10/12 Oliver PMPS 372 - +2 425 dosage advice?

[ecurie]

It looks like we are heading in the wrong direction???
it's been 3 days with a .25 increase to 1.25 and our numbers seem to be trending higher.
Do you think we should hold the 1.25 for a couple more days? or maybe should we increase?
Seems odd that we are just going up and seem to have left that great yellow color behind.
Oliver is really seeming like his old self.. he's playing hide and seek.. cool

Mark wants to test only a couple times a day until we see some lower numbers. He's thinking we are upsetting Ollie for no reason while his numbers are so high. His thoughts are to test less often until we see numbers in the mid 200s and then test more often while we get closer to "normal".
I understand how he feels. Oliver is his sweetest. He hates to poke the little guy. You know guys... they are supposed to "fix" things and he is sick that he can't "fix" Ollie.

we can get a test before each shot and then 1 more test per day... maybe we'll try to get mid cycle am one day and then about midnight the next day? And i will have to put on my big girl panties and learn to test by myself.

I hope we can still post our slim testing results and get your thoughts. I understand if we are falling too short of information that you need to give advice.

We are going to get through this!! and be better!
below is a picture of our little family. Marble (left) Greg (Gregarious - he talks ALL the time!)
Marble and Greg were wild ones we took in 5 years ago when they were 6mos. Our neighbor was going to trap them and release them in the Everglades...YIKES! AND ..ta da... the temporarily diabetic cat... found in the wood pile behind the barn 10 years ago....Oliver Twist

 

[rhiannon and shadow (GA)]

Re: 10/12 Oliver PMPS 372 - +2 425

Hello.
no dosing from me.
I was just noticing the couple of error tests on your ss.
So just in case you don't know it, our glucometers act like a sipping straw on the blood droplet. If you are trying to go straight down on
the blood droplet, that might be why you are getting error readings. You have to come at it with the strip at an angle.
it says that in the manual.... And we all read those things, right. :lol:
Hope those numbers come down!

 

[ecurie]

Re: 10/12 Oliver PMPS 372 - +2 425

thanks, i have the manual in a plastic bag at the bottom of Ollie's testing box. i'll take it out and actually read it! we do come in from the side, but we've gotten some really small drops and probably didn't wait long enough for the drop to get big enough.... sometimes ollie gets really grumpy and is trying hard to get away and we put the strip to his blood too soon. here he is after his last test

 

[tortie58]

Re: 10/12 Oliver PMPS 372 - +2 425

Beautiful furry family you've got!
Ive no advice on the dose but Oliver canbe building up his insulin depot thus the wonky numbers.
And you are testing him two, three times a day? That's not too much. I was thinking like you & Mark, I hate poking my Rosy because I thought it is too painful & hurting. Now, after 9 mths on LL, I still think the same but I understand that this is necessary. Especially when our kitty first start on insulin, they are pretty unstable. A lot of sudden ups & down with their bg. Having more bg testing let us understand more on the required dose & their reaction, response to the insulin & to the carb we fed. This will help greatly as we proceed. Remember DM is chronic, although we do see a lot of kitties going OTJ, some need constant regulation.
Our kitties are very smart, they will understand that you are trying to help them. Every time when I poke Rosy, I'll take her to a regular spot where my other cats are fended off; that's Rosy's time. Praise her, stay calm, poke & apply pressure to the sport after the reading & put on the Neosporin. Give her a tiny treat (only for her) afterwards. After a week, Rosy will come at the time even before my looking for her. She love this private special session :lol:
As we poke more, it's easier to get blood, thus less painful. Dont give up!

If you need dose advice, revise your topic line for more eyes. Put down "Dose advice needed"

 

[Vyktors Mum]

The Tight Regulation Protocol with Lantus or Levemir describes what we've fondly dubbed "New Dose Wonkiness" (NDW) here in LL:

"Many cats will occasionally react to an increased dose with increased BGs - within the first 2 to 3 days after an increase, usually lasting for less than 24 hours. Nobody really knows what the reason for this phenomenon is (perhaps a "panicky liver"?) - hold the dose and ignore the fluctuations."

The concept of "New Dose Wonkiness" is NOT applied to higher numbers which may be seen after a dose reduction.

There is no "NDW" following a dose reduction nor do we hold a reduced dose 6 cycles (as done with dose increases) to "fill the insulin depot/shed".

Oliver could be experiencing some NDW but I suspect he's going to need more juice.

It will make it very hard for people to advise you if you don't get a nadir check in each cycle as that is how dosing is decided on Lantus so please try to get at least those 4 tests per day :smile:

Poor Oliver after his last test, am I allowed to giggle a little though, just the tip of his tail sticking out is very cute!! He will get used to it, especially with treats and lots of cuddles afterwards. I found it helpful to also make sure Vyktor got plenty of extra cuddles for no reason at all so I wasn't sticking him with a needles everytime I went near him. After a couple of months he would often purr through his tests or not even bother to wake up :lol:

 

[Teresa and Poopy]

Poopy fought me horribly when I was first testing. It was so bad we had to wrap him in a towel to poke. :cry:

After learning to massage his ear a bit after pokes (making it easier to get a bigger drop), and his special "only after pokes" treat, Poopy now purrs through the whole ordeal. He even comes to me when I shake the test strip bottle, knowing it's poke time! Immediately after pokes, he runs to his treat spot, knowing his special treat is coming pronto.

The kitties do learn it's not a bad thing...especially if they get something special.

Does Oliver have a treat he enjoys more so than other treats?

 

[Lisa & Leo]

No advice from me either, but we had the same experience that Teresa, Viktors mu and Shannon report - Leo was fussy in the beginning, but he knows the ritual and insists on being tested! Even when we get up in the night, the sound of the microwave brings him out (I warm a sock to warm his ear). Take a stab (ahah) learning to test - it's really not that hard!

Love the family picture!!!

 

[rhiannon and shadow (GA)]

Hi again,
After the first few weeks , the ears will respond with gaining some capillaries in the area. It does get less difficult to get blood.
One ear generally can bleed better than the other for a lot of us. I usually use the better ear for the pre-shots and the other ear gets used
for other times, back and forth.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

I would encourage you to follow the protocol and increase the dose every 3 days/6 cycles until you are seeing nadirs that are below 200. In other words, if Oliver were my cat, I'd increase the dose. If the majority of your nadirs are over 300, you can even increase by 0.5u.

I'm really confused. Your subject line reads that this is the PM cycle of 10/12. However you have the numbers on your SS for 10/13. In fact, you have numbers for the PM cycle of 10/13 and it sounds like you're in Florida so I don't know how you've got test data for tonight.

You also note what I think are amounts of food you're giving. So is .25 FF a quarter of a can of Fancy Feast? If so, you don't want to feed at +10 or later. If you feed between +10 and shot time, you risk your pre-shot number being inflated by food.

As to how many times to test, it looks like you're already testing just at pre-shot and one other time during the day. That's the minimum number of tests we recommend. The only thing I'd point out is that you may not want to get the mid-cycle test at exactly the same time every day. I'd try to vary the time. Not every cat has their nadir at +6. Even if the nadir is usually at +6, it can change. I think if you look at people's spreadsheets, you'll see that the nadirs can change up. Gabby's nadir is usually at +3 or +4. However, there are days when her low is at +1 or +2 or as late as +7 or +8.