02/08 Socks AMPS 69 Need advice please.

[Sock's mom]

Socks has been having good BG levels so she hadn't had insulin for about 4 days. Yesterday I caught her eating dry cat food and dry dog food at another point. Her BG PMPS was 200 last night so I gave her insulin. Her AMPS was 69 so I didn't give any insulin. For future reference, if her BG goes up like this randomly should I wait and not give insulin and check her AMPS number first or should I always shoot when they're high even after 4 days of having good numbers? I know the dry food caused it since I actually did witness her eating it and removed her. Also, she acts like she is starving even though she is getting about 3 cans of FF per day. I have tried to cut her back to 2.5 cans because she is about 11.5 pds so I know 3 cans is probably more calories than she needs but she will try to sneak dog food and walks around the kitchen looking for crumbs on the floors. she even will bite my legs when I walk by her food dish to try to get me to feed her. Does anyone have any tips on getting her hunger under control? I feed her small amounts every few hours throughout the day but she has always been a grazer so she will eat however much I give so I cant just leave an entire can out or she will eat it and keep wanting more.

 

[Tim & Pookey]

Have you noticed hunger correlating to BG? For my guy, he usually acts like he’s starving at or below 70. My theory is they’re not used to those numbers and are trying to bring them up by eating.

Hopefully you get some answers from a more experienced member.

 

[tiffmaxee]

Since you are following SLGS she earns a reduction when her BG is under 90. At this point .25 is too much insulin for her. Try giving .10. I’ll attach picture of what that looks like.
Many cats get very hungry in low numbers. Tim is right that they often tend to want to eat to bring the BG up. I’d try dividing the ff into smaller amounts more often so Socks doesn’t look to eat contraband. You don’t want to shoot if under 90. It’s best to stall without food to see if the BG goes up without food. Tge .25 might turn out to be too much insulin also.

 

[tiffmaxee]

 

[Sock's mom]

I feel like she is just acting hungry regardless of her numbers. I think she likes the taste of the soft food so much after eating dry for 13 years lol but some days she acts hungrier than others even with similar BGs so I thought maybe I should give her baked chicken breast but I wasn't sure how safe that would be daily as a meal itself

 

[Sock's mom]

Since you are following SLGS she earns a reduction when her BG is under 90. At this point .25 is too much insulin for her. Try giving .10. I’ll attach picture of what that looks like.
Many cats get very hungry in low numbers. Tim is right that they often tend to want to eat to bring the BG up. I’d try dividing the ff into smaller amounts more often so Socks doesn’t look to eat contraband. You don’t want to shoot if under 90. It’s best to stall without food to see if the BG goes up without food. Tge .25 might turn out to be too much insulin also.

Thank you, after .25 i tried giving .10 but honestly I can't see well enough to get that amount drawn up so I just didn't shoot and for 4 full days she hadn't had a shot and her numbers have stayed great so I'm hoping she's on her way to remission. I was just wanting to know if her number does go back up to 200 randomly because of eating dry food, do I shoot that or just wait until the next cycle and test again to see if it drops on its own

 

[tiffmaxee]

You could count how many drops are in your .25. Use tea or colored water with a good used syringe. Then practice getting half that amount. I think .25 is too much insulin so I would not give that. Would you try this?

If she eats dry and you skip, don’t give insulin. Test her 3-4 hours after eating snd see if the BG cones down. You don’t want to give insulin on a food influenced BG. A working pancreas will bring the BG down in 3-4 hours. Then wait until the next shot time let’s see the preshot BG even if the +3-4 does not come down.

 

[Sock's mom]

Have you noticed hunger correlating to BG? For my guy, he usually acts like he’s starving at or below 70. My theory is they’re not used to those numbers and are trying to bring them up by eating.

Hopefully you get some answers from a more experienced member.

How do you get your cat to kind of "forget" he is hungry? I'm a stay at home mom so she will bite and chase me all day until I open a new can lol I try to give about 1/2 can in morning and 1 spoon from that every few hours but by evening she's had 3 cans and then about 10 pm she is trying to get to the dry food so we keep it up at night and she will scratch on doors and floor length mirrors in the middle of the night bc that is her sign that she wants fed so I've been getting up about 4 am and giving her another 1/2 can and then she starts scratching on doors again until I feed

 

[Sock's mom]

You could count how many drops are in your .25. Use tea or colored water with a good used syringe. Then practice getting half that amount. I think .25 is too much insulin so I would not give that. Would you try this?

If she eats dry and you skip, don’t give insulin. Test her 3-4 hours after eating snd see if the BG cones down. You don’t want to give insulin on a food influenced BG.

Ok I will try the colored water trick to see if I can Guage the amount before using insulin. Thank you so much

 

[tiffmaxee]

I feel like she is just acting hungry regardless of her numbers. I think she likes the taste of the soft food so much after eating dry for 13 years lol but some days she acts hungrier than others even with similar BGs so I thought maybe I should give her baked chicken breast but I wasn't sure how safe that would be daily as a meal itself

It’s fine to supplement with cooked plain unseasoned chicken but not if only feeding that without a balanced supplement like EZ Complete. Check out Food Fur Life. There’s also Alnutrin and a few others.

One of my current cats had a period of severe diarrhea and was on prednisolone for several months because everything she ate came out the other end. I started feeding her my two 4 times a day. She’s been off prednisolone for many months but they both beg for that last evening snack. They have trained me! I don’t think they are actually hungry because they ask for it about 3 hours after dinner and then are fine until their breakfast. So Socks might not be hungry or it could be you aren’t catching even lower bg. He’s looking so close to possible remission.

 

[Tim & Pookey]

How do you get your cat to kind of "forget" he is hungry? I'm a stay at home mom so she will bite and chase me all day until I open a new can lol I try to give about 1/2 can in morning and 1 spoon from that every few hours but by evening she's had 3 cans and then about 10 pm she is trying to get to the dry food so we keep it up at night and she will scratch on doors and floor length mirrors in the middle of the night bc that is her sign that she wants fed so I've been getting up about 4 am and giving her another 1/2 can and then she starts scratching on doors again until I feed

Jeez, that sounds tough to deal with. Having a strict schedule with strict amounts has worked for us. He seems to have learned that he’s not getting food outside of that.

I’m sure every cat is different on this, so maybe what Elise said, more frequent smaller meals could help.

 

[SmallestSparrow]

I feed mine broth to help with hunger and for extra hydration. Mine like Tiki cat chicken broth (it has some shredded chicken breast in it and is 13 cal and zero carb per pouch. I add a very tiny splash of water into empty pouch and rinse it in with broth

 

[Sock's mom]

I feed mine broth to help with hunger and for extra hydration. Mine like Tiki cat chicken broth (it has some shredded chicken breast in it and is 13 cal and zero carb per pouch. I add a very tiny splash of water into empty pouch and rinse it in with broth

That is very helpful! I'll look up tiki brand because I haven't heard of it. Thank you so much