? 3/21 - Gen, AMPS +>400 - increase?

Allie & Gen

Allie & Gen

Member Since 2025
Yesterday

Good morning, friends! I hope your weekend is off to a pleasant start. Safe surfing to your kitties!

I held the dose this morning, in part because I do plan to spend a chunk of the day away from home. However, I don't think I should continue to hold it, in spite of the 87 the previous night. On 0.75u + budesonide, he's had two nadirs in the 150s and two above 250. And while I know we are supposed to make our dosing decisions primarily based on nadirs, I want to try and get/keep his whole cycles under 250. And I don't want to keep letting him get above 400, even briefly, if I can help it. I haven't been able to test for ketones the last couple of days, but his history there is on my mind.

That said, I'd be grateful for some advice! Should I increase to 1u tonight?

@Wendy&Neko @Christie & Maverick @tiffmaxee @Sienne and Gabby (GA)
 
On a completely DIFFERENT note ... Gen's carrier is on its last legs, and I'm contemplating what would be a good choice for him.

On the one hand, I kind of fancy the backpack style, which would be easier on me ... especially since I'm thinking of trying out some leash time with him, since he's so used to wearing harnesses now. I don't want to start him on the walk outside my apartment building; I've been pondering carrying him up to the park on the top of my hill, and trying to do that with his current side-sling soft-sided carrier would be a bit awkward.

On the other hand, Gen isn't a small cat. He's underweight (in fact, he lost an entire pound the other week when he wasn't eating on his own - after all the work we'd been doing to build him back up 😭), but he is long, and tall. I don't want to squish him! And whatever I get needs to be fairly easy to clean, because he's been known to pee in his carrier, especially when he's been experiencing PU/PD (which isn't right now, thankfully, but given his recent numbers, I can't exactly rule it out.)

What works well for your cats? Any recommendations to share?
 
"I see that you are typing, but have you considered petting me instead?"

"That's better."

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Good luck finding a carrier that you like. I never used a back pack carrier.
I have two big hard sided plastic carriers for car travel and a soft sided large Sherpa carrier for flights.
J.D. and Ginger used to love going on leashed walks in the courtyard (lots of big grassy areas and trees) in front of my condo. But, since you need to kind of follow them, and when one wanted to go east and the other wanted to go west, it was a little difficult. Eventually, I slowly and very patiently got Ginger to follow where J.D. and I went. I think they much preferred to go out a night time (less humans around).
Ginger and Jackson used to go out on walks too, but Jackson always ran home or tried to run home when people were around. Ginger was a love bug and wanted every one to notice her and pet her.
After Ginger passed, Jackson does not want to go out on a leash anymore, and I refuse to just let him outside without one. When he has escaped and taken a few steps out the door, I call him and he runs right back in the house pronto. He is scared of outside now.
Jackson and Sabrina wear their harnesses just fine, and always have harness and leashes on inside their carriers when driving to and from vet appointments.
I would love to start taking Sabrina on leashed walks, but I am happy that they are indoor only too.
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Dyana said:
Good luck finding a carrier that you like. I never used a back pack carrier.
I have two big hard sided plastic carriers for car travel and a soft sided large Sherpa carrier for flights.
J.D. and Ginger used to love going on leashed walks in the courtyard (lots of big grassy areas and trees) in front of my condo. But, since you need to kind of follow them, and when one wanted to go east and the other wanted to go west, it was a little difficult. Eventually, I slowly and very patiently got Ginger to follow where J.D. and I went. I think they much preferred to go out a night time (less humans around).
Ginger and Jackson used to go out on walks too, but Jackson always ran home or tried to run home when people were around. Ginger was a love bug and wanted every one to notice her and pet her.
After Ginger passed, Jackson does not want to go out on a leash anymore, and I refuse to just let him outside without one. When he has escaped and taken a few steps out the door, I call him and he runs right back in the house pronto. He is scared of outside now.
Jackson and Sabrina wear their harnesses just fine, and always have harness and leashes on inside their carriers when driving to and from vet appointments.
I would love to start taking Sabrina on leashed walks, but I am happy that they are indoor only too.View attachment 77486
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Gen currently wears harnesses full-time to protect his Libre sensor (they're more full-coverage than the strappy style your beautiful kitty wears in the pictures), so I figure that's the hardest part over with already. I figured I'd take him to a park to let him poke around, but not expect him to go on a directional walk right away.

It's interesting that your cats have mostly not preferred to encounter other humans ... I don't know how Gen will feel when he's out of his territory, but he enjoys meeting new people at home! Would be interesting to see. When I adopted him, he was a stray, but that was almost 10.5 years ago now, and he's never been allowed out since (I am strongly conservation-minded and also protective of him, plus I live in an urban area and my current apartment building doesn't have a yard, so.) I appreciate you sharing your experience!

Hmm. We did have a hard-sided carrier when I first adopted Gen, but it was rather large and hard for me to carry, though I think he appreciated the space. I don't forsee flying with him anywhere anytime soon, so that's not really a consideration.
 
Allie & Gen said:
Hmm. We did have a hard-sided carrier when I first adopted Gen, but it was rather large and hard for me to carry, though I think he appreciated the space.
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Mine is heavy too. I don't know why, but when I carry him in it to my car (a long walk) I swear he is over 20 pounds and he's always 14+. I know the carrier is not over 7 pounds, so I must be just old and feable.
 
Allie & Gen said:
And while I know we are supposed to make our dosing decisions primarily based on nadirs, I want to try and get/keep his whole cycles under 250.
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You are right about wanting to get him to a dose where he has more than a stray high green nadir. Also, with TR, you want him spending as much time in the normal range as possible, with nadirs in the 50-80 range.

He does look like he could use an increase, but you might want to give it 8 cycles on this dose before you do.
 
Leroy can only use a hard plastic carrier. Civvie has a rolling soft sided carrier. Both have their carriers lined with pee pads. Human incontinent pads really since those are FSA eligible. There's no difference between them and dog pee pads.
 
If you get him a backpack one, those ones with the clear bubble turn into greenhouses on a hot day, so definitely avoid those if you'll be in the sun at all. My rescue does pet wellness events where we give free and low-cost vaccines and the people waiting in line with those always have their cats overheat.
 
Bandit's Mom said:
You are right about wanting to get him to a dose where he has more than a stray high green nadir. Also, with TR, you want him spending as much time in the normal range as possible, with nadirs in the 50-80 range.

He does look like he could use an increase, but you might want to give it 8 cycles on this dose before you do.
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Thank you for the advice, but I'm not sure why holding it for 8 cycles is a good idea? He barely dipped below 300 today. I'm inclined to increase tonight. (Shot time is in about an hour.)
 
The thought process there would be that Gen could be bouncing from his last green, and some cats tend to go low on a bounce break (Bell is one of them!). Since bounces can last for multiple cycles, the waiting helps determine if those high numbers are due to Gen bouncing or due to the dose not being enough. I believe TR says to wait 10 cycles after an increase if you are seeing nadirs under 100, which he's had a couple.

I'm not comfortable giving you dosing advice, so definitely listen to Bhooma over me, but I've struggled with the same thing with Bell throughout our adventure. Take a look at 3/1/2025-3/6/2025 on Bell's SS. I went from thinking she needed a bump to taking a decrease :rolleyes:
 
Allie & Gen said:
That said, I'd be grateful for some advice! Should I increase to 1u tonight?
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Mary & Jude said:
I haven't seen Wendy, Sienne, or Christie around in a bit. Let's try @Marje and Gracie or @Bandit's Mom (though she's likely asleep right now).
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Many of you have likely not seen this post on TR Myths Debunked but it’s a good one to bookmark. For Allie’s question, look at comment 17.

Gen is not new to blue or green BGs so there is not a hard, fast rule Allie has to hold ten cycles after the first green and especially because he just dipped his toe in it. Could he be bouncing off the greens from 3/19 PM? Sure…he might be and it’s possible the 400s today were the high before the break. Can you increase on a bounce breaking cycle? Sure if you are there to monitor it and feed. I’ve done it many times but I tended to dose a bit aggressively as I had similar goals as Allie. But in reference to Gen, is he feeling well enough that he will eat if you need him to? That would be big for me to consider.

Remember we shouldn’t “chase” numbers and why potentially stay up all night dealing with lows if you increase in a bounce breaking cycle? To me, I’d give him tonight and if he doesn’t come down into green, I’d increase to 1u tomorrow. It always makes more sense to me to increase on the am cycle unless you have a ketone-prone kitty. Which Gen hasn’t been since 2021.
 
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Marje and Gracie said:
Many of you have likely not seen this post On TR Myths Debunked but it’s a good one to bookmark. For Allie’s question, look at comment 17.

Gen is not new to blue or green BGs so there is not a hard, fast rule Allie has to hold ten cycles after the first green and especially because he just dipped his toe in it. Could he be bouncing off the greens from 3/19 PM? Sure…he might be and it’s possible the 400s today were the high before the break. Can you increase on a bounce breaking cycle? Sure if you are there to monitor it and feed. I’ve done it many times but I tended to dose a bit aggressively as I had similar goals as Allie. But in reference to Gen, is he feeling well enough that he will eat if you need him to? That would be big for me to consider.

Remember we shouldn’t “chase” numbers and why potentially stay up all night dealing with lows if you increase in a bounce breaking cycle? To me, I’d give him tonight and if he doesn’t come down into green, I’d increase to 1u tomorrow. It always makes more sense to me to increase on the am cycle unless you have a ketone-prone kitty. Which Gen hasn’t been since 2021.
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That link is broken, Marje.
 
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