2/13 - Indy AMPS - 148

Jessica & Indy

Jessica & Indy

Member Since 2025
Yesterday

Well, yesterday was stressful. Hoping today is less so. He bounced a bit last night, but has been coming down nice and easy. Hoping for no lime greens today, though I warned hubby that it could happen. We are 2 hours out from his morning shot (we like to sleep in on weekends)...but I figured a new thread was better.

He has his 6 month senior check up this afternoon and for some reason my anxiety is triggered. Overally, Indy is doing great and has good quality of life. At his age, I don't know if I could really ask for more than that. Tried to find him a better cat carrier with more room, but failed. He is just such a long cat that even the carriers that advertise as for big cats, don't work for him. Thankfully our vet is less than 5 minutes away so he doesn't have to be uncomfortable for long.

Safe surfing everyone!
 
Allie & Gen said:
I hope the appointment goes well today, and that Indy stays off the citrus. And I hope you feel better, too! Hugs.
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okay, what does "stays off the citrus" mean? Feel like I'm aging myself here.

I'm sure the appointment will be fine. My anxiety will eventually calm down and then I will probably crash hard for a nap.
 
Hoping for safe surfing today, Jessica, hubby, and Indy! The 1u depot is still in play, but with that 148 AMPS, and his normal tendency (yesterday was an outlier) to remain flat and not nose dive after his shots, I trust he won't pull any shenanigans and drop into lower numbers. Which reminds me, I wanted to point something out to you after everything calmed down from yesterday: it's good to note that Indy often remains relatively flat in his cycles, which is a good thing (you don't have super wide swings in numbers like some kitties do). And Lantus is designed to create those flat cycles we see with Indy! We'll see what his +1 is to determine what he's going to do with this cycle.

Yesterday was a bit rare for him (the last time he did this was on 1/30, when he saw a lime) with that drop from preshot to +1. You've likely heard this, but when you see a ~20% drop like that from preshot to +1/+2/+3, you might expect that his numbers are going to be lower in the cycle, and you need to monitor and be prepared to feed the drop with carbs. Here is a note I have posted on my spreadsheet (from Wendy); this was when a fellow caregiver was dealing with lower numbers at night: " ★A guideline that may help you to decide if you need to pull an all nighter is the +2 value compared to preshot value. If the values are about the same, it's a normal Lantus cycle with some downward movement. If the value of +2 is quite a bit lower, then it's more active and needs more attention paid. If the +2 is higher (such as last night), it's a quiet cycle and you can go to sleep." And when she says comparing the value of the PS to +1/+2 (and I would go with +1 with Indy because he's shown that his onset of the insulin can be dramatic right after his shot (i.e., yesterday!)), you're looking for around a 20% drop. Yesterday was a perfect example of this.

Also, something else for you to be aware of about Indy, he occasionally experiences a double nadir in his cycles. A double nadir is a second nadir that comes after the first nadir, a bit later in the cycle, but it is typically not as low as the first nadir. These tend to occur in Indy's PM cycles. Look at his PM cycles for 2/09-2/11. I would search the board for 'double nadir' or 'double dip' to read and learn about them. And maybe someone here will pop in and talk about them. I'm not too experienced with them since Jude doesn't have them.

You both did a great job handling that situation yesterday!
 
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Yeah both of his last deep dives have been on 1u. We decreased to .75u but because of his nadirs, we thought that we could increase again. Guess not!

Which makes me think that .75u is where he is supposed to be right now. I love his flat cycles it is so much less stressful. His PM cycles tend to be higher overall. I remember reading about the double nadir and seeing that pattern, we have been better about making sure to still give him his shot on time. Right before his AMPS is when he gets let out of the bedroom into the rest of the house, so he prances around the house more, so I think he burns off of some of that BG in his system.

Thank you for looking over his spreadsheet. We have a plethora of data for sure. Sometimes it is hard to step back and look at it from purely a data standpoint. But looking at how far he has come since November, is amazing. He really is doing so well. <3 <3

Sorry if my reply seems all over the place, I am full of nervous energy today so my brain is having trouble with connecting thoughts together at the moment.
 
Jessica & Indy said:
Yeah both of his last deep dives have been on 1u. We decreased to .75u but because of his nadirs, we thought that we could increase again. Guess not!

Which makes me think that .75u is where he is supposed to be right now. I love his flat cycles it is so much less stressful. His PM cycles tend to be higher overall. I remember reading about the double nadir and seeing that pattern, we have been better about making sure to still give him his shot on time. Right before his AMPS is when he gets let out of the bedroom into the rest of the house, so he prances around the house more, so I think he burns off of some of that BG in his system.

Thank you for looking over his spreadsheet. We have a plethora of data for sure. Sometimes it is hard to step back and look at it from purely a data standpoint. But looking at how far he has come since November, is amazing. He really is doing so well. <3 <3

Sorry if my reply seems all over the place, I am full of nervous energy today so my brain is having trouble with connecting thoughts together at the moment.
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I hope the vet visit went well today!
Mary gave you tons of great information to peruse.

It’s good that Indy isn’t a big diver. It makes it much easier for you and your hubby.
Hope you all have a relaxing night 🌊🏄‍♂️😻
 
Hubby is getting ready to pack up Indy and take him. I'm at work, but am done teaching about the same time as his appt. so I will be on the phone. Will keep this thread updated. His BG looks good, no deep dives. He is getting a new sensor, so there will be a gap in the data while Libre calibrates.
 
We have a healthy-ish old man. His heart has a bit of a gallop (her words not mine), but it has been like that for awhile (could also be stress from being at the vet). Nothing new and says the medication she would use isn't tolerated well by diabetics. Lungs are clear. He was meowing up a storm over the phone while his nails were getting trimmed. She is happy to let us deal with sensors from now on. (that saves us a couple hundred dollars a month). Weight is stable. Vet is happy with how he is doing given his age, his IBD and his diabetes. Says if he starts coughing again, to bring him in and they can do a chest x-ray.

She was trying to say we could stop using the sensor and just keep giving him insulin....nope! I'm keeping the sensor...thanks!
 
I thought so too. I'm just always nervous with him. He has had so many different health issues off and on that I honestly didn't expect him to live this long. I am so grateful that he is still around and is doing so well though. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. I know he is closer to that end of his life than the beginning and that I should be enjoying our time with him as much as I can. I lost my soul cat 2.5 years ago and it was one of the hardest things I ever had to deal with. I'm never going to be ready to deal with that again....but I know I will have to.

One thing that did come up was she was curious why we attempted to increase his insulin even though he was mostly staying under 200. Told her we only increased by .25u with the hope we could get his numbers a little better. Said he went to 39....she immediately "was he acting like he had low blood sugar?" I assured he that he did and that we went back to .75u. She sounded impressed that we got his dose so exact. *laughs*
 
Jessica & Indy said:
I thought so too. I'm just always nervous with him. He has had so many different health issues off and on that I honestly didn't expect him to live this long. I am so grateful that he is still around and is doing so well though. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. I know he is closer to that end of his life than the beginning and that I should be enjoying our time with him as much as I can. I lost my soul cat 2.5 years ago and it was one of the hardest things I ever had to deal with. I'm never going to be ready to deal with that again....but I know I will have to.

One thing that did come up was she was curious why we attempted to increase his insulin even though he was mostly staying under 200. Told her we only increased by .25u with the hope we could get his numbers a little better. Said he went to 39....she immediately "was he acting like he had low blood sugar?" I assured he that he did and that we went back to .75u. She sounded impressed that we got his dose so exact. *laughs*
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Yeah, the vets think we're nuts 🤭 One of the vets I took Jude to took one look at his chart, which I think is super impressive, and she clearly had a look on her face of concern. She said "no one does this." And most of their patients don't because they don't encourage it. They don't expect that their patient's caregivers will home test, so they want people to keep them kind of higher so they don't run the risk of going too low. They often aim for about 200 as a good bg number. Thankfully, Jude's regular vet is totally on-board with my home testing (although he does tell his vet techs when I come in that I "keep a very good eye on Jude.")

You might try providing her with the Roomp and Rand study, which is what the TR dosing method is based on. Sometimes, that can help them to understand that home-tested cats can be taken into lower numbers, and when they are, they can go into remission. I'll post that for you: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1016/j.jfms.2009.04.010 also the website: Tilly's Diabetes Homepage - Diabetes in Cats - Feline Diabetes

Here is the link to the CGM information: Getting Started With Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) for Diabetic Cats

Updated to add: you might even invite her onto the forum to snoop around and see what we're doing.
 
Oh, she isn't afraid of low numbers, was just shocked we pushed it. In the past I have called the vet office freaking out when the libre alarm goes off and she has had to calmly remind me to look at his behavior and that he is probably not actually hypo. But I'm going to try and let him be okay on .75u for awhile and as long as he is under 200....then I'm going to count it as good. If he starts creeping up into the 200s more often then maybe we will need to re-evaluate.

Thank you Mary! I knew there was a thread somewhere!!!! we got the skin tac stuff. The vet office of courses uses a skin glue....but I know there are mixed feeligns about that on here.
 
Jessica & Indy said:
sensor got its head out of its you know what...and is giving numbers now. reminding myself that the first 12-24 hrs they aren't as accurate.
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Very glad tht vet visit went well. You’re doing so great with your sweet old man! 🥰😻

As for the Libre, the glue can harm their fragile diabetic skin. And it can definitely flood the sensor and shut it down. One more problem you don’t need.

Follow the directions on the link Mary sent you and join the Facebook group if you like. They have lots of great and detailed instructions on applying the sensor and using it.
🥰💓💕
 
Staci & Ivy said:
Very glad tht vet visit went well. You’re doing so great with your sweet old man! 🥰😻

As for the Libre, the glue can harm their fragile diabetic skin. And it can definitely flood the sensor and shut it down. One more problem you don’t need.

Follow the directions on the link Mary sent you and join the Facebook group if you like. They have lots of great and detailed instructions on applying the sensor and using it.
🥰💓💕
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Yeah they took the sensor off and left behind little sores. :-(. We put some Neosporin on him.
 
Jessica & Indy said:
Yeah they took the sensor off and left behind little sores. :-(. We put some Neosporin on him.
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Bummer. I hope it heals quickly.
Make sure he can’t lick the neosporin. It can be very bad for kitties.
You can use organic coconut oil on sensitive skin for healing and if he licks it, it won’t harm him.
 
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