Steph & Quintus & L & O
Member Since 2017
condo: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/luna-intro-freestyle-libre-adventure.217468/
Some news of Luna and my experience with an untestable cat and a FreeStyleLibre sensor (hope this is the right place to put it, but if I should have posted it in another forum, feel free to move it).
After the previous sensor died, I had a new one put on. The first one was still firmly in place so we decided to leave it in. I was never able to get the second sensor working. Initially I thought it was because the first one was interfering with the reading. But back a the vet's, we removed the first sensor (a little acetone did the trick), and the second one still didn't want to start. So we removed the second one (actually removed the sensor from the sticker and left the sticker on the skin as it was too firmly stuck. We used less glue for the third sensor
Photo of sensor with sticker of previous one left in: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=ZENOVHktRk5FY2cxMDhqZ0Q0SUlJSGVkc2RubFdn
Check Luna's photo album for more pics and videos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ya8Ukzz5S9ETK8iC8
I now have three days of data with this new sensor, and it's really encouraging! Have a peek at the spreadsheet (please don't be alarmed at the lime green values, explanations below): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RdKa3BNIjkJZzRpMW0EM4oLEqjXNdnLEerCWg_BBJCU/edit?usp=sharing
So, Luna likes to bounce and she might be a little overdosed. I've been reducing the dose but as she seems to bounce less and go down faster, she'll be getting 3ui tonight. She has high carb food available at all times (she's on a special hypoallergenic diet because of severe IBD) and I have a surveillance camera on her. She hasn't shown any clinical signs. I've now moved her to my kitchen so she is closer to me, with plans to let her loose in the flat in a few days (and meeting Quintus!).
When I got her she was literally being left to die with no treatment, and was skin and bones at 1kg950. The first few weeks I honestly thought at times we might simply have to let her go (particularly as diabetes is just the last of her issues -- check out the ultrasound on this report regarding her IBD: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XbH95J09MhwgHt27mVqY0OZUVMC_hnzP/view?usp=sharing ). So I have been quite agressive with her dosing -- all the more considering that all I had to go on for a long time was her water intake (note: I never knew so much pee could come out of such a small cat) and weight gain. I have seen too many cats go DKA over the last 18 months for too much fear of hypo (choose your poison?).
Anyway, I'm super happy with the results I'm seeing, which fit with what I was expecting based on what I was observing of her water intake (water is not precise for moment-by-moment monitoring, of course, but over a few days it does give you an idea what is happening; I could see the slight improvements with the dose increases, the bounces, the disastrous effect of skipping two injections at a time when her water intake had finally decreased...).
After having a cat that was so easy to test that I could do it in my (and his) sleep, Luna has been a huge challenge. I had to work hard just to be able to do injections. I'm still working on trying to test her alone, but we're far from there yet. This experience has shown me that even when testing blood is impossible, there are other signs that can be monitored. Not as good as having actual values, but better than shooting blind and doing a "vet curve" every now and again (and I'm not even certain a "vet curve" would be possible with this cat -- we have some on the French group where it wouldn't).
I'm rambling a bit, sorry!
Another thing I'd like to point out is how stress-free having a continuous glucose monitor like the FreeStyle Libre is, even compared to a cat that is easy to test. I can leave the house knowing that when I get back, I will have a point-by-point picture of what her numbers were when I was away. I don't have to worry about getting a test in at this or that time. I can ask a neighbour to come in and move the meter close to the sensor (doable with Luna even if she is hiding in a corner... she's not agressive, so stick that arm in there) when I'm away, if I'm worried about her numbers. If I leave for a few days, the petsitter doesn't have to learn how to test her to get values. And seeing how the curve evolves by quarter of an hour rather than hour or every couple of hours is fascinating for the geek in me.
Applying the sensor is really straightforward and I intend to learn to do it so I can save us a trip to the vet each time it needs to be changed.
Regarding the spreadsheet, you'll see some extra tabs:
- FSL data is the raw data collected from the sensor, so you can see the actual measurements (FSL2 data is this sensor, FSL1 data is the first one)
- FSL graphe (one for each measurement unit) is a graph produced from the raw sensor data
- graphe is an overlapping graph of the last few days of measurements taken from the usual spreadsheet (so, 1 measure per hour)
- on the usual spreadsheet, I am now also including how much kibble she has eaten in each cycle (I weigh the bowl before and after).
Hope this is interesting or useful to some! I'll keep you posted on how Luna's regulation evolves over the next days
Some news of Luna and my experience with an untestable cat and a FreeStyleLibre sensor (hope this is the right place to put it, but if I should have posted it in another forum, feel free to move it).
After the previous sensor died, I had a new one put on. The first one was still firmly in place so we decided to leave it in. I was never able to get the second sensor working. Initially I thought it was because the first one was interfering with the reading. But back a the vet's, we removed the first sensor (a little acetone did the trick), and the second one still didn't want to start. So we removed the second one (actually removed the sensor from the sticker and left the sticker on the skin as it was too firmly stuck. We used less glue for the third sensor
Photo of sensor with sticker of previous one left in: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=ZENOVHktRk5FY2cxMDhqZ0Q0SUlJSGVkc2RubFdn
Check Luna's photo album for more pics and videos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ya8Ukzz5S9ETK8iC8
I now have three days of data with this new sensor, and it's really encouraging! Have a peek at the spreadsheet (please don't be alarmed at the lime green values, explanations below): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RdKa3BNIjkJZzRpMW0EM4oLEqjXNdnLEerCWg_BBJCU/edit?usp=sharing
So, Luna likes to bounce and she might be a little overdosed. I've been reducing the dose but as she seems to bounce less and go down faster, she'll be getting 3ui tonight. She has high carb food available at all times (she's on a special hypoallergenic diet because of severe IBD) and I have a surveillance camera on her. She hasn't shown any clinical signs. I've now moved her to my kitchen so she is closer to me, with plans to let her loose in the flat in a few days (and meeting Quintus!).
When I got her she was literally being left to die with no treatment, and was skin and bones at 1kg950. The first few weeks I honestly thought at times we might simply have to let her go (particularly as diabetes is just the last of her issues -- check out the ultrasound on this report regarding her IBD: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XbH95J09MhwgHt27mVqY0OZUVMC_hnzP/view?usp=sharing ). So I have been quite agressive with her dosing -- all the more considering that all I had to go on for a long time was her water intake (note: I never knew so much pee could come out of such a small cat) and weight gain. I have seen too many cats go DKA over the last 18 months for too much fear of hypo (choose your poison?).
Anyway, I'm super happy with the results I'm seeing, which fit with what I was expecting based on what I was observing of her water intake (water is not precise for moment-by-moment monitoring, of course, but over a few days it does give you an idea what is happening; I could see the slight improvements with the dose increases, the bounces, the disastrous effect of skipping two injections at a time when her water intake had finally decreased...).
After having a cat that was so easy to test that I could do it in my (and his) sleep, Luna has been a huge challenge. I had to work hard just to be able to do injections. I'm still working on trying to test her alone, but we're far from there yet. This experience has shown me that even when testing blood is impossible, there are other signs that can be monitored. Not as good as having actual values, but better than shooting blind and doing a "vet curve" every now and again (and I'm not even certain a "vet curve" would be possible with this cat -- we have some on the French group where it wouldn't).
I'm rambling a bit, sorry!
Another thing I'd like to point out is how stress-free having a continuous glucose monitor like the FreeStyle Libre is, even compared to a cat that is easy to test. I can leave the house knowing that when I get back, I will have a point-by-point picture of what her numbers were when I was away. I don't have to worry about getting a test in at this or that time. I can ask a neighbour to come in and move the meter close to the sensor (doable with Luna even if she is hiding in a corner... she's not agressive, so stick that arm in there) when I'm away, if I'm worried about her numbers. If I leave for a few days, the petsitter doesn't have to learn how to test her to get values. And seeing how the curve evolves by quarter of an hour rather than hour or every couple of hours is fascinating for the geek in me.
Applying the sensor is really straightforward and I intend to learn to do it so I can save us a trip to the vet each time it needs to be changed.
Regarding the spreadsheet, you'll see some extra tabs:
- FSL data is the raw data collected from the sensor, so you can see the actual measurements (FSL2 data is this sensor, FSL1 data is the first one)
- FSL graphe (one for each measurement unit) is a graph produced from the raw sensor data
- graphe is an overlapping graph of the last few days of measurements taken from the usual spreadsheet (so, 1 measure per hour)
- on the usual spreadsheet, I am now also including how much kibble she has eaten in each cycle (I weigh the bowl before and after).
Hope this is interesting or useful to some! I'll keep you posted on how Luna's regulation evolves over the next days
