10/20 Autumn amps-455,+3-301, +6-85

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Re: 10/15 Autumn amps-328

LOL Yes Truffles and boy are they yummy. :-D The normal spread here for Christmas is Almond Bark, 3 -4 different flavors of truffles, cream cheese mints (think wedding mints), peanut brittle, divinity, 3-4 different flavors of fudge, 5-6 different kinds of cookies including painted sugar cookies, cinnamon glass candy, rum balls and butterscotch drops. And anything else I run across a recipe that sounds yummy. There there is the stuff right before the big day which includes 3-4 different pies, cakes and brownies, as well as Stolen which is a candied fruit bread instead of the traditional and unedible fruit cake. And then the basic dinner rolls and homemade breads.

This year I'm trying my hand at making a braided bread dough wreath, looks pretty on the directions just not sure if I can keep the furry carb addicts from eating it. :roll:

Also this is the first year for us to actually have an indoor tree so need to get busy to make use ornaments for it as well. The downside to the new house is also one of its upsides..I have lots of room to decorate for the changing seasons which means I can justify lots of crafty supplies, however, that also means I have a bunch of stuff to work on and now that the weather is getting colder my crochet hooks and oven are calling me. I'll have to post the picture of the most recent afghan as soon as I finish it either tonight or tomorrow. I'm very happy with the way it is turning out, it is a pretty mindless pattern it is still turning out lovely. The next one isn't going to be as easy as it is a graph project where the pattern is worked into the piece as I go along and it is for DH, so I can only work on it while he's at work. lol

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Re: 10/15 Autumn amps-328

Bet your house smells good!!!!

I can't wait for the cold weather to get here and stay. It is hot here this week - 75 degrees this morning...ugh... I want my cold weather although I am not looking forward to the electric bills.

I may need to buy some more catnip balls. If I can find the one I have, it will go home with the kitten. I want here to have something from me in her furever home. I just have to figure out where she hid it so she can fling it at me again :lol:

How's our Autumn feeling?
 
Re: 10/15 Autumn amps-328

i'm with you Robin. i love the cold weather. we had a reprise of summer here too. ughhh. give me cold any day (but i do agree about the heating bills)
 
Re: 10/15 Autumn amps-328

Mmmmmmm ... Which is yummier? Truffles. No, fudge. No, truffles. No, fudge. No, truffles. No, ... ... ... :dizcat
 
Re: 10/15 Autumn amps-328

MommaOfMuse said:
Well her dental is scheduled for tomorrow, so barring fire, blizzard or flood maybe that will provide the answers to why my once so stable girl is now acting like she is made of rubber.

Mel and The Fur Gang
Good luck for the dental :thumbup

Yesterday added 4 doz rum balls, 6 doz (3 doz ea.) dark chocolate truffles and white chocolate/peppermint truffles and 4 doz chocolate chip cookies. Now if I can just keep DH out of them until Christmas especially this weekend when I start making the fudge.

:lol: Have mercy Mel , some of us are addicted to sweet stuff
 
Re: 10/15 Autumn amps-259

Yesterday with Autumn is exactly the reason I harp on getting those mid-cycle tests before playing with adjusting doses and why I also yell about getting random spot checks.

Here is the tail of the tape from yesterday,

amps-328
+3-168 (huge drop before her normal insulin onset)
+4-82
+5-67 (fed her an hour early to try to slow the run away train)
+6-133
+8-333 (bounce starting)
+10-435
pmps-419
+3-450

If I hadn't caught those early spot checks I would have never known where those reds were coming from, but because I tested and tested often once I saw her +3 I caught the free fall so seeing red at pmps came as no surprise and it was easy not to react to those high numbers by increasing her dose.

I also miss read our appointment card, so she isn't getting her teefies polished up today, she goes in at 2 p.m. to get her pre-surgical blood work done then I have the choice of bringing her back in at 5 p.m. tonight and letting her spend the night with them or not feeding her tonight and tomorrow morning and dropping her off at 7 a.m. for her dental. Jon and I discussed it last night and we think the best course of action is to let her have a sleep over with her new vetty bean, that way we don't run the risk of her getting into someone else's chow either tonight or in the morning and they can get her prepped and in first thing tomorrow morning. She's not going to be a happy girl either way, but I would rather she be unhappy at them for not serving Her Meowjesty her meals than run the risk of her sneaking food and then getting sick when they put her under. Boy, I'm gonna miss her tonight and not having her curled up under my arm with her head on my shoulder purring her brains out, I've gotten very use to sleeping with her all snuggled in.

Yes, folks, even with this herd if one is missing Momma knows! It really is strange how even with 16 if one isn't present I feel their absence in the house and so do the other cats. I'm sure tonight and tomorrow until Miss Autumn returns home I will have all kinds of antics from the rest of the Fur Gang, some will be more reserved other will be spatting with each other. Just the way things seem to go when one of the family is missing.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Re: 10/16 Autumn amps-259

Sending Autumn some comforting anti-vetty bean stress scritches - cat_pet_icon - and some lonely-for-my-fur-baby hugs for you, Mel. :YMHUG:

Fingers and paws crossed for the dental to do good things for Autumn's numbers.
 
Re: 10/16 Autumn amps-259

Actually I have no worries leaving Autumn at this vet's office overnight as they have a wonderful hospital wing to the clinic, all the cages have web cams in them and when I drop her off they will give me the password to her web portal so I can log on anytime and watch her at the clinic, see all her test results as they are posted and just generally keep an eye on my girl. There are also two wings to the hospital side of things, one for dogs and one for cats so she won't have barking dogs in her ears all night either as both are completely sound proofed from the other.

Plus when we went for the original exam she didn't want to come home, she wanted to stay and play with the nice doctors. A complete 180 from how she use to react to the other clinic. It's also all women that work there from the vets to the techs and Autumn is definitely a woman's cat, she loves her daddy but most men she has very little use for, and will growl and bite at male vets, or at least she would at the other clinic.

Speaking of vets and up coming possible vet trips...NMC (Not My Cat) a.k.a. Hobo or Mister Dinner Mooch. I think has decided that we aren't bad people, still can't touch him, but he no longer runs a safe distance way from me when I bring his meals out. I can now get within touching distance without him running but he still cowers and flattens his ears if I get too close. Hopefully before the really cold weather and snow hits I'll be able to at least sweet talk him into a carrier and get him fully vetted. He's got a nasty bit of missing skin on the side of his face and neck that is healing, and one front leg that is much larger than the other and seems to bend in an unnatural way as if its been broken and not properly healed. Other than that he is a very handsome cat, large smokey charcoal grey long haired tux fellow. With an adorable white snip on his nose. Because he is a Tom and more than likely intact and obviously has been in fights I can't safely sweet talk him into the house until he's fully vetted, because I can't take the risk of him possibly being FIV positive. Parasites I can deal with, and even FIV doesn't scare me in the mix if I didn't have some that just have to fight every newcomer to the household until they establish a pecking order as well as so many special needs kids that are already immune compromised.

But I do have a wonderful No Kill rescue here in town that once I can catch him, will find him either a foster home if he still needs some taming down or find him space on their adoption floor. Although since he is already learning to trust me and Jon I would like to have him pretty friendly before I take him in just to give him the best possible chance of finding a family that will love him forever. I think at one time he did have a family because while he doesn't completely trust me yet, he definitely doesn't act like a feral tom. He isn't scared about being close to the steps and having us walk up and down them right past him, he waits for us by either the back door or the garage where I feed him and both of us can pass within 2 ft of him without so much as a hiss or flinch. Over the weekend I'm hoping to get some pictures of him, as he really is a good looking guy, battle scars and all.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Re: 10/16 Autumn amps-259

Hope everything goes well for her Majesty Mel!

I take Heff, Lennon & Zosia for their annuals on Saturday. Should be a 3 ring circus! And it's true, we only have 6 but if one is missing the dynamic is off.
 
Re: 10/16 Autumn amps-259

Sending good thoughts that all goes well with both Miss Autumn and your NMC!
 
Re: 10/16 Autumn amps-259, +3-246, +6-153

so true about 1 missing even when you have so many.
hope all goes well & she is back in ur arms purring soon. :YMHUG: :YMHUG: :YMHUG: for you Mel
cat_pet_icon cat_pet_icon cat_pet_icon for you Autumn
 
Re: 10/16 Autumn amps-259, +3-246, +6-153

Hope autumns op goes well. Your vet sounds great.

The BG test you posted up are really interesting. I sometimes think I am taking too many readings no I need to leave my poor cat alone and then I read posts such as yours and I think I am not taking enough readings. Yesterday I though remi had brroken his ear as it was laying so flat but then decided it must just be irritated. So i left that one alone and just tested the other one. It seems okay now.
 
Re: 10/17 Autumn ambg-285 Dental today

Okay I bet you are all wondering how if Autumn had a sleep over at the vet's last night how I have a morning reading for her? Well its because I got a call from the vet's at 6:45 a.m. to tell me that she was doing great, her blood work came back and she was cleared for surgery and to give me her BG reading. Talk about having a minor bit of heart failure when your phone rings right as you are opening your eyes and its your vet where your baby spent the night. GULP! Then to hear a bright cheery voice on the other end of the line with "Good Morning, This is Lacey and I'm calling to let you know Autumn was 285 this morning, her blood work looks great and she'll be the first one up on today's surgery schedule, barring complications she should be ready to come home by noon. Oh and does she like Fancy Feast or Friskies better and what's her favorite flavor? Since we want to give her something she loves to make sure she is eating before we send her home." Now that is what I call a WONDERFUL Vet!

Now I was a bad momma and forgot to leave her Levemir with them because I didn't think they would give her anything in the morning and spaced that she would still have to have some last night. So last night they called and asked if it was okay with me to give her just a touch of R because she was 416 and they didn't want to leave her up there for the night. So I prefilled a syringe and took it down to them. Then called me again at 10 pm to tell me she was back in the 200s and so her tech asked to stay with her at the clinic last night just to keep monitoring her BGs so she didn't drop too far down or shoot really high again. And to make sure that I could access her web portal so I can keep an eye on her in recovery today.

I have never felt so comfortable leaving one of my babies in someone else's hands as I do having Autumn there. In fact because of their attention to details with her, today I'm taking copies of all the vet records I have on file for all my babies and transferring them to their clinic, when I pick Autumn up. They don't know it yet, but they just got 17 new patients just for doing their job and doing it well. I've already peeked at her this morning and she looks happy she was awake and alert someone had their hand in her cage scratching her under the chin when I peeked. I was surprised that her cam also has sound so I could hear someone telling her how pretty she was and they knew it was unfair that everyone was getting breakfast but not her, because she had to take a little nap in a few minutes and they didn't want to upset her tummy, but as soon as she woke up she could have some food and then she could see mommy a little later and show her all her pretty white teeth. Awwwwww

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Re: 10/17 Autumn amps-285 Dental today

Oh my your vet clinic just sounds fantastic. There is a tv programe on over here called the supervet and the clinic is this wonderful caring place, just as you describe.
 
Re: 10/17 Autumn amps-285 Dental today

OMG . i want to move to Nebraska just to be able to use that vet. That is amazing. I would LOVE to have a vet like that.
they sound fantastic. What wonderful people !!!!
 
Re: 10/17 Autumn amps-285 Dental today

Wow - what a blessing to have such a great vet! Hope Miss Autumn is doing well post-surgery!
 
Re: 10/17 Autumn amps-285 She's HOME!!!

She's home with a BG reading of 200 after having brunch with her new vetty bean friends. And she is high as a kite on pain meds and definitely not happy about being crated for the rest of the day but she is just too loopy to set free and I need to keep an eye on her for the next few hours. She only had one extraction but lots of tartar scaled off and she has another round of antibiotics for the inflammation in her gums. But other than walking a little drunk from the pain meds, she's bright and alert, just demanded that she be given her regular lunch with the rest of the kids and seems very content. They said she was a model patient and a joy to have at the clinic both last night and today. She was actually sitting up with them at the front desk when I went to pick her up dining on Seafood Fancy Feast which is a no no at home because it has shrimp in it and Amon Ra pukes on anything with shell fish. So she was in heaven.

She also is unhappy about them shaving her front leg for the IV and keeps tucking it under her when anyone walks by her or comes to sniff and say hello. For those of you that don't know, when I first adopted Autumn she had to be shaved because she was so matted it was twisting her skin into the mats and causing huge sores all over her body. She became very withdrawn right afterwards and I had an animal communicator speak with her, and Autumn told her that she was very worried that without her fur she would be ugly and we would send her away for being ugly. That at her old home she had hurt the pretty one when playing and they made her go to sleep so they could hurt her feet and made the pretty one go away because she wasn't pretty anymore. And she didn't want to be ugly or be hurt again. So now every time she has to be shaven for anything we always tell her how beautiful she is and that we love her regardless. And that what makes her pretty to us isn't what is on the outside but what is on the inside. Yes, she is a vain little girl.

They said more than likely she will spike tonight or later today from no insulin this morning and when the pain meds they gave her wear off, but I have bupe for her for the next couple of days and they want to see her again in a week to make sure everything is healing up well. Guess the tooth they took out was a bit problematic because it had a long root, they also at no charge, removed the root from the fang that the other vet removed because they could see a sharp edge still sticking up so they went in and got that too.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Re: 10/17 Autumn amps-285 She's HOME!!!

Welcome home sweet girl :)
Happy everything went great. But so jealous about your new vet, that sounds like a wonderfull place :)
 
Re: 10/17 Autumn amps-285 She's HOME!!!

Oh Miss Autumn - you ARE a beautiful girl! Mama will tell you I said it too! Know what? That shaved ring looks like a beautiful bracelet! You've got a bracelet that no one else has and you'll get to wear it for a while!

WOOHOO MEL!! I'm SO glad this is over and everything went SO well!!!! YARD DANCE!
 
Re: 10/17 Autumn amps-285 She's HOME!!!

Oh, poor Autumn - what a story! I wish I could give her a cuddle and tell her what a pretty girl she is!

I have a permanent foster kitty (Zanzibar) who suffers from PTSD. He can't tolerate other cats, so he's in isolation in one of my rooms, and every now and then I do something to trigger him, and he attacks me. Poor boy, I wish I knew what went on before to cause him to do that. I give him a spray of Feliway, and if he doesn't calm down from that, I go away to let him chill. Afterwards, he's always SO apologetic and clearly afraid that I'm going to send him away. :cry:
 
Re: 10/17 Autumn amps-285 She's HOME!!!

oh man. i'm bawling now !!!! crying my eyes out. you tell Autumn from me that she is gorgeous and you will never ever send her away.
love you ms. autumn
xoxoxoxoxoxox
 
Re: 10/17 Autumn amps-285 She's HOME!!!

ps. i also have a PTSD kitty. he was a stray that we took in and he can be so sweet 1 minute and then think we r monsters the next. poor little baby. we are so gentle with him and have had him for 2 years now but you know cats take forever to trust again. we just have to let him take whatever time he needs.
 
Re: 10/17 Autumn amps-285 She's HOME!!!

MommaOfMuse said:
Yes, she is a vain little girl.
Mel and The Fur Gang

What cat isn't :lol: . We wouldn't want them any other way. My remi isn't the most graceful of cats and we have to pretend not to notice when he misses a jump as he gets all embarrassed.

Hope autumn continues to do great
 
Re: 10/20 Autumn amps-455

Ya ya I know Roman wasn't built in a day, but I'm sick of the reds and pinks and I'm sick of her bouncing like a rubber ball. cat(2)_steam

Yesterday she had a great run of numbers, with a beautiful blue surf, was rising nicely after dinner last night and now Thisfor an amps? I did forget to give her the last dose of her bupe last night, but still this is ridiculous! Although I do think I see a possible pattern and plan of action formulating. But if I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing, it looks like even on micro-doses she is starting to get longer than 12 hours out of the dose, so I may need to start shooting the curve rather than the clock.

See if this makes sense to anyone but me. nailbite_smile

It looks to be that her ideal dose is somewhere under .5u, and probably under .25u. However, regardless how much I lower it if I'm shooting it b.i.d. I eventually get a hard bounce from either a fast drop like on 10/15 or she tries to crash on me and I get a hard bounce off that. Now if she is getting too much carry over from one wave of action to the next because the Levemir is lasting longer in her system, then couldn't those dives and bounces be from over-lapping nadirs? Now add into that, the erratic numbers started after the emergency dental when again her insulin needs should have gone down after the infection was cleared. Her normal nadir before all this craziness started was near her next preshot, now it too is moving all over the map, which also makes me think that a single dose is curving more over a 14/14 or 15/15 pattern rather than the standard 12/12 and because of that every few days the nadir from the a.m. shot and the p.m. shot are hitting very close together.

Now I can see three, at least in my brain, solutions to that problem if that is indeed what is occurring because I know Lantus is an absolute no go for her.

1) Shoot the curve not the clock: Start her over like a newly dxed. Take her back to a starting dose of .5u (which has always seemed her magical dose), test her like a woman possessed, take the clock out of the cycle but see how long she rides that shot and only shoot when she reaches over 200, then as with a newly dxed with data slowly drop my No Shoot number again...Make sense? Basically chase numbers.

2) Use a sliding scale and stay shooting on a 12/12 schedule. The pros to that would be that shots and her eating with the rest of the kids would stay in sync. Cons are that Lev is a depot insulin, although it's somewhat more flexible that Lantus it still works off a shed principle so it might not work well for on the fly dose changes.

3) Change her insulin again to an In and Out like Prozinc where I can chase numbers or use a sliding scale as well as be more consistent making smaller dosing changes. Con to that is finding a flipping vet around here that uses it. Although I think I could probably sweet talk the new vet into letting me get the sample BCP PZI

Thoughts? Ideas?

Right now I think probably is option 1 unless someone else can think of something else.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Re: 10/20 Autumn amps-455

Mel, I am jumping in here because you asked, but my thinking about shooting lev and managing FDs has changed a bit in the past few years. I am no longer a stickler for strict dosing protocols and "relaxed" is probably putting it mildly. This is because both Cami and Beau have/had other health issues that complicated things and I needed to balance all that with the insulin dosing as well as my own sanity. So...

From my past experience I would say that there are MANY doses between zero and .5u - like 9 of them: .05u, .1u, and so on. I had Beau dropping like Autumn is from .05u if I shot below 150. He just tanked. So I skipped the shot and, back in those days, tested until he was above 150 and shot the .05u. He was heading OTJ so it became "as needed" and, as you say, I took the clock out of it for the most part.

When Autumn can go from the 300s to 67 (in 5 hrs) on .1u - and back to 400s again - I think that is indicating that "swinging" has set in. (I am looking at the 15th). Vicky and I used to suggest dropping the dose with this happens and slowly raise again - however, you are so low on the dose scale that might mean .05u or it might mean no insulin. She needs to clear the bounces and swings out of her system. That might mean shoot as needed or every 24 hrs or something. There is a lot to be said for keeping a schedule with her food so once a day might be better than as needed.

I think that lev does have a 12+ hr window of action. I noted that from the beginning as well. I also, and this is my own personal opinion, don't put much stock in the whole depot thing and "stored/shed" insulin. It doesn't get stockpiled somewhere. It simply lasts until it is gone and there is some does overlap as the previous dose action continues past 12 hrs. I also think that lev, especially in very small doses, IS in fact, an in and out insulin. Cami is on 3.5u, but I have shot some lower doses for various reasons like weird schedules, travel (with the cats in the car), low numbers (sliding scale-ish, gasp!) and I have seen some immediate response to those changes. (Caveat: Cami is not well managed at this point and has always been difficult to regulate - that just got put on the back burner with her other health issues and Beau's decline and high maintenance.)

67 is a beautiful number for a nadir, but you don't want those high sides to the curve. Hard to say what caused the 455 today, but you don't know where she was yesterday afternoon between the 157 and the 194. She could have gone way down during those hours.

Maybe try the drop thing again and see if she can clear the bouncing now that the dental is behind her. I am assuming that her diet is low carb and isn't a factor, right?

Don't know it any of the helps. You have experience and I would trust you to figure out something that works here. Think outside the box. Some kitties just don't follow the rules. And give Ms. Autumn a pat from me.
 
Re: 10/20 Autumn amps-455,+3-301

Thanks Sheila,

Looks like we are both kind of on the same train of thought. I do have the advantage that I'm home with her to monitor all day and all night since she sleeps with me if necessary.

Mel and The Fur Gang
 
Mel

I would dearly love to be able to offer you some help but as you know I have no idea. Your reasoning seems very sound and Sheila clearly has plenty of experience. In fact it is very insightful reading both of your posts.

I am sure you will figure out what's best to do for autumn.

Best wishes

Sarah
 
that autumn just keeps giving us an education doesn't she. those crazy swings that she has. she's writing her own rule book mel
 
Mel, I sent you something about being able to dilute Levemir. have you tried that?
 
Well, I know a certain Sammy who I gave a drop to every morning and skipped the pm shot, and that worked for her. Or what about every 18 hours? As someone else said, I agree, once you get down to a drop, there cant be much depot effect anymore, so its more of an in and out situation. If she were mine, I would go to once a day shots, examine the SS to see when she rises over whatever level you feel is as high as you want her to be, and then see how many hours that is. That may give you her dosing schedule.
 
ok, I have been laying in bed thinking of Autumn. If you did a 16 hour schedule, here is what it would look like:

Divide the day into three 8 hour "shifts" 7am, 3pm, 11pm/ then::

Monday 7am shoot 3pm skip 11pm shoot
Tues 7am skip 3pm shoot 11 pm skip
Wed 7am shoot 3pm skip 11 pm shoot etc etc
 
I don't know whether this will be of any use to you, Mel, but I found giving Saoirse 1 drop BID had a negative impact on her numbers cf. giving her 2 drops SID (administered in AM, marked as >0.10 on Saoirse's SS) and taking advantage of her natural tendency to run lower at night. Currently, I'm giving her 0.2 SID (administered in the morning) and feeding frequent tiny meals to try to help retrain her how to be hungry properly and to get her system used to the lower end of the target range before attempting another OTJ trial. Her numbers are improving (with the exception of spikes after long fasting periods) and her clinical signs are better too (haven't had to give her an appy stimulant in days).

All that said, Saoirse wouldn't recognise a trampoline if one bit her in the derriere. :roll:
 
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