.

I'd still take a reduction tonight, especially if you think he might be feeling better lately :).
 
Nan & Amber (GA) said:
Oh, I see. Thanks for filling me in on the history here, I think you said some of this earlier in the thread but I didn't really catch the significance. This makes sense regarding the dose changes.

I'd still take a reduction tonight, especially if you think he might be feeling better lately :).
Click to expand...
How much reduction do you think is ok? 2.0 or 2.25? I guess it depends on PMPS?

Now I am thinking all those numbers for the last week were maybe a bad batch of strips? Or... He is feeling better!
 
We usually change by 0.25U increments, so I would say down to 2.25U.

However, Cosmo does have some other things going on with the megacolon and his possible response to recent treatments, and I am not sure how to take them into account. Maybe change the title to ask for dosing help to get some different eyes on the question?

Glad he's back up to blues, by the way! I think you can take a breath now.
 
I think you need to go back to 2.0 units. You didn't hold the 2.0 dose long enough to show what it could do, plus you had a fur shot in there too. Lantus requires patience. :bighug: I'm a little worried his numbers have gotten worse with you increasing so fast, plus not getting the night time tests in so we don't know what he's been doing then. It'll be interesting to see what his PMPS number is. I suspect he's been diving to green (or at least low blue) overnight, then zooming back up again by AMPS. Fast drops also cause bounces, and I found them to actually be worse bounces than the lower BG that used to kind of bounces.

It's really important to try to get a +2 or before bed test each night, so you can see what is happening at night, and whether you need to test again or leave food out for him to keep himself safe.

Good luck with the reduction.

How is Cosmo feeling these days? What was his reaction to the lower (but still safe) numbers, other than "yummy gravy!"
 
I'll post the PMPS for sure!

We had been getting quite a few +8,+9 tests on the PM cycle, but will now look for at least +2 more consistently.

Cosmo has been feeling better the last couple days, mostly sleeping... Coming out to eat and use the litter. We go visit him and give pets. He gives us purrs. He comes out of his kennel to test or eat a treat or two. If I am honest, I don't notice much difference between 500 and 100 in eyes or behavior. He was maybe a little wobbly at his lowest today. I am wondering if the strips were bad that we were using until +4 today when we broke out a new box? Maybe I should test myself with each new container to be sure?

He eats quite a bit overnight. We always leave food out for Cosmo and Jasper that's when they do their big eating, I think.

What a drop today :confused:

We got a blood panel done at the vet yesterday, so will be interesting to see what they say. The vet thought he might have a gum infection?

His tremors are gone as of this morning from the Meds wearing off, so that's good too!
 
Wendy&Neko said:
That's interesting. Bad teeth/needing a dental can make it harder to get a cat regulated and I've often seen crazier numbers with that.
Click to expand...
Cosmo broke a fang a few years ago and then had a dental where they said he reabsorbed the remaining bit of tooth (diff vet). This was the gum our current vet said was inflamed?
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Was a dental xray ever done? I wonder if a fragment is still in there.
Click to expand...
An xray and blood work was done at the time it broke a few months before his last dental. They didn't do another one after. Maybe it is still in there? Our current vet would like a dental xray, but feels Cosmo is too unstable/weak for another sedation right now. We get the blood work tomorrow and should know more then. They did a fructosamine test too, so if we had bad strips, we should know that too from the results.
 
2020-07-19_18.26.16.jpg

It seems reasonable.

Cosmo just came out and took a very soft, long BM, so I took the opportunity to snap a photo of him and his baby brother (18 months) Jasper.
 

Attachments

  • 2020-07-19_18.26.16.jpg
    2020-07-19_18.26.16.jpg
    66.5 KB · Views: 76
PMPS HI :confused:

What a strange day... Cosmo had more energy and behaved more like better numbers tonight than he did this afternoon...I don't understand.

We shot 2 units.
 
Cosmo was 371 at +4 on PM cycle and 563 at +8. He ate all his overnight food and was hungry and alert at +8. Jasper was trying to wrestle and play, but Cosmo told him to back off LOL.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top