Perry & Jenn
Member Since 2019
Emailed with Perry's vet yesterday, and we're thinking about increasing his insulin ... which means he will go up to 1.25u twice daily, which means we need to get syringes for fine dosing.
I've read the sticky on insulin care, syringes & fine dosing, but I'm wondering if anyone has tips or advice beyond what's there. Is it really as simple as drawing a dose out of the Lantus pen? And no more priming the pen, but I'm wondering if we need to draw a hair extra into the syringe, hold it needle up, tap tap tap and push some out to clear it?
Furthermore, about the increase: We switched Perry's food on 6/12, and though I posted this additional info yesterday, I'll repost here below, between the asterisks. (No comments on this yesterday, which is my fault for not adding anything to the subject line to suggest I needed advice! I suppose I didn't have a question at the time but was just letting all of my thoughts spill onto the page.) Fortunately, I'm getting better at testing (in the past few days it has really clicked!), so we are starting to get more numbers on his spreadsheet, but still, apologies for the gaps there. He's running high often, though.
Here's what I posted yesterday:
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Poor Perry's roller coaster continues. Yesterday morning we had an AMPS of 164, but after a big breakfast, he jumped to 508 at +4. YIKES. Tested again at +5 and he had dropped to 280. I think the Lantus is hitting him in that fourth hour, and not at hour four.
After last week's tough time with the enema and subsequent on-and-off diarrhea, we had to have a hard talk about food with this kitty. He likes wet food just fine, but he's been a picky eater with the low-carb diet, and we've switched his food to keep him eating -- seemed pretty important to keep this cat eating since he's lost 2 pounds since diagnosis in late February. The vet has pointed out that it's hard to regulate a cat when you're changing his food, and I completely agree with her. This spring he's been on various Tiki Cats, Weruvas, Nulo, Dr. Elsey's, Fussie Cat, Ziwi, Fancy Feast, Purina naturals -- you name it, we've tried it. Some stick for a few weeks. Others he's tired of after three cans. I think I have the tips for picky eaters sticky memorized at this point.
So, on Wednesday evening, we decided to go with the vet's rec and try the prescription Purina DM flaked wet food. He went bonkers for it, because he's been denied gravy all this time! (I was pretty strict with carb content and ingredients -- no potato starches, etc -- as we were trying to get him into remission this spring via food alone.) Good so far: he's eating it consistently, and his poops are getting consistent, which is fantastic, because that's been on and off since we switched to all wet food. But the DM flaked is slightly higher carb content than say a Fussie Cat, which is zero, and I'm wondering if it caused that scary 508! Then again, he's had highs before the DM, and since he hasn't been on Lantus that long (three weeks) and I haven't been home testing for that long, we're still getting a handle on everything here.
Meanwhile, I did get a urine strip this morning, and no ketones, whew.
Hanging in there, but we sure will be happy to see some consistent numbers here.
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I've read the sticky on insulin care, syringes & fine dosing, but I'm wondering if anyone has tips or advice beyond what's there. Is it really as simple as drawing a dose out of the Lantus pen? And no more priming the pen, but I'm wondering if we need to draw a hair extra into the syringe, hold it needle up, tap tap tap and push some out to clear it?
Furthermore, about the increase: We switched Perry's food on 6/12, and though I posted this additional info yesterday, I'll repost here below, between the asterisks. (No comments on this yesterday, which is my fault for not adding anything to the subject line to suggest I needed advice! I suppose I didn't have a question at the time but was just letting all of my thoughts spill onto the page.) Fortunately, I'm getting better at testing (in the past few days it has really clicked!), so we are starting to get more numbers on his spreadsheet, but still, apologies for the gaps there. He's running high often, though.
Here's what I posted yesterday:
*
Poor Perry's roller coaster continues. Yesterday morning we had an AMPS of 164, but after a big breakfast, he jumped to 508 at +4. YIKES. Tested again at +5 and he had dropped to 280. I think the Lantus is hitting him in that fourth hour, and not at hour four.
After last week's tough time with the enema and subsequent on-and-off diarrhea, we had to have a hard talk about food with this kitty. He likes wet food just fine, but he's been a picky eater with the low-carb diet, and we've switched his food to keep him eating -- seemed pretty important to keep this cat eating since he's lost 2 pounds since diagnosis in late February. The vet has pointed out that it's hard to regulate a cat when you're changing his food, and I completely agree with her. This spring he's been on various Tiki Cats, Weruvas, Nulo, Dr. Elsey's, Fussie Cat, Ziwi, Fancy Feast, Purina naturals -- you name it, we've tried it. Some stick for a few weeks. Others he's tired of after three cans. I think I have the tips for picky eaters sticky memorized at this point.
So, on Wednesday evening, we decided to go with the vet's rec and try the prescription Purina DM flaked wet food. He went bonkers for it, because he's been denied gravy all this time! (I was pretty strict with carb content and ingredients -- no potato starches, etc -- as we were trying to get him into remission this spring via food alone.) Good so far: he's eating it consistently, and his poops are getting consistent, which is fantastic, because that's been on and off since we switched to all wet food. But the DM flaked is slightly higher carb content than say a Fussie Cat, which is zero, and I'm wondering if it caused that scary 508! Then again, he's had highs before the DM, and since he hasn't been on Lantus that long (three weeks) and I haven't been home testing for that long, we're still getting a handle on everything here.
Meanwhile, I did get a urine strip this morning, and no ketones, whew.
Hanging in there, but we sure will be happy to see some consistent numbers here.
*
My civvie, Bella, generally doesn't care about what's put in front of her. She's only not eaten a few times since we switched to wet food (after Lou's Dx). Lou, on the other hand, simply will not eat the same food long term. And since he's the diabetic, it makes things more problematic. I don't think switching foods is bad as long as everything is under 10% carbs (kitties who are more carb sensitive may need everything under a certain percentage). We feed mostly Fancy Feast here, but we have to get as many flavors as we can and switch them out each meal so he doesn't get sick of it. So we buy the variety pate packs and I even have different flavors for preshot meals, and we store the food in stacks with everything mixed so we're giving him the variety he apparently needs. I think at any given time we may have up to 15 different flavors, and that's just fancy feast. We do have some friskies and we've tried Tiki in the past. You have to do whatever works for your kitty. The things we have to do though... 