03/18 Richard AMPS 310 +6 373 PMPS 374

Alex&Richard

Alex&Richard

Member Since 2026
03/16

Yesterday was a weird day for Richard. We had a very stressful Vet visit in the mid-day, he vomited shortly after PM shot, but ate a bit afterwards. Ketones in blood stay around 1.5-1.7. Also, the CGM died right before the AMPS today, so back to manual spot checks for now.
The BG was pretty nice at night, but today it is high and he completely ignored lower carbs (10-12%) food in the morning, had to give him some higher carbs one (~18%), which he ate eagerly.

I'm still unable to discern pattern in his BG. It still seems to be somewhat chaotic.
 
I hate when the CGM dies right before shot time. Our old man hates manual testing, so it makes it especially difficult. Do you have extras so you can swap it out on your own?
 
Jessica & Indy said:
I hate when the CGM dies right before shot time. Our old man hates manual testing, so it makes it especially difficult. Do you have extras so you can swap it out on your own?
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I can buy it, it is not a problem. Richard just really hates the CGM and tries to pull it out at any opportunity. We've tried to use bondage - he tries to pull it as well, the only thing that worked - baby t-short with some scissor work. But while wearing it he struggles to jump and in general acts tired and pitiful all the time. So we've decided to let him spend some time without the CGM. We won't have that much information as before, but for now Richard does not seem to see too much action with the current dosage, so hopefully we won't miss something important.

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We call the kind of reaction Richard has to wearing a shirt "going on strike." Many cats get over it and stop minding very much, but what you're doing is also entirely reasonable if it works for you!

I'm sorry yesterday was rough. Take heart about the chaotic numbers ... that's not uncommon, I don't think, when a cat is adjusting to the treatment, and some patterns don't emerge without more time/data collection. It took weeks, even months, for me to start to get a handle on some of my Gen's and I'm still in the dark fairly often (he has a couple of concurrent conditions, though, which doesn't help).

Richard's diet probably contributes as well, for now. The methodology followed on the board is pretty precisely calibrated, so variables like higher-than-board-standard carbs mean less predictability. That's not a major issue health-wise, and definitely doesn't mean any transition needs to be rushed; it just could just make the data analysis more challenging. (I was actually quite shocked by how much of an impact I saw in Gen's values after he was weaned off his dry food. I knew it was supposed to matter, but I didn't expect to see it so well.)
 
Richard is on wet food only for a while already. It is just that it is pretty hard to find really low carb food here. Also Richard is so hooked up to Royal Canine and the texture of slices they have, that he mostly refuses to eat any other kind of wet food. Any kind of pate for example is completely no-go. And RC diabetic is ~13% carbs.
 
Alex&Richard said:
Richard is on wet food only for a while already. It is just that it is pretty hard to find really low carb food here. Also Richard is so hooked up to Royal Canine and the texture of slices they have, that he mostly refuses to eat any other kind of wet food. Any kind of pate for example is completely no-go. And RC diabetic is ~13% carbs.
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I know, I just wasn't sure if you were planning to try and change things up (if that's possible for you at all). The dosing methods are specifically designed with food <10% carbs in mind. I don't know if slightly higher carbs would have much effect on predictability, but it's possible - that's something someone with much more knowledge of their development can answer. (I only mentioned Gen's dry food transition as an example of how much of a factor some lifestyle and diet changes can be. That, and also as my own example of successfully transitioning a cat off a preferred, but less than ideal, food. It's not easy but I don't think it's truly impossible most of the time, though there may be excellent reasons why it wouldn't be worth it.)

No criticism intended, certainly! Gen's been eating one of those 13% carb diabetic foods a bunch recently because after his acute inappetence last week, I'm feeding him more or less whatever he wants while he's mending.
 
Alex, if Richard is only on wet food right now, could you please make that change in your signature. I would mention the brand of food in the signature, so RC wet (or whatever it's called).

It looks to me like Richard just hasn't gotten down to the dose yet that is going to drop him into lower numbers. And it can take a bit if time to work up to that dose when kitties first start insulin. The good news is he saw some nice blues last night, and that's promising and likely a result of the .75 depot kicking in. Continue holding the dose according to SLGS guidelines, and fingers crossed that the next increase will be the goldilocks dose that will get him into some nicer numbers.

You're doing a great job with him!!
 
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