3/21/26 Tommy AMPS 78, 3 units Lantus, age 10 and a half.

[TommyMommy]

Good morning. This is my first post. I’ll try to give a little background.

My Tommy was diagnosed November 13, 2025. I’ve scoured the net and landed on this site, been lurking ever since. I have learned so very much yet feel that it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Tommy is indoor/outdoor. It’s tricky but it can be done with a lot of patience and problem solving. I made the move to wet food only, mostly BFF (only Pate) but try others occasionally to keep them from getting bored. This is a 6 cat household which is also very tricky. It became even trickier when Tommy’s brother Timmy decided to stop eating (fatty liver disease). Not sure what came first, the starvation syndrome or the fatty liver disease. So, Timmy is now being tube fed. He’s been home for a week now and doing well. Got new feeding syringes yesterday (the old ones get sticky it’s very frustrating), so this morning went rather smoothly (touch n go every day). Yesterday I tricked him into eating a treat! His first eating since surgery!

Food is ongoing. I have a few times made some Dr Jones Turkey (see veterinary secrets on youtube). They like it! I try to mix it in to help buffer the cost of canned wet food. I’m always looking for recipes on youtube and have tried at least one other with mixed reactions. I try to keep a schedule to align with AMPS and PMPS (6am/6pm). It’s about 3-4 cans (5.5oz) each time, sometimes a little extra. I know some are hunting mice and birds.

I suspect the move to wet food is what made Timmy stop eating, possibly. This is also not his first time (about 2 yrs ago in the spring he developed a fever, stopped eating, and we did tube feed for a few weeks). I’m going to try to introduce some dry (Vital Essentials freeze dried beef and chicken meal or mixer crunchy). Haha! Just now tricked him again! He ate it! This is promising. I can’t leave it out because I don’t want Tommy to have any dry kibble (I figured out that freeze dried raw kibble is too high in carbs, his BG shot up when I fed him Marty’s). So feeding the kibble to Timmy and not Tommy will be a challenge.

The neighbor’s cat has decided to invade my property and everyone’s upset. I’ve even caught him inside the house once. My Jackie is spraying all over the house inside and outside. I have a new cat door that I was going to put on so that only certain cats can come in, but alas, it will not keep Timmy inside. So I can only have the setting for cats entering. There is no way to keep one cat in and allow the others to come and go. I was thinking to not put a collar on Jackie, so he could stay outside (I have an outbuilding, it’s very nice, so they do have shelter and can be fed out there as needed). I have seen the neighbor’s cat go in there also! The smell of spray is overwhelming in the outbuilding.

Maybe I’ll try the new door when Timmy has recovered.

My six cats: Timmy, Tommy, Tammy (all siblings), Blondie (he is oldest at age 13 this summer), Wally (got from shelter, he’s the youngest, 10 this month), Jackie (most recent, wandered onto property needed vet help). It took a Long Time to get the others to accept Jackie.

Back to Tommy and my insulin question. I feel like I’m chasing numbers and I’m always guessing. Maybe someone can look over Tommy’s numbers and provide some insight. Right now we are at 3 units. When he goes dark green, I don’t want to give insulin because I’m afraid he’ll go hypo and I can’t be here all day when I have to go to work all day. I can’t monitor him during the day. I think he’s doing great overall, but sometimes the numbers slip into the pink and that makes me nervous (so far it’s low pink). I’m happy if I can keep it in the blue (100’s), high dark green is good. I don’t want Tight Regulation (again, afraid of hypo). I’ve considered doing a continuous meter but I think it won’t work well for us in our situation.

Anyway, work keeps me busy and herding cats keeps me busy and trying to maintain a house keeps me busy so I don’t get to spend as much time on the boards as I would like. I try to follow along in a few places and try to get the rules down. If I muck it up, please be gentle! I look forward to chatting with you all here on the boards! Peace out.

 

[tiffmaxee]

Welcome. One of the mods will possibly move this post to the main forum where everyone is asked to post their intro although you have a spreadsheet and signature so maybe not. The first thing I notice is you are only testing and amps and pmps. Lantus is dosed based upon how low a dose takes your cat. That generally occurs between +5-8. At least once a week it is strongly suggested you do a curve testing every 2 hours for a cycle. With SLGS a reduction is earned if a cat’s bg is ever under 90. I suspect but don’t know that your cat is getting too high a dose. I would reduce to 2.75 and get a second test for a few cycles or do a curve as that might be too high as well. Good you skipped when under 90.

 

[TommyMommy]

Welcome. One of the mods will possibly move this post to the main forum where everyone is asked to post their intro although you have a spreadsheet and signature so maybe not. The first thing I notice is you are only testing and amps and pmps. Lantus is dosed based upon how low a dose takes your cat. That generally occurs between +5-8. At least once a week it is strongly suggested you do a curve testing every 2 hours for a cycle. With SLGS a reduction is earned if a cat’s bg is ever under 90. I suspect but don’t know that your cat is getting too high a dose. I would reduce to 2.75 and get a second test for a few cycles or do a curve as that might be too high as well. Good you skipped when under 90.

Thank you! If this post needs to be somewhere else, I'll be happy if it is moved. Yes, I have not done a curve in awhile, good point. It's a bit tricky since he is sleeping outside in a heated cat house on the porch to get him in for a test. I'll work on that! (coax with treats maybe) Thank you for your insight.

 

[Bandit's Mom]

Hi and welcome!

To add to what Elise said, you want to have him at a dose that you can shoot consistently without skips. Maybe 2.75U is that dose - or lower.

If a curve is not possible, spot checks are also useful in getting an idea of how low he is going on a dose.

 

[tiffmaxee]

No need to move this as you are set up. I just wanted to give you a heads up that a mod might do that. Have you had a change to read the sticky on methods which goes into detail on SLGS?
Sticky - Dosing Methods: Start Low, Go Slow (SLGS) & Tight Regulation (TR)

 

[TommyMommy]

Hello! Thanks for the responses. I think I can try 2.5, but have to set up the needles. Just now got my 6pm and he was at 251. I gave 3 units but will set up 2.5 for near future shots. I have the half increment needles and draw from the lantus pen. I have to commit to the needles since when I start drawing from the pen, it gets air in it and becomes unreliable to use (I'm open to suggestions!). As far as curves, I can get near the nadir if it's on the weekend (when I am home). I'll try to get him in tomorrow for that mid-day reading.

I have seen many stickies, and I have to keep going back and looking them over because there is just so much information (20 million tabs open). YES, I have seen that, I have to reread that. Thank you! My evening is set.