10/13 Buddy AMPS 230 PMPS 258 I'm NEW!

Sandra And Buddy (GA)

Sandra And Buddy (GA)

Member Since 2019
Hello!

Finally able to find a moment to post. Buddy was diagnosed a couple weeks ago and he has been a trooper. Poor thing, his ears are red and sore, I have been trying not to poke him too much but I want to make sure he is doing well. Have also been trying to sample from his feet and it works sometimes.

I am getting used to all this but today I had a bit of anxiety when his +5 was at 56, I fed him and checked at +6 and he was 138. I can only get him to eat 1/4th can at a time so I feed him every 4 hours to make sure he eats enough.

Maybe you could have a look at his spread sheet and see if everything looks ok

Thank you!
Sandy
 
Welcome. You are doing a great job of testing and Buddy is making good progress! Have you decided on s protocol? I’m thinking TR as you are testing enough as long as you are feeding wet food. I’d read both and see which will work for your life style. What are you feeding him? Feeding small amounts often is fine. Do you have Karo, or honey and some graze style high carb food should he drop too low? It’s good to be prepared and you’ve already hit green so I’d read the yellow sticky on handling low numbers. When I first started I copied it and had it handy as Max liked to stop low in the middle of the night. Ask lots of questions whenever you gave them and someone will surely answer.
 
Hi Sandy!! Glad to see you posting on the board.

What did you feed Buddy when you saw the 56? Good job on catching that btw!

It's good to note what you feed and when so you can use it for future reference. Different foods have different effects on blood glucose levels in cats. For example, Ming really doesn't get much of a carb boost when I feed low carb (LC) foods so if I need a temporary boost, I opt to give him a bit of honey with his LC whereas I know some cats here get quite a boost with just LC. Every cat is different (ECID).

If you were to follow SLGS, you would reduce the dose. If you were to follow TR, you would continue the dose as usual. Although, I wonder what the experts on dosing might recommend since you've been holding 1 unit for a while now. Let's wait and see what others recommend.
 
Hi and welcome Sandy and Buddy. It's great that you already have your signature and spreadsheet set up. Could you just please add what Buddy is eating to the signature, any dry, or is he on all low carb wet food?

Here is a link to some information that will be helpful to you as a new member:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/new-how-you-can-help-us-help-you.216696/

All the yellow tagged stickies at the top of this forum are full of good information, and will help you along the way.

About his little sore ears, if you lightly compress the poke site after the test with a cotton pad, or folded tissue that will help reduce bruising. He might also appreciate a cool cloth compress, if he will tolerate it. I use Equate (like Neosporin) Pain Relief ointment on Idjit's poke site too, just to help ease any discomfort.
 
Thanks for the replies! Lets see If I can keep this straight and coherent!

I am working my way through all the information and stickies, I have only just read on the protocols and will read up on it. He is eating mostly Friskies Pate. I give him FF or 9 lives once in a while. I still have to pick up some treats I only have some Whisker lickings that he rarely gets. I do have some High carb gravy foods as well as some honey and will pick up some Karo.

When he had the 56 today it was his feeding time anyway so I just gave him his regular and checked him again an hour later, he was 138. I didn't want to get too worried and jump at things to quick as this was his first low number, so I tried to stay calm about it (not easy to do LOL)

I will try a cold compress on his ears, I have been compressing with a cotton pad after a poke and I try to keep neosporin on them. I also do try to alternate ears but the one has a hard time bleeding.

My vet told me that after I got a "pet meter" and got back to her with some pre shot numbers, we would then discuss dosage change. Ugh don't get me started on the vet! (I did post about it in the FB group) I did get a pet meter just to appease her and see what she has to say. I do think I will be mostly doing this without her nonsense. I also like the Idea of having the pet meter just for that once in a while double check when I am unsure, but will continue to use my human meter.
 
Sandra And Buddy said:
as well as some honey and will pick up some Karo.
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I think honey is fine. I can't quite remember why karo is recommended. Either the US or Canada doesn't have honey or it's called karo in the US... I can't remember. Hope someone can clarify that!

Sandra And Buddy said:
When he had the 56 today it was his feeding time anyway so I just gave him his regular and checked him again an hour later, he was 138. I didn't want to get too worried and jump at things to quick as this was his first low number, so I tried to stay calm about it (not easy to do LOL)
Click to expand...
It's definitely okay to get worried. We all do it here and we've all panicked once or a million times when our cats go low. It's when you don't panic during a low or lower than usual number, that has most of us start panicking for you.

I would say, Buddy might bounce from the 56 as he's not used to it. So I'd watch out for that and not be phased if his numbers soar in the PM cycle.

Sandra And Buddy said:
we would then discuss dosage change. Ugh don't get me started on the vet! (I did post about it in the FB group) I did get a pet meter just to appease her and see what she has to say.
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Sigh... I am so fortunate that my vets and techs understand that the point of monitoring is to see trends. They also know that the difference is the human meters read lower. I only hope you haven't spent too much money on the pet meter. They are so expensive! I'm still curious what your vet will say even though from reading all the accounts of this very similar situation that many have been in on this board, what they say is usually not what we recommend here on the board.
 
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@Crista & Ming OH did I tag you correctly? Yay! How do you do that thing where It shows what I said so you can reply to that?
I got the Alptha trak. I will use it sparingly. I am rather annoyed with my vet but do want to hear what she has to say so I will play along for a bit. I am definitely going with what you guys say here. It makes so much more sense than what my vet is trying to feed me.
 
You either hit "reply" on the bottom right hand corner of the message or you highlight the part you want to quote and a bubble with "reply" should appear and you click on that! The quotes will show up in the reply box on the bottom.

The highlighting doesn't work so well on mobile though :(

What's your vet telling you right now? :smuggrin:
 
Crista & Ming said:
What's your vet telling you right now? :smuggrin:
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It worked! here is a copy/past what I said in FB
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"She said the human monitors can be way off. Not just different from a pet one but even from one check to another. (up to 100 points off!)

We did a comparison from mine (Diathrive) and theirs (Glucoguage) Their pet monitor was 20 higher. She highly suggested I come in and get a pet monitor.

When I get one, continue testing with the pet monitor then we would talk about adjusting dosage.

It is the same price if not more than Alpha Track and can only be bought through a vet.

Oh! she also said I only need to test once a week. "
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She also wants to adjust his dose based off what his pre shot numbers are. Everything I have read says you go off of the nadir otherwise you can send them too low, is this correct? Or at least take to whole curve into consideration.
 
Oh yes, I remember reading that post!

Sandra And Buddy said:
She also wants to adjust his dose based off what his pre shot numbers are. Everything I have read says you go off of the nadir otherwise you can send them too low, is this correct? Or at least take to whole curve into consideration.
Click to expand...
Yes, with Lantus, we dose based on how low a dose takes your cat. Other insulins like PZI or Vetsulin/Caninuslin, doses are usually based on PS. It took me while to wrap my head around that because I started on ProZinc. I think of it as: PZI requires you to climb a ladder before you can go down while the depot insulins is like we're on a river slowing going downstream and the steep, sudden waterfalls is what you should avoid. I'm not sure if that analogy will work for everyone but it helps me :smuggrin:

We only take PS in consideration in certain situations. In my experience, if maybe I went to sleep at +5 and Ming was in the 200s and then at AMPS, his number is at 80, I'll stall maybe 15-30 minutes to see if he's on the rise. If he is, then I have no problems shooting. So that's why it is helpful if you're able to get a +10 or +11 to compare to the PS number and see if kitty is trending up so you don't have to stall so much.

Edit: oh yes and if kitty is newly diagnosed or you just started testing, a lower than usual PS number will result in a few different actions depending on the ability of the owner. Can they monitor? Can they stall? Is kitty eating? etc.
 
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