4/4-4/5 Hugo reduced dose to 1.75u after upset tummy

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Tiina and Hugo

Tiina and Hugo

Member Since 2016
Hi everyone! Long time, no see. :) But today I have a question. Hugo has been having great numbers, but it has been difficult keeping his nose above the water. Luckily I can be at home to monitor most days, but this evening I was really scared to shoot a green number with the full 2u dose. I made the cowardly decision to shoot only 1.5u. :nailbiting: :oops: I need to be feeding MC many times a day, and Hugo's tummy doesn't agree with that. All of my four cats just went through a diarrhea infection that they got one after the another. It was hell...Diarrhea everywhere. I took one of the cats to the vet who had it worst and he even vomited and stopped eating. Luckily Hugo was better, but still suffered from the loose poos. They all got 10 days of antibiotics and I literally just stopped giving it today. Having to feed him so much MC that upsets his stomach is bad :confused: Now after the 1.50u, I fed him 16% food at +2 and still he is in green.

So about the dose...Should I keep going with the 2u or can I try 1.75 even if he, as a long -term diabetic, hasn't gone under 50 three times? Thanks for all the advice.
 
I'm sorry all your kitties had diarrhea. I hope it is all cleared up now. Technically you're not supposed to reduce the dose if you don't see a number under 50, but if you are having to give lots of MC to keep him from going too low, I think you can try a reduction to 1.75. Will Hugo surf with just LC food? :bighug:
 
carfurby said:
I'm sorry all your kitties had diarrhea. I hope it is all cleared up now. Technically you're not supposed to reduce the dose if you don't see a number under 50, but if you are having to give lots of MC to keep him from going too low, I think you can try a reduction to 1.75. Will Hugo surf with just LC food? :bighug:
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If I was to give LC now after shooting a green or low blue preshot, he would go too low and that would mean a reduction if under 40. But I haven't been willing to risk him going so low (see me frantically testing every hour?). He seems to need higher carb food to keep surfing in the green with this dose, which is kind of crazy as I have all this LC food just sitting there and I need to run to the supermarket to get MC that gives him loose poo and then need to whip out the tummy meds. I tried LC with honey, but he wouldn't eat it. Maybe I'm just being overly cautious, but Hugo can drop from 275 to 88 in two hours (March 28th). If I don't at that point give MC or honey, he keeps dropping fast.

I could try of course to shoot 2u with a green preshot and then only feed LC? But I feel that letting a cat purposefully go too low is wrong :confused: But of course, I don't want him to jump back to high numbers. Dilemma!

Thanks for your patience. :bighug:
 
Hi Tiina. That is a dilemma to have Hugo bottom out so fast and then to have the HC food upset his tummy. If only he'd accept the LC food with honey. Have you tried other things like a little syrup?

Even though you gave the reduced dose tonight, he could still be under the influence 2 units for this cycle and maybe even tomorrow.

I agree with Carla that you could always go up again if he trends upward on this dose. Last night when he was in those great greens were you giving him MC then also to prop him up? If you were, you could have prevented him from earning a reduction and you want to get him to go down the dosing ladder if that is what his body needs to do. As long as you can be with him while he is in greens and be ready to bring up if he goes below 50 with a human meter.
 
Do you have the "Where Can I Find?" thread bookmarked? There is some good information in this group about dealing with kitty diarrhea. One of the links is about giving kitties probiotics - it's really good. I followed the directions for giving probiotics to my cats and have been very happy with it. Also note the part in there about stopping diarrhea with Sacromyces Boulardii. It works.

I do agree that if you're working hard to keep him up, it's ok to try a dose reduction. But really, solid green is ideal. If you are going to do a dose reduction, I'd probably just decrease by 0.25u. When a kitty goes all green, eventually you can stop testing so much as they stabilize and as you see they're going to be flat. It's always up to you, of course.

Would it help you feel better to see some of those spreadsheets? Take a look here.
 
I just woke up and
Bobbie And Bubba said:
Hi Tiina. That is a dilemma to have Hugo bottom out so fast and then to have the HC food upset his tummy. If only he'd accept the LC food with honey. Have you tried other things like a little syrup?

Even though you gave the reduced dose tonight, he could still be under the influence 2 units for this cycle and maybe even tomorrow.

I agree with Carla that you could always go up again if he trends upward on this dose. Last night when he was in those great greens were you giving him MC then also to prop him up? If you were, you could have prevented him from earning a reduction and you want to get him to go down the dosing ladder if that is what his body needs to do. As long as you can be with him while he is in greens and be ready to bring up if he goes below 50 with a human meter.
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Hi Bobbie! I haven't tried syrup yet. This morning Hugo had another bout of diarrhea. :( I'm just so tired of dealing with the upset stomachs after that stomach bug cleared with the cats (well I hope it did). This morning I reduced the dose to 1.75 and will be giving strictly under 5% LC only. Anything over 6% just doesnt' suit him, even if it's just chicken in a tapioca sauce. But the good news is that he is still surfing in green :) Maybe it's the depot, but anyway.
Yes last night I was giving him MC too, but the longer it has been from me giving the shot, the better he does with only LC. It's the early onset that sends him to a fast dive, because he has it so soon and then only MC will smoothen it. I hope you can make sense of my explanation. I do love the green surfs so much, but it's the upset stomach I can't handle. It takes days to settle after he has eaten something with more carbs. I just need to find a dose that let's him surf with LC foods.
 
julie & punkin (ga) said:
Do you have the "Where Can I Find?" thread bookmarked? There is some good information in this group about dealing with kitty diarrhea. One of the links is about giving kitties probiotics - it's really good. I followed the directions for giving probiotics to my cats and have been very happy with it. Also note the part in there about stopping diarrhea with Sacromyces Boulardii. It works.

I do agree that if you're working hard to keep him up, it's ok to try a dose reduction. But really, solid green is ideal. If you are going to do a dose reduction, I'd probably just decrease by 0.25u. When a kitty goes all green, eventually you can stop testing so much as they stabilize and as you see they're going to be flat. It's always up to you, of course.

Would it help you feel better to see some of those spreadsheets? Take a look here.
Click to expand...
Hi Julie :) I have read that diarrhea thread carefully and actually bought S Boulardii last year thanks to it. It has worked quite well with Hugo and I just gave it this morning to him again. I hope it helps settle the upset stomach.

The numbers have been great recently, but even after one year I get scared to shoot a low preshot, because he can drop so fast and I'm afraid of losing him to a hypo. He is very carb sensitive, which would mean that if he could tolerate HC foods, it would be easy to steer him, but his history with two intestinal surgeries has made his tummy so sensitive and probably now that he's been on a low carb diet for so long, he just doesn't tolerate the MC or LC foods at all anymore. :blackeye: I need to be using just the LC pates and that will most likely keep the diarrhea at bay.
 
But now that I'm back to the 1.75u dose, it's time to take out the calipers just to get a consistent dose.

@Wendy&Neko can you please tell me once more how do I measure it? :bighug:
 
I measured the BD's at 1.5 mm to a unit. Some people used 1.4. It doesn't matter which you chose, but just pick one and be consistent. If you look at the needle end of the syringe inside the syringe but down from the plastic ring around the outside, you'll see a plastic "hub" inside. I called that the true zero line as often there is a lot of space between the zero line as marked and the actual bottom of the syringe. I put one arm of the calipers against that plastic hub and used the other arm to measure out the insulin dose.
 
carfurby said:
I just looked at Hugo's SS. It's nice to see him surfing those safe greens. Are you feeding him LC only now?
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Hi Carla! Yes, only LC now. I also switched to a new meter, because my mom's old one broke down. Hugo's new meter is now Freestyle Freedom Lite. Before the old one broke, I compared the two and the new one showed a bit lower reading.

Hugo's tummy seems a bit better today, but not 100% yet.
 
That's great Hugo is surfing those greens on LC food. I hope his tummy continues to get better. Sending prayers.
 
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