5.16 Luke AMPS 345, +2 150, +3 142, +4 65 - Any ideas on why so bouncy lately

Kristen ardito

Kristen ardito

Member
Previous post for continuity: https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/5-13-luke-pmps-95-1-152.289963/#post-3178844

It feels like I'm doing something wrong here. Luke is bouncing wildly all over the place the past few weeks. Yesterday he was "Hi" on the Libre all day, and only dropped into the high 300s once or twice and today after his shot he plummeted to 65 within 4 hours. Now I fear he will bounce again the next two days and we will keep repeating this cycle.

Does anyone with experience know what this could indicate (recently had labs done and nothing came up)? Like, too high a dose? Am I doing him a disservice by keeping his dose at 2.5 and then when it drops pretty low for his body, it responds by going high again? Trying to sort out how to regulate better.
 
Sometimes a big drop - like the drop between AMPS and +2 that I see, can cause a bounce, in addition to being in numbers he's not used to possibly causing bounces. Kit loves to do those big drops that lead to bounces, and then she gets into a cycle of drop bounce drop bounce. One of the things you can try is feeding the curve. You would have to have a good idea of when drops are most likely to happen, when onset is, when he is likely to nadir.
I'm not the best at seeing those things - I'm still working understanding what I'm seeing in Kit's, honestly. But, she likes to onset and nadir early, and she frequently has huge drops between +1 and +2. So what I'm doing is, if she is above 150 at preshot, I feed her a 3% food at preshot, and then at +1 I feed a 7%, and +1.5 I feed a 9%. For the most part, it helps to slow her drops so she bounces less often (although she still likes her bounce). It feels counter intuitive to feed higher carb food when they're higher, but you want to ease them into the lower numbers, is sort of how I look at it.
And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't, but it takes some experimentation to find what works, how carb sensitive your cat is, and then you have to stick with it for awhile, because it might not work immediately, but you have to give it enough of a chance to break through those cycles. (That darn patience that is real hard.)
Luke is also early in his diagnosis, so until he gets used to lower numbers bounces might be a bit inevitable? But feeding the curve can be super handy. I hope that helps some! :bighug:
 
Update: he dropped to 39 (now at +7) so what is his nadir exactly? The lowest point (now) or when he first starts to drop lower? Definitely good idea to try to feed the curve. I like that. Luke is a year in to this process so I feel like we would have gotten better at navigating this but it keeps presenting new challenges.

Let me give him some high carb food now and see if that helps. I am already preparing for huge bounce the next two days .:eek:
 
Onset is when he starts to drop, and nadir is the lowest. I'm still making adjustments and trying to work out the best system. I sometimes look back at her first go round, she was in remission within about 6 months and in hindsight, it was so easy. This has felt so much harder and I've had to learn way more than I did before.

Hi carb sounds good - I know he hasn't been happy with the testing, but are you able to get another test in to see how he's doing now?
 
Also, I definitely saw the diagnosis date and apparently my brain still thinks it's 2023, which is why I said early in his diagnosis. :facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:
I swear my brain has been mush for way too long. :joyful:
 
Yes got in another couple of tests and still in the 30s so gave some sugar, another half can of HC FF (20%) and will test again in 15 min
 
Just checked again. Libre showed LO, then 42 and I panicked. :blackeye:

Did an ear test and that said 89. Not sure what to trust, but guess I should go with ear test right? Not sure why Libre is SO far off.

In any case, I am going to drop dose tonight, correct? do I drop .25 or .5? He's currently receiving 2.5 units 2x a day.
 
Checked one more time (now about 8 min later after giving syrup) and Libre shows 70 so it may just be catching up to the blood that I got from ear. I'm annoyed b/c the low glucose alarm didn't go off.
 
Kristen ardito said:
Just checked again. Libre showed LO, then 42 and I panicked. :blackeye:

Did an ear test and that said 89. Not sure what to trust, but guess I should go with ear test right? Not sure why Libre is SO far off.

In any case, I am going to drop dose tonight, correct? do I drop .25 or .5? He's currently receiving 2.5 units 2x a day.
Click to expand...
From what I've seen, the Libre frequently shows lower than what a human meter would show. I know @Staci & Ivy uses the Libre, so she's a good one to chat with out the differences in numbers. I would definitely trust the ear test for how much he's gone up.
But yes, tonight should be a reduction. You'll drop by 0.25. The 0.5 drops are reserved for higher doses, typically (doses above 5? Maybe 6?).

Also, apologies for the late response - I got distracted by lunch. :facepalm:
 
Kristen ardito said:
Just checked again. Libre showed LO, then 42 and I panicked. :blackeye:

Did an ear test and that said 89. Not sure what to trust, but guess I should go with ear test right? Not sure why Libre is SO far off.

In any case, I am going to drop dose tonight, correct? do I drop .25 or .5? He's currently receiving 2.5 units 2x a day.
Click to expand...
Hi Kristen, I use the Libre 3 with Ivy and if she drops to Lo I do an ear prick with a Contour meter.

I also find that many times she reads Lo on the Libre, but can be in the 80s,90s even low 100s.

However, just yesterday she was reading Lo and then the Libre stopped transmitting and I poked her just to double check what was going on. She read in the 50s and 60s in the Contour.
So I find a great spread between the Lo and the actual Libre numbers.

Some people I have read their comparisons are much closer in number, but not for Ivy.

Personally I only reduce based on a number I see with an ear prick. For example, I would need Ivy to be under 50 to reduce her but on my contour meter, and not based on the Libre.
I typically test Libre 50s can get over 100 on the contour meter. I guess you have to figure out what you’re basing your numbers on.
Since I’ve been here a year now, everyone has always told me test the low numbers with an ear prick so you know where they actually are.
I hope this helps. :bighug:
 
Staci & Ivy said:
Hi Kristen, I use the Libre 3 with Ivy and if she drops to Lo I do an ear prick with a Contour meter.

I also find that many times she reads Lo on the Libre, but can be in the 80s,90s even low 100s.

However, just yesterday she was reading Lo and then the Libre stopped transmitting and I poked her just to double check what was going on. She read in the 50s and 60s in the Contour.
So I find a great spread between the Lo and the actual Libre numbers.

Some people I have read their comparisons are much closer in number, but not for Ivy.

Personally I only reduce based on a number I see with an ear prick. For example, I would need Ivy to be under 50 to reduce her but on my contour meter, and not based on the Libre.
I typically test Libre 50s can get over 100 on the contour meter. I guess you have to figure out what you’re basing your numbers on.
Since I’ve been here a year now, everyone has always told me test the low numbers with an ear prick so you know where they actually are.
I hope this helps. :bighug:
Click to expand...
I think her early tests in the 30s were ear picks, at least that's how I read it.
Thanks for popping over - I have so little knowledge about the Libre.
 
Thanks all!

To clarify- I did test with an ear prick when I first got a LO number on the Libre and it was in the 30s. It did end up going up to 80 with ear prick eventually but it took a couple of hours and a can of high carb food, followed by syrup, and a handful of dry kibble.

I did give him a reduction today. As expected, his numbers are high but not terrible. They are in the high 300s, at least not rising higher than that. Seems pretty spry today, all things considered. He was also very playful a bit earlier so hopefully we get through this and find the right dose.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top