14 Dec | Girlie AMPS 279; +8=80

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Girlie's mom

Girlie's mom

Member Since 2017
Condo: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/13-dec-girlie-amps-241.187944/

AMPS 279
Lovely day today: blue and then green from +6

It was tricky keeping her in blue last night: I had to give her 20 and 22%. I was hoping to sleep, but that was not to be! I wonder if it was because of the AVJ? I mixed SEB with AVJ yesterday afternoon; I don't know that that would make her PM numbers harder to keep from sinking, though...

I'm pleased today that I was able to give her 8% and not have her dive too low... I'd been getting concerned re: needing to use such high carbs to keep her from diving into shark territory.

Does anyone know why you can't use a non-stick pan to create the SEB syrup? I'm just wondering why you need to use either a glass or a stainless steel pan instead...
 
Girlie's been tricky to get enough food into lately (perhaps the heat?). I can give her a tiny bit of Mirtazapine, but that makes her mindless for food, so I try to avoid that if I can. She's just not keen on the 8% foods I have, but she really likes the 6% and lower. Problem is, they're just too low carb for her at the moment - she'll go quickly to shark territory with them. I was reading @Marje and Gracie 's post on Stacy and Asia's post, and I just had a thought: Girlie hates honey, but I do have glucose syrup that brings her up really quickly and that is very easy to syringe into her. I wonder if it would be worth experimenting a bit with that - giving her the LC food but giving her a drop or so of glucose syrup to bring up the carbs without having to resort to higher carb foods?

Also, I'd like to be able to give her food when she's hungry and wants to eat rather than waiting throughout the day.

Right now, I've got so many cans of cat food at various carb levels that I might as well open my own pet store... :)
 
Girlie's mom said:
Girlie's been tricky to get enough food into lately (perhaps the heat?). I can give her a tiny bit of Mirtazapine, but that makes her mindless for food, so I try to avoid that if I can. She's just not keen on the 8% foods I have, but she really likes the 6% and lower. Problem is, they're just too low carb for her at the moment - she'll go quickly to shark territory with them. I was reading @Marje and Gracie 's post on Stacy and Asia's post, and I just had a thought: Girlie hates honey, but I do have glucose syrup that brings her up really quickly and that is very easy to syringe into her. I wonder if it would be worth experimenting a bit with that - giving her the LC food but giving her a drop or so of glucose syrup to bring up the carbs without having to resort to higher carb foods?

Also, I'd like to be able to give her food when she's hungry and wants to eat rather than waiting throughout the day.

Right now, I've got so many cans of cat food at various carb levels that I might as well open my own pet store... :)
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It’s worth a try. Sienne only used LC food and honey or karo with Gabby when she needed it. It tends to wear off quickly.
 
Marje and Gracie said:
It’s worth a try. Sienne only used LC food and honey or karo with Gabby when she needed it. It tends to wear off quickly.
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That's the problem, isn't it, that it wears off quicker than the food carbs do. Still, I'm hopeful that I can get Girlie to eat under 13% carb food without taking a nose dive... Not that I'm complaining! I love Levemir and her SS since we started getting the hang of it! :)
 
Sweet surfing today! :D:cool:

Answering your question over in Lizzie/Gizmo's condo, I did use calipers with the BD syringes. I had to for any consistency. The amount of space between the zero line and the end of the barrel where the plunger stopped could best be described as "variable". There was often a lot of daylight, but sometimes not. I found it out by as much as 1/3 of a unit at times. Neko's last doses , as measured with calipers, was under the zero line. :rolleyes:
 
Very nice cycle today :D:cool:, looks like Girlie is doing much better on Lev. Good luck with the food experiments, you've been trying out a few things, that's very dedicated of you, Girlie is lucky to have you :):cat:
 
LizzieInTexas said:
I'll answer here too. Yes, I use calipers. Never will dose without them again. :smuggrin:

These are the syringes I use

https://www.adwdiabetes.com/product/16367/carepoint-vet-u-100-pet-syringe-31g-half-unit

Here is my methodology on getting caliper measurements for syringes. Remember every type of syring will be different so if you change syringe type you will need to recalibrate your measurements for the new syringes.

http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...262-pmps-232-2-202-4-186.170988/#post-1865365
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Thanks so much, Lizzie. The only 1/2 unit syringes I can get are the BD from hyperdrug.uk. Why they don't have 1/2 unit insulin syringes in Australia is beyond me...

I read your post re: how you calculated measurements. Oh no - math! I can't do math! I have a true mental block with numbers. However, my flatmate is a statistician, and to make up for his sin of leaving the fridge door open one night, I will get him to do these calculations for me if I get the calipers.

I like the insulin syringe ruler in that I can keep the syringe steady against the ruler (with the help of sticky blue tack) and move the plunger and see exactly where I am with hitting the right dose. The thing that puts me off calipers is not being able to do the same thing: would I tape my calipers to my light and then try to attach my syringe to it so that I could move the plunger while having the syringe stay steady with the calipers? I can see endless syringes being thrown away if I overshoot the right dose...I know from experience with tiny doses, especially, that it is so easy to miss the mark.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Sweet surfing today! :D:cool:

Answering your question over in Lizzie/Gizmo's condo, I did use calipers with the BD syringes. I had to for any consistency. The amount of space between the zero line and the end of the barrel where the plunger stopped could best be described as "variable". There was often a lot of daylight, but sometimes not. I found it out by as much as 1/3 of a unit at times. Neko's last doses , as measured with calipers, was under the zero line. :rolleyes:
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Yes, she's doing better - and I'm getting better at figuring out what % will keep her where, although it's always a bit of a toss up on any given day.

I'm using the insulin ruler now with the BD syringes and I agree with you re: the markings. Did you come up with measurements for how many mm = 1.0 unit on the BD syringes?

My problem with the idea of calipers - as I mentioned above with Lizzie - is holding the syringe steady against the calipers so that I can see when to stop depressing the plunger because I've hit the mark. Did you have a trick for doing this? With these tiny doses, I can easily see myself overshooting the mark and missing the right dose... :oops:
 
Echo all of what Wendy said. I use calipers and the BD syringes. I have no idea what dose Asia was actually getting before calipers, but I knew (in hindsight) it was all over the place. For some reason, the first half a box was okay (never noticed the funky lines, anyway) and then the syringes after that were worse and worse. Some of the lines were a lot thicker, some were diagonal, many were not on the zero and had extra room before the zero, as Wendy described. My biggest problem switching to calipers was to find "the most perfect syringe" in the box. I had to open about 3 bags before I found an acceptable one. :banghead:

Asia hadn't found a good dose prior to calipers, but I wonder, maybe those lower doses could have been a good dose and she was just getting more or less so frequently that it ruined a potentially good dose for her. Maybe it's a coincidence that she started consistently seeing blues and greens about a week after I started using calipers, but I believe she started being more consistent when the doses started being more consistent. ;)
 
Girlie's mom said:
I can see endless syringes being thrown away if I overshoot the right dose...I know from experience with tiny doses, especially, that it is so easy to miss the mark
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I read a tip somewhere on here that has help me with that. Do you take the empty syringe and push it up and down for a bit before you draw the dose? It moves the lubrication around and makes it easier to get exactly what you want. If the lubrication is enough, you can turn the plunger like a dial with extremely gentle pressure and twist your way up or down drop by drop. I've also found some syringes are adequately lubricated and others are not.
 
Girlie's mom said:
Did you come up with measurements for how many mm = 1.0 unit on the BD syringes?
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I used 1.5 mm per unit. At one point I used 1.6 because it made the math easier and my first set of calipers didn't have enough decimal digits. I heard of one other person using 1.4mm but 1.5 was more common.
 
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