10/24/21, Panda, AMPS 227

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Charleen & Panda

Charleen & Panda

Member Since 2021
Sorry if I made any mistakes in setting up my account.. I'm definitely a noob to the forum world but trying for my boy Panda. I'll go through the info on setting up my account and signature in a bit. FYI I'm part of the FB group as of September but understand it's better to post dosing questions on here so I just made my account :)

I'm looking for advice on what my next steps on dosing should be. The vet is happy to see his numbers come down and told me I should hold the dose for 6 months or so and then bring him in for a fructosamine test. She is super great and all for me researching on my own and this is exactly why I feel like I need to be a little more proactive about Panda's insulin and not just hold the and dose for 6 months.
 
Six months! Oh my goodness. Cat’s insulin needs do change so I can’t imagine keeping on the same dose for six months. That dose could be too high or too low. A dose that works for a cat one week (or day) may not even be the correct dose the next.

Have you read through the sticky notes on this forum about the dosing methods (either Tight Regulation or Start Low Go Slow) and how they work. That’s an important starting point. After you decide which one you will follow add it to your signature at the bottom. Add the type of meter that you have, the type of insulin, which dosing method you are following, date your cat was diagnosed, name, kitty’s birthday etc. Take a look at some of the signatures from various people and you will see what I’m talking about.

I can’t see any data on your spreadsheet. You will need to get that up and running before dose advice can be given. (I know, you are just getting things up and running.).
 
I've moved your post to the Feline Health forum, which is where we ask new members to help. Welcome by the way. :)

There is information in this note about what we'd like to see on your signature. Mostly so we can stop asking you the same questions over and over.
New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
 
What kind of insulin are you using and what is his current dose? What kind of meter do you use? How frequently are you testing? Sorry for so many questions!
 
Thanks so much for bearing with me everyone! I've updated my signature and hopefully the hyperlink will lead you to Panda's spreadsheet.

We started this journey at the end of July and you'll see two tabs. The vet started him on 2.5u twice a day right off the bat, which I realize now was too high for him. The first tab in the spreadsheet is when he had the FreeStyle Libre monitor and you'll see that his numbers were highly unregulated. He was eating Hills C/D wet and dry food back then. After joining the FB group, I switched him completely to Tiki wet and we started testing with the Contour Next One meter and his numbers just from the food switch started coming down.

We've done curves on him as you'll see, but never felt comfortable adjusting his dosage on our own. I'd like to start getting to that point now.

Panda is using Lantus and currently on 2.5u twice a day. We mainly test twice a day-AMPS and PMPS.
 
Hi Charlene and Panda! Welcome to the FDMB!

Good job on getting your signature set up and linking the spreadsheet, but unfortunately, the spreadsheet you're using is one from another Facebook group who took ours, added some things to it and now it makes a lot of phones/tablets crash so it'd be better if you'd transfer your test numbers onto our original one. It looks like you know your way around a spreadsheet but if you need some help, feel free to contact me on Facebook (Chris Ronkoski) or by private message here. Here are the Instructions on getting the original FDMB spreadsheet if you want to give it a try. At least you don't have too much and can copy/paste from one to the other. I'd put the Libre numbers on the same tab so we can see all the tests from the beginning until now. Just put a "break" by leaving one line empty ln between the Libre and Contour numbers. You might also want to consider getting a Relion Premier Classic from WalMart. It's only $9 and the strips are only $17.88 per 100. Much cheaper than the Contour strips!

With Lantus, the dose is based on how LOW it takes them. The Pre-Shot tests are important because they tell us it's safe to give insulin at all. (Giving 2.5U to a cat with a PS of 65 or 96 is really risky until you have tons of experience and data on your cat..I'm happy that there weren't any problems (but there could have been!)

You need at least 4 tests per day. Both the Pre-shots, and at least 1 mid-cycle (+5 to +7) on the AM cycle and at least a "before bed" test on the PM cycle. Most cats go lower at night so it's important to get those tests in before calling it a night. Also, when you only get tests on the AM cycle, you miss half of what's going on (and it may be the important half) so PM cycle tests

2.5 is actually a higher dose than we usually recommend for newly diagnosed cats. We usually suggest starting at 0.5 to 1.0 unit. It's possible the 2.5 is too much for him but we can deal with that later when we have a little more data.
 
Thanks so much for the tip on the Relion meter/test strips!

I knew it would be important to get the nadir test but did not realize how important it was to get the before bed test. My fiance and I are on completely different schedules (I work graveyards and he works AMs) but are going to start testing him at least 4 times a day as recommended. Is the 4 tests something that will be part of our daily life until Panda is regulated?

Also, should we still dose 2.5u twice a day for now until there is more data? Panda seems to be holding in the 200s for the most part. And I know that you mentioned that giving him 2.5u is risky when he was testing at 65 or 96 so we were wondering what we should do when that happens? Just skip his insulin or reduce? We are trying to get the hang of all of this in the middle of what has been a truly crazy year that keeps on giving. LOL
 
Charleen & Panda said:
And I know that you mentioned that giving him 2.5u is risky when he was testing at 65 or 96 so we were wondering what we should do when that happens? Just skip his insulin or reduce? We are trying to get the hang of all of this in the middle of what has been a truly crazy year that keeps on giving. LOL
Click to expand...

If you get a number lower than you shot before (usually we start at 150), you should stall, DON'T feed and test again in 20-30 minutes to see if the number goes up without the influence of food. Use that time to post here with a subject line like "STALLING! NEED HELP!". Once you have somebody helping you, you can go back and edit the subject line. A lot of us do our subject lines like this:

Date, cat's name, AMPS# .....And then add new tests as you get them so today's might look like this:

10/28, Panda, AMPS 169, +5 119 dose advice needed (you can also add the ? prefix in the subject line if your post includes a question. Once your question is answered, you remove the ? and go back to "no prefix".
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