6/18 Zeus AMPS 84 - shoot per vet? Nervous 102 after meal

[knolet]

Zeus' vet said to shoot this low as long as I'm going to be feeding Zeus right after. I always feed first, but.... will the food spike it high enough that it's safe to shoot? I just fed him, and will leave more frozen food out before I leave for work.... but I'm not going to be able to check on him for about 6 hours. I'm really nervous about this.

I'm just wondering how the food will affect it, and how long it will keep the numbers up. I haven't done a curve recently to test it.

On a side note - I don't have the icons anymore, or I would have put a ? or a 911.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

ETA: I'm a chicken - I'm not shooting this morning since I won't be able to monitor Zeus. I'm still wondering about the affect food has though. I know you'll probably say that it depends on the cat and the food, but I didn't know if there were any stats to consider. Thanks again.

Kathie and Zeus

 

[MommaOfMuse]

Re: 6/18 Zeus AMPS 84 - shoot per vet? Nervous 102 after mea

Sorry just seeing this now. But you did good not to shoot that low without first knowing for sure how Zeus was going to handle the dose and not being around to keep an eye on him.

You are also correct, every cat is different when it comes to how much food will cause their numbers to rise after eating, and even the same cat on the same food can respond differently on different days. It is also much better to have a hyper kitty than a hypo kitty when you aren't there to intervene. I think almost everyone of us have a number somewhere in the back of our minds that we won't shoot if we aren't going to be around to check on kitty. For some of us that have been treating the same cat for a long time that number maybe lower than others, but onl.y because we have months if not years of testing to look at. For me personally with Autumn who I've only had a short period of time, even though she is my third diabetic that number is 175, now I have shot a full dose into a 74 before but I was going to be home all day and could check on her and intervene if necessary.

I really wish this was an exact science and we could tell you yes or no to a particular number or that food will do this or that but it just isn't because there is so much more at play than just numbers. There is the carbs from food, the amount of food eaten, activity level, mood, weather, and all kinds of chemical reactions within their bodies as well that not any of us have a clue about when we aren't there to see them with our own eyes.

For example most of the time my bunch are a bunch for furry rugs around mid-day, but yesterday we had a couple of squirrels running across our roof playing tag. So I had 13 cats galloping through the house following the noise. Which if that would have been one of my diabetics that I had shot a full dose into a low preshot based solely on food and normal activity, that day's activity could have dropped them lower than what would be safe.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang

 

[knolet]

Re: 6/18 Zeus AMPS 84 - shoot per vet? Nervous 102 after mea

Thanks Mel.

I'm really going to try for a curve next weekend. Zeus' +7 was over 300... wish I knew what happened in between, or even overnight to bring his AMPS low. The vet told me not to test in between shots because the food would mess with the numbers.... while that's true, I'm now coming to understand that I really should be testing since I'm going to continue to feed him the same. This will tell me how the food affects his BG. Oh boy!

I didn't realize that there would be so many factors that could change the BG number. Here I was thinking it should be easier (an exact science like you said) since I'm feeding the same foods, same amounts and same times etc.

Well, almost time to test again. I'll post the PMPS to Zeus' spreadsheet soon. Thanks again!

 

[MommaOfMuse]

Re: 6/18 Zeus AMPS 84 - shoot per vet? Nervous 102 after mea

Your welcome!

Yep, lots of factors to consider since we aren't dealing with test tubes but living breathing creatures..if it was an exact science, we wouldn't be testing at home other than to save a few bucks, because vet stress wouldn't be a factor. :lol: The first 4th of July I spent with Musette I could look at her spreadsheet and tell you exactly when my neighbors started firing off fireworks, because she would shoot up over 100 points! Maxwell even though he is OTJ will have a raise in his BGs if there is a storm with howling winds and rain...but a normal Thunderstorm doesn't bother him in the least. My thinking on this is because he was a hurricane survivor before I adopted him, so whenever our weather out here in Nebraska mimics what he probably hear when Katrina roared through it freaks him out and he doesn't understand that the ocean is so far away from him now that it would be impossible for him to ever be homeless again because of a hurricane.

I have one civie that I test occasionally for giggles when I take her to the vet, at home she stays in the high 40s and low 50s, but at the vet's you would swear she was diabetic because she tests in the high 200s. And all the while you wouldn't know she was upset at all, she is purring, head-butting the vet, and rolling over for tummy rubs. But she is also my nursemaid cat she is the first to alert me when someone isn't feeling well. She wants to mother everyone and everything so I'm sure she can smell the other sick animals there and it makes her anxious because she doesn't understand why she can't go to them.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang