Need help with amps!

Jessica + Bo

Jessica + Bo

Member
I'm supposed to do a glucose curve today. But Bo's AMPS is the lowest number we got yet. His vet isn't open until tomorrow. So I'm not sure if I should still dose as normal.

Please take a look at our spreadsheet. I know it's not a lot of info, but the previous AMPS were higher


Edit: not sure how to delete a post but I posted in the health forum
 
Last edited:
I’m glad you skipped the shot. That was a much lower than normal preshot and you don’t have a lot of data to say what would happen. At most, I would have given a token dose of only .25 units as long as I would be around to monitor his cycle carefully and intervene if he needed carbs, etc.
 
Some tests last night when he wasn’t really high at PMPS would have provided us with some very good information. We can’t tell where that low AMPS came from since we can’t see anything about last night’s cycle. It’s all new, I know. I read about how you had to wrap him in a blanket to test one time. I hope things are getting better and that he’s starting to adjust to the routine and the testing treats! When I first started testing, I was in tears many times over my failures, and I thought I would never get the hang of it.
 
Jessica + Bo said:
I'm supposed to do a glucose curve today. But Bo's AMPS is the lowest number we got yet. His vet isn't open until tomorrow. So I'm not sure if I should still dose as normal.

Please take a look at our spreadsheet. I know it's not a lot of info, but the previous AMPS were higher


Edit: not sure how to delete a post but I posted in the health forum
Click to expand...
It’s okay, you don’t need to delete this post. It’s good to keep it here for others to read as well.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I’m glad you skipped the shot. That was a much lower than normal preshot and you don’t have a lot of data to say what would happen. At most, I would have given a token dose of only .25 units as long as I would be around to monitor his cycle carefully and intervene if he needed carbs, etc.
Click to expand...
After watching his numbers I'm glad as well. His highest point was 257 at +7 (of breakfast and when he was supposed to get his dose) and now at +9 he's down to 221.

I'm not sure what to do if he goes back to blue by the time we get to his PMPS.
 
Jessica + Bo said:
After watching his numbers I'm glad as well. His highest point was 257 at +7 (of breakfast and when he was supposed to get his dose) and now at +9 he's down to 221.

I'm not sure what to do if he goes back to blue by the time we get to his PMPS.
Click to expand...
How long until his PMPS?
 
257 and 221 are almost the same number... what I mean is that meters are allowed to vary by plus or minus 20 percent. So you can test the same drop of blood and get at 221, which could also be a 265 (20% more) or a 177 (20% less). So right now, we would say that he's fairly "flat" in yellow. Having said that, we also have to just make judgments and go with the numbers we see. If you ever get a number that you think is really off the wall (uncharacteristically high or low) be sure to retest. There can be meter variance, yes, but there can also be a bad test strip. I experimented with this with a single blood drop a lot of times. I would get a good size drop of blood and test that drop a few times. Sometimes it was exactly the same number or very very close. Sometimes it was a bit different. Overall, the ReliOn Meter was the best of the ones I tried for giving me similar numbers.
 
Still a pretty flat yellow at +11. I would try the 1 unit dose and hold it for 7 days unless he drops below 90 — I discussed it over on your post on the Feline Health forum.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
What time would that be in my time zone (Eastern) or what time in your time zone? What is your time zone. I can pop online to make sure all is well at PMPS time. I don't anticipate any problems, but I can be around.
Click to expand...

It would be 10pm Eastern (8pm Mountain Time Zone), in just 10 minutes. Sorry, I'm just seeing your message. His recent BG reading was very similar to the last one. Planning 1 more at 8pm MST and as long as he's still in yellow, I'll give the 1 unit. I'll try to stay up a bit late to get some longer readings tonight, but i wake up at 6am MST for work, so I wont be able to get too many.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Okay. It looks like he will be in yellow.
Click to expand...
Yes, not much change from his last 2 numbers. He's eating now, then I'll give him 1u.

Blue is optimal right? Are his numbers today a good sign? My vet said she wants his numbers between 5.5-16.5 which is blue and yellow. And he stayed there all day with no insulin
 
I think it is an improvement, and I am really happy to see it. It’s another reason why I think he needs the lower dose. Normal numbers for a non-diabetic cat are between about 50 (or even less) and 120 without insulin.
 
Can you get a +2 tonight before bed? And can/do you leave him out a little low carb food at night to munch on if he is willing?
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Can you get a +2 tonight before bed? And can/do you leave him out a little low carb food at night to munch on if he is willing?
Click to expand...

Yes a +2 will be doable. I'll try for a +3 or +4 as my last one for the night.
And yes, he'll have wet food up available until 6am.

Fingers crossed his numbers look good. I'll plan to give him 1u tomorrow AM as long as his numbers don't do anything crazy between now and then

Thank you for all the help, and being available. It's really reassuring
 
He does look really stable right now. Optimally, he would want to eat a little food snack at about +2 tonight and then again when you go to bed, but I know he doesn’t always eat when you want him to. If he’s grazing off and on during this time, then that is okay too.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
He does look really stable right now. Optimally, he would want to eat a little food snack at about +2 tonight and then again when you go to bed, but I know he doesn’t always eat when you want him to. If he’s grazing off and on during this time, then that is okay too.
Click to expand...

I wish I could just tell him "hey its time for a snack" but he only eats when he wants. His appetite has seemed pretty normal recently though. He is still wandering to the food bowl every hour or so to take a few bites.

+1 still not much different but that's probably expected with prozinc.

Is there a number that I should consider hypo (and give honey and high carb food/treats) even if he doesn't have symptoms?
 
Yes. The +1 should not be much different than the preshot. As for a number, if he drops below 50 — which is not a hypo number per se, but we still want him not to drop below 50 when he’s on insulin — that is your “take action” number. So that’s about 2.7 on your meter. At that point you could give high carb food or some of the gravy from some HC food. Depending on how carb sensitive he is, you can learn to adjust the carb levels over time, but for now I would go with a little HC and then retest in 20 -30 minutes to make sure he’s stable or rising in numbers. Then you can keep doing that again until his numbers stay up on their own without the influence of HC or karo syrup. First try HC food and see if he responds, although if he refuses food, you can always give a little karo/water mixture in an oral syringe or do a smear of karo on his gums.
 
There’s a rule that nobody likes to follow: which is the rule that any time you give HC, you need to keep testing for two hours from the time of the last HC — to ensure that their BG won’t drop back down again.

Also, any time you are trying to guide their numbers with food, particularly in a hypo or near hypo situation, feed small amounts at a time— about a teaspoon— in order to avoid filling them up so that you can more easily get them to eat what you need to give them to help steer the numbers.
 
Ack! I see it’s after midnight for me. I’m heading for bed. I have to be up at 5 a.m. I will check up on Bo’s progress in the morning. You’ve got this, Jessica! :-)
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Ack! I see it’s after midnight for me. I’m heading for bed. I have to be up at 5 a.m. I will check up on Bo’s progress in the morning. You’ve got this, Jessica! :)
Click to expand...

Thank you! I just did 1 last bg for the night. The jump between +2 and +3 worried me so I wanted to see +4 before I felt comfortable sleeping. He still has low carb food available until 6am (+10)
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
I see the 92 on his spreadsheet from last night. What’s his AMPS?
Click to expand...

Just got it. Its 12.9/232. He's eating now. Should I continue with the 1u? It looks like he did well on it last night

We struggled a bit with the bg this morning. I don't know if his ears are irritated from all the pricks yesterday, but it took a few tries to get enough blood today.

I don't want to overdo it on his ears today. Is it fine to just get the AMPS and PMPS numbers and a +6 for his AM? Or do you recommend trying to get a bit more
 
Last edited:
I made a decision to give him .75 this morning. Based on AMPS being (slightly) lower than last night's PMPS number and the assumption that he likely hit 90 last night with his +4 being 92.

I've also been measuring a touch low. The plunger bit is wider than the lines on the syringe, and ive been lining up the bottom of the plunger with the line instead of the top of the plunger. So realistically any measurement I've given so far has probably been close to .15 less insulin than recorded. So last nights 1, was probably actually closer to .85. (Sorry if this makes it more confusing. It's just something the vet said was okay to do since i was very nervous about giving him the insulin.)

Im trying to think of a way to note that in the sheet. But now with the .75, I think that is fairly accurate to where I lined up the plunger.

This is about where I gave him the 1u last night. The red line is the 1u line (and the bottom of the plunger) and the blue line is the top of the plunger

 
Last edited:
Okay, if you decide to give a smidge less, we call that a skinny dose. If you give a touch more, we call that a fat dose. We put it in the units column by writing, for example, 1s or 1f.
 
Jessica + Bo said:
I made a decision to give him .75 this morning. Based on AMPS being (slightly) lower than last night's PMPS number and the assumption that he likely hit 90 last night with his +4 being 92.

I've also been measuring a touch low. The plunger bit is wider than the lines on the syringe, and ive been lining up the bottom of the plunger with the line instead of the top of the plunger. So realistically any measurement I've given so far has probably been close to .15 less insulin than recorded. So last nights 1, was probably actually closer to .85. (Sorry if this makes it more confusing. It's just something the vet said was okay to do since i was very nervous about giving him the insulin.)

Im trying to think of a way to note that in the sheet. But now with the .75, I think that is fairly accurate to where I lined up the plunger.

This is about where I gave him the 1u last night. The red line is the 1u line (and the bottom of the plunger) and the blue line is the top of the plunger

Click to expand...
That is indeed a less than 1 unit dose - almost a .75 units. I would record that on Bo’s spreadsheet as 1s for last night. This is good information. See, I really don’t think that, at least right now, he needs the full 1 unit dose. If his numbers warrant, you can always increase after 7 days, but for now try to be as consistent as you can with his dose unless he throws you a really low preshot number.
 
Jessica + Bo said:
Just got it. Its 12.9/232. He's eating now. Should I continue with the 1u? It looks like he did well on it last night

We struggled a bit with the bg this morning. I don't know if his ears are irritated from all the pricks yesterday, but it took a few tries to get enough blood today.

I don't want to overdo it on his ears today. Is it fine to just get the AMPS and PMPS numbers and a +6 for his AM? Or do you recommend trying to get a bit more
Click to expand...
Maybe try to get a +3 and a +6 if you can. If not, definitely try to get the +6.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Nice nadir today. Looks like the.75 is working well.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Fingers crossed he keeps doing well on it. He did get fancy feast for dinner tonight instead of his usual can of purina dm. I'm a bit worried about the extra carbs. But as long as it doesn't affect his numbers, I'll stock up on more tomorrow
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top