? 11/16 Sunny AMPS 264 +3 255

Are you planning to follow one of the dosing methods used by many here on the boards?

With SLGS, you would hold the dose for seven full days before increasing (increases are always by .25u in SLGS), unless he drops below 90, in which case you would increase immediately.

I'm less familiar with TR because with his partly dry food diet, my cat isn't eligible for it (yet), but with that you hold your starting dose for 3-5 days; then, your increase (.25 or .5u) is determined by his nadirs.

My vet's advice is not to increase your dose more than once in a week, as according to her, that's how long it takes for a dose to really kick in. (In other words, her thinking is along the lines of SLGS, more or less.)

This is me just citing the post I've linked above (and a conversation with my vet) - I'm not in a position to give dosing advice. @Wendy&Neko, @tiffmaxee, maybe you can help out?
 
I believe most increase 0.25u at a time, unless the numbers are really bad. Plus with your saying he was feeling much better today and eating well, I wouldn't want to put a big shock to the system but going too fast. But that's just me, and I am new to all this too really.
@Allie & Gen , I wonder if they really have to be completely off the dry to make that work? I get the idea I suppose, that dry carbs last longer in their bodies. And for many foods I suppose that could cause issue. But if you feed Young Again Zero, that seriously has less than 1% carbs? I shouldn't think that would effect being able to use the TR method? That's less carbs than any wet foods unless feeding raw or home cooked. Just my thoughts on it anyhow.
 
Sunny is back from the Falls, so we want to take that into consideration, he’s not new. And he’s restarting insulin, not just dabbling a little with a few small doses and getting into greens, which is why I asked yesterday about Sunny’s weight. Initial starting dose weight based is often where you’d have wanted to start which is 0.25u per kg of ideal weight. If he’s around 15 lbs ideal weight that would be around 1.5 - 1.75u, if he’s not ideal weight, ie, he should be less, and if you want to ease in, you could bump him up to 1u, since I think 0.5u was too low to begin with.
 
Tyleete said:
I believe most increase 0.25u at a time, unless the numbers are really bad. Plus with your saying he was feeling much better today and eating well, I wouldn't want to put a big shock to the system but going too fast. But that's just me, and I am new to all this too really.
@Allie & Gen , I wonder if they really have to be completely off the dry to make that work? I get the idea I suppose, that dry carbs last longer in their bodies. And for many foods I suppose that could cause issue. But if you feed Young Again Zero, that seriously has less than 1% carbs? I shouldn't think that would effect being able to use the TR method? That's less carbs than any wet foods unless feeding raw or home cooked. Just my thoughts on it anyhow.
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I don't know, honestly. I take the dosing methods with a grain of salt, but I think the people who put together the TR protocols were working with data that involved a wet food diet only, and because it's such a "tight" protocol (with a higher risk/reward ratio), there were/are concerns that a cat with a dry or partly dry diet might respond in unexpected ways that the protocol wouldn't take into account, which could lead to higher risks or harder to predict outcomes. (I gleaned this from an old thread Christie shared with me about "common misunderstandings" around the dosing methods.)

To me, that means that it might well be fine to follow TR with a low-carb dry/partly dry diet, but you'd want to be really careful/able to monitor even more closely so you could adjust appropriately. (Which, obviously, is kind of a thing anyway, since every cat is different!) But I really don't feel equipped to offer actual advice or have a really decisive opinion without a better/more detailed background on how the protocol was developed, and/or more experience than I have at this point!
 
Allie & Gen said:
I don't know, honestly. I take the dosing methods with a grain of salt, but I think the people who put together the TR protocols were working with data that involved a wet food diet only, and because it's such a "tight" protocol (with a higher risk/reward ratio), there were/are concerns that a cat with a dry or partly dry diet might respond in unexpected ways that the protocol wouldn't take into account, which could lead to higher risks or harder to predict outcomes. (I gleaned this from an old thread Christie shared with me about "common misunderstandings" around the dosing methods.)

To me, that means that it might well be fine to follow TR with a low-carb dry/partly dry diet, but you'd want to be really careful/able to monitor even more closely so you could adjust appropriately. (Which, obviously, is kind of a thing anyway, since every cat is different!) But I really don't feel equipped to offer actual advice or have a really decisive opinion without a better/more detailed background on how the protocol was developed, and/or more experience than I have at this point!
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I've learned with a friend, sometimes you've just got to wing it and trust your gut. But I understand not everyone feels comfortable that way. Also, that cats (& occasionally wildlife) are my full time job, and I can stay with asthma monitor them 24/7 when need be. I know that's not the case with many. It was just a thought. Ever since learning most (myself included for the first few) aren't treating kidney cats the correct way, I've come to question a lot of things. I find just because it's believed to be old, tried, and true; doesn't mean there's not something else to be done or tried. ;)
 
Allie & Gen said:
To me, that means that it might well be fine to follow TR with a low-carb dry/partly dry diet, but you'd want to be really careful/able to monitor even more closely so you could adjust appropriately.
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Elise is correct. We’ve discussed this issue many times over the years. Dry food is dry food and if you feed any dry food at all, even YA, you should not use the TR Protocol. A prerequisite for using TR is feeding canned or balanced raw. If you feed any dry, you should be using SLGS.

New members should not do custom dosing. By the time someone has determined their cat needs custom dosing, they should need very little advice although we are here to support anyone at any stage.
 
tiffmaxee said:
If you elect to feed lc dry and follow TR it’s not really TR. It becomes custom dosing. Anyone can choose to do that but probably will not get dosing advice.
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Marje and Gracie said:
Elise is correct. We’ve discussed this issue many times over the years. Dry food is dry food and if you feed any dry food at all, even YA, you should not use the TR Protocol. A prerequisite for using TR is feeding canned or balanced raw. If you feed any dry, you should be using SLGS.

New members should not do custom dosing. By the time someone has determined their cat needs custom dosing, they should need very little advice although we are here to support anyone at any stage.
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I feel bad that we've hijacked Holly's thread for this conversation, when she's asking for advice about her own cat.

That said - this is well and good, but those of us who weren't around years ago could use a little bit more background on why the protocols work the way they do, how their guidelines were formulated, etc. It can be hard to feel that one is making an informed and careful choice about a beloved animal without more information than "this is how we do things," "this has been tried and tested and it works if you do it," or indeed, "we've discussed this issue many times over the years." (Personally, I get a detailed explanation from my vet for anything she prescribes or advises, and I am inclined to do the same with any source of medical advice.) I know that for TR, at least, there are quite a lot of background links, but even with all the time I've poured into this forum over the last month, I've barely had a chance to look at some of them. I might, at some point, not only read them, but try to use them to put together something short and digestible to share, for those who feel similarly. I'm sure that many of you who have been here for a long time and generously continue to offer advice and support may be tired of getting the same questions or misunderstandings - maybe something like that could help.
 
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