10/07 Bad AM forSquamee and a question

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judy and squamee(GA)

judy and squamee(GA)

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AMPS 397 .5U . This is the worst reading she has ever had, and unlike yesterday , she did not eat anything at all last night (VERY unusual). This morning she was a little wobbly, but her mouth symptoms were the worst and she could not eat. I gave her the phenobarb and she was able to eat a half hour later. Lousy combination---if the phenobarb is making her wobbly but not keeping the mouth pain at bay.

My question relates to this coming weekend. Sunday, MOnday and Tuesday nights I have to stay at my daughter's house (she has twin babies and her husband is going to be away). I am trying to figure out what to do about Squamee's shot. I cannot take her with me. My daughter lives 30 minutes away. I have to be there between 6:30 and 7PM. Normally I shoot Squamee between 7:30 and 8. Can I move up her PM shot to 6 PM and give her the next morning shot at 7 or 8AM? (I am not sure yet what time I will be able to get back home each morning). I could get up at 6AM to shoot her on Sunday morning, ( so it will still be 12 hours onSunday night) but will not be able to do that MOn, Tues, or Wed. morning. I know ProZinc is supposed to be flexible, but this might mean giving her the PM shot for at least 2 days at only 10 hours. As long as her preshot number is ok am I safe to shoot???

Just to be clear, this is what I am envisioning:
Sunday shots 6AM, 6 PM
Monday shots 8AM, 6PM ( I might be able to get home at 8PM to shoot)
Tuesday shots 8 AM, 6 PM
Wednesday shot 8AM, 8PM.
 
I'm running late but

Not eating is critical. Not eating leads to "fatty liver" syndrome (?) and can cause a kitty to go downhill fast and be $$ to fix. (I know this from personal experience :sad: ) force feed if needed

and on the other hopefully someone else will jump in.

but essentially :
-if you get 2 readings, 20 min apart that are clearly rising, say 30 points, ( and not just from food)
-And you are past about +8
-And you are over a safe preshot number, similar to what you normally shoot

then you can shoot early. you may need to adjust the dose slightly.

you can also adjust the shot time in the days approaching the events- ie move slowly to shooting at 5 and 5 for example if that helps. 1/2 hour - 1 hour changes are usually no big deal.
 
Hi Judy,

I have one night a week that I have to shoot early/late depending on his PS #'s. It's usually between 1 & 2 hours.

I test befor I leave, if he has lowish PS #'s I wait and shoot late. When I shoot late I reduce the dose a little to compensate for the early shot the next morning. If he is high befor I leave I shoot the regular dose early and expect a little higher number in the morning but shoot the regular dose and Harley does the adjusting back to our regular schedule.

Prozinc is that flexible, I've never had a problem.

Good luck and congrats on the twin babies.
 
Hope she is feeling better by now!!!!

If you shoot any earlier than +10 (and maybe even at +10) I would shave a tiny bit off the dose. For Bix I took off about 0.1 for every hour early (except +11, that I'd stick with a +12 dose), but I think Squamee's doses are lower than Bix's, so probably no need to even take off that much. Maybe just skinny up what you are normally shooting if it's +10 and the PS isn't super high.

If you go with a +9 though, I'd definitely reduce the dose a bit, quite a bit of overlap at that point. I haven't looked at her SS and unfortunately don't have time right now, but more or less if they are a cat who gets a lot of overlap you want a lower dose to compensate, vs. a cat with shorter duration might not need a dose reduction on a early shot, i.e. if the insulin is already wearing off for them. Sorry I don't have time to study Squamee's #s, but usually at a +10 there's not a huge risk factor like you might have if shooting at a +7 or something....

& do the rising # check Nancy mentioned of course...
 
AMPS 397 .5U, (+2) 285, (+6.25) 97, (+9.3) 207.

Can't figure these numbers. 97 at +6.25 seems like she could have been awfully low at +4. Maybe because she was eating so much less today? She is going both higher and lower than she had been.

THanks for your responses, Nancy and Rob. THe timing on my having to not be home is the pits.

Her mouth is bad today. She ate a fair amount about a half hour after the phenobarb, but then got worse as the day wore on, having a lot of trouble eating by lunchtime. I called the vet to tell him the symptoms are significantly worse today and asked him if we could just move on to the gabapentin. He said no, he wanted to try upping the phenobarb first. So now she will be getting 22.5mg/day (or 7.5 TID). I am not happy with this, but he said we should be better able to tell by Monday (according to the protocol and what they say about the level of phenobarb in the blood). If things are the same on Monday I am going to really try to get him to move on to the gabapentin. I just spoke with someone I know today who had trigeminal neuralgia and said it was the most agonizing pain imaginable. Did not make me happy.

Nancy, I appreciate your help and your concern about fatty liver. I would like to know more about how litlle they have to eat and for how long it has to go on before this develops. I looked up a little on-line, but it was hard to tell. Although she is eating a lot less at times, she has never gone 24 hours without eating. ALthough she did not eat during the night last night, she ate a lot more than usual yesterday, and although she was struggling today, I'd say she probably ate about 1/2 to 3/4 of a can of ff today. When I give her the phenobarb pills, it seems to disturb her mouth quite a lot, so it's hard to imagine syringe feeding her unless it was clearly dire.
 
If you think her drop is too sharp, you might shave a tiny bit off the dose. Sometimes they will get a nice trough in the +4 to +8 zone and just be flattish in good #s, but still if she tends to nadir early and the PSs are going higher, you could shave a bit off the dose and see if the curve gets gentler. It could also simply be if she didn't eat as much as normal in the +4/+6 zone that's why the # was so good then - might be different on a different day if her eating pattern changes.
 
Just looked at her #s.... you may find the +10 shots are a good thing. If I recall, I think you shot as-needed briefly last year, i.e. not waiting for a full 12 hours, but shooting as soon as she got over 150. My recollection was it was too stressful to stick with for more than a few days, but it got her in great #s and she went OTJ soon after. Not suggesting you try to tackle that kind of approach again, just thinking out loud that you may find the +10 shots work well for her... She seems to be more of a big dropper with shorter duration, than a shallow dropper with longer duration, so for kitties like that, early shots can work quite well.

Hope she starts eating/feeling better soon... have a nice night! :)

p.s. looking at her #s, I probably would shoot a lower dose at +10 - maybe just 0.4 or possibly 0.3 on a lower PS. She can get quite a drop, and if her eating is difficult, if her BG went on the low side she might not be able to eat as well to counteract it like she could last year, so I'd lean towards being conservative with the dose. See what others think - I am just dropping by and haven't been following as closely as some, but that's how it looks to me at the moment...
 
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