1/15 - Gen, AMPS 303, +4 209, +8 53, PMPS >400, +2 294

Allie & Gen

Allie & Gen

Member Since 2025
Yesterday

We seem to be breaking a bounce again. His cycles are definitely a little different, these last few (the graphs look different, much less spiky overall). I wonder if it's being off the dry that's causing this.

I'm very sleepy because I was up late making a truly exhaustive Google Doc for the catsitter. I leave tomorrow afternoon, and I'm nervous! Also, having read @Lauren & Esse 's post, I wonder if I should have Gen on a vacation dose of 1u instead of asking the sitter to try to shoot 1.25u. (The instructions I put together for him include a photo of a syringe showing how the dose should look, and it already encourages him to err on the side of less insulin, not more, but still.)

I will say that after a day with psyllium husks instead of Miralax, his poop definitely was a bit firmer last night! That was helpful.

Have a great Thursday, friends. Safe surfing to all the cats! ❤️
 
Allie & Gen said:
Yesterday

We seem to be breaking a bounce again. His cycles are definitely a little different, these last few (the graphs look different, much less spiky overall). I wonder if it's being off the dry that's causing this.

I'm very sleepy because I was up late making a truly exhaustive Google Doc for the catsitter. I leave tomorrow afternoon, and I'm nervous! Also, having read @Lauren & Esse 's post, I wonder if I should have Gen on a vacation dose of 1u instead of asking the sitter to try to shoot 1.25u. (The instructions I put together for him include a photo of a syringe showing how the dose should look, and it already encourages him to err on the side of less insulin, not more, but still.)

I will say that after a day with psyllium husks instead of Miralax, his poop definitely was a bit firmer last night! That was helpful.

Have a great Thursday, friends. Safe surfing to all the cats! ❤️
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Can you also leave an example syringe for the petsitter. With colored liquid (soda or food coloring or something) so they can have it as a sample to compare?

Good luck with everything!
Gen, be good and safe surfs!!!!

I think a pet sitter dose (vacation dose) is never a bad idea, just my two cents.
🥰 🥰 🥰
 
Will Gen's eating be similar to how it currently is while you're gone? Or do you think he'll eat less (or less often)? If you're not sure if he'll eat as much, it's not a bad idea to do a lower dose.

Our significantly lower vacation dose is based on the fact that he won't eat as much or as frequently while we're gone, and he was seeing a lot of green on his 'regular' dose.
 
Lauren & Esse said:
Will Gen's eating be similar to how it currently is while you're gone? Or do you think he'll eat less (or less often)? If you're not sure if he'll eat as much, it's not a bad idea to do a lower dose.

Our significantly lower vacation dose is based on the fact that he won't eat as much or as frequently while we're gone, and he was seeing a lot of green on his 'regular' dose.
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Gen doesn't have Esse's thing about eating with company (he eats most of his food while I'm gone during the day), but it's hard to know how his habits might change while I'm away. We haven't been apart overnight since he was re-diagnosed, and I didn't track his eating habits quite so closely before that (plus his diet has changed a lot in the last two months). He used to leave a lot of food pretty regularly, but that's very uncommon now (it has really only happened when I've tried to give him a med and it's backfired). I have asked the sitter to let me know ASAP if he notices Gen leaving enough that you can't see the bottom of the dish.

The thing is, I've kind of been waiting for the other shoe to drop since we took our most recent increase. Every time we've gone above 1u, he's wound up having a cycle with a BIG dive eventually (even if he mostly stayed well over 200 overall). I am hoping like hell that doesn't happen while I'm away. We're on cycle 13 of this dose and he hasn't touched green, which is ... different, and I don't know what to expect. It makes me want to be a little cautious. 😅
 
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If (and when) you follow TR, he would already be on 1.5 units. Gen has only once and very briefly, been near 100. We typically do a lower petsitter dose when kitty is seeing greens on their current dose. One option is to leave him on this dose, and since he's on the Libre, leave instructions to go to 1.0 units if he goes under 100.

FWIW, my current kitty eats better for the petsitter than me. She knows she can play me. :rolleyes:

Most of all, have fun away. You deserve it!
 
Wendy&Neko said:
If (and when) you follow TR, he would already be on 1.5 units. Gen has only once and very briefly, been near 100. We typically do a lower petsitter dose when kitty is seeing greens on their current dose. One option is to leave him on this dose, and since he's on the Libre, leave instructions to go to 1.0 units if he goes under 100.

FWIW, my current kitty eats better for the petsitter than me. She knows she can play me. :rolleyes:

Most of all, have fun away. You deserve it!
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Thanks, Wendy. ❤️ I'm really hoping I'll be able to relax and enjoy myself.

Yeah, I was thinking as I wrote the above that the shoe I've been expecting just keeps not dropping, and maybe it's not gonna. Something's different this time around. I do think he's ready for an increase (even on SLGS) - I'm not going to do that until I get back, but maybe I will leave the dose as is instead of overcompensating.

There's been so much unpredictability. I'm awfully wound up by default right now. 😅
 
Lauren & Esse said:
Where are you at with the dry food reductions now? I have noticed other kitties that cut out dry seem to be less prone to big swings in either direction. Maybe that's a contributing factor?
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Yes, that's my best theory at the moment! He's mostly off the dry at this point, apart from getting a token amount (5-6 kibbles) crushed up and sprinkled on his wet food in the morning only.
 
He's having a really nice mostly-blue surf right now (dipping a tiny bit above and below 200, so it's kind of ... yellow/blue, but still)!

Also, have I mentioned that I love my vet? But also, she's a little ridiculous. I just had a direct email back from her for the first time in the last couple weeks (as opposed to the techs relaying her verbal response to having my emails read to her), and it turns out that the reason for that is ... last week she rescued a hairless cat from a "bad situation" (no details) and then he almost died within 24 hours. So she's been doing triage on his care in addition to all the surgeries and appointments on her schedule, and now he's apparently doing very well! (This is all happening less than a month after she closed on a house, I'll add, and she already had at least a couple of cats and a couple of dogs, and I believe she's a solo pet parent too.) She is my kind of person, even if it makes her a little hard to get ahold of sometimes. 😅
 
... aaand right on cue, there's a Libre alarm. It claims he's down to 68. We'll see if it stands by that ... (I don't consider that a "real" number, at least not yet. But.)
 
@Wendy&Neko This is one of those times where it feels like a cat has been reading over your shoulder (even though, quite apart from all the other absurdities inherent in the idea, Gen and I are a couple of miles apart right now)! I'm going to be reexamining the data as the cycle continues, but it looks like we hit a Libre 65 today. (That initial 68 readjusted to a 72, but he's hanging out down there. I keep getting alarms telling me he's gone down to 54, though so far those have corrected up. 65 at about +7 is currently the lowest number that seems to be staying.)

So ... I think I will do a temporary reduction to 1u, and when I get back from my trip I'll probably boost it back up and also officially switch to TR going forward. Let me know if you have other thoughts, please?
 
DAMN it. It wasn't a false alarm. It kept going off and going off, and when it claimed he was at 47, I left work half an hour early and rode my bike hell for leather home through early rush hour traffic. So that was fun.

What did I find? A sleepy, unbothered cat who for some reason had only eaten about half his food! I have no idea why, which is all the more upsetting, because I have no idea if it's going to happen again. :banghead: This is perhaps the most amazing timing ever, Gen. I put some freeze-dried tuna in his dish to entice him and he just ate a bunch, so I imagine he'll be fine, for now. (The numbers have already adjusted and there are no high 40s in the record at all, but it still shows him getting down to 52. Which is officially a record low since we got the Libre, unless it corrects up more.)

Welp, I'm going to have to do some more work because I couldn't wrap up what I needed to, and I guess we're both going to have to wait until tomorrow morning for the meds I was going to pick up on my way home (the vet ordered an antibiotic ointment for his abraded side, and I have one of my regular meds that was slightly delayed getting filled).

Aaaargh.
 
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Ordered a couple of Blink pet cameras to be sent overnight from Amazon. That was not a fun amount of money to have to spend out of nowhere right now.

Still no idea what possessed him not to eat like that out of nowhere. He's now purring his head off, of course, super pleased to have me home.

I was planning to swap out his Libre tonight, too, since the current one is due to expire before I get back from my trip. Give me strength ...

He's lucky he's so damn cute.
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I guess this is a perfect example of the contrarian cat. :banghead: Never want to make it easy for you. At least he did this before you left, so you can lower the dose tonight. And yes, you'll likely have a couple days of bounce.

A note on psyllium husk, start on a low dose and gradually increase. Otherwise you can get GI upset. Just wondering if more of psyllium in his food put him off it.
 
Mary & Jude said:
I would definitely do the "sitter" dose.
I'm sorry, Allie! They do like to complicate our lives.
I can't tell you how frequently Jude has interfered with my social life.😭
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Yeah, I just shot 1u. He can stay there until I get home. He's never gone below 200 on 1u; at least, not when he eats!

He's certainly complicated my life since getting diagnosed again - see also the significant milestone of bringing him home for the holidays for the first time in a decade. 😅 Also not being able to visit my partner when they had bronchitis because he was so chaotic that a couple of hours away seemed impossible. I'm keeping these plans, dammit. I need this weekend! And he'll have me all day Monday when I get back, too.

Wendy&Neko said:
I guess this is a perfect example of the contrarian cat. :banghead: Never want to make it easy for you. At least he did this before you left, so you can lower the dose tonight. And yes, you'll likely have a couple days of bounce.

A note on psyllium husk, start on a low dose and gradually increase. Otherwise you can get GI upset. Just wondering if more of psyllium in his food put him off it.
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That had occurred to me, since the psyllium is the newest change to his diet, but he ate much more of the food that had the psyllium in it, than the food that didn't. (He's getting two whole cans in the morning right now, so it's easy to tell.) Also he had another well-formed poop. I'm only giving him 1/8 tsp ... I suppose I could cut that down a little? Or switch him back to Miralax with the sitter (and hide my pretty new duvet cover lest he decides to wipe his butt on my bed again 😅).
 
Allie & Gen said:
Very tricky to measure, but I'll give it a shot in the morning!
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It’s a “dash” (1/8 tsp). They make spoons of those measurements (pinch, smidge etc).
I have a set and use them for Ivy (of course I do) 🤷‍♀️

Be a good boy Gen, your mama needs a safe break.
And he does look so adorable, it’s hard to be upset either him 🥰💓😻
 
Staci & Ivy said:
It’s a “dash” (1/8 tsp). They make spoons of those measurements (pinch, smidge etc).
I have a set and use them for Ivy (of course I do) 🤷‍♀️

Be a good boy Gen, your mama needs a safe break.
And he does look so adorable, it’s hard to be upset either him 🥰💓😻
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I think Wendy's suggesting 1/16 tsp - half a "dash." 😯 1/8 tsp was what I was already giving him.

I don't even know what to do with him. He's somehow dropping steeply now, almost as steeply as he rose. I need to sleeeeeep.

Still unfairly adorable though.
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