6/06 Merlin PMPS 342, 144 @+2, 94 @+3, 103@+4

Good morning Jill.
Did you manage to get the food schedule sorted out with the main meal and the snacks for during each cycle?
I’m hoping we can start that today.
I think the +1.5 or +2 snack should be a ‘high’ low carb snack around 9% to try and counteract any drop.
How do you feel about that.?
 
Jill, I’m going to let you manage the cycle today and I’ll watch. I think you have learned enough to know how to manage drops.
Don’t worry if you make mistakes along the way….we all do and that is normal.
The first time Sheba dropped to 3(52) it was pre forum days and I had the whole family awake at 1am and I fed her so much dry food, she was decidedly seedy all the next day. But she was OK!
I’ll get you to post the BGs as you go and say what you will do, if anything. OK?
 
He would eat again right now if I fed him. Should I leave more breakfast down for him than the can in the morning? I find this confusing.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
Jill, I’m going to let you manage the cycle today and I’ll watch. I think you have learned enough to know how to manage drops.
Don’t worry if you make mistakes along the way….we all do and that is normal.
The first time Sheba dropped to 3(52) it was pre forum days and I had the whole family awake at 1am and I fed her so much dry food, she was decidedly seedy all the next day. But she was OK!
I’ll get you to post the BGs as you go and say what you will do, if anything. OK?
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Sure. I am not sure he will drop on this low dose or if he is bouncing or what. It was looking a little more regular before, but he dosage changed, so now its different. I dont know. He doesn’t look at all regulated to me, and now I am going to put a feeding schedule on top of that based on the clock, not the cycle. This is adding more confusion than control. I see the point of making a schedule, but I dont know if he is regular enough to put a schedule on top of his cycle.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
He would eat again right now if I fed him. Should I leave more breakfast down for him than the can in the morning? I find this confusing.
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I would feed him his allocation for breakfast. We want him to eat his first snack at +1.5 or +2 so we want him to be hungry. The choices are….let him eat more now (but will he vomit from too much food?) or wait until the scheduled snack


Merlin’sMama said:
Sure. I am not sure he will drop on this low dose or if he is bouncing or what. It was looking a little more regular before, but he dosage changed, so now its different. I dont know. He doesn’t look at all regulated to me, and now I am going to put a feeding schedule on top of that based on the clock, not the cycle. This is adding more confusion than control. I see the point of making a schedule, but I dont know if he is regular enough to put a schedule on top of his cycle.
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He was bouncing last cycle because of the low numbers and the diving the 2 cycles before that. He will get back on track.
Lots of cats do this but the caregivers still feed a main meal and a couple of snacks during the cycles. You need to put a feeding schedule in place.
You can’t expect him to be regulated in a couple of weeks. It can take months for a cat to be regulated and some cats never become regulated, and until he is in green numbers most of the time, he is not going to be regulated. Remember it’s a marathon not a race.
If you waited for him to be regulated before putting in a feeding schedule it might never happen.
My advice is to start the feeding schedule today and then he is getting regular food, which you were worried about before.
 
But if i test him and he’s dropping, i would have to feed more than the schedule. So if i have just fed him would i feed him again? Doesn’t make sense.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
But if i test him and he’s dropping, i would have to feed more than the schedule. So if i have just fed him would i feed him again? Doesn’t make sense.
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You can either wait until after the test or if you feed him before and he is dropping fast and needed something more, then you could give a teaspoon of a higher carb food. But it has been decided that the +1.5 snack will be a 9% carb snack so it might be worth while seeing if that is enough to stop a drop.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
You can either wait until after the test or if you feed him before and he is dropping fast and needed something more, then you could give a teaspoon of a higher carb food. But it has been decided that the +1.5 snack will be a 9% carb snack so it might be worth while seeing if that is enough to stop a drop.
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So i would wait for what he just ate to take effect before testing I guess.
 
So if I hadn’t just fed him, I would feed him now. But since i had to test and feed at the same time, i dont know if the food i have given will help or not.
 
So I am just waiting to test at +3 now. It’s another half an hour. Is this too long to wait? Don’t know if I should test now, since the 1.5 was kind of meaningless in terms of what Ihad fed him on the schedule.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
So I am just waiting to test at +3 now. It’s another half an hour. Is this too long to wait? Don’t know if I should test now, since the 1.5 was kind of meaningless in terms of what Ihad fed him on the schedule.
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How was it meaningless?
It showed a drop of just over 100 points. And you had just fed the +1.5 snack of 9% carbs.
Then the +2 was the same as the +1.5.
So the snack worked in stopping the drop.
it is up to you if you want to get a +2.5 or wait until +3.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
How was it meaningless?
It showed a drop of just over 100 points. And you had just fed the +1.5 snack of 9% carbs.
Then the +2 was the same as the +1.5.
So the snack worked in stopping the drop.
it is up to you if you want to get a +2.5 or wait until +3.
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Ok. Too late for +2.5. We will wait til +3 now.
 
Bron and Sheba (GA) said:
How was it meaningless?
It showed a drop of just over 100 points. And you had just fed the +1.5 snack of 9% carbs.
Then the +2 was the same as the +1.5.
So the snack worked in stopping the drop.
it is up to you if you want to get a +2.5 or wait until +3.
Click to expand...
So, another reason (besides the extra calories) for feeding the snack just before the +1.5 test is: instead of reacting to the result of the +1.5 test by giving 15, we are preventing a fast drop with lower carb. This way we might avoid having to give the 15. If it showed at +2 that he was still alarmingly dropping, despite the 9 snack, we would feed again.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
So, another reason (besides the extra calories) for feeding the snack just before the +1.5 test is: instead of reacting to the result of the +1.5 test by giving 15, we are preventing a fast drop with lower carb. This way we might avoid having to give the 15. If it showed at +2 that he was still alarmingly dropping, despite the 9 snack, we would feed again.
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Yes the reason for giving the 9% carbs early in the cycle is to try and prevent the big drop. That is why we tried to find out when he had his big drop. And he has them between AMPS and +2 and the times vary. So maybe +1 or a bit after might be a good time to give that snack.
 
Hi Jill,
I have created this high calorie feeding schedule for Merlin, that's over 260 cals daily and will help him put some weight back on. what do you think?

Pre shot 1 tub of Little big paws (roughly 100 cals depending on flavour) and if you can maybe 10 Grams of Gourmet 1/2 hour after his shot taking him to 110 cals.
+ 1.5, 8 grams high cal (8 cals)
+ 4, 8 grams high cal (8 cals)
+ 7 5 grams high (5 cals) can be missed if he's already had extra.
Totalling 131 cals per cycle plus any extra he has is just a bonus.
Obviously you can swap the Little big paws for another high calorie food or mix and match.
 
Teetee (UK) said:
Hi Jill,
I have created this high calorie feeding schedule for Merlin, that's over 260 cals daily and will help him put some weight back on. what do you think?

Pre shot 1 tub of Little big paws (roughly 100 cals depending on flavour) and if you can maybe 10 Grams of Gourmet 1/2 hour after his shot taking him to 110 cals.
+ 1.5, 8 grams high cal (8 cals)
+ 4, 8 grams high cal (8 cals)
+ 7 5 grams high (5 cals) can be missed if he's already had extra.
Totalling 131 cals per cycle plus any extra he has is just a bonus.
Obviously you can swap the Little big paws for another high calorie food or mix and match.
Click to expand...
Looks good to me, Tee. Thank you. What do you think, Bron? Is that half hour feed after the main meal going to work? Also, Merlin doesn’t really like a whole meal of the LBP food, sadly, and we dont currently have anything as high calorie to swap it with. It’s been challenging to get him to eat all of anything we have tried for that ps meal. It seems he prefers to dine al fresco for the second half, especially if I change the location of the bowl 15 or 20 times.
 
Well, the half hour feed after the main meal was just an “if you can” (so depending upon Merlin’s cooperation!) to get a few more calories into him. But the 1.5 is when you want to give him a “drop prevention” snack anyway. :bighug:
 
Merlin’sMama said:
Looks good to me, Tee. Thank you. What do you think, Bron? Is that half hour feed after the main meal going to work? Also, Merlin doesn’t really like a whole meal of the LBP food, sadly, and we dont currently have anything as high calorie to swap it with. It’s been challenging to get him to eat all of anything we have tried for that ps meal. It seems he prefers to dine al fresco for the second half, especially if I change the location of the bowl 15 or 20 times.
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Remember, he is going to put on weight as you get his BGs more under control.
Sheba was really thin when diagnosed and I didn’t do anything special. In fact I was told to only feed her twice a day by the vet and in those days…pre forum days….I didn’t know any better. And she put back on all the weight and muscle as her BGs came back down….and then I had to make sure she didnt put on too much weight.!

I am not sure what Tee is posting. Is it as an extra to the snacks we have worked out? Or is it to replace them?
There are no carb values mentioned and we need to make sure that the early snack at +1 ish is a 9% carb snack and then we really need to know what carbs the others are as well as we don’t want to be feeding a higher carb food if it isn’t needed. Once we get down to surfing, we want a low carb snack.
 
We are aiming for
around 7% ps feed
9% +1.5 snack
And very low carb, like 1 or 2%, at +4 and +7 snack (if needed at all).

This fits in with the main meal, +1.5, +4, and +7 meal plan, it just fits in bonus calories for the moment to help Merlin gain weight. The calories would change as he gains, of course.
 
Merlin’sMama said:
We are aiming for
around 7% ps feed
9% +1.5 snack
And very low carb, like 1 or 2%, at +4 and +7 snack (if needed at all).

This fits in with the main meal, +1.5, +4, and +7 meal plan, it just fits in bonus calories for the moment to help Merlin gain weight. The calories would change as he gains, of course.
Click to expand...
Ok. I get it. Just make sure the foods are not high carb.
Looks like he is still bouncing.
I’m heading to bed now. I don’t think there is much happening.
 
Good evening. PMPS 342. Shot given. Once again a challenge to get him interested in eating enough food. How do you take the grazer out of the cat??
 
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