5/30 Merlin PMPS 406, 299@+1, 104@+2, 182@+3, 200@+4

Merlin’sMama said:
https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...9-5-182-6-169-6-5.263889/page-3?_params=Array

Hi. Running on very little steam this morning. Any thought as to which carb food to start with? I’m so confused.
Click to expand...
Good morning Jill and team. I’m sure you must be feeling exhausted.
I’ve read through what Wendy has said and she would like us the start with ordinary low carb food so that we can see where the onset is and also the nadir and the duration.
So I think we need to start with a low carb preshot mealaround about 5% give or take a 1 %. Give him what you normally give.

Also she posts that the thread is too long ….and I do understand what she is saying. It is too long. We need to keep the thread shorter otherwise it is far too long for someone who might look in to help to plough through.
So to that end I think we need to just have you, me and Suzanne posting today and we can try and not add any extra chatter to clog up the thread. Maybe we can have a PM between the three of us if we want to talk about other things except dosing etc.
I will ask others to not post please but to PM us if you need us so that we can see if we can shorten the thread. Is that ok with you.?
 
Merlin’sMama said:
Last night was mostly down to business, but I will try to ask less questions. It could be that the questions and answers would be useful to someone, but I will save it for somewhere else. Feeding him 1/2 can of 5% right now.
Click to expand...
It is absolutely fine to ask questions, that is how you learn.
We know that Merlin always drops at +1 and doesn’t have a food bump like a lot of another cats who go up slightly at +1
But I don’t think that is his onset. So my thinking is we give him a small teaspoon of low carb around 5% at +1 if the BG has dropped quite a bit. Then we test at +2 and that will most likely be when he has had the onset. If that is the case, and depending on how much the drop is, we will feed some more food and decide on the carb context when we see the drop.
How does that sound?
 
Merlin’sMama said:
I have 1.9 or 2.9.
Click to expand...
The 2.9 is good. I think Wendy was saying we don’t need to test every half hour all the time. I think this 1/2 hour test is important because we want to see when the insulin kicks in. If it is at+1.5 and not +2, then we will know when to feed the higher carb food to slow the drop. Does that make sense.?
If you gave the 1.9 that’s OK.
 
This is going to get impossible soon for me to be reading and responding to PMs, filling in both spreadsheets, changing the title, feeding, and testing. I don’t always have help. And I am not at full capacity with four days of very little sleep. I’m sorry if this is extraneous information, but want you to know where i am coming from. I would like to keep it all here and maybe delete later. I am not feeling good about any of this and I need sleep. But I will keep going on for Merlin.
 
Jill --

I think I'm the person that Wendy was referring to. Merlin reminds me of Gabby. She was given to early, dramatic dives in numbers. She could start out in the 400s, drop to the 40s, and bounce back to the 400s. Her spreadsheet is in my signatures if you're inclined to reviewing 6.5 years of data.

To be honest, I'm having a hard time sorting out the notes on your spreadsheet. Sticking with a few conventions consistently will help.
  • Please don't use the time on the clock. Use the +time so we know for sure where in the cycle you're testing.
  • Please be consistent with the test data in your comments. I realize your meter must be reading in mmol/L. However, the majority of people looking at Merlin's spreadsheet are from the US and use mg/dL. However, if you are referencing numbers on your spreadsheet, you only need to give the +time, not the actual BG reading since the number will be in the cell related to the time you tested.
  • Given the difference in the way the Libre is reading, I'd give some consideration to poking Merlin's ear. It's your call but going between two meters is inconsistent at best and going to drive you crazy at worst.
I never used food that had varying amounts of carbs. Gabby was sensitive to gluten and couldn't tolerate most of the gravy foods. I used either Karo (corn) syrup or honey to steer her numbers and how much I added to her food depended on how low her numbers were. Bron's point above is also well taken -- low carb may also help to keep the numbers from dropping too quickly. One of the strategies I routinely used was that Gabby was fed at pre-shot, +1, +2 and in some cases +3. I was typically using low carb food. Spreading out the food helped to keep her numbers from dropping hard and fast. If numbers were dropping into lower ranges, I would intervene with higher carb food. (I was working and had to leave at around +2 - +2.5 so I didn't have an option for testing much later in the morning and would give higher carb before I left the house if I was concerned.)

I'm not sure how much you want to be wed to checking Merlin's numbers every hour -- let alone every 30 min. As Wendy noted, it's not sustainable. It looks like there are some days when you're testing hourly over 24 hours. I was a testaholic and you've got me beat! I want to give you some homework. Please study Merlin's spreadsheet and see if you can sort out where Lantus onset and nadir fall. This won't always be at exactly the same time every day but more of an approximation. Ideally, knowing this will give you some breathing space when it comes to testing. (I just read Wendy's last post from yesterday. We're thinking alike!!)
 
Merlin’sMama said:
This is going to get impossible soon for me to be reading and responding to PMs, filling in both spreadsheets, changing the title, feeding, and testing. I don’t always have help. And I am not at full capacity with four days of very little sleep. I’m sorry if this is extraneous information, but want you to know where i am coming from. I would like to keep it all here and maybe delete later. I am not feeling good about any of this and I need sleep. But I will keep going on for Merlin.
Click to expand...
Ok we will go back to the way we were yesterday. :bighug: Everything on here.
I know you are very short on sleep and are worried about Merlin.
 
Should we do as Sienna suggests and do an ear test instead of Libre every hour, but also when we need more accuracy? I don’t know how much his ears can take though. He is so good.
 
I think she really was just saying to use only one and not both Either… or…

If he were my cat, I would stick with the Libre unless he goes under 50, then I would do an ear prick for my own benefit whether anyone else thought it was necessary or not.
Remember when it said Lo before?
 
Merlin’sMama said:
Should we do as Sienna suggests and do an ear test instead of Libre every hour, but also when we need more accuracy? I don’t know how much his ears can take though. He is so good.
Click to expand...
It is up to you. How much longer does the libre have before it stops? I’d stay with the libre until then and then change to the ears. No harm in double checking a low number in the libre with an ear prick
 
We need to give him some food so I would go ahead and give him the low carb 2 teaspoons and test again 30. In’s after the last test.
Suzanne may have gone back to sleep. Use one 6-7% carbs
 
How are you travelling Jill? Merlin is having a good cycle today and we are gathering some good data.
He’s down to blues and has only had low carb food. So we can see he has his biggest drop between +1 and +2. If we give him some higher carb food between +1 and +1.5 that will hopefully slow that drop.
Now we wait to see when he has his nadir.
Just looked at the SS world one…….I think you could change the +2 square to blue instead of yellow when you have a minute.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
How are you travelling Jill? Merlin is having a good cycle today and we are gathering some good data.
He’s down to blues and has only had low carb food. So we can see he has his biggest drop between +1 and +2. If we give him some higher carb food between +1 and +1.5 that will hopefully slow that drop.
Now we wait to see when he has his nadir.
Just looked at the SS world one…….I think you could change the +2 square to blue instead of yellow when you have a minute.
Click to expand...
Last night he dropped at 4. Previously a few times in a row, he dropped at 3. It still doesn’t seem predictable to me…
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Are you suggesting we do this tonight? That is what we did last night with 15% at +1.5. I had observed that he seemed to always do a huge drop between +1 and 2 ... so we did 15%.
Click to expand...
That’s what I think I would do. We have identified that his big drop is between +1 and +2 so if we give some higher carb food then hopefully it will slow the drop. It is always trial and error until you get it right.
And then hopefully low carb will be enough for the rest of the cycle.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
That’s what I think I would do. We have identified that his big drop is between +1 and +2 so if we give some higher carb food then hopefully it will slow the drop. It is always trial and error until you get it right.
And then hopefully low carb will be enough for the rest of the cycle.
Click to expand...
Last night we fed him half a can of 15% as his PMPS meal. Then another teaspoon of 15% at +1.5
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top