6/25 Mister AMPS 293 +2 263 +4 156 +5.5 93 +8 90 +9 156 PMPS 188 +2 206 +5 169 + 7 207

Elizabeth & Mister

Elizabeth & Mister

Member Since 2026
6/24 Mister AMPS 138 +10 124; PMPS 130 +1.5 108 +2 87 +3 69 +4.5 61 +5.5 52 +6 49 +7 67 +7.5 74

Mister dropped to 49 at +6 last night (and explains the bounce I knew we’d see this morning). If you read my previous condo it explains how I’d been feeding him a lot of MC/HC to try to flatten his curves from his big early drops. Since I test so much and have a fear of low numbers, I started to question that I was also feeding him to keep his numbers from ever getting too low (preventing reductions, which I know isn’t the right way of doing things)

Last night was my first attempt at feeding LC to let his drops come down “naturally”, only using higher carbs to try to flatten him out from the early big drop and then trying LC first to try to keep him steady before nadir. I don’t even know that I did that right since I still ending up using MC at some points. I also probably gave him too much to bring him back over 50 but I was so tired at that point… I really want to get better at feeding him so he stays nice and steady without huge drops or too big of spikes from overdoing it.

I’m hesitant to go ahead and reduce his dose not knowing if I’m still doing something wrong or if I should have stepped in sooner to keep him from that lime. He’s been doing so well other than my feeding schedules being a bit much to maintain.

Based on the notes I keep on my SS on how I fed him last night, should I still try a reduction of .25u? Should I try to sneak the dose down (4.5 S)?
This is my first time seeing a number under 50 and I’m still learning (and shaky) about feeding his curves and don’t want to lose these beautiful blues and greens.
 
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Christie & Maverick said:
Up to you, you monitor well enough, it works for kitties who don’t clear bounces quickly. He’s got a pretty good size depot as well. Marje had a good write up about Info - REDUCTIONS and Why We Should Take Them

Yay for Mister’s first reduction!
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Ahh I was trying to search for this, which is where I got my question about possibly shaving his dose instead. Thank you so much. I couldn’t remember all of the parameters. I’ll read through this some more.
And thank you! I’m nervous and excited.
 
I've had this happen before with Jude early on in his treatment. You hate to let them go low (by not carb manipulating), but you're constantly propping them up with food, and it seems counterintuitive, like you're feeding him to keep him on the wrong dose of insulin or something. And that doesn't even take into account how time consuming and stressful the monitoring can be in doing this if it's ongoing. I've thought through this issue some as I've watched folks treat their cats, and for the sake of conversation (hopefully someone with more knowledge might weigh in here), here is my thinking: the idea/strategy to feed them and keep them in greens has a positive effect beyond just preventing a back-to-back reduction or bouncing; it allows them to marinate in lower, healing numbers for a good while, even if you've been propping up those numbers. (Please understand: I'm not encouraging you to not take this earned reduction.) I've just seen caregivers learn how to manipulate the curve to keep their kitties in greens, and that has had an ultimate effect of healing the pancreas in a lot of cases (not all!). It seems though, and this is key, that this is also a fine balance (more like art than science, as they say here): too low, of course, is not good (you want to reduce when kitty tells you she/she is on too much insulin), but bumping them up a bit with food to keep them below renal threshold but above 50 (or whatever number your dosing option dictates) is optimum. Take a look at @Kat & Trixie's ss. Kat followed TR very closely and monitored Trixie's food and got her into remission. Notice her numbers in August of 2025--Trixie soaked in those greens, sometimes held there by carb manipulation, sometimes not--Kat kept Trixie right in the 'zone.' And eventually she achieved remission.

This post on feeding the curve is good--the whole thing is good--in case you haven't seen it: 8/10 TASHIE pmps=HIGH! +Questions***
 
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Mary & Jude said:
I've had this happen before with Jude early on in his treatment. You hate to let them go low (by not carb manipulate), but you're constantly propping them up with food, and it seems counterintuitive, like you're feeding him to keep him on the wrong dose of insulin or something. And that doesn't even take into account how time consuming and stressful the monitoring can be in doing this if it's ongoing. I've thought through this issue some as I've watched folks treat their cats, and for the sake of conversation (hopefully someone with more knowledge might weigh in here), here is my thinking: the idea/strategy to feed them and keep them in greens has a positive effect beyond just preventing a back-to-back reduction or bouncing; it allows them to marinate in lower, healing numbers for a good while, even if you've been propping up those numbers. (Please understand: I'm not encouraging you to not take this earned reduction.) I've just seen caregivers learn how to manipulate the curve to keep their kitties in greens, and that has had an ultimate effect of healing the pancreas in a lot of cases (not all!). It seems though, and this is key, that this is also a fine balance (more like art than science, as they say here): too low, of course, is not good (you want to reduce when kitty tells you she/she is on too much insulin), but bumping them up a bit with food to keep them below renal threshold but above 50 (or whatever number your dosing option dictates) is optimum. Take a look at @Kat & Trixie's ss. Kat followed TR very closely and monitored Trixie's food and got her into remission. Notice her numbers in August of 2025--Trixie soaked in those greens, sometimes held there by carb manipulation, sometimes not--Kat kept Trixie right in the 'zone.' And eventually she achieved remission.

This post on feeding the curve is good--the whole thing is good--in case you haven't seen it: 8/10 TASHIE pmps=HIGH! +Questions***
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Thanks for this, Mary. What we have to be concerned about in “propping up” numbers is the depot becomes overfull and then you are dealing with a long cycle of working hard to keep the numbers up. It can work for a bit but it will catch up and sometimes not as mildly as Mister did last night.

The other thing is it can be quite grueling for the CG. Mike and I did this with Gracie a few times and she stayed in long stretches of green; I surely thought her liver had gotten used to lower numbers and her pancreas was healing. But she had other ideas and when we did drop the dose, she went back to bouncy kitty. The upside was we got some rest which we weren’t getting before.

@Elizabeth & Mister While, yes, you “should” have taken the dose reduction of 0.25u this morning, as Christie said, since he bounced, you were fine to use one of our long-used methods called “shooting through the bounce” where you hold the current dose one cycle longer if kitty bounces and is high and take the earned reduction the next cycle. And I try to steer members away from doing skinny and fat dosing. Yes, TR talks about it but some of our former moderators who trained Sienne, Wendy, Christie, and me always said cats on TR with nadirs less than 300 do better with 0.25u increases and decreases until they get down to 0.25u. At some point in time, a very experienced member with a long-term diabetic cat (a couple years) might do custom dosing and change the dose in smaller increments but Mister is a far way from being that cat.

Good luck with the reduction and great questions.
 
@Mary & Jude @Marje and Gracie thank you both so much for this. I was questioning myself so much, wondering the same thing that you pointed out Mary, that what if by keeping him in these numbers even if by manipulating them with carbs and feeding according to his BG readings was possibly giving his body time to get used to them and heal. But the constant around the clock feeding, measuring, recording, re-testing, still seeing his numbers drop after quite a bit of HC, I thought this can’t be sustainable, I can’t imagine doing it that way every day. So it makes me feel better to know that while none of this is black and white and that is always an option to do, giving him a chance to show me how low the dose was really taking him last night (even still with MC, but I also think him being a little less carb sensitive than most plays a part) makes me feel better about giving the reduction and seeing how he does.
Thank you Marje for explaining the skinny/fat dosing a bit better. I see it on some SS but always like you said with experienced members and since it has never pertained to me so far I’ve never thought to ask about it. But this being his first reduction and only dropping to 49, I was very hesitant about what to do.
I appreciate you both so, so much. ❤️
 
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I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to let everyone know today is my Ava’s 4th birthday. I’ve had her since she was 14 weeks old and she is my child. She ate a peanut butter dog cake and played with her new toys, her sister Melly insisted on her own bandana and of course I had to get her a new toy too because like children, they will fight over everything. Not so sure she loved the birthday hat, but she humored me for a cute picture. Happy birthday to my best girl. 4 years feels like yesterday.

I’ll keep updated about Mister’s reduction later this evening. Thank you all for your help. I’m feeling a bit nervous, I don’t want to lose any of the progress we’ve made, but I know that’s just my anxiety talking.
 
hellen_maggie said:
Congratulations on the reduction Elizabeth and happy birthday to Ava!!!!

You are doing great!!!! Go Mister! 💚 💚 💚
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Connie & Moonie said:
You’re such an amazing caregiver Elizabeth! Congrats again on the dose reduction for Mister and happy birthday to beautiful Ava! I hope she enjoyed her balloons and peanut butter cake 🥰
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Thank you so much 🫂💕
You are both doing great too and inspire me so so much
 
I think Mister tried to clear his bounce today but didn't quite get there again, that's been his pattern a couple times recently. This boy just never lets me know what he's going to do. Maybe we'll have a quiet night so I can catch up on sleep at least. And if not, well, even better. 💪
 
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