3/6 - Phobos - AMPS 500, +2 508; when to increase?

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Raechel

Raechel

Member Since 2015
I upped Phobos' dose to 2.5 units 9 cycles ago. It looked like it was helping a bit, bringing him into the 300s on days 2 & 3; we even got down to 174 on day 3, but then he spiked up again (guessing he's bouncing). I just wanted to double-check that I should be increasing his dose by .25 tomorrow (based on that 174), after 10 cycles of this dose. I don't need to wait for the bounce to clear, do I?

Also, regarding Daylight Savings, I was hoping to transition him slowly, but that didn't work out with my schedule, so I was going to move his dose time back 30 min. tonight and tomorrow night. Does anyone think this will be a problem for him, based on his numbers? He hasn't gotten very low, so I'm guessing it shouldn't be an issue, but I have nothing to base it on. Also, will it matter that I'm doing a dose increase during that time? Or should I just hold off on the dose increase until Sunday?

Thanks again for all of the help! I hate second guessing myself every time I need to make a change.
 
One other thing I'm wondering about, if someone with experienced eyes can take a look - it feels to me like his numbers are all over the place. I'm not even certain what the numbers should be doing. My assumption, I guess, is that his bg should go up for a couple hours after he eats, dropping to a low at the nadir (~+6ish). Not sure how feeding him mid-cycle (@ +6), as well, plays into it and often his nadir seems to be at the PMPS. Just trying to sort this out and not seeing any patterns or rhyme/reason. Thanks to anyone who has time to take a look!
 
Hi there :cool:

Raechel said:
I upped Phobos' dose to 2.5 units 9 cycles ago. It looked like it was helping a bit, bringing him into the 300s on days 2 & 3; we even got down to 174 on day 3, but then he spiked up again (guessing he's bouncing).
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You are correct. Unfortunately bounces can take some kitties 3 days to clear . Also, a bounce does not always go straight up and/or strait down, BG can kind of of zig-zag.
From the TR guidelines-
Increasing the dose:
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  • Hold the dose for 3 - 5 days (6 - 10 consecutive cycles) if nadirs are less than 200 before increasing the dose by 0.25 unit.
    • if your cat is new to numbers under 200, it is recommended to hold the dose for at least 8-10 cycles before increasing.
    • when your cat starts to see nadirs under 100, hold the dose for at least 10 cycles before increasing.
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Raechel said:
I just wanted to double-check that I should be increasing his dose by .25 tomorrow (based on that 174), after 10 cycles of this dose. I don't need to wait for the bounce to clear, do I?
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Yes, it's the safe thing to do. Being that you don't know when the bounce will clear, if you raise the dose during the bounce you could end up with the bounce clearing and the new dose showing action at the same time and that could bring him down unexpectedly fast to numbers he has not seen in a long time. Additionally it could cause unexpected lows that may be difficult to steer. Either one of those scenarios would trigger another bounce, which you don't want.

Hang in there - it does get better - one shot at a time, :cool:
 
@Sandy and Black Kitty - thank you. So I should increase his dose, even if he's bouncing? Was a bit confused by your wording - it sounded contrary to agreeing that I should increase. Last dose increase, I held for too long, but his numbers didn't seem to ever clear out of the bounce.
 
Regarding feeding most kitties do best with some sort of consistent schedule and ECID

You do want to avoid feeding after +10 so that you don't end up with a PS that is artificially inflated from a food spike.
Beyond that experimenting and observing his reactions will eventually reveal the best way to feed Phobos.

FWIW what I ended up doing was to feed BK at shot time, then he got half that amount at both +4 and +8.
I did this both AM and PM, thanks to a 5 compartment timed feeder, which was a life saver.
I still feed him in the same manner (only minus the shots!):cool:

Other folks have different methods for different circumstances, for example the kitties who like to cliff dive after the PS meal do better when fed early in the cycle.
Whatever method you choose, be consistent , That way you can make a better evaluation of the effects.
 
@Sandy and Black Kitty - thank you for the clarification. Sorry, I hadn't realized that I posed two opposing questions there. How do I tell when a bounce has cleared? On the previous dose, he mostly stayed in the reds after an early dip into yellows/blues/greens.

Regarding feeding, I feed him before his shot and then at +6, before the PM shot and then as late as I can (between +2 & +4) whenever I go to bed, which he scarfs down immediately.
 
You can tell a bounce clears when you get tests somewhere about the range of what set the bounce off - in Phobos' case, his most recent bounce was caused by the blue 174. When you see a blue again, unless he gets down to green, increase with the shot right after that next blue.

The night of the 7th would be 3 days after the blue pmps, so I'd be watching for him to clear it about then.
 
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