6/04 Merlin PMPS 382, 310@+1,275@+1.5, 205@+2, 110@+3, 70@+4, 76@+5,81@+6

Merlin’sMama said:
Thats another 30 in a half an hour, but it seems that is steady. Not sure if it will stay steady though as the food burns up. But still blue. Test at +3?
Click to expand...
Looks like he’s slowing down. So we won’t feed.
Have you thought about doing TR (tight regulation) instead of SLGS?
You are testing enough and you are feeding a low carb wet diet.
The reduction point is 50 instead of 90 and you can increase the dose in three days instead of 7 days if it is needed.
I think Merlin would do better on TR. What do you think?
I would suggest you read more about it before deciding. The two dosing methods are in the yellow sticker at the top of the Lantus page.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Looks like he’s slowing down. So we won’t feed.
Have you thought about doing TR (tight regulation) instead of SLGS?
You are testing enough and you are feeding a low carb wet diet.
The reduction point is 50 instead of 90 and you can increase the dose in three days instead of 7 days if it is needed.
I think Merlin would do better on TR. What do you think?
I would suggest you read more about it before deciding. The two dosing methods are in the yellow sticker at the top of the Lantus page.
Click to expand...
I will read it. But that drop still shocks and alarms me, the faster the more scared I get. Im trying to calm myself and just look at the numbers. The numbers tell the story here. But I dont know if Ican handle quick drops on not enough sleep deliberately… I will study it though.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
I will read it. But that drop still shocks and alarms me, the faster the more scared I get. Im trying to calm myself and just look at the numbers. The numbers tell the story here. But I dont know if Ican handle quick drops on not enough sleep deliberately… I will study it though.
Click to expand...
The drops have nothing to do with what dosing method you choose though.
I think getting Merlin to eat a good preshot meal helps with slowing the drop he inevitably has early in the cycle.
How close to the preshot meals are you feeding him? We need to make sure he is hungry at the preshot meals.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
The drops have nothing to do with what dosing method you choose though.
I think getting Merlin to eat a good preshot meal helps with slowing the drop he inevitably has early in the cycle.
How close to the preshot meals are you feeding him? We need to make sure he is hungry at the preshot meals.
Click to expand...
It doesnt seem to matter much if I give him 3 g of food 4 or 2 hours before ps. If he doesnt like the food, he wont eat all of it. I have switched foods when he gives up on the first one, being careful to weigh. He might take a few licks. His like of the food outweighs his hungriness.It’s so frustrating and stressful trying to get him to eat ps now. I have to subtly follow him around and put the food down in front of him in different places. He will eat more sometimes if its a place he likes. ????
 
Merlin’sMama said:
It doesnt seem to matter much if I give him 3 g of food 4 or 2 hours before ps. If he doesnt like the food, he wont eat all of it. I have switched foods when he gives up on the first one, being careful to weigh. He might take a few licks. His like of the food outweighs his hungriness.It’s so frustrating and stressful trying to get him to eat ps now. I have to subtly follow him around and put the food down in front of him in different places. He will eat more sometimes if its a place he likes. ????
Click to expand...
You may be filling him up and he is no longer hungry.
I would withhold the food for 4 hours preshot so that he is really hungry.
 
So, I am struggling to figure out how I am going to get him the amount of calories he needs because he is all skin and bone. We dont have a very large selection of cat foods here, like in the US, definitely not ones that he likes. I am having to give him food that has lower calories because the two I have with higher calories he doesnt like. How will I feed him what he needs during this experiment if I also cant feed him 4 hours before ps? I feel like I keep asking this question. I dont know what to do.
 
Suzanne & Darcy said:
Excellent! 130 at +3!
Click to expand...
That’s good. So we have only fed him 2 teaspoons of low carb food and managed to control the drop and not hinder the nadir.
I would like to see if he will drop to a green BG on this dose.
I also think we have established that he has a pattern of dropping early in the cycle somewhere between +1 and +2.5 depending on what he eats at preshot.
Can you get the number of calories you need for him if you gave a good preshot meal and 2 snacks of 1 teaspoon low carb during the early part of the cycle and then maybe a small snack at about +7? I’ll see what Suzanne thinks of that when she comes on later.
If you divide the number of calories he needs into two (one for each cycle) then divide each one of those into a preshot meal and two or three small snacks we can see if that works.
Remember he will start to put on weight once the numbers drop into more normal numbers.
 
I dont understand why our goal has been to get him staying steady and long in the blue, but now we want to get him down to green?
 
Merlin’sMama said:
I dont understand why our goal has been to get him staying steady and long in the blue, but now we want to get him down to green?
Click to expand...
Our goal was and is to get him safely down to whatever the dose was going to take him, and try and stop bouncing by slowing the drop.
I would like to see how low this dose will take him without too much feeding to prop him up. Once he hits nadir, it is good if he can stay in those numbers for a few hours.
Blue numbers are good but green are the healing of the pancreas numbers. I know they are scary in the beginning but once you are used to them you will want them all the time.
Regarding the food, if you think he is not getting enough food and you need to feed more, we can always increase the dose of insulin if the food is keeping the BGs too high.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Our goal was and is to get him safely down to whatever the dose was going to take him, and try and stop bouncing by slowing the drop.
I would like to see how low this dose will take him without too much feeding to prop him up. Once he hits nadir, it is good if he can stay in those numbers for a few hours.
Blue numbers are good but green are the healing of the pancreas numbers. I know they are scary in the beginning but once you are used to them you will want them all the time.
Regarding the food, if you think he is not getting enough food and you need to feed more, we can always increase the dose of insulin if the food is keeping the BGs too high.
Click to expand...
I think the problem is the food choice. Because he is a cat who was eating dry food and grazing on wet and dry all day until a month ago, he doesnt know how to eat properly a whole meal all at once. He seems to be absolutely famished the whole time after +6 or so. He is getting on the countertops and trying to find crumbs. He is yowling and desperate. I have been feeding him the bare minimum afternoon snacks. Even down to 3 grams once at +6. It didnt seem to matter. I will go online today and search for what I can have delivered here that is in a range of carbs but all high calorie, so the spoonfuls he gets will at least contribute to his weight gain. Im just so frustrated and tired. I think I am maybe slowly getting a handle on this steering the drop, but what I steer it with needs to be better. I dont think increasing the dose would do any good at this point, because I cant get him to eat any more than he is eating now. Unless of course I let him eat all he wants to at +6.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
I think the problem is the food choice. Because he is a cat who was eating dry food and grazing on wet and dry all day until a month ago, he doesnt know how to eat properly a whole meal all at once. He seems to be absolutely famished the whole time after +6 or so. He is getting on the countertops and trying to find crumbs. He is yowling and desperate. I have been feeding him the bare minimum afternoon snacks. Even down to 3 grams once at +6. It didnt seem to matter. I will go online today and search for what I can have delivered here that is in a range of carbs but all high calorie, so the spoonfuls he gets will at least contribute to his weight gain. Im just so frustrated and tired. I think I am maybe slowly getting a handle on this steering the drop, but what I steer it with needs to be better. I dont think increasing the dose would do any good at this point, because I cant get him to eat any more than he is eating now. Unless of course I let him eat all he wants to at +6.
Click to expand...
That sounds like a good idea to look for more foods that he will like. It’s a learning curve for him as well. I had to do the same thing with Sheba. She grazed on dry food all day before she was a diabetic because I didn’t know any better.
We increase the dose on the nadir, not what he eats.
 
153 @+4.5. That was a fast trip back into blue. Just from a 3.7% spoon. So, I should not feed him again until one spoon at +7, right? Thank you, Bron.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
That was a fast trip back into blue. Just from a 3.7% spoon. So, I should not feed him again until one spoon at +7, right. Thank you, Bron.
Click to expand...
Unless he asks for food, I would not feed him again just yet.
That was a good first part of the cycle and I’m pleased to see him dip his toes into the green even for a short time. I doubt the 1 teaspoon of 3% had anything to do with him going back up so quickly. He might possibly bounce now after dropping into green and with the fast drop earlier on. But well done Jill and Merlin.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Unless he asks for food, I would not feed him again just yet.
That was a good first part of the cycle and I’m pleased to see him dip his toes into the green even for a short time. I doubt the 1 teaspoon of 3% had anything to do with him going back up so quickly. He might possibly bounce now after dropping into green and with the fast drop earlier on. But well done Jill and Merlin.
Click to expand...
And should I keep testing him for a while? Never really sure how much to do between cycles. I have been randomly doing an afternoon one just to see. He is asking for food now, but I can ignore it since he just had a spoon. Can he have an lc treat, like freeze dried liver, if he likes it, at some point in the day?
 
Merlin’sMama said:
And should I keep testing him for a while? Never really sure how much to do between cycles. I have been randomly doing an afternoon one just to see. He is asking for food now, but I can ignore it since he just had a spoon. Can he have an lc treat, like freeze dried liver, if he likes it, at some point in the day?
Click to expand...
You can test at +5 or +6 of you like just to see how long he stays in the lower numbers…all good data. Once they start to go back up I would give both you and him a break until the next cycle.
And yes he can have treats like a 1 cal dried liver treat….absolutely.
 
Yeaah, that was so fun and exiting to read: such a nice cycle :cat::cat: you managed to let him drop into green with a lot of control and no HC, that was an amazing team work @Merlin’sMama and @Bron and Sheba (GA) :woot:

I can subscribe to the “recipe” given by Bron for feeding the full amount of food Merlin needs :) we did exactly that: we identified the amount of LC food we wanted to feed Chico per day, divided it by 2 and had a formal schedule of feeding at preshot, +2, +4 and +6 and then decided based on the cycle Chico had when to give it. If we fed here and there HC we just considered it an exception and didn’t bother too much with feeding him more calories that cycle. Considering that Chico was an early dropper as well, we almost never had to deviate from the pre set amount for the +4 nor from the +6. Most of the time we only played with the amount for +2 by dividing it between+1, +1.5 and/or +2.

The fact that he had a fixed feeding schedule made the cycles a bit more predictable and the fact that he had some food after nadir didn’t affect his BG much but kept him satisfied until next preshot. Of course we as well were giving more food at preshot and at +2 then later, just like you are doing already :)

Since Merlin is skinny, adding calories shouldn’t be an issue. Btw, Chico learned very quickly the schedule :)

I want to give thumbs up to Bron’s idea of following TR, it is a much better protocol for managing FD and since you test this much it is a waste not to try it but of course, decide to switch to it only if and when you will feel comfortable :bighug:
 
Good evening. Setting up for the long night in. So what else is new? Im trying to stay positive, but I feel like I will never ever catch up on sleep enough to be able to make all of the quick and important decisions that must be made, one right after another, daily and nightly. I feel a little down and hopeless and I dont know how I am going to do this for the rest of our time together with Merlin, let alone for another night, day, night, day… Im so hoping he willingly eats a lot of food tonight. He hasn’t eaten since a few dried liver treats at +4.5. I have an awful feeling like a sort of stage fright. I could really use a break, but I dont see that I will ever ever get one. This is an awesome responsibility. I dont know if I can keep going on like this forever. And I dont understand the TR stuff AT ALL. Sad and tired and down. Sorry.:( Here we go.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
Good evening. Setting up for the long night in. So what else is new? Im trying to stay positive, but I feel like I will never ever catch up on sleep enough to be able to make all of the quick and important decisions that must be made, one right after another, daily and nightly. I feel a little down and hopeless and I dont know how I am going to do this for the rest of our time together with Merlin, let alone for another night, day, night, day… Im so hoping he willingly eats a lot of food tonight. He hasn’t eaten since a few dried liver treats at +4.5. I have an awful feeling like a sort of stage fright. I could really use a break, but I dont see that I will ever ever get one. This is an awesome responsibility. I dont know if I can keep going on like this forever. And I dont understand the TR stuff AT ALL. Sad and tired and down. Sorry.:( Here we go.
Click to expand...
Jill, you are just really tired! When you change your shot times to earlier and can get some sleep; your perspective will be much brighter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top