25 June Tucker AMPS: 16.3 (293) 3.5 units

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Tucker

Tucker

Member Since 2018
Tucker still ate a large breakfast but I noticed he slowed down after half a packet of BARF and then came back a few minutes later to finish it off. I've not seen food last longer than 2 minutes in his bowl since all of this started. This time around breakfast took about half an hour and so far he isn't sitting next to the fridge (or licking the door to the oven...yes, he has been doing that after I do a roast...).
 
LOL. I have been there a bunch. So have others on the forum. Unregulated kittehs, and especially Acro-cats like Leo prefer to eat in massive quantities. Because they are not absorbing the calories. I think Tucker is approaching regulation.

You are giving him enough insulin now, so he is soaking up some calories. You know what will make my day? When Tucker hits 120 or 150 for his nadir! It has been harder for Tucker, since most cats get regulated in the 1.0-2.5 unit dose range.:D

We try to help a lot of new people. Some try, and some don't. You are in the first group. It takes a lot of work to get a kitteh regulated. Once you do, then they are almost as healthy as a non-diabetic. Tucker will be happy, and so will your family.
 
Thanks so much Jeff, I really appreciate that. You know what is scary to me though? I've spent time flipping through other's history to help me get a grasp on how all of this works and some of the things I've read are heartbreaking. Like a kitty that had been OTJ and the owner so happy and the kitty so happy and then out of nowhere the poor thing goes down hill and they lose him. Or the posts where someone shares they lost their best friend after doing everything right and the kitty doing really well, then BAM. Or the memorials where people say "No more needles and pain and meds...." and I'm thinking "but the blood tests and shots I'm giving him aren't supposed to be painful......are they? Am I going to be saying 'no more pain' to Tucker's memory one day?" Because I am doing all of this so he can enjoy a healthy and happy life, not to just keep him going. Does that make sense?? I then think about our vet who was initially like "Get him on a dose of 4, keep him there if he is acting happy." and wonder if he would be happier if he didn't have to get more than the 2 needle sticks a day and I left his poor ears alone............BUT what about that time he was a 7 and what would have happened if I had given him 4 units without doing that blood test first?!?! Trying to do the right thing and giving him a happy life, that's the goal. I'm just scared to see so many people saying 'no more pain, needles, blood tests...." etc and hoping I'm not causing him more pain than is necessary.
 
Leo on porch 06-24-2018b.jpg

A lot of kittehs are healthy until they get sick and die. Unfortunately we have diabetic kittehs.

I don't think they like the pokes and prods. But those pokes give them life and health. If you got cancer, you would go get chemo. No one likes chemo. But it makes them healthy afterwards (...my relative had it twice for breast cancer).

So that is our lot. Some daily pokes for our sweet sugar cats.

You know what my vet told us this week?
"If it wasn't for Jeff doing all this stuff for Leo for last 3 years, Leo would not be here."

It was the best compliment I ever got. And my other reward is Leo - for these 3 extra years. That will be you someday. 5 or 15 years from now, Tucker will pass as all kittehs do. But those next 15 years will be wonderful and rewarding.

For the upcoming treatment regime, you will continue to learn it here. You are already committed. We will keep helping you, and soon you will be Tucker's expert home diabetic kitteh carer.:bighug:
 
It was scary to me too. The worst part was the needles. And the blood. We were not used to any of it.

But I think you have kids. And there are diapers involved somewhere in that process. I don't know. Maybe that could be worse.:eek::D
 
That is unfortunate. Another yellow nadir.

If it was me, for the next dose increase, I would increase by 0.5 since we are in higher dosages now. So
(0.5 / 2.5) = 1/5 = 20% increase
The current dose is not very effective. And you are measuring consistently.

So I would recommend 3.0. Let's see what others like Bron suggest. I will not mind others keeping the increases at 0.25.

At least Tucker is out of the 300's in the past 3 days.
 
So at the moment he has had 3 doses of 3.5. I need to wait another 3 doses to increase him, right? It's so tempting to put him at 4 right now or a 'fat' 3.5 and go to 4 tomorrow.... Gah, small victories him being in the yellow though.
 
Yes, I would stick with the 6-dose protocol. Then if it was me, I would raise him to 4.0. Like I said, someone may disagree, and I agree to be over-ruled.

It was good he has been in the yellows. That is indeed a good sign of progress.
 
Tucker said:
Ok, thank you! (Trying to figure out how to tag Bron in this....I'm so lame!)
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Hi Patty, I've been out all day and just got home and have checked in to see how you and Tucker were going.
The protocol is to stay with the 0.25 increase increments until you get to around 6 units and then you can do the 0.5 increases, so I think you should stick to increasing to 3.75 units after the 6 cycles. Sorry @JeffJ to not agree with you on this.
If you look at Tuckers SS you will see he has been in yellow numbers only, since the last increase....no pink. That is progress and it takes the 6 cycles for the depot to fill so you could see better numbers in the next 3 cycles.
Another reason I think to go up in 0.25 increments is that he is less likely to bounce if he goes up slowly.
 
That's no problem. We are getting close with the numbers. At this point I bet it will be 4.0 or even 4.5. And Tucker could have some Acro at those levels.

To tag someone do this.
- type the @ symbol
- then immediately after that, start typing their username

In my case it would be the following all in one sequence.
@
JeffJ
 
Tucker said:
Thanks so much Jeff, I really appreciate that. You know what is scary to me though? I've spent time flipping through other's history to help me get a grasp on how all of this works and some of the things I've read are heartbreaking. Like a kitty that had been OTJ and the owner so happy and the kitty so happy and then out of nowhere the poor thing goes down hill and they lose him. Or the posts where someone shares they lost their best friend after doing everything right and the kitty doing really well, then BAM. Or the memorials where people say "No more needles and pain and meds...." and I'm thinking "but the blood tests and shots I'm giving him aren't supposed to be painful......are they? Am I going to be saying 'no more pain' to Tucker's memory one day?" Because I am doing all of this so he can enjoy a healthy and happy life, not to just keep him going. Does that make sense?? I then think about our vet who was initially like "Get him on a dose of 4, keep him there if he is acting happy." and wonder if he would be happier if he didn't have to get more than the 2 needle sticks a day and I left his poor ears alone............BUT what about that time he was a 7 and what would have happened if I had given him 4 units without doing that blood test first?!?! Trying to do the right thing and giving him a happy life, that's the goal. I'm just scared to see so many people saying 'no more pain, needles, blood tests...." etc and hoping I'm not causing him more pain than is necessary.
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Reading back through other people's posts when they lose their kitties can be heartbreaking, but please don't let that deter you from doing everything you can for Tucker.
Most FD kitties die from something other than FD and many of them have been sick or unwell for some time and they are often getting meds and needles for other conditions so when they say no more pain, needles or meds it does not necessarily mean they are referring to FD.
You are not causing him unnecessary pain..... you are saving his life. When I testing Sheba's BSL she either came running when she heard me at the testing equipment or if she was asleep, she never gave any indication she even felt me testing her on the ear. At night when I used to get up to test her, she was always in her bed.....she would always yawn at me which is a form of communication I am told, and then I would test her where she lay and she never used to move to indicate she felt any thing at all.

Sheba's renal threshhold was around 14 to 15 so higher than some cats. The literature says it can be up to 16.
If you are testing the BSL and you know the range of the BSL since Tucker last peed you could test his urine to get an idea of his renal threshhold. If the test strip says no sugar then you know he is below the renal threshhold. But keep in mind that the urine in the bladder which he has just peed has been there several hours.

Make sure you are getting enough sleep because when you are overtired .....and we have all been there!........everything seems much worse than it is. :bighug:
 
Guys! I just did a +9 test and it was 17.1. What the heck? He is laying her beside me with his feet curled up in the air, no idea that he is stressing his mama out. (Actually being a dual citizen with the only country that makes you pay taxes even if you've not lived there is 22 years is stressing me out....but that is for another forum!) Also, what does Jeff mean by "Acro"? We have told Tucker that he is not allowed to have any additional issues, cuz we are barely dealing with this one!
 
I just read the sticky about Acro. No thanks, can't deal with that right now (please). One thing I didn't see in the sticky is how a conclusive dx is formed for Acro? Is it a diagnosis by having a cat who requires high insulin dosage or is there a specific blood screening process or what?
 
Leo is an acro-cat. I got him radiation therapy to knock the tumor down. There is a long thread in my signature about Leo's Acro diagnosis and treatment. He is such a trooper.

The only way to DX Acro is a blood sample. It gets sent to a lab and they evaluate for IGF-1 levels. IGF-1 is growth hormone. When Acromegaly occurs in kittehs or humans, that hormone level goes up. That particular hormone displaces the insulin molecules at the cell level and the side effect is diabetes - because there is not enough insulin to allow for glucose absorption at the cell level.

Most Acro owners treat with insulin. Some get SRT (radiation). Some get cabergoline (which is a new drug). However, all Acro-kittehs get extra doses of lovin!
 
A study in Great Britain found that some large percent of diabetic cats had Acro. It may have been 15-25%. Now I can't even remember.

1:20am. Bedtime here.
 
I don't thing you need to worry about Tucker having acro at this stage. He has just started his FD journey so let's wait and see how he goes. They don't recommend testing for Acro til the dose is up to 6 anyway.
 
I fell asleep right after tea tonight! Agh, so exhausted. Ok, so his BG went up a tiny bit for the PMPS 17.3. I tested him at +4 and he had come back down to the yellow and 15.1. I did have an email conversation with his vet earlier tonight where I asked if the Acro was something she had tested for in the blood panels she has drawn. She said she had not tested for it but that all of his other numbers besides glucose were normal so she didn't feel it was needed at this time. She says that if he is getting some regulation under 4 units she doesn't think it will be positive but she will test if the insulin dose does have to go higher than 5.
 
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Tucker said:
I fell asleep right after tea tonight! Agh, so exhausted. Ok, so his BG went up a tiny bit for the PMPS 7.3. I tested him at +4 and he had come back down to the yellow and 15.1. I did have an email conversation with his vet earlier tonight where I asked if the Acro was something she had tested for in the blood panels she has drawn. She said she had not tested for it but that all of his other numbers besides glucose were normal so she didn't feel it was needed at this time. She says that if he is getting some regulation under 4 units she doesn't think it will be positive but she will test if the insulin dose does have to go higher than 5.
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I think you meant the PMPS number to be 17.3 not 7.3.:eek:
There is no test for Acro in Australia. It has to be sent to the US and only one or two places test it. I believe it is quite expensive.
At this point I would not worry about Acro. Give him time to get regulated and you make sure you are getting enough sleep.
 
Yes I did! Obviously still half asleep.... He has come down a couple of points in the last 4 hours. Do you think I need to test again tonight or are we pretty confident he will be fine and I should give him the 3.5 in the morning again??
 
Ohhh, so that's why she said she didn't know the cost of the test but would let me know (but not to worry about it yet because she doesn't think there are signs of this being an issue yet.) She also said that the only thing that could be done if he did have it would be to either a) give him more insulin or b) to take him interstate to get radiation therapy. Tucker, being Tucker who doesn't travel to the vet well..........Can't even imagine trying to get him to Vic for treatment. At any rate, I guess it is too early to worry about that at this point.
 
Tucker said:
Yes I did! Obviously still half asleep.... He has come down a couple of points in the last 4 hours. Do you think I need to test again tonight or are we pretty confident he will be fine and I should give him the 3.5 in the morning again??
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He looks like he should be fine now until morning. Just give him a snack before you go to bed.
Yes give the 3.5 units in the morning and then if there is no dropping to a green number (under 5) during the morning cycle, increase to 3.75 units tomorrow night.
 
Yes, I agree - you should not worry about Acro at this point. Sorry I focused on it for those 2 responses.

Let's get Tucker regulated and then the reward will be less eating and drinking, and a happier kitteh.
 
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