1/5 Sid AMPS 180 +2 36 PMPS Hi - need advice

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Lydia & Sid & Jake(GA)

Lydia & Sid & Jake(GA)

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Sid has been spending his days at the vet. Yesterday he was Hi all day and the vet thought I gave him a fur shot. last night he was in the 200s. Then this morning he was 180 and dropped to 30 and then spiked to Hi and has stayed there. I gave him his fluids to hope to bring him down and he didn't come down at all. I do not think the Hi numbers were fur shots or technical problems. The AMPS + readings are all from the vet and they tested him using my meter and their alphatrak. They did some bloodwork today but the only useful reading will be the kidney values. They are also testing for pancreatitis which may serve useful. We will see. Any thoughts? I'm beginning to think he needs to switch insulin.



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hi lydia,

i don't know about the medical issues, but when sid went below 50 on the 3rd, he needed to be reduced to .75. then he hit 40 today and also needed a reduction in dose tonight, but he's still getting 1.0 unit.

my guess is what's happening is that he's bouncing from hitting the low numbers. his liver lets loose stored sugar and hormones to save him from hypoglycemia, and then he soars high from that. it's clearing fairly quickly, though. usually it can take up to 3 days to clear.

anyway, i would definitely reduce his dose tomorrow morning to .75 units. and when he gets below 50 again, make sure you drop the dose. gotta keep the little guy safe!!!

i wouldn't switch insulins yet - lantus needs a longer time to see results - and actually, you're already seeing them. from a dosing/number standpoint, sid's looking great. as i said, i can't speak to the rest of the health issues.
 
he's been getting such low numbers that it looks like he may now be over dose. There could be any number of reasons for that. If he was in pain before and the pain is starting to subside, that might make his insulin needs drop. He could also just be experiencing vet stress. Some cats go high at the vet, some cats go low at the vet, and my Jazzy was sometimes high and sometimes low.

I would go ahead and reduce to 0.75u tomorrow because of today's 36. It's possible that the low numbers were triggered by the fluids, but if it turns out that the dose isn't enough when he gets off fluids you can always go back up again.

Changing to Levemir is something you can look into. Usually it's not a good idea to switch while they are sick, though. Switching to Lev would basically involve starting over, building a new shed and probably spending some time working toward the right dose. The numbers might go even higher while he's building a Levemir shed, and right now he doesn't need that. For the moment, I would reduce to 0.75 and keep monitoring the way you are in case he keeps earning more reductions.
 
That's true about reducing the dose. I guess I was thinking that he needed more insulin and because I wasn't giving him enough he became DKA and that's why we landed in the ER hospital in the first place. That's why I was pretty resistant to giving him less insulin. (One vet on Monday gave him 1.5 units but I told her not to do that again.) I could give him .75 tomorrow morning and see what happens. The low numbers scare me and then the high numbers scare me. Poor Sid doesn't feel very good. He actually tried to bite me tonight but he doesn't have any teeth. Well, he has one fang and a few little teeth. Poor guy. I was petting his stomach and he gave me a little bite. :( He's never ever done that before. usually he rubs on me and purrs.
 
Maybe he gave you that little bite b/c there's s/thg in his tummy hurting him?

Tinkerbell is ticklish. Whenever I rub her belly she squirms around and nips at me.
 
you're right, it's really tough to balance dose when you have a DKA prone cat. Definitely keep testing for ketones, and if they reappear, then we might have to figure out how you can give him higher doses and counteract the insulin with food. Hopefully he won't need that, and the numbers are changing just because he's healing.
 
That could be - maybe he felt tickled :smile:
It was not a mean bite at all - just a little nip. I feel very bad for him and imagine he does not feel good.
I'm going up now to check his numbers again and maybe there will be a little decrease.
 
Sending many healing vines to Sid today. You've gotten some good info from Julie and Libby. Hopefully with a little less insulin, he'll stop such drastic bounces. Hang in there, Lydia. You're doing great.
 
Nope, he is still Hi. I will give him .75 in the morning and see. I know about reducing the dose with low numbers but I've been in panic mode and not thinking straight, obviously. So thank you for being there and helping me and Sid! :smile:
 
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