05/08 Zero AMPS 156 | +3.25 - 74 | +5.75 - 70 | +8 - 105 | PMPS - 160 | +4.75 - 70 | +10 - 88 |

[zero - sigma & mielconejo]

05/07 condo (stalled and skipped AMPS)

zero's context thread

Had to move his regular dosage time 2 hours later due to me not being able to be home at the right time. After I skipped the dose of the AM cycle at 05/07, his numbers maintained within range all day until night when they started to climb back up. 2 hours before his shot time i tested and got 184, i knew i needed to shoot but I had to be out of the house at his scheduled shooting time and was afraid to leave him alone un-monitored for an unknown period of time if i shot early, so I finally shot when i returned home 2 hours AFTER his regular shot time. he was at 305, I shot 1.5U as per the reduction he earned on the 05/07 AM cycle.

I tried to monitor him in the night, I have noticed twice now that when his numbers are dropping, he gets hungry and eats a lot. (he usually is a very conservative eater) and sure enough at +6 on his PM cycle, he started eating plenty, tested him and he was at 75. I was cautious that his numbers would keep on dropping further so tested him again @+7 and he was a little back up to 86
tested again @+10.5 and he was sitting at 123.

today's AMPS 156, so i shot 1.5U again. Gonna monitor him through the day again, to make sure he doesn't drop too low.

He has been transitioned to a fully wet diet for the past 2 days, (a mix of FF Classic pate - turkey and giblets flavor + royal canin glycobalance )
clearly reflecting on his number changes.

thank you to all who helped yesterday on the stalling, I am still unsure about many protocols, but learning bit by bit! overall I am super happy that I am FINALLY seeing some changes after 6 weeks, and Zero has a truly renewed energy, he's become a lot more playful and energetic, : )

 

[Marje and Gracie]

05/07 condo (stalled and skipped AMPS)

zero's context thread

Had to move his regular dosage time 2 hours later due to me not being able to be home at the right time. After I skipped the dose of the AM cycle at 05/07, his numbers maintained within range all day until night when they started to climb back up. 2 hours before his shot time i tested and got 184, i knew i needed to shoot but I had to be out of the house at his scheduled shooting time and was afraid to leave him alone un-monitored for an unknown period of time if i shot early, so I finally shot when i returned home 2 hours AFTER his regular shot time. he was at 305, I shot 1.5U as per the reduction he earned on the 05/07 AM cycle.

I tried to monitor him in the night, I have noticed twice now that when his numbers are dropping, he gets hungry and eats a lot. (he usually is a very conservative eater) and sure enough at +6 on his PM cycle, he started eating plenty, tested him and he was at 75. I was cautious that his numbers would keep on dropping further so tested him again @+7 and he was a little back up to 86
tested again @+10.5 and he was sitting at 123.

today's AMPS 156, so i shot 1.5U again. Gonna monitor him through the day again, to make sure he doesn't drop too low.

He has been transitioned to a fully wet diet for the past 2 days, (a mix of FF Classic pate - turkey and giblets flavor + royal canin glycobalance )
clearly reflecting on his number changes.

thank you to all who helped yesterday on the stalling, I am still unsure about many protocols, but learning bit by bit! overall I am super happy that I am FINALLY seeing some changes after 6 weeks, and Zero has a truly renewed energy, he's become a lot more playful and energetic, : )

Thank you for doing a new condo and linking yesterday’s. I hope your emergency has resolved and everyone is ok.

First...getting him back to his normal shot time if that is your desire. You can do it 15 mins a cycle or 30 mins one cycle. Here is a post explaining it in detail. You didn’t shoot two hours early today, right? If you did, that acts like a dose increase so do please monitor closely.

Most diabetic cats will be hungry if the BG is dropping especially if it is dropping fast but they don’t all so for anyone lurking here, don’t consider that the only sign the kitty might be low. Gracie never did that so it’s very important to test and not rely just on physical signs.

In a perfect world, you could gradually wean him off the RC glycobalance by just feeding a tiny bit less of it and a tiny bit more of the other wet foods. Let’s hope he will be the poster child for going into remission once the dry food is gone.

Let me know if you have other questions.

 

[zero - sigma & mielconejo]

Thank you for doing a new condo and linking yesterday’s. I hope your emergency has resolved and everyone is ok.

First...getting him back to his normal shot time if that is your desire. You can do it 15 mins a cycle or 30 mins one cycle. Here is a post explaining it in detail. You didn’t shoot two hours early today, right? If you did, that acts like a dose increase so do please monitor closely.

Most diabetic cats will be hungry if the BG is dropping especially if it is dropping fast but they don’t all so for anyone lurking here, don’t consider that the only sign the kitty might be low. Gracie never did that so it’s very important to test and not rely just on physical signs.

In a perfect world, you could gradually wean him off the RC glycobalance by just feeding a tiny bit less of it and a tiny bit more of the other wet foods. Let’s hope he will be the poster child for going into remission once the dry food is gone.

Let me know if you have other questions.

Hiii! omg, thank you so much for this. I am little by little learning posting protocols, and reading more and more about how to front diabetes. thank god, because my vet didn't want to tell me anything about hypos, saying it was extremely unlikely he would go into one, and I had to insist to get the info just in case, and he just said to give a little bit of honey.

All seems really well today too, I didn't shoot early, no. I kept to the 12 hours from yesterday's PM cycle because I did read on your post on reductions about the danger of lantus compiling over itself and since he is already going low enough, I certainly do not want to risk a compound. I am starting to see his lowest times start between +3 up to +7 so today i am trying to test in those ranges since his BG wasn't too high on the AMPS.

As for food, that's exactly what I'm doing, I think he doesn't enjoy the bits of the glycobalance, just the gravy, so I'm giving him more of the FF which he absolutely adores sprinkled with some of the glycobalance on top for added moisture and yesterday and today that seems to be working perfectly, which i am grateful for, that batch of glycobalance was super hard to get and extremely expensive too. At the time i was so extremely worried about his numbers i purchased enough for a month and a half-

I still need to see how the end of his cycle is going to start looking now that he is only taking the wet food, but I am super hopeful with these 2 days. i know its too early to tell, but at least now i can test when i need, if you'd told me I needed to test 3, 4, or more times a day a few days back, I would have collapsed due to how difficult testing was the first 5 weeks.

if his numbers keep within range, when do i know its time for another reduction or how long should i keep this new dose for assuming his numbers don't climb dramatically?

thank you again for all your help, it's amazing what you guys have built here. so much info and so many people to learn from, it really makes this journey so much easier.

 

[Marje and Gracie]

Hiii! omg, thank you so much for this. I am little by little learning posting protocols, and reading more and more about how to front diabetes. thank god, because my vet didn't want to tell me anything about hypos, saying it was extremely unlikely he would go into one, and I had to insist to get the info just in case, and he just said to give a little bit of honey.

All seems really well today too, I didn't shoot early, no. I kept to the 12 hours from yesterday's PM cycle because I did read on your post on reductions about the danger of lantus compiling over itself and since he is already going low enough, I certainly do not want to risk a compound. I am starting to see his lowest times start between +3 up to +7 so today i am trying to test in those ranges since his BG wasn't too high on the AMPS.

As for food, that's exactly what I'm doing, I think he doesn't enjoy the bits of the glycobalance, just the gravy, so I'm giving him more of the FF which he absolutely adores sprinkled with some of the glycobalance on top for added moisture and yesterday and today that seems to be working perfectly, which i am grateful for, that batch of glycobalance was super hard to get and extremely expensive too. At the time i was so extremely worried about his numbers i purchased enough for a month and a half-

I still need to see how the end of his cycle is going to start looking now that he is only taking the wet food, but I am super hopeful with these 2 days. i know its too early to tell, but at least now i can test when i need, if you'd told me I needed to test 3, 4, or more times a day a few days back, I would have collapsed due to how difficult testing was the first 5 weeks.

if his numbers keep within range, when do i know its time for another reduction or how long should i keep this new dose for assuming his numbers don't climb dramatically?

thank you again for all your help, it's amazing what you guys have built here. so much info and so many people to learn from, it really makes this journey so much easier.

Great info.

Now he’s off all dry, you can do TR if you want to instead of SLGS so you can hold doses a bit longer (reductions below 50 instead of 90) but also increase after six cycles if we need to. Here is the info about the two so please read and let me know. You’ll also need to be sure it’s in your signature block and the same method on the SS.

We are here to help and teach so any questions you have…bring them on. And I’m glad you didn’t shoot two hours early this morning. Good thinking. I find it easier to do once a day by 30 mins so you could shoot at +11.5 tonight. It won’t affect his BG.

 

[zero - sigma & mielconejo]

Great info.

Now he’s off all dry, you can do TR if you want to instead of SLGS so you can hold doses a bit longer (reductions below 50 instead of 90) but also increase after six cycles if we need to. Here is the info about the two so please read and let me know. You’ll also need to be sure it’s in your signature block and the same method on the SS.

We are here to help and teach so any questions you have…bring them on. And I’m glad you didn’t shoot two hours early this morning. Good thinking. I find it easier to do once a day by 30 mins so you could shoot at +11.5 tonight. It won’t affect his BG.

thank you!

As I am reading there are some parts that are not too clear to me.
what does sneaking a dose and shaving a dose mean in this context?: "sneak the dose down by shaving the dose rather than reducing by a full quarter unit."

also, this is not clear to me: "Oftentimes the dose will require "fine tuning" by adding some "fat" (more) or "skinny-ing up" (less) insulin to the dose. However, we strongly suggest caregivers do not skinny kitty's dose after a drop into the 20s or 30s. Instead, take the full reduction." How is adding fat or skinny-ing up different from a reduction or an increase? is it that you only do it for One specific dose rather than adjusting the subsequent doses?

Thank you for the link, I had read it before but the more you understand the jargon and the cycles and the specific situations it refers to, i think the clearer the info becomes. That has happened to me already reading and re-reading some articles that were super confusing first time around, (like the instructions on how to use the SS - stacking and the nomenclatures were difficult to understand, but after using it for a few days I re-read it today and everything was crystal clear to me. )

 

[Marje and Gracie]

As I am reading there are some parts that are not too clear to me.
what does sneaking a dose and shaving a dose mean in this context?: "sneak the dose down by shaving the dose rather than reducing by a full quarter unit."

This primarily applies to cats who are down to a small dose (less than 0.25u) but earn a reduction when the BGs aren’t all in normal numbers.

Shaving the dose or sneaking it down is also referenced regarding cats that fail reductions when the dose is dropped by 0.25u. A caregiver (CG) can just “skinny” the reduction by, for example, reducing by 0.15u instead of 0.25u. However, we’ve found newly diagnosed cats (diabetic less than one year) do much better by increasing and decreasing by 0.25u (unless the BGs aren’t over 300).

How is adding fat or skinny-ing up different from a reduction or an increase? is it that you only do it for One specific dose rather than adjusting the subsequent doses?

If a cat is getting high green nadirs on a dose and a CG is nervous about giving a full 0.25u increase, they could give a little more or fatten the dose. A CG might do it for just one dose and then find the 0.25u increases/decreases work better.

I did these techniques for my kitty for a while and found, when she was newly diagnosed, she did better with full 0.25u increases/decreases. I see members fattening and skinning a dose because they are too nervous to give the full 0.25u increase or reduction.

Once a cat becomes a long-term diabetic, doing fat or skinny doses might work for them especially at lower doses.

For now, I’d suggest you not worry about fattening or skinning doses. If he gets really low in dose but we think he needs a bit more time on insulin, we might suggest a skinny doses.

As you can imagine, these doses are hard to draw consistently which is why most dose with calipers.

 

[zero - sigma & mielconejo]

This primarily applies to cats who are down to a small dose (less than 0.25u) but earn a reduction when the BGs aren’t all in normal numbers.

Shaving the dose or sneaking it down is also referenced regarding cats that fail reductions when the dose is dropped by 0.25u. A caregiver (CG) can just “skinny” the reduction by, for example, reducing by 0.15u instead of 0.25u. However, we’ve found newly diagnosed cats (diabetic less than one year) do much better by increasing and decreasing by 0.25u (unless the BGs aren’t over 300).


If a cat is getting high green nadirs on a dose and a CG is nervous about giving a full 0.25u increase, they could give a little more or fatten the dose. A CG might do it for just one dose and then find the 0.25u increases/decreases work better.

I did these techniques for my kitty for a while and found, when she was newly diagnosed, she did better with full 0.25u increases/decreases. I see members fattening and skinning a dose because they are too nervous to give the full 0.25u increase or reduction.

Once a cat becomes a long-term diabetic, doing fat or skinny doses might work for them especially at lower doses.

For now, I’d suggest you not worry about fattening or skinning doses. If he gets really low in dose but we think he needs a bit more time on insulin, we might suggest a skinny doses.

As you can imagine, these doses are hard to draw consistently which is why most dose with calipers.

wow! pretty interesting! thank you!

 

[Staci & Ivy]

I hope the diet change makes a huge difference and his glucose begins to come down gently.

Keep asking questions, Marje has given you excellent advice. She really knows what she’s talking about