11/18 Lily - PMPS 63 - Help with big swings

Status
Not open for further replies.
Riyah

Riyah

Member Since 2023
Hey all!

Previous thread here

My cat Lily has been having big swings in her numbers. She tested at 362 this morning and got .5u based on her history and our vet's directions. I tested her a few times throughout the day before I had to leave for a few hours. When I came back to test her for her 2nd dose, the number was 63, the lowest I've seen it so far.

My dad is a diabetic so just to see, I tested on his meter and it came out to 51, then retested on the AlphaTrak a minute later and it was 70.

My parents were home with her all day and said she was acting normal and didn't seem off, but I'm worried maybe the numbers dipped lower but we didn't see since no tests were done? Totally confused with how these numbers are showing up. I gave her one of her usual dinners, Weruva Til Then Pate. Should I retest and maybe give her something high carb if it's still really low? I was home about an hour before testing and she did seem normal, so really not sure what may have happened.

Thanks!
 
With the drops under 90 you need to reduce the dose of insulin to 0.25 units.
Lily has been bouncing from the green BGs. That is why you are seeing the higher BGs, then when she comes off the bounce she is dropping to green again and the whole cycle starts over again.
With the alphatrak meter, any BGs under 68 and you need to be feeding a high carb food to bring the BGs up higher. Make sure you test again to see the BGs are rising to a safe level.

What food are you feeding Lily?
Are you giving snacks during the first half of all the cycles?
Do you have a hypo kit set up in case you need it?
 
She eats FF Classic pate in Turkey Giblets, Ocean Whitefish, and Cod/Sole/Shrimp. And Weruva Til Then, Meal or no Deal, and Oh Snap.

This morning she read at 165. So far we haven't shot at 150-200. Should we hold off on her shot given the big drop last night? I know our vet said we could continue to give .5u at 150 or higher but this was before yesterday's 63. I think yesterday was the first time she didn't get an extra snack in the afternoon, just her full 3.3oz can of wet food. And we do have her old dry food, other non low carb wet food, and Karo syrup on hand.
 
Alright her +1 is 146, so lower than her AMPS even post eating a partial meal, so I think we will not shoot for this morning. I really wish we had some more consistency with our shooting schedule but her numbers have been so weird, at least comparing with others Prozinc spreadsheets. Definitely way more skipped shots and bounces.

As for reducing to .25, we only have U-40 syringes. Should we be picking up some U-100s?
 
In addition, since Lily's numbers dropped below 90, you should reduce her dose by 0.25u.

The syringes are calibrated to the concentration of the insulin. Prozinc is a U40 insulin so you use a U40 syringe. You will need to visually estimate a 0.25u dose.
 
Right! I wasn't sure if people do smaller doses with a U100 and use a conversion chart. I think we could estimate a .25 dose with our U40 syringe but not anything lower.
 
Riyah said:
Right! I wasn't sure if people do smaller doses with a U100 and use a conversion chart. I think we could estimate a .25 dose with our U40 syringe but not anything lower.
Click to expand...
Definitely no question about skipping her shot last night and definitely she has seen a lot of blue today, which is good. Hopefully, she won't have climbed too high by this evening and you will be able to shoot her new dose of .25 units. That is her new dose going forward. Please remember to feed her snacks of low carb wet food throughout the early portion of the cycle up until about +6. She's doing very well, and you are doing great with the testing.

68 on your AT meter is your "take action" number where you should give a little HC food and test again in 20/30 minutes to make sure she's rising/responding to the HC food. Then you keep testing in another 30 minutes to make sure she's not dropping back down to below 68 and if she is you do it all over again with more HC and/or karo if the HC isn't bringing the numbers up on its own. And you just keep doing that routine until she's stable or rising without using HC food to keep the numbers up. You probably already read that in the "how to handle low numbers" information, but I just thought I would add it in here.
 
Hey all!

In the morning, Lily's AMPS was 137. I don't feel totally comfortable shooting low yet, especially with her 63 PMPS on the 18th. I did just test her right now and she's at 117 with no insulin. Given that we're about 4.5 hours before her PMPS, I'm feeling like her number won't be climbing all that high yet, meaning I'll be in a similar situation to this morning.

Should we be trying to shoot the .25u in the evening? When I gave it to her last night at 227 PMPS, she went down quite quickly so I'd worry she'd drop into the below 68 numbers if tonight's is still in the low to mid 100s.

The inconsistency of her dosing is definitely weighing on my mind! It seems abnormal and I don't want to hinder her regulation but we do have a check up with our vet Wednesday morning so I can bring this up with him soon.
 
Whe
Riyah said:
Hey all!

In the morning, Lily's AMPS was 137. I don't feel totally comfortable shooting low yet, especially with her 63 PMPS on the 18th. I did just test her right now and she's at 117 with no insulin. Given that we're about 4.5 hours before her PMPS, I'm feeling like her number won't be climbing all that high yet, meaning I'll be in a similar situation to this morning.

Should we be trying to shoot the .25u in the evening? When I gave it to her last night at 227 PMPS, she went down quite quickly so I'd worry she'd drop into the below 68 numbers if tonight's is still in the low to mid 100s.

The inconsistency of her dosing is definitely weighing on my mind! It seems abnormal and I don't want to hinder her regulation but we do have a check up with our vet Wednesday morning so I can bring this up with him soon.
Click to expand...
When she was at 227 the other night and you shot the .25 she had a fabulous cycle
 
Wait until you see what the PMPS is before deciding. Now would perhaps be a good time to give her some wet food as well. And test her about 2 hours prior to her PMPS so you will not be so surprised at PMPS, although she still could climb quite a bit in those two hours.
 
Will do, she's been nibbling at her wet food here and there but isn't as voraciously hungry as she was right when she was diagnosed. However, I think she may have snuck over to our neighbor's house and ate from the dry food bowl they keep out for the feral cats :( Not sure if she ate or not but we'll see when I test her numbers.
 
Alright so our +9 was 102 and our PMPS is 109. I'm about to feed her now and I'll test again in 30 min, but I'm thinking it's another no shot night?
 
Not sure if @Suzanne & Darcy is still around, but unless she says otherwise, I would skip the dose tonight.
The dose needs to be lowered further to see if you can shoot both cycles.
Hopefully Suzanne will be around in the morning to help you.
 
Morning! Her AMPS today was 83 so no shot again. Will test again in the afternoon and then of course for her PMPS. We have our vet check up tomorrow so I'm curious to hear what he thinks.
 
Hi there. I guess you are going to the vet today? Sorry I have been swamped lately and am getting ready to go out of town today for the Thanksgiving holiday, but I will still be checking in from time to time (will have a little bit more down time after today.) She's doing well. In studying the spreadsheet, it looks like she would benefit from you switching to MPM and letting her drop down to lower (normal green) numbers above 50 (as long as you can test her often as you usually do.) She looks like a cat that could perhaps go into a real remission. She's not there yet though, but it is wonderful to see how well she is doing even with all the skipped shots.
 
Hi Suzanne! Yes, we did go to the vet. I shared with him my spreadsheet and he was surprised at the numbers. He said we don't need to test as frequently at this point but also said he had a feeling I would anyways, which he's right about :) When you have a moment, could you look at her past few days? She hasn't had insulin since the 19th. I'm still testing her twice a day because I'm not confident that the numbers will stay this way. It seems pretty quick to have gotten back to green numbers and I've been questioning my meter and testing on my dad's human meter (similar low results). I'm sure you've seen a ton of spreadsheets so would love to hear your thoughts.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving!
 
Hi there. I’m really happy that Lily continues to stay mostly in green numbers with no insulin. I’m excited. Can you keep testing her until we make sure that she has two weeks with numbers not going above 120. Then we would declare her as a diet controlled diabetic (in remission!). I’ll send the instructions for an OTJ Trial.
 
Here are the official instructions for doing an OTJ trial:
If he/she is green at your normal test times, no need to test further until the next "PS" time; just feed small meals and go about your day. If he/she is blue at your normal "PS", feed a small meal and test again after about 3 or 4 hours. If his/her number is lower 3-4 hours after a meal, then the pancreas is working!
Post every day so we can monitor your progress and see if any tweaks are needed. He/she may have a sporadic blue number. Don't panic but post before you decide whether to shoot so we can have a discussion.
After 14 days of no insulin, we have a party!!
Sometimes the trial doesn't work the first time and we have to give a little more support in the form of resuming insulin. It's not the end of the world if that happens; we just give him/her the support needed. Our goal is a strong remission and it's better to take our time to get that than to rush into remission just to have it fail later on.
Good luck with the trial!!!
Once he/she is through the trial successfully, you enter a new phase. Your cat is still diabetic but has now become diet-controlled. Continue feeding low carb food in the manner successful for your kitty. If you decide to changehis/her feeding schedule, let your meter be your guide to the best times to feed. Avoid medications with sugar inthem and steroid medications unless they are medically essential. Continue testing blood glucose weekly for the first month and then monthly forever. It's a good idea to weigh him/her monthly. Weight should remain stable. If he/she seems "off" or sick, or is showing signs of diabetes(excessive drinking, eating, urinating, weight loss), testhis/her blood glucose right away. Keep the teeth and gums clean and healthy; dental issues can bring a cat out of remission. If you see rising blood glucose numbers, it's time for a visit to the vet!
 
Thanks Suzanne! I will definitely keep testing. I really hope the numbers stay down! I made a new post about low numbers yesterday, but I'll keep updating every few days at least.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top