5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!**new question!!!*

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katlady1974

katlady1974

Member Since 2013
Hello everyone,

I'm new here. My 13 year old cat Timber was diagnosed with diabetes 3 weeks ago. he had gradually lost a lot of weight and i took him in just to check it out. he's now on Lantus and i've been home testing for about a week and a half now. he was initially on 2 u, 2xday. however, he dipped down to 45 yesterday so he didn't get a PM shot and i dropped him to 1.75 today. i'm hopeful he can off the insulin in time! thankfully he's a very gentle cat with an easy going personality. he doesn't mind the shots at all and tolerates the pokes in his ears really well.

Timber has a twin brother (Giz) who has no signs of any health issues. Timber was always the huge cat and Giz was the skinny one now they're the same size!). We also had their sister (Kiwi), father (Manson) and mother (Misha). unfortunately those 3 have all passed on :sad: but, Timber and Giz are going strong! just need to get the diabetes in check! :-D

i've been posting questions on the general board and find the support here amazing!!! so, i thought i would come and introduce myself!! :-D :-D :-D
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!***

Welcome to LantusLand, the greatest place you never wanted to be. :lol: :lol: You are in the right place to get help with Timber's care. What should we call you? One thing that would be helpful is if you could create a profile and include the link in your signature. Here are the instructions. Be sure and ask any questions that you have. We are all crazy cat ladies and a few crazy cat gents who want to help.
Liz, Zener's other mom
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!***

thank you! i'll work on a profile tonight and post it later on. oh, and my name is Maria :-D i use my katlady ID for everthing, and it seemed particularly fitting here!! :lol:
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!***

Welcome to LL. Sorry that Timber has diabetes and you have to be here. This is the place to ask questions and get advice from people who have lots of experience dealing with diabetes. Everyone here is very helpful and friendly.
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!***

Welcome Maria and Timber! I hope that Timber will become insulin independent soon too - of course with cats we have to follow them since they just don't listen to our instructions most of the time :lol:

I've been here with my cat Sweetie since Feb this year, and while he hasn't don't one of those amazing 1 month to OTJ turn arounds, he's definitely feeling much better than when we started, and amazingly he is more affectionate than before - even with all of the poking he now gets. It isn't that he's so mellow like Timber, but he LOVES the treats he gets while I test him. I had a heartbreaking first week where he growled at me in the morning :cry: but the support you get here will help you through any rough spots.
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!***

Welcome Timber and Maria.

Good luck with the new dose :cool: Don't worry, he'll come down.
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!***

Welcome Maria and Timber,
I'm glad to see you came and posted over here and especially glad to see that you reduced the dose. I visited you yesterday.

Here is your link to Timber's 5/17 condo
We like to link each day so that others can get background or see what advise you've been given already :-D We'll teach you how to do that too.



My girl went into remission after 100 days on the juice. I was very lucky for that.
It's a process and I hope you are able to get there too. Shadow has been waffling a little lately but it may be that she just has a very unique drummer.
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!***

Welcome to Lantus Land!

There's an overwhelming amount of information in the starred sticky notes at the top of the Board. You may want to get your feet wet reading the New to the Group and the Tight Regulation Protocol stickys.

Just one quick difference between here and Health. On the Health board, they suggest that you either don't shoot or post and ask for help if you get a pre-shot number that's less than 200. On this Board, we use 150 as a "post and ask for help" number. As you get more data and feel comfortable, you'll start shooting lower. (If you look at the subject lines posted on the Board, you'll see that people here routinely shoot low numbers.)

Again, welcome. Please ask questions and/or let us know how we can help.
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!**new question!

so i tested Timber for the PMPS and he's at 244, which is fine, but i'm wondering if i should be concerned that he's been going down all day? what will the insulin do, even at the lower dose??? still sooooo confused! :dizcat
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!**new question!

The insulin will continue to help Timber's pancreas try to get back to normal. And normal is between 50 and 120.

Since Timber is going lower.... it would be good if you could get a +2 test tonite.
If the +2 is significantly lower than the pmps... it can indicate an active cycle where you might need to monitor more.
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!**new question!

ok, i gave him the insulin (1.75u) and i'll definitely check him at +2. what does "active cycle" mean??
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!**new question!

active cycle is where they drop... sometimes low. Just like you did the other day, and earned a reduction in dose. But sometimes they don't go that low.... they just work their way down
part of the way and then bounce back up ...
We still have to learn Timber's patterns.

Here is the How to handle low numbers link in case you need it. It's good to print a copy for yourself in case
the internet ever goes down on you or power outages....
Sometimes the moment you need help, there could be no one on line....also.
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!**new question!

Since you had to skip the insulin dose last night because of the low numbers, the next few days will have some high numbers. A bounce can last up to 72 hours in most cats.

Remember, you have also stopped feeding dry food and are now feeding a low carb canned diet that can help to drop the BG numbers.
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!**new question!

Maria had this question in another condo

katlady1974 said:
i'm new to this so still doing a lot of reading. when it comes to reducing doses, do you wait until the numbers start going low into the green (timber earned a .25 reduction yesterday as he tested under 50)- or do you decrease them by .25 regardless on a specific schedule? i'm a little bit confused!!!
Click to expand...

Reductions for newly dx cats are earned when the BG drops below 50 anytime during the cycle or if they are in normal numbers (50-120), with most of the time below 100, for seven days. So a cat might be on a dose 5 cycles, 20 cycles, or 100 cycles before they earn a reduction.

We try not to give reductions back to back so if they earn a reduction one cycle, we usually will hold the new dose if they go below 50 in the next cycle or two because it takes a while for the depot to drain.
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!**new question!

Welcome! For the questions ... ask away! You could get a ton of information dropped on you because everyone is very interested in helping and getting Timber safe and OTJ, so try not to get overwhelmed if that happens - just tell us, "Whoa, wait a minute, I need to digest this!" This is a great group of people, and our job is to help YOU!
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!**new question!

he seems to be responding well to the lower dose still. it's 3am (+6) and i woke up to test him because i'm paranoid! his +2 test was still dropping and i was worried he would bottom out. ugh. but he went to eat something after i tested him (they still have half their food left from their PM meal). and now he's come over for a pet and is purring away. so seems he's feeling good! i've noticed that he had stopped purring almost all together for awhile. it's starting to come back again- i'm taking that as a good sign?? :-D
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!**new question!

i've noticed that he had stopped purring almost all together for awhile. it's starting to come back again- i'm taking that as a good sign?? :-D
Click to expand...
Yes, a cat is not just their BG numbers. We like a WCR (whole cat report) or the 5 P's to be included in the condo. The 5 P's are peeing, purring, pooping, preening and playing. Giving a progress on all these factors along with the appetite gives us a better picture of how your cat is doing.

So yes, the purring this morning was one of the 5 P's and is a good indicator that Timber is doing well.
 
Re: 5/18 Timber AMPS 529; +6 394 ***new here!**new question!

Hello Maria and Timber,

Welcome! Don't ever be afraid to ask a question. It's always better to be safe than sorry so never worry or hesitate to ask anything. The people on this board are amazingly patient and eager to help you. I always learn something new by reading the questions of others so even if you think your question might have been asked and answered a hundred times, there are likely others of us out here who might wonder the same thing. I had never heard of the 5 P's until I just read it here tonight! :lol:

Tonya and Tiki
 
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