5/27 FAX PMPS 351

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roisin and fax

Member Since 2011
It was hard to get a preshot this morning, but I got it!

He is at 300.6.
I will feed a combo of EVO and M/D, dose 5 units.
Have a great day!


yesterday: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=44154
 
Re: 5/27 FAX AMPS 300.6

Good morning Roisin. Sorry you had trouble getting the preshot test, is Fax being difficult, or are you having trouble getting blood?

Not a bad AMPS, almost yellow! I'm curious to see where he'll be heading today.

I see your feeding schedule on the SS: half a can at AMPS, half a can at +3, 3/4 to 1 can at PMPS.....is that right? Can you split up that PM meal and feed part before bed, like you do in the AM?

Have a good day!
 
Re: 5/27 FAX AMPS 300.6

hi laurie - i just had trouble getting blood this morning. he is a real trooper in those moments - just swishes his tail at me. i feel awful when i have to try so many times!!

yes that shouldn't be a problem to split the night feed up like that. are smaller more frequent meals better for a diabetic cat?
 
Re: 5/27 FAX AMPS 300.6

Hi Roisin! It's very nice to meet you and Fax! You have a lovely condo here! I feed my sugar cat Guinness four small meals a day. Before I switched over to raw and when he went OTJ the first time, he was eating 1/4 can of Merrick Cowboy cookout at 4:30am, 10:30am, 4:30pm and 10:30pm. We have a great automatic feeder that allows us to feed on this schedule even when we are not at home. Our times are the same now that he is eating raw and we can still use the feeder. I just put frozen pucks of food in there for the later feeds.

I was curious about your 300.6, I guess your meter measures that way. I've never seen that before. What kind of meter do you use?

Well, have a good day!
 
Re: 5/27 FAX AMPS 300.6

Have you tried a warm rice sock on his ear? Warming the ear up can make a big difference when you have trouble getting blood. To make a rice sock, you can use a baby or kid's sock, put a tbsp or two of uncooked (not instant) rice in it and tie a knot in it. Put it in the microwave for 20 seconds or so to warm it up (not hot!) and put it on his ear for a bit before you poke. A lot of cats like it, Mr Tinkles never would tolerate it, so I just rub his ear for 10-15 seconds to warm it and get the blood flowing. Also, if you pinch his ear to make a "dam" below where you poke, that helps the blood pool into a big enough drop.

Yes, smaller meals spread out over the first half of the cycle work best. Lantus is a gentle insulin, so spacing out the food into smaller meals help keep the cycles more level. The reason for feeding in the first half of the cycle is that the effect of the insulin is less potent after nadir, when he starts rising the food will only accelerate that rise, and lead to higher PS numbers.
 
Re: 5/27 FAX AMPS 300.6 +3 324

I live in Canada so my meter measures in mmol/L - I am converting before I post and that is why the decimal comes up!

We don't have a microwave so instead I have been warming up a face cloth in hot water and putting it in a ziplock - you are right - warming the ear helps greatly to get blood. Not sure what I am doing today that is making it difficult, I hope his poor ears are ok!

His level is up from the AMPS but he isn't frantic hungry (which he would be by now normally) and seems a bit brighter in his eyes.
 
Re: 5/27 FAX AMPS 300.6 +3 324

Hi guys .. don't forget, you can always put neo on his ears after his pokes too, just in case they get sore .. It can be tough some mornings, that for sure but you guys are doing great .. love hearing his eyes are a little brighter :-D have a great day guys!
 
Re: 5/27 FAX AMPS 300.6 +3 324

I'm so glad to hear that he seems less ravenous and brighter, that's good! We like to hear about the whole cat, not just the numbers....often you will see improvement in behavior before you see it in the numbers. You might see people say things like "All Ps in place" or "3 Ps this morning" in their condos. The Ps are: purring, playing, pooping, peeing and preening. We watch for changes in those things, as often changes in them indicate improvement or a problem brewing.

Yes, neo=neosporin which is like polysporin.

The washcloth in the ziplock is good, several people here use that to warm the ear. I find that some days it's easier to get blood than others, so it may just be one of those days! I'm sure his ears are fine...everybody worries about hurting their ears, but it doesn't do any harm. Just make sure you are not aiming for the vein, but the space between the vein and the edge of the ear. You can poke up and down the edges, both sides, to spread out the pokes, and you might find that one particular area bleeds more easily than others.
 
Re: 5/27 FAX AMPS 300.6 +3 324 preening

I have noticed that he is cleaning and having a lot of baths lately. When he came off of his honeymoon his coat got unhealthy. He is nice and soft and clean now. He does not play very often at the moment. Here and there he gives Angus a punch or swipe but only because Angus is a pest. I will know he is feeling better once he starts racing on the stairs again! He has always been a purr monster. Peeing is less frequent then after honeymoon. Because he goes outdoors I don't always know about poop - but I did see him poop outdoors a few days ago.

He's still hungry but not begging as much (thank god!). I notice him drink a couple of times each day - not drinking as much as after honeymoon.
 
Re: 5/27 FAX AMPS 300.6 +3 324

those are all great signs! punkin stopped bathing when he was really sick and it took a while before it started back up. i noticed maybe 2-3 weeks ago that his hair was back fluffy again and that was really encouraging.

there is a variety of neosporin that has pain relief in it - i bought the ointment one because it seemed like the cream version made the blood disperse too much and not bead up so i could test it. some people put the neosporin on at the end of the day (if you look at the directions you should put on a fairly heavy layer) and some people put it on maybe 15 minutes before testing to kinda numb it. i don't use it every day but think it's super.

can't remember what meter you have, but the freestyle lite has a way to switch what it reports the data in - so you can change from mm to american numbers. you might look at your manual and see if it can be changed.
 
Re: 5/27 FAX AMPS 300.6 +3 324 +6 356

meters have a 20% variance, so you are basically seeing the same number, although perhaps slightly up. if you test a blood sample and immediately put a new strip in and test the same sample, you might still get different numbers. what is most important is the overall trending - and even with variations you can see that. you might test fax in another hour and see if it's still around the same or has moved. that's one of the reasons i usually get a spot check in the 2nd half of the cycle (between +6 and +12) because occasionally he's been lower there - and i'm surprised!

cats do funny things - one of the greatest things that helped me was when i really *got* it that insulin is a hormone. think pms, slamming doors, adolescence, tears . . . it's not an exact thing at all.

before i really got the ramifications of that, i thought it would be a math equation like "punkin + xunits of insulin = perfect blood glucose." nope. not like that. the nadir (lowest point) moves around sometimes and you have no idea why. well, maybe someone more expert than me understands why, but i have no idea. sometimes they go up instead of down at the mid-point. you just scratch your head and stay the course.

i do know that there are 2 times when a cat's numbers go up. one we call a "bounce" when the cat's blood sugar goes low enough that the liver puts out counter-regulatory hormones that act like sugar and shoot the BG up. that can last up to 72 hours. the number that is "low" is whatever the cat's body thinks is lower than what has been "normal."

the second time it goes up is when we increase doses. it would make sense that more insulin would make the numbers go down, right? wrong. it does eventually, but first you go through "New Dose Wonkiness" where the numbers go up. that's why it's so important to not decide too soon to increase a dose - because most every time you increase you have a few days of going up, so before you increase to a new dose, make sure the NDW and/or bounce from any previous days have cleared.

make sense? if not, it will later as you go through it with fax. for now, just stay the course. keep his dose the same and keep collecting data. that will tell you how fax responds to all of this and will help you anticipate/understand what he does in the future.

how's the change-over on the diet going?
 
Re: 5/27 FAX AMPS 300.6 +3 324 +6 356

what you are saying makes sense - clear as mud as they say! just kidding. i'm starting to feel like i have a better grasp of how this works.
slowly but surely.

diet change over seems to be going fine - he'll eat anything and usually has a stomach of steel. Angus on the other hand needs to be introduced to new foods in extra small steps as he is a puker.
 
Hi Roisin,
The AM cycle today was pretty flat. Sometimes a flat cycle can indicate there is some action coming in the next cycle or two. I would make sure you get a couple of tests before bed tonight, and if his numbers start dropping significantly, you might want to set your alarm to get a mid cycle test.

Glad to hear the good WCR (whole cat report)....it sounds like Fax is going in the right direction!
 
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