I have a couple of thoughts and suggestions. Given that you have the ability to monitor, what you did today with mixing the LC/MC seemed to flatten her out pretty quickly. Sometimes we can see flat yellows as an indication of some action to follow, but not all cats give this indication, and those that do, not always consistently. You could next time try feeding just the MC with shot, and see if that gives her a food bump. Of course, any time you aren't sure whether she might have an active cycle AND you aren't able to monitor, that might change the approach with what carbs to give.
Again, remember that with TR and using a human meter, we do want her to achieve BG levels within the normal range which is 50-120 mg/dl. While I don't want to minimize or be dismissive of the Libre readings, since it is extremely helpful to you to be able to monitor so closely, as I said before, I do feel that since you managed to get a couple of Contour tests which showed her being above 114-130ish, the low 50s seems a bit debatable on the Libre, and knowing that many other members have experienced inaccurate lows as well.
Speaking of cycles, I'd like to suggest you start looking at the numbers the way the SS is set up, which is how we look at numbers here. A cycle refers to the period of time between shots. There are 2 cycles in 24 hours. While it is good to look back at previous cycles particularly to see if you can establish some patterns, I do feel like the Libre graph perhaps continues to confound the situation a little. For example, I wouldn't look at it as that she dropped from 300 (midcycle last night) to 53s (early today) quickly, since that isn't quite right given the time frame in question and the number of hours involved. In "today's am cycle" she dropped from 149 preshot to 53 by +1 (and again, if you aren't inclined to question the validity of the 53), which is indicative of an active cycle. I think I mentioned this before, but it is a bit of an experiment, since it takes some time to see whether the carbs you are feeding are working or not. If it were me, I would say today's cycle and how you fed was fine, since you managed to stop the early drop.
Hi Christie, thanks for such an insightful analysis!!
I have a few issues with her on these points
1) I can usually see when she’s going to do a deep dive at the beginning of a cycle because the hour before food/shot time she starts diving. Like the graph below.
The early steep drop on graph usually tells me it’s going to be a very active cycle/1st three hours.
2) I do believe the medium carb foods (canned Fancy Feast, which I would prefer not to feed her, but do for these emergency situations) definitely give her a bump. Way more than her regular LC diet.
I’m not sure what to do about feeding her a full meal of medium carb canned FF.
She has some IBD& kidney disease and eats a very specific novel protein lamb diet, which I home cook.
It was formulated by a veterinary/ nutritionist for her multiple conditions.
While I will use medium carbs canned goods when needed, to bring up her glucose in small amounts, I figure I don’t have a choice.
I’m not really sure if it would be good for her condition to feed a full meal of canned, medium carbs, whenever she’s diving (which is quite often these days!)
However, maybe I just need to bite the bullet and do it and see what happens. Maybe I feed a can to her before her shot, and then for the next few hours, give her some small snacks of her low-carb, regular home cooked food?
I’m not sure if that makes any sense or not I’m just guessing and making stuff up here.
I don’t really have any guidance on what to do about diet in this regard.
I was told when she was diagnosed to feed her the LC diet I cook for her. I don’t have anything in place for mc if I need it, so I’ve try to follow what other people are doing and using canned medium carbs as needed.
(I may have to go back to my nutritionist and have her formulate me a medium carb recipe for these purposes.)
3) obviously, I would love to have her reach numbers under 100, but it seems that the only way she reaches them is in a deep dive. She’s not reaching them by her overall graph just coming down to lower numbers.
So, that’s my confused state in how to handle these rapid dives which are generally the first 3 hours of many, many cycles.
Doesn’t this seem to be a lot of rapid drops over and over again??
I agree the Libre may show some lower than reality lows, however it definitely shows the steep drop about to happen! (buckle up is how I read it)
Thank you again for your time & help
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