? Two months in: switching to low carb

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AndreaJEP

AndreaJEP

Member Since 2022
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I just got Scully's +5 for tonight and it was 99. This is definitely better than the +4 89 we got the other night, so I'm wondering if this is more normal?

I don't have work tomorrow, so I can stay up for a while if I need to test her, but I'm not sure when to start feeding her carbs vs. when to just wait and see.
 
She's at 78 at +5.5, so I gave her some gravy lovers and will check again in 30 minutes. But this means she earns a dose reduction to 2.5, I think?
 
She's at 101 now after a bit of the gravy lovers. I'll test again in 30 minutes, and hopefully she won't have fallen again.
 
Sorry no one got to you sooner but you have done well. Looks like you have mastered the art of hometesting! :)
You must be almost ready to test again to see what the BG is now, I will watch to see.
There is no need to give high carb food unless the BG drops below 90. Up until then it is safe to give normal low carb food.
Scully has earned a reduction in dose down to 2.5 U with the drop under 90. I would start the new reduced dose tomorrow morning.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Sorry no one got to you sooner but you have done well. Looks like you have mastered the art of hometesting! :)
You must be almost ready to test again to see what the BG is now, I will watch to see.
There is no need to give high carb food unless the BG drops below 90. Up until then it is safe to give normal low carb food.
Scully has earned a reduction in dose down to 2.5 U with the drop under 90. I would start the new reduced dose tomorrow morning.
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I started to doze off, but she's at 120 now :)
 
AndreaJEP said:
I started to doze off, but she's at 120 now :)
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As you have been feeding her high carb food, you really need to keep testing for two hours until the high carb food wears off and we can see she can stay up on her own. Cats often wobble up and down in this situation. You can feed her normal low carb food but I wouldn’t feed her any more high carb food. Are you able to set the alarm and test hourly for the next two hours?
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
As you have been feeding her high carb food, you really need to keep testing for two hours until the high carb food wears off and we can see she can stay up on her own. Cats often wobble up and down in this situation. You can feed her normal low carb food but I wouldn’t feed her any more high carb food. Are you able to set the alarm and test hourly for the next two hours?
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Her normal food is high carb (high carb according to your charts, I believe, DM dry), though, as I was advised to not change her diet until I get enough blood glucose data. She tends to graze on her "meals" throughout the day or night rather than all in one go. I did take up the gravy lovers (because I remembered the advice from the other night), but I left her normal food out as she would usually have access to it.

If her normal food were low carb, I would understand taking the high carb stuff away once her BG comes up to see if it will stay up. But if her normal food is already high carb, I'm afraid I don't understand how taking it all away from her (when she is even more in need of it than usual) is beneficial?
 
Also, how do I tell when her nadir is? It's looking like maybe around +7 to +8? Or do I need more data in order to tell?
 
AndreaJEP said:
Her normal food is high carb (high carb according to your charts, I believe, DM dry), though, as I was advised to not change her diet until I get enough blood glucose data. She tends to graze on her "meals" throughout the day or night rather than all in one go. I did take up the gravy lovers (because I remembered the advice from the other night), but I left her normal food out as she would usually have access to it.

If her normal food were low carb, I would understand taking the high carb stuff away once her BG comes up to see if it will stay up. But if her normal food is already high carb, I'm afraid I don't understand how taking it all away from her (when she is even more in need of it than usual) is beneficial?
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It was probably me who told you to keep feeding what you are feeding until you are testing the BGs OK.
Your signature does say low carb dry until you swap to wet…so might be an idea to write DM dry until you swap to wet so we know when we look at the signature what you are feeding. We help so many that we rely on the signature for information.
 
AndreaJEP said:
Also, how do I tell when her nadir is? It's looking like maybe around +7 to +8? Or do I need more data in order to tell?
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Nadir can move around and often don’t just stay on one place.
Not much data yet, but looking at the SS she has had one at +5, +6 and +7.
You can tell when the nadir is when the Bg starts to rise. But as far a predicting is concerned you will need more data and know that is can move around. But it does look, with the little data we have, as if her nadirs will be later in the cycle, rather than early, which is good as it means the insulin duration is good.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
It was probably me who told you to keep feeding what you are feeding until you are testing the BGs OK.
Your signature does say low carb dry until you swap to wet…so might be an idea to write DM dry until you swap to wet so we know when we look at the signature what you are feeding. We help so many that we rely on the signature for information.
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I changed it to say DM dry a few hours ago. Did the signature not update? Also, my understanding is that there isn't really such a thing as low carb dry food (under 10% carbs), or is there?

She does seem to like several of the wet foods I've given her throughout all this, which is good news for when we're ready to make the switch.
 
AndreaJEP said:
I changed it to say DM dry a few hours ago. Did the signature not update? Also, my understanding is that there isn't really such a thing as low carb dry food (under 10% carbs), or is there?
She does seem to like several of the wet foods I've given her throughout all this, which is good news for when we're ready to make the switch.
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I can see the change now. It wasn’t updated when I replied to you in post 7.
There are a couple of dry low carb foods available. I’ll tag @Diane Tyler's Mom ti tell you about them as I don’t live in the US.
That is good she is enjoying the low carb wet…much better for her all round.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
I can see the change now. It wasn’t updated when I replied to you in post 7.
There are a couple of dry low carb foods available. I’ll tag @Diane Tyler's Mom ti tell you about them as I don’t live in the US.
That is good she is enjoying the low carb wet…much better for her all round.
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It's all right, I don't want to keep her on dry food anyway, I just thought < 10% carb dry didn't really exist. I want to switch her to low carb wet as soon as it is safe.
 
And we're at 68 for PMPS +4. So another dose reduction for her. She's eating some gravy lovers now.
 
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AndreaJEP said:
And we're at 68 for PMPS +5. So another dose reduction for her. She's eating some gravy lovers now.
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She is doing beautifully for a newly diagnosed kitty. Once you change her over to an all wet low carb diet she will do even better!I’ll tag @FrostD for you as I’m not a Prozinc user for her thoughts.
You are doing a great job with her!
 
Had a double typo. The 68 was at +4, not +5. My own blood sugar was low when I recorded this, and apparently I can't count on low blood sugar. o_O(Yes, I corrected my own hypo as well.)

I'm about to re-check Scully again.
 
FrostD said:
I would go with 2U...possibly even 1.75U to get ahead of him a little bit
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Her. 2 units would have been the new dose for tonight after she earned yet another reduction this morning, and I have to go back to work tomorrow, so I think I may go even lower.

That said, she has had less of an appetite this afternoon and evening (less than usual...she eats more in the AM), so I just gave her 0.5 units in her PM shot because I was worried she wouldn't eat her dinner. She didn't touch her normal dry food at all, though she did eat some gravy lovers.

She has gone through phases before where she has gotten bored with her normal food, so I'm trying to figure out if that's what this is, or if I should put some Mirataz on her ear. I do have a tube.
 
I'm so glad I only gave her half a unit :eek: She's at 138 at PMPS +3.5 now. I know that isn't low and she still has room, plus she's eating a bit now that the hairball is out, but my goodness. That's a huge drop.
 
AndreaJEP said:
I'm so glad I only gave her half a unit :eek: She's at 138 at PMPS +3.5 now. I know that isn't low and she still has room, plus she's eating a bit now that the hairball is out, but my goodness. That's a huge drop.
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That is a big drop. Did you give her any food after the preshot meal at say +1, 2 or 3?
Food will slow the drop.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
That is a big drop. Did you give her any food after the preshot meal at say +1, 2 or 3?
Food will slow the drop.
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Several times, yes. She hadn't wanted to eat much, but has been better since she had her hairball. She has shown no desire to eat her normal DM dry, but she did eat some gravy lovers, a bit of pate, and some of the dry food she was on before her diagnosis (the bag for that says 21% carbs).
 
AndreaJEP said:
Several times, yes. She hadn't wanted to eat much, but has been better since she had her hairball. She has shown no desire to eat her normal DM dry, but she did eat some gravy lovers, a bit of pate, and some of the dry food she was on before her diagnosis (the bag for that says 21% carbs).
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That is quite a bit of higher carb food and to still have that drop. I’ll tag @FrostD again about the dose. I would get a few more tests in tonight.
 
I can't keep staying up all night like this. I have work tomorrow :banghead:

The hairball issue meant that she didn't eat much in the first 2 hours after insulin (nor much before that). Most of what she ate was after the hairball, so during the hour before the 138 reading.

I'm about to test her again though.
 
204 now, thank goodness. That's without me having given her anything else since before my last post.
 
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The higher AMPS is a combination of the lower dose you gave and a bit of a bounce. You did the right thing by doing a lower dose - just sometimes when we do that the duration is crap. But nadir is most important, first and foremost, and with that 138 the 0.5U looks to have been a good call.

This is up to you and your comfort level/testing situation - you could try 1.25-1.5U for a few days. I think that may be a little too low, but could give you some breathing room. Just remember that ketones and DKA are a risk with doses that are too low, so be sure to check those .
 
I just switched fully to the Relion meter for this morning's reading. I put a line on my spreadsheet between last night and this morning stating that, but do I need to change what it says at the top of the spreadsheet too?
 
FrostD said:
What are your thoughts on food?
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Well, she has completely lost interest in her dry food, but seems happy to eat either gravy lovers or pate. I've given her pate the last couple of times that I had to skip her shot, and gravy lovers otherwise. She unfortunately doesn't like the shredded low carb food that looks less disgusting to me :P

I'd still like to switch her over to low carb pate as soon as possible, but I don't know how to adjust her insulin in a way that I can switch her safely when I'm not there to monitor. I am going to have time off work over the holidays, though, so I'd love advice on how to approach the switch.
 
It you slowly transition from a higher to lower carb food, the numbers should help you to know when to reduce the dose. There's information on the Feline Nutrition website about transitioning from dry to canned food. The information there should give you a feel for how to approach your transitioning Scully to a low carb diet.
 
Her numbers are rather interesting with these skipped shots. I would start the transition now, but definitely do not give 1.25U at this point.

When was the last time she had dry? And which gravy lovers are you feeding? That'll help me know what to do with dose.
 
FrostD said:
Her numbers are rather interesting with these skipped shots. I would start the transition now, but definitely do not give 1.25U at this point.

When was the last time she had dry? And which gravy lovers are you feeding? That'll help me know what to do with dose.
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The contraband she got into yesterday was, believe it or not, dry food :banghead:. I had put some out last time she was going low as an option for her to eat. And since she'd shown zero interest, it slipped my mind to take it away from her. So of course she ate some while I was at work yesterday :facepalm:

Right now she has access to only Fancy Feast pate, and I'll get another reading in the next half hour some time to see how things are going.

When she has gravy lovers, it's usually a mix of chicken senior minced and beef, so a mix of medium and high carb, I think?
 
Well, scratch the BG reading :blackeye: I flooded the strip and got "ERR" instead of an actual reading, because Scully was struggling against me while I got the blood. She's mad at me, so I'll try again later.
 
Alright, we have another skipped shot because her PMPS is 128. She only had FF pate all day (plus her BG treats: Orijen Freeze-Dried). I was unable to get any other BG readings during the day after the failed test earlier, but should be able to get at least one more tonight, barring any other dumb mishaps by me.
 
Sorry I didn't stop by yesterday, whole family is sick at the moment.

I'd keep going with just the pates and see what happens! I would not shoot anything below 175; above that I would try 0.25U only if you are able to stay around and test/intervene if necessary.
 
FrostD said:
Sorry I didn't stop by yesterday, whole family is sick at the moment.

I'd keep going with just the pates and see what happens! I would not shoot anything below 175; above that I would try 0.25U only if you are able to stay around and test/intervene if necessary.
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Thank you! I will do that and see how it goes. I hope your family starts feeling better soon!
 
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