5/18 Suzie AMPS 90. She has hit 40 !

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Maria & Suzie

Maria & Suzie

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Hi,

Her AMPS was 90, rising trend. So I shot 3.75 IU, fed her.

At +2 it was 42. Suzie no symptoms. Whipped out the catfood pouch with jelly, which she thoroughly enjoyed licking all the jelly off and leaving the meatballs. Had some "cat stix" semi-moist snacks, she had one of those, then, when she clearly had done all the licking she was going to. It takes time for her to eat, she is not fast, so I it took more than 15 mins for her to do all this eating, then I waited a bit, tested, got a 57.

I then let her have some Royal Canin for Fussy cats, Carb 31% and some Temptations. Took her a while to chow, waited a bit, tested and it's back down to 42.

She is symptom-free, has waddled over to drink. She is showing no further interest in food. I think she is simply full from the snacking. I have now given her a glob of honey. She hated it, I got clawed. Am now waiting a little before testing again.

She is getting more & more pissed off and harder to test. I'm alone with her, so am using every "anti-wriggle technique I can think of so that drop of blood pearls before she moves.

We are 1.5 hours in. I've been ok till now, but am now feeling nervous. Hard to be alone at home to literally handle her (as she gets more irritated every time I grab her for a test).

At what number can I start relaxing a little?


Maria (nervous) & Suzie (BOS, calm as anything)
 
Just tested her, the honey has kicked in, she is 118.

She gave me a complete cardiac though. I fished her out of her sleeping place to test her, and she was completely limp. She was very still when I tested her. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the 118. Then she complained and is now sitting and looking annoyed.

I guess she was sleeping so deeply when I picked her up that she was all limp? At 118 she should be out of danger?

Her hypo-episode has lasted 2 hours and I've been calm until now, now I've got the shakes.
 
Maria & Suzie said:
Just tested her, the honey has kicked in, she is 118.

She gave me a complete cardiac though. I fished her out of her sleeping place to test her, and she was completely limp. She was very still when I tested her. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the 118. Then she complained and is now sitting and looking annoyed.

I guess she was sleeping so deeply when I picked her up that she was all limp? At 118 she should be out of danger?

Her hypo-episode has lasted 2 hours and I've been calm until now, now I've got the shakes.
Click to expand...

Ok you can relax now 118 is a good number I am sure someone with dose advice will come along for you soon but I do understand your shakes Do Lou gave me a 23 yesterday and I felt like I was going to have heart failure as well. Is she acting ok ? like her normal self now?
 
Hi Maria......when you say hypo episode I am guessing you are just referring to low numbers and not any actual symptoms.
When Suzie goes low again such as a number in the 40's feed a small amount of food.......like a tablespoon of high carb or you could just let her lick the gravy. If you feed too much she will get too full like she did and if the numbers drop again later in the cycle she will not want to eat again.

The 40's can be scary for the first time but she was not in danger as long as you test and have high carb food you can control the numbers.
How many hours from AMPS is the 118?

You can breathe and relax now for a little while. :mrgreen:
 
Yes, she has been her normal self along. She got really mad when I more or less sat on her to give her honey (sorry, I'm alone at home, I had to get a bit forceful in order to make it happen) and gave me the claw.

She's 15, so she never moves much, she seems a little subuded right now, but she's most likely annoyed at the manhandling, the constant ear-pricking and maybe a little tired from the swings & activity.

There's no interest in food right now, but why would there be, I let her lick all the jelly she wanted and gave her "naughty" food to get the sugar up.

The limp thing when I picked her up gave me a "OMG, I've killed my cat!" moment. Right now she is on her side for a nap, but when I move to look at her, she looks back. She is probably thinking that she always knew I was a lunatic, but that this tops it all...

Trying to collect myself, I have gotten absolutely nothing done today, my boss is getting squirmy about not seeing me in the office lately. Definitely a dose reduction tonight. I'd be happy to just have her on a steady dose with nothing too exciting going on for a few days.
 
No, she didn't show any symptoms. I'm too flustered to get the terminology right, so, yes, I meant she was down at 40, then up to 57 and then down to 42.

I let her lick the jelly at 40, and then when she was at 57, I gave her some regular 31% carb dry food for good measure, at 42 I whipped out the honey.

I'm all alone and haven't done this before.

I will test her again, hope she will let me.

She scared the heck out of me when I picked her up and she was limp, but I think she may just have been sleeping very deelply (as old cats do) and didn't really wake up. That's when she tested 118.
 
Hi Maria! I'm sorry you have to do this alone, but I have to say that you did an excellent job. I know that the feeling seeing that 40 for the first time! I was so thankful that I had been on the FDMB for a while before that happened and I read about what to do everytime someone else's kitty went low, so I knew exactly what to do. Even tho you know, it still is scary!!

Good Job and I hope that Suzie doesn't scare you anymore today! And I believe a dose decrease is in order!!
 
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm sorry you are really funny! My cats KNOW I'm a lunatic there's no question there. 118 is a fine number for right now, she doesn't need to eat anything right now she can relax a bit and digest. When you test her next she will hopefully be steady and still in nice green/blue numbers, she doesn't need to eat unless she drops lower again or if she is hungry. I think those kitty are pretty high carb too, my guys like them too.

She definatly earned herself a decrease for her next shot. She may bounce from the low numbers by evening plus all the added forbidden foods, but she seems to get back on track pretty quickly after bouncing so hopefully she will keep you on your toes and keep earning decreases :mrgreen: I guess this part of the sugar dance is called the cha-cha (the slow steady part would be a walz) Good job!
 
Maria, you did just fine. And now you know what to do the next time Suzie goes low. Not too much food, because you don't want her to get too full in case you need to feed some more. In a few weeks you'll find that your testing technique is greatly improved, too, and Suzie will get used to it and be more cooperative (ha, maybe!!). I hope that the rest of your day will be less stressful.

Ella
 
We differentiate between low numbers and a symptomatic hypo. Suzie had low numbers.

One thing to be aware of is that the dry food, even though very high in carbs, takes a long time to enter the blood stream. It also takes a long time to be metabolized. This is why we use a high carb canned food, preferably one with gravy. It's in and out of the system more quickly. The gravy is useful because you can feed it alone or on top of LC food and you can give small amounts, like Miriam pointed out to steer the numbers. I think if you are going to give honey, it's probably easier to put a few drops on top of LC food.

You did great! Everyone here is nervous and scared the first time this happens. The low numbers are a good thing, though. Suzie earned a dose reduction. You can shoot the new dose, 3.5u tonight or, if Suzie's numbers bounce (e.g., she's over 300), you can shoot the old dose through the rebound and reduce the dose tomorrow. Be aware that there will be some left over shed action once you reduce the dose.
 
At about +5 just now her number was 130.

When dare I step away from her for a bit? I desperately need to go out for groceries, or I may be nibbling at her food myself this evening! (kidding - it's not quite that drastic, but I sure could do with a break from "cat-watching")

She's sleeping & digesting, not looking 100% happy, but who would be after being manhandled, sat on, disturbed while napping and having an food unnatural to you (honey) globbed in your mouth... (note to self - remember to tell DH not to eat out of that jar)

Can we order in some nice even blue numbers for a few days so that I can relax and get a few other things done? ;-)
 
Alright, back from the store, gave me a chance to see daylight today :smile: Cat's still alive & well & is grooming a little, so none worse for the wear. Getting out for an hour helped, I feel much better.

Can anyone give me an idea of what sort of quantity of gravy to give when I see, for example, 40, so I do not overfeed her and can spread out the HC a little in case she goes back down, like she did today, so I have more wiggle room. And roughly what quantity of HC dry food, so it has a bit of a longer effect.

I sorta got it right today, but if I get some tips, I'll get braver about the quantities. (and thus can avoid resorting to the honey)

Also, if I see a low number again, like the 90 I saw this morning, and I cannot stay home and watch her, what should I do? I obviously don't want her to go into low numbers when no-one is around to notice & help.
 
Most of us don't feed the dry food -- ever. There are some exceptions (e.g., Carolyn/Latte since Latte doesn't eat well and has a complicated medical history). Once I removed dry from the house, it has been banished forever.

How much to feed is often a matter of trial and error because ECID (every cat is different). Some cats are more sensitive to carbs than others and just feeding a bit of LC food will raise numbers vs. a cat who is not sensitive to carbs and will need HC food. Whether to feed HC or MC or LC may also depend on where in the cycle the drop is and how much momentum is behind the drop. Getting a feel for this kind of information is why we push collecting data on your cat.

You want to try to spoon out the gravy portion which is where all of the carbs are. You can feed either some of the solids with it or you can put the gravy on top of LC food, which would then make MC or higher depending on how much gravy is involved. I generally use about 1 teaspoon, give or take, depending on where Gabby's numbers are. In a pinch, a few drops of honey or other syrup will also work as a HC substitute but I would put it on the top of food. Overall, you don't want to feed very much at any one time. When Gabby's numbers run low, I may be giving her a few bites of food every time that I test. I don't want her to get too full and refuse food or if I over feed, I don't want her to vomit.

So, as a general rule that you can adapt to meet Suzie's individual needs:
  • if numbers are in the mid-greens, feed LC to get Suzie surfing;
  • if numbers are in the 40s feed MC or HC to bring numbers up into the 60s or so;
  • if numbers are below 40, feed HC
In cases where numbers are under 50, you want to bump the BG level up and make sure you have at least 2 consecutive tests, at least 20 min. apart, that indicate that Suzie's numbers have stabilized in the 50s or above.
 
OMG Maria - you did well and you are hilarious too! I'm glad Suzie is doing so well and I'm glad I got to ready some more of your entertaining posts! I wonder if Suzie just thought, "maybe if I just play dead she'll leave me alone already!" when you caught her all limp like that.

Go Suzie!
 
I'm glad Suzie & I are a source of entertainment ! ;-)

Not sure I quite see the funny side of it yet, I still have the shakes, but I have to say, your comment about Suzie pretending to play dead so I'd leave her alone did get the first smile of the day out of me ! I'll have to wise up to her cunning feline wiles !!!! :lol:

At the time, however, I was having visions of "kitty CPR", somewhere amongst my wild thoughts of "in case of limpness honey on gums, maybe she isn't deader than I can test her first", while loudly going "Suzie, Suzie, have you gone limp???" to her.

Can you imagine if we all had webcams switched on to film the crazed diabetes antics with our cats???? Never mind the humans having BOS, I think Suzie had BOT (.... of Titanium!) today.

And thanks for the food during low numbers advice, now I know we are talking quantities in the spoons to up the numbers a little !!

Can anyone give me some re-assuring advice on what to do if I see a low number like 90 AMPS, and I cannot be home to watch her that day in case she drops to low numbers? Skip the shot? Shoot a lower dose? Put out some HC food for her?

To those of you who have dealt with numbers as low as 23 - I salute you!

Thanks all !

Maria & Suzie
 
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