5/15 Eddie AMPS 181, +6/295, PMPS 252, +4/129, +8/60

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Jen&Eddie

Jen&Eddie

Member Since 2013
Yesterday's Condo

Today:
AMPS = 181
+2.5 = 236
+6 = 295
+10.5 = 237
PMPS = 252
+2 = 228
+4 = 129
+5 = 95 :mrgreen:
+6 = 74 :mrgreen:
+7 = 75 :mrgreen:
+8 = 60 :mrgreen:
+9 = 83

Good evening LL!

Eddie bounced last night after that lovely swim in the lagoon during the AM cycle yesterday. He started out in blue this AM which was a nice surprise, but continued to bounce through the middle of the AM cycle. But, it looks like he's cleared the bounce and going to have an active cycle tonight! :-D I suspect Mr. Greenie may even stop by for a visit!

He does seem to be clearing his bounces a little bit faster lately - in one or two cycles, rather than 4-6 cycles, and he's having more blue pre-shots so I can see progress. :smile: (anti-jinx).

Marje and Shelly - thanks for the visits to Eddie's condo last night and this morning. :smile: Marje - we've tried shooting while eating, but Eddie's too smart for us...he scoots away. I seem to have the best luck with him letting him completely finish eating, and let him inspect the other kitties' bowls so he's satisfied that there's no left overs for him to eat, taking him into the bedroom and settle him in for his normal between-meal nap, giving him some snuggles, and then shooting. :-D

Edited: Yay! A green at PM +5!
 
Re: 5/15 Eddie AMPS 181, +6/295, PMPS 252, +4/129

i jen. i haven't been posting much this past year, but was following eddie on prozinc. was just taking a look to see how things were going since you started lantus.

am i reading eddie's ss correctly? this is cycle number 22 at 2.5 units? if so AND if you can continue to monitor as you have been... what do you think about taking the dose up to 2.75 units? it'd be nice to see those cycles flatten out while not allowing eddie to go too low.
 
Re: 5/15 Eddie AMPS 181, +6/295, PMPS 252, +4/129, +5/95

Hi Jill!

Thanks for stopping by! I have been wondering if nudging him up to 2.75 might help flatten him out. As I understand it, the protocol isn't 100% clear when a kitty is getting good nadirs but is bouncing or continuing to get higher pre-shots, whether to increase or to hold. I did actually raise him from 2.25u to 2.5u for that exact reason - to try to flatten him out and lower him overall, even though he was getting good nadirs on 2.25u and he hasn't gone too low on the increased dose. (anti-jinx). So, I am definitely open to this. The one worry I have is that I can usually only get a +2 in the AM and then I can get home for one more test at nadir-ish during the work-week, so I worry a bit whether I can control his cycle with food during the AM if he's having a fast drop or dipping a bit low. I do have a timed feeder I can use, but I'm not quite sure yet in looking at his patterns, when I should consider shutting him up for a few hours with some extra LC or even MC.
 
Re: 5/15 Eddie AMPS 181, +6/295, PMPS 252, +4/129, +5/95

lol! ok, then we are on the same page. i wasn't sure. just thought i'd throw the idea of increasing the dose out there.

when i used to spend more time on the board i often suggested caregivers take the time to learn if their cat would self feed when their numbers began to drop. most cats will. if eddie is one of them it'll give you some peace of mind when you're gone. if you haven't tried it... give it whirl.
 
Re: 5/15 Eddie AMPS 181, +6/295, PMPS 252, +4/129, +5/95

Perhaps you could increase on a Friday night and you would have the weekend to see what he does?
 
Re: 5/15 Eddie AMPS 181, +6/295, PMPS 252, +4/129, +5/95

I do have a timed feeder I can use, but I'm not quite sure yet in looking at his patterns, when I should consider shutting him up for a few hours with some extra LC or even MC.
Click to expand...

do you have a fairly set feeding schedule right now? i started reading your notes, but figured it was easier and less tedious to ask.

here's how i figured alex out. maybe it'll help you with eddie...
she's on lev, not lantus so timing would be different, but the idea is the same.

1. figure out about how much of a food spike eddie has (if any).
2. begin recording when you feed in the corresponding +hour cell on his ss (i mark feeding times with an asterisk in those cells).
3. notice how long the effects from food last. when she's at a good dose... for alex it's approx. 2 hours in all but the end of the cycle.

once you get a handle on the effects of food/when fed, you'll have a good idea of when to feed or set a food timer.

without all the details i'd need to figure out an exact plus hour to set a timer with him... i *think* it would be around +5, but that's strictly a guess. i'm not seeing any big drops after shot time, but that could simply be because you're feeding him a mini-meal early in the cycle. you'd really have to spend some time observing and recording information...

just a few thoughts...
 
Re: 5/15 Eddie AMPS 181, +6/295, PMPS 252, +4/129, +5/95

Jill - I suspect Eddie would eat if there were food available. :-D He's not a grazer, hence our current 6 meals a day routine, and add in two civilians who will scarf anything in sight. ;-) I do know that Eddie will sometimes get up and look for food in the kitchen usually when he first starts to go down early in the cycle. On some of our more exciting nights in our last days on ProZinc, he was happy to eat whatever I'd feed him, so I have never had an issue getting him to eat when he needs to, but he wasn't actively searching out food in the 30's :shock: and 40's. We used auto-feeders when we left the kitties in the care of a sitter for a weekend in March, and Eddie figured out in about 2 seconds that the sound of the feeder meant food, so I think he'd eat if food were available. Maybe I'll experiment with that with just some LC snacks in the feeder just to ensure that he'd eat.

Marje - thanks for stopping by! I think heading into a weekend might be a good chance to try this as well. This coming weekend it's our plan (right now anyway) to do a trial run on Saturday taking Eddie with us to the lake cabin. If it goes OK, we will likely bring him with us for a long weekend at the lake over Memorial Day weekend, so I may have to wait a bit before trying to increase. I'll have to chew on it a bit. The sitter wasn't a disaster, but we seemed to get pretty badly off track after having the sitter shoot a reduced amount for 2 days, so I'm hoping Eddie will cooperate with our goal of having him travel with us so we can still go to the lake this summer.

I'm also starting to wonder if we should start feeding a slightly higher carb. We feed Tiki (0%) or Weruva Cats in the Kitchen (2%), mixed in equal parts with FF classics - Turkey & Gibs, Chicken, & Beef, so the meals average out to around 2-4%. Snacks are usually FF Turkey & Gibs (3%). I have on hand a little bit of 8%, and MC ranging from 12-18%, and HC ranging from 20-24%, if I remember right. We were burning through the MC and HC in our last days on ProZinc, so I got a quite a stock pile, but it's been a while since I bought it. I'm going to have to go back and label it all. Silly me, I thought I'd just remember which was which. ohmygod_smile
 
Re: 5/15 Eddie AMPS 181, +6/295, PMPS 252, +4/129, +6/74

you might want to go slightly higher on carbs.
we've never had that problem. alex can get a hefty food spike from a small piece of freeze-dried chicken so we try to stay around 0% to 5% when it comes to carbs. although it's becoming more and more difficult when also looking for lower phos foods for her kidney problems. :roll:

all you can do is experiment to see what works best for eddie...
 
Re: 5/15 Eddie AMPS 181, +6/295, PMPS 252, +4/129, +6/74

Thanks Jill!

I cross-posted with you regarding feeding. :smile: My food notes with times are all the way over in a separate column after the "comments" column. :-D Generally, Eddie gets AM and PM meal split into two portions. The AM meal is approximately 2.5 oz. - 1/2 fed at AMPS, and the second half fed at +2 or +2.5 (depending on how far behind I'm running in the morning. :oops: ). PM meal is done the same. Normal snack time is at AM/PM +6 or +6.5 (AM varies based on when I can get away from the office for lunch), and is about 2/3 of an oz. All meals have water added at approximately a 3:2 food to water ratio. Eddie seems to be maintaining his weight pretty well at this amount, so it seems calorie wise to be good. Recently, when I'm able to keep an eye (mostly in the PM or weekends), if he's headed into the mid to low 100's by +4, I will feed about 1/3 of an oz. of LC to help encourage a surf.

If he's going to have a lowish cycle, it seems like his onset is having the fastest drop leading into about +4. So maybe a small LC snack at +4 if I'm suspicious of a drop might help prevent a drop that goes too low.

It's really tough to tell on the food spikes because he bounces so much. I *think* it looks like when he's not bouncing, he's usually up about 30-50 points at +2 from PS, and then goes on to have a normal cycle. If he's flat or going down at +2, it looks like he maybe is bounce clearing and sometimes has a more active cycle. A lot of them, though, regardless of a rise or drop, end up being flat yellow bounce cycles. I guess even if I err on the side of caution if it looks like it *might* be a more active cycle, but it turns into a flat yellow bounce cycle, an extra snack or two of LC during the cycle probably isn't going to make much, if any difference.
 
Re: 5/15 Eddie AMPS 181, +6/295, PMPS 252, +4/129, +6/74

I guess even if I err on the side of caution if it looks like it *might* be a more active cycle, but it turns into a flat yellow bounce cycle, an extra snack or two of LC during the cycle probably isn't going to make much, if any difference.
Click to expand...

You are probably right unless he is extra carb sensitive and provided you are feeding those extra LC snacks primarily before nadir (when his BG is up) so you don't slow the effects of the insulin down. You also want to be sure you keep his calories relatively stable if you can so he doesn't gain weight (unless he needs to).
 
Re: 5/15 Eddie AMPS 181, +6/295, PMPS 252, +4/129, +6/74

Thanks so much Jill and Marje!

It's so much easier to spot patterns when you have some experienced eyes pointing out where to look for them. :-D Thank you, thank you!! Lots to chew on here and figure out how to start implementing! I'm cautiously optimistic that a nudge up in dose (while figuring out a system to keep Eddie safe), will bring him flatter and help with the bouncing. I can see some improvement after going up to 2.5u so maybe a larger depot will help us get closer. :smile:
 
Hi Jen. I like the green!! Good luck with the increase if you decide to do it tomorrow!! Since Eddie has such a good nadir are you still going to increase?
 
Hi Elise! Thanks for stopping by! One more test, then bed for this bean. :smile:

Eddie is surfing nicely tonight! Makes me happy. :mrgreen: I think I'm going to hold off on increasing till I can monitor closely for a good 4-5 cycles at least to feel comfortable that a dosecrease won't drop him too low (assuming he continues to have good nadirs at the 2.5u). The increase from 2.25u to 2.5u interestingly didn't really drop his nadir numbers even though he was having nice nadirs on the 2.25u, but it does seem like he's having more blue pre-shots on the higher dose and a little less bouncing.
 
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