7/25 Ollie AMPS 405 +4 382 PMPS 231

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Klaree and Ollie

Klaree and Ollie

Member Since 2010
Good morning LL,

We had a bad day yesterday despite being in the green most of the day. At +2 PM Ollie's BG was 48, I may have panicked a little and gone overboard with the HC food and corn syrup (but I knew he wouldn't eat enough LC food)- by morning his BG was 405. He didn't eat hardly anything yesterday, didn't have a fever, refused to pee for me (so not sure about ketones yet), and was generally pissy when I messed with him. He seems better this AM and ate ~1/4 can of food.

Questions:

Could a day in green make Ollie feel bad if he isn't used to it?
At what point should I be concerned about him being such a picky eater?
Should I ever adjust his dose based on his eating trend? (Like yesterday he really didn't eat much and I knew he wouldn't eat much at PM shot time, should I have given him even less?)
Was it good that I bumped him back up to 2.25 this AM given the very high BG or would it have been better to be consistent at 2.00?

So confused.....

Klaree and Ollie
 
Re: 7/25 Ollie AMPS 405

yesterday's condo: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20575

First, the dose: the 48 last night earned Ollie a dose reduction to 2 units. It's usually fine to shoot the higher dose one more time to help with the bounce, so shooting 2.25 was fine. I would reduce to 2 units tonight. Today's high numbers are just a bounce from going lower than he is used to, and it will come down.

Now about the eating: is refusing food/not eating much a new thing for Ollie, or has it started recently? If he used to eat and suddenly stopped, then he might need a vet visit. Cats hide pain well, and there could be something going on. It could be that he's just picky, but you sound very worried and usually the caregiver's gut is right on the mark.
 
Re: 7/25 Ollie AMPS 405 +4 382

Thanks so much for your thoughts. He seems much better today - he ate a decent breakfast (~1/4 can Wellness Chxn) and is following me everywhere BEGGING to go outside. It's actually pretty normal for Ollie to be fussy after a food change and this is a big one (dry to wet). I said before that he knows that there is dry food around (even though I keep it outside!!). He has hunger-striked me into slowing the food transition before, but I am hesitant to mix dry HC with wet because the dry make his numbers skyrocket! So far, we've made the switch cold-turkey. He's also REALLY SICK of me poking his ears so much, I'm going to take advantage of the high numbers and take it easy today. But if he doesn't have a better appetite by tomorrow, I will call the vet. Part of our problem is that we moved recently from Ohio to Oregon and I have not found a vet yet with FD experience (and our Ohio vet wasn't FD experienced either and gave us bad advice - Vetsulin/High Carb, High Fiber Diet).

His +4 was 382 and I KNOW that high BG readings make him feel crappy. I was hoping/expecting to see a bigger drop by now. Maybe once we go outside for a walk the exercise will help. Fingers crossed.

Thanks everyone for your support and advice!

Klaree and Ollie
 
Re: 7/25 Ollie AMPS 405

What Libby noted are the first things to consider. Certainly, if this is new behavior, a vet visit may be in order.

What was Ollie eating before? It sounds like you switched from dry food beginning on 7/14. How did Ollie handle the food transition? If Ollie was not feeling great last night, it's certainly possible that he was reacting to his numbers bouncing from the greens to the reds. Those kinds of big jumps up or down seem to make some cats feel pretty punky. The other factor may be related to how much HC you fed. The gravy in HC contains gluten and it could be that Ollie is gluten sensitive. It may not have been an issue until you removed gluten from his diet and are now exposing him to it again with HC. I tend to think that the bounce is more the issue, providing any other more medical issues are ruled out.
 
Re: 7/25 Ollie AMPS 405

First congratulations on the decrease. :thumbup

Some cats can get picky when they go low although most get hungry, ECID. I know I have a harder time w/ Tess when she is low, especially a sudden drop. That's why I test so much when she is in low numbers. Also how much are you feeding at a time, if fed a normal amount before the drop they may just not be hungry. That's why we usually just give the HC gravy when low, stomachs don't get so full. Figure out what Ollie's favorite foods are, maybe just boiled chicken or raw is even better. 15% of plain meat in a day is fine, but cats cannot eat all plain meat. There are supplements they need in canned food. That said, plain meat is better than nothing and won't hurt once or twice.
 
Re: 7/25 Ollie AMPS 405 +4 382

Thanks for replies. So, I made the switch to wet from free feeding Hill's M/D dry on 7/14 - cold turkey. (FYI: I always offer at least 1/2 can at a time). At first he was pretty into it, eating about 1 can Wellness Chxn a day (his minimum amount required for safe weight loss) and as his BG numbers came down, my old fun, playful kitty came back. 3 days ago I had to buy a bag of kitten chow because one of our civvies (we have 2 - Little Kitty and Baby Kitty, who is 3 yrs) WOULD NOT eat the wet, despite all my best tricks (I haven't given up on her though, but she needed to eat and we were out of the old dry). As soon as he smelled the fresh dry, he started eating less and less and yesterday he ate the least amount and was acting like he didn't feel good - hiding, not purring, not following me, etc. When he dropped below 50 last night, I probably over reacted by feeding him too much HC (~2.5 ml of corn syrup, ~10 pieces of dry kitten chow, and 1 TBSP of LC Wellness Chxn). This morning he is much better, following me, begging to go outside, purring, and ate ~1/4 can at breakfast (about 1/2 of what I want him to eat in the AM).

My concern about dosing is this: He seems to do the best (blues/greens) when I consistently dose him at 2.25. However, he 'earned' a redux last night by dropping below 50. BUT - was that because of him not really eating yesterday? Should I keep him at 2.25 or is a redux number a redux number period?

Thanks for the help!!
Klaree and Ollie
 
Re: 7/25 Ollie AMPS 405 +4 382

you don't have to reduce, as long as you will keep testing as much as you have been. If he had been below 40 then absolutely you would have to reduce. The low number could have been due to his reduced appetite, but if it is normal for him to not eat well then you might want to run his numbers a little higher (you don't want to be in a situation where you get a low number and cannot get him to eat to bring the number up).

Do you have high carb wet food on hand? Something like Fancy Feast or Friskies varieties with gravy work great to bring up low numbers, and they do not hang out in the system for as long as dry food does.

One other point, just because he is doing better now on 2.25 doesn't mean that he won't go back to 2.0 and do well. Often a dose will not work on the way up the dosing scale, but once they hit a breakthrough and start going down the dosing scale, those doses will work fine.
 
Re: 7/25 Ollie AMPS 405 +4 382

I had this issue with Trey and Libby , Sienne and Ronnie all told me the same thing small amounts at +1+2+3 works just LC as long as they eat a tiny meal.My frist panic attack was a 46BG so I fed him a 1/2 can 30 minutes another 1/2 can You can guess what happen then Yeah.. all came back up... Well I should say Trey ate these tiny snack it seem to help him surf when he went low I would give Friskies shreddie turkey with gravy and cheese it the best only need a small amount as this stuff is loaded and he loved it. After +5 I would mix some of this and LC and could go to bed..Hope this helps Main thing is Breath again and again helps us :lol: :mrgreen:
 
Re: 7/25 Ollie AMPS 405 +4 382

Kazi liked to make me work to get her to eat 1/2-3/4 a can. She would act ravenous, and then I would come in 5 minutes later to her sitting on the counter after having only eaten a few bites. I had to sit with her and constantly tap the plate to get her started again, crunched up salmon treat to get her to finish etc. It took me 30 minutes to an hour to get her to eat enough for me to be comfortable! She had never had some of the really high numbers I have seen of the other cats here- consistently in the mid to high 200s at shot time.

Around the time her numbers started getting better, so did her appetite. We have been surfing the blues for a couple of weeks now- and she mows through 3/4 a can in the AM and another 3/4 a can in the PM with no coaxing. I wonder if Ollie is sensitive to his numbers like she is?
 
Re: 7/25 Ollie AMPS 405 +4 382

Thanks. I do have MC and HC (according to Janet and Binky:) ) wet food. I didn't know that the dry stays in the system longer, this makes total sense. Why, WHY don't they make an LC dry food????? I agree with keeping the dose at 2.25, but only as long as I'm testing as often as I am right now, that also makes perfect sense. And yes, Ollie is sensitive to his numbers - I could always tell when they are high. Looks like I'm going to be able to tell when they are low too. I never noticed how it affected his eating b/c he was free-fed before. I'll keep taking diligent notes!

Last question, for now :) - What does corn syrup do to their system - can I add corn syrup to LC food and have that equal to MC or HC canned food. I'm trying to minimize the variation in his diet, that has always been what keeps him eating the most consistently.

Thanks!
Klaree and Ollie
 
Re: 7/25 Ollie AMPS 405 +4 382

Corn syrup (or honey) gives a fst but short lived spike. Many peeps take a can of HC and squeeze the gravy off and use just that, or put it on top of a little LC. It is longer lasting so the cat doesn't drop again right away. Not as long lasting as dry though. I spread it out in a baggie and put the extra in the freezer. It thaws out very quickly when thawed.
 
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