4.16 D'Artagnan AMPS 344, +4 288, +5 285, +7 283, +8 267

[mococo]

We seem to be doing the bouncy ball act. We hit a decent low (and I imagine during the night sometime a lower than what I had recorded) and then we bounce up into pinks this am.

He was high but stable on a lower dose, however he's now lower but more all over the map on a higher dose. Do I need to be making other adjustments? Right now he gets two meals a day prior to shots, he doesn't get snacks. When we've tried small snacks before his blood sugar has spiked.

Have others seen this happen before?

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Re: 4.16 D'Artagnan AMPS 344, +4 288

Feeding several small meals, preferably before nadir, is better than feeding 2 meals per day. I'd be curious if the numbers spiked if you were feeding late in the cycle.

The reason that D'Artagnan is "all over the place" is because he's seeing some lower numbers. He's not used to being in these lower ranges. He visits blues and greens and his liver panics and dumps stored glucose and counterregulatory hormones into his system and the numbers spike back up. This is a normal, but annoying, response.

I tend to think you're holding your doses for too long. Now that you're testing more regularly, you have a better idea of how well a dose is working. If you refer back to the Tight Regulation sticky, if your nadirs are mostly below 200, you hold the dose for 5 days. If the nadirs are above 200, hold for 3 days. Obviously, this isn't a hard and fast rule. For example, if you're not going to be around to test, you may want to wait until you will be around to test when you are raising a dose.

 

[mococo]

Re: 4.16 D'Artagnan AMPS 344, +4 288

thank you for the help.

it sounds like i should start by changing up some of the food before I change up the dose- correct?

and I know this probably sounds silly but how do you change up the meals to mini meals? our schedules permit for being home a decent amount of the time, but i'm a performer, so there are days i'm up feeding, shooting, leaving for day job, coming back for an hour, rinse, repeat, and then leaving again to perform.

how do people break up the food? as a note, when he was on dry food he did have a food ball he would nibble, and then knock around during the day, so I don't think he would be opposed to mini meals (he's highly food motivated). I just don't know how to do it with wet food.

thanks so much.

 

[Janice & Johnny]

Some people use feeders with timers. You can set them to open a little compartment of food at various times during the day. When we first switched to wet food, I was worried about it being out all day, but I haven't heard of any issues with us. Kitties don't seem to mind at all.

Is free feeding an option for you? Johnny doesn't overeat, so we are able to just leave some out all the time and he nibbles when he's hungry during the day. We have three cats and they know the schedule now. After AM/PM tests, fresh food is put out and he usually holds out for the 'new' stuff while maybe nibbling on the old.