Re: 7/27 Musette amps 254, +3=171 dropped dose last night
Good that you are learning to "read" the patterns. If I learned anything having two FDs it's that they are different! There are basics that seem to work for all, but the details are different and that makes the end decisions on dosing different. But maybe there are only a few variations and I have not "maxed out" on them yet :lol:
I agree about the adoptability of FDs and that it should not be a death sentence. I believe that is "old thinking" from the days where shooting insulin was a crap shoot (pun intended) based on little data, very fast-acting insulins, and vet obtained curves. I remember my vet saying to me, "We have a saying: there are cats with diabetes that have hypoed and those that will", meaning hypos were to be expected. And I mean Serious hypos. Well, yeah, when your best educated decisions have dosing up to 7u of vetsulin sid and no diet change from weight-management dry food!
Ugh, I can't believe what I put Beau through those first 6 months. I had my head in the sand because it was one more serious thing for him to have. But after he hypoed at the vet for a curve (on 7u) and they lowered his dose, kept lowering it based on one BG test/week there, then started raising it, I so clearly remember standing in the kitchen one morning, syringe in one hand, vial in the other, getting ready to draw the new higher dose and saying to myself, "he needs LESS not MORE". Purely instinctual because I knew next to nothing about diabetes at that point. And I started educating myself and stopped listening to my vets, who I basically like and trust - on other things.
There is a huge educational curve to overcome - both for owners AND vets. If vets didn't promote PTS to owners, if they said, "this is doable and your cat can live a normal life" or "this is doable and your cat can achieve remission with a diet change and insulin support" people would not give up on these sweet kitties so easily.
Well, more power to you! I can only save one at a time given my finances and the fact that I live in a 2-bdrm condo. You might also consider some program to manage people's cats while teaching them the basics and return the cat to them either regulated or in remission, but with clear instructions on diet change - kinda like sending the cat to rehab, lol. I sometimes see newbies here who are totally lost and stuck between what their vets says and their cat is clearly rebounding, but they won't drop the dose and I think, if I could just take their cat for a month, I could get it regulated and return it to them with a best dose so the poor cat can avoid all the crap while their person learns how to do this.... ah well, not practical.